| Summary: | Electronic publication offers field archaeologists the opportunity to publish the results of their fieldwork in a rapid and cost-effective manner. There is the potential for even greater benefits if such publications can be made usefully searchable.
In this paper, we look at the current state of electronic publication in archaeology and consider the shortcomings of existing search tools on the web. We then propose an XML-based approach to creating 'structured site descriptions'. These would form an integral part of web-published site reports or summaries, and contain information similar to that found in the abstract or summary of a conventional printed report. The difference (and consequently the benefit) lies in the way this information is structured, enabling users to conduct moderately complex searches more effectively than is currently possible.
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