Animalmummies.net is a searchable database of ancient Egyptian animal mummies. The Animal Mummy Database search interface provides a good example of taxonomic facets. You can browse by Animal Type, Wrapping Type, or Museum. This interesting information came from The Ancient World Online blog in their post, “The Animal Mummy Database.”
Animal mummies were created by the millions during the Late Roman periods in Egypt, mostly to be used as votive offerings at temples of gods associated with those animals. During early excavations in Egypt, many animal mummies were dug up and discarded. Very few examples were saved and sent to museums. This site was created as a resource for both scholars and the interested public in the hopes that it may become a collaborative project to help gather information on animal mummies.
With any archiving project, it is important to remember the value of a solid taxonomy. How the content is classified impacts the findability of your data. Capturing the data is only part of the project. Professionals should look for an experienced builder of solid standards-based taxonomies to associate content for appropriate machine-assisted indexing. Access Innovations can provide solutions that are ANSI compliant.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
