Collective root element containing one or more objects

Root element for recording small finds and artefacts.

Holding element for other elements that describe the artefact's character. Note that this is one of the few instances in MIDAS where an element can be repeated without a contain element.  Repeat CHARACTER in the rare instance where you wish also  to describe a separate part of the object independently, such as a Roman coin that forms the pendant of an Anglo-Saxon necklace.

Holding element for one or more descriptions of this object

Holding element containing one or more classification and typology/ information elements

Identifier for domain-specific classifications

Holding element containing one or more material elements

The material that this object consist of

Holding element containing information relating to the manufacture of the object

The technique(s) used to manufacture the object. Can be repeated.

Holding element for all quantitative measurements

Measurement value. Repeat for different measurements.

Holding element for holding decoration information

Description of decoration. Use one decoration element for each type of decoration

Holding element for elements that contain info on condition

Records the state of wear of the object. Users may wish to use standard numismatic terminology (Seaby's Standard Catalogue explains these terms with illustrations of coins in different conditions - see pp. 1, 61 and 258-9 of the 1998 edition).

Records the state of the object at the time when it was recorded (as opposed to its state of WEAR at the time when it was deposited in the ground).

Status of the object relating to its state of preservation ('waterlogged', 'mineralised', 'desiccated', etc.) This is not STATE,  a qualitative statement of condition.  An object couldbe in bad condition, but waterlogged therefore retaining value for sometypes of investigation.

Use to note whether the object is incomplete. Objects may be assumed to be complete unless otherwise noted (default NULL = 'complete').  Usage note: although these are not intended to be precise terms, as a rule of thumb use ‘incomplete’ if at least half of the object survives and ‘fragment’ if less than half of it survives.

Holding element for multiple reuse elements. Reuse elements are employed when the object has undergone a material change to accommodate a new funciton (holes drilled in a 'po't  makes it a 'strainer'). Reuse should not be employed for puterly funcitonal change (a 'pot' does not become a 'planter' simply because it contains flowers).

Holding element for reuse object type and temporal elements

Holding element for all activities (identification, recording, transfers, loss, production, etc.) and their associated time and place. NOTE: the discovery and manufacture activities have their own elements, and should NOT be included here.

A MIDAS artefact 'activity' is any event that is associated with the object/artefact, and the people and place it happened. The 'type' attribute is required.

Holding element for all information relating to the discovery of the artefact/object.

Method of Discovery. Agricultural or drainage work’, ‘Building work’, ‘Gardening’, ‘Metal detector’ and ‘Other chance find’ etc.

Additional information, largely unformatted, that is considered important in relation to the circumstances of the discovery.

All objects should be recorded as single entities.  If this element is omitted, the default value is assumed to be '1'. However, in instances where collective recording is expedient or sensible, this element can be used to record the number (integer) of objects.

MIDAS ObjectAnnexes

Type of object

Collective address element.

Street address: "27 Jericho St", etc.

City

State, Province or County

Postcode or zipcode

Country

Element holds names and identifiers of of MIDAS entities. Repeat as required.

Records human-readable name(s) of MIDAS entities.

Records numeric or alpha-numeric identifier. 

Contact information for a actor, resource, or service capability 

Collective name element.

Mr, Dr, Mrs, etc.

First name

Last name/surname

Other name(s)

Organisation Name

Role or roles of contact.

Phone number(s)

Fax number(s)

Email(s)

Text descriptions, full and summary.  A single element can have as many of these description pairs as required. 

Full description.

Summary description. Note that a summary description cannot exist without a full description. i.e., the summary is a summary of an extant description, and not simply indicative of its length: if the only description you have is one sentence, then it belongs in the 'full' element. 

Element for recording information about this specific record.  To avoid confusion: use the midas_meta schema re record information about an entire dataset.  Use this element to record information specific to a single record.

Information relating to the creation of this particular record (not this particular electronic incarnation, but the compilation date of the data). 

Date the record was created . 

Who created the record.

Information relating to the last update of this particular record (not this particular electronic incarnation, but rather the last change to the data itself). 

When the the data were last updated. 

Who was last to update the data.

This element records the links for related MIDAS entities.

This element records the ids for related events. The namespace attribute is required. 

This element records the ids for related monuments. The namespace attribute is required. 

This element records the ids for related references (the namespace attribute is required). 

This element records the IDs for related objects/artefacts (the namespace attribute is required). 

This element records the ids for related caswork info. The namespace attribute is required. 

Copyright, access, reproduction and control rights.

Copyright holder

Copyright year(s)

General, free text copyright info

Documents who is allowed to use the data, and how

Access grated to whom

Access conditions statement

Date access granted

Date access revoked

Statement regarding access rights

Reproduction rights

Reproduction statement

Who to contact regarding reproduction

Indicative fees for reproduction

Element for recording temporal information relating to monuments and events associated with them..

A temporal record can have multiple spans (it can stop and start more than once).

How this span is called. Consists of multiple appellations with type identifiers.

Contains a single name or identifier for the span.

Information about the beginning or start of this span.

Contains a single name or identifier for the start of the span.

Information about the duration or length of this span.

Contains information about the length of the span.

Information about the end of this span.

Contains a single name or identifier for the end of the span.

Node for recording place and space information.

Primary MIDAS spatial element used to record attribute information about a spatial entity.

Element for internationally transferable postal references; its nodes are largely self explanatory. This is restricted to postal elements only, leaving other named places outside of the address 

Empty element for recording custom or country specific representations that are neither postal nor cadastral. This has been left intentionally broad so as to accommodate all possible UK and international variants. The element itself is empty, and is comprised of repeatable 'location' nodes.  Use the 'type' attribute to qualify the type of location, such as "country" or "parish", and use the 'namespace' attribute to provide a context for the value, such as a specific database or gazetteer.

Grid reference(s): string representations of place, e.g. "SU123456". The 'namespace' parameter provides context to the gridref: for example, "OSGB36" for the British grid.

Used to represent a geopolitical unit that does not fall within the 'address' element. In the UK, values would be "Scotland", "England", "Wales", and "Northern Ireland", while the 'type' attribute for these values would be "Country".

Used to identify place within the context of a specified cadastral namespace. In the UK, field numbers would be referenced as cadastral units. UK users are recommended to use the map title and year for the namespace when referring to field numbers taken from OS map sheets.

A 'free text' node included to accommodate directions to a place whose absolute position is unknown.

Used to record coordinate representations of spatial entities. For SRS use EPSG (http://www.epsg.org/) identifiers. 		Note that this element records a spatial entity using co-ordinate data, not an assigned name for that place, for which see 'appellation'.

Records the bounding polygon; repeatable for multiple SRS (spatial reference systems). Also sometimes called the MBR (Minimum Bounding Rectangle). The EPSG code shall be employed where available. This shall take the form of "EPSG:XXX", where "XXX" is the EPSG code for the referenced coordinate system; "none" shall be provided if the coordinate system is unreferenced.

Defines a single conceptual representation of the monument. An appellation can be represented by one or more spatial entities, such as a number of lines, a point cluster, one or more polygons, etc. For example, the same site can be represented by two entities: a point and a polygon.

The element is designed to provide a convenient to record the centroid of the spatial appellation, or a coarse approximation of its location. While use of the entity/wkt element is encouraged, it is recognised that not all systems will be able to easily parse wkt notation. This element therefore acts as a 'shortcut', designed to hold a single coordinate pair representing all spatial entities within an appellation.

This element stores the actual coordinate information, the precision of the data, and the precision at which it is delivered (if it differs from above). An appellation will often consist of multiple entities. Entities are repeatable and used to record various spatial representations of a single appellation.

Well Known Text (wkt) representation of entity. The wkt format is a common standard for the textual description of simple feature geometries.

The precision at which the spatial data is stored. This is not to be confused with the precision of the data capture means or mechanism. The value shall be a number.

The precision of delivered data, if different from stored precision. This node is included so that the end user can be informed of any spatial obfuscations that have been performed on the data before delivery.

Height of entity above datum.

Area of spatial appellation. The 'units' attribute is required.

Spatial data capture method: GPS, map, etc.