Two Hard Things

Quince: But there is two hard things; …

Midsummer Night’s Dream, III.i

There are a couple of problems I am trying to resolve but I haven't been able to make headway on either.  Perhaps my readers can help?

The first is finding out the status of Dr. Vangelis Tsakirakis’ project for creating a GIS of archaeological sites (including BA) in Achaea[1].  Dr. Tsakirakis is, or was, associated with the Landscape Archaeology Group.   Regrettably it appears that their web site is minimally functional and I can learn nothing more about the status of their GIS-based project.  I can hardly believe that Dr. Tsakirakis simply disappeared and would like to hear from anyone who knows how to get in touch with him or has knowledge about their project.  This would be valuable for anyone interested in prehistoric Achaea.

There has been an uptick in interest in prehistoric Arcadia and one of the signs of this is a Ph.D. dissertation from Catherine Ruth Parker of the University of Birmingham.[2]  The dissertation, chatty and interesting, describes some newly found locations in Arcadia.  The problem is that Dr. Parker also created a CD-ROM which contains the database of locations that she discusses in her dissertation.  It also contains .kml/.kmz files, videos and other material.  I would like to get my hands on it and so would any other right-thinking historian of BA Arcadia. 

But I can’t find it.

Dr. Parker’s dissertation is available through the auspices of the British Library’s EThOS (e-theses online service).

The idea of EThOS, to put all or most Ph.D. dissertations online, is a really good one.  Until something unexpected happens such as extra material which is not in the traditional text form.  

I have written the EThOS people with a description of the problem (that I can retrieve the text but not the CD-ROM) but, for my pains, I have just this morning received a letter from them carefully describing how I can download Dr. Parker’s text.  

Well.

If anyone knows Dr. Parker or her e-mail address or otherwise knows how to bring the EThOS people to their senses I would very much like to know.



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Notes

[1]  Tsakirakis [2000].  A .pdf is here.

[2] Parker [2008].  Online here in .pdf form. 

Biblio

Parker [2008]:  Parker, Catherine Ruth, Arkadia in Transition: Exploring Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Human Landscapes. Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the University of Birmingham. Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, School of Historical Studies, The University of Birmingham, January 2008.   Online here.

Tsakirakis [2000]: Tsakirakis, Vangelis G. "Using a Relational Database Management System for the Recording of Ancient Settlements and Sites in the Vrachneika Territory in Western Greece\", Online Proceedings of the group: Computer Applications & Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, 2000. http://proceedings.caaconference.org/year/2000/').  A .pdf is here.