Tethys

The Tethys Web Site

This site is built on a database and it used to record details of projects and other stuff I'be been involved with. I generally add to it myself, but give others access when working on joint projects. The site is not the most stable as I frequently rewrite parts of it to suit whichever projects are current, and because there aren't many other users don't get much feedback if things aren't worlking reliably.

The main sections of the system

Project

This is the highest level of organisation. All other pages are linked to the Project, which needs to be set up before other data can be added. A project can be added as a Collection for recording public and private collections

Specimens

Specimens can be linked to one or more projects. The Tethys database is linked to a more general Fossils database and all specimens added here have a matching record in the Fossils database. This gives every specimen a unique reference number. The specimen can be identified by this number, or by an identifier from the project database.

Elements

Some specimens, especially large vertebrates consist of a number of elements such as individual bones. These can be recorded and numbered under the specimen record

Images

Images can be added to most sections of the site. This includes general images related to the project, photos of specimens and elements, records of treatment and project diaries

Project Diaries

Project diaries can be used to record the progress of an excavation, the treatment and conservation of a specimen or element or be a more general account of some aspect of the project.

Comments

This refers to notes attached to a specimen or element which go beyond a simple description and can include speculation and wider discussion

References

References attached to a project can especially useful if a paper is to be written. These can be just the reference (e.g. Jones et.al 2022) or links to an internal or external repository. References can be added independently of the project as they may be used in several different places

Documents

this can refer to things such as site plans and excavation methodologies as well as more formal documents about legal permissions and so on

Links

Links to other web sites

Users

Users can be added only by site administrators. Access for users can be set at different levels to restrict the abilty to add or edit information. Users are initially set up as 'Test User' which gives access to a model of the database which is separate from the active version so that they can get to grips with the way the system works.

Log On

Get in touch with me if you would like access for a particular project and I'll add you to the site users.

Richard Forrest