Interrogating data with the Ness GIS

Thursday, April 23, 2026 (1:52 PM)

GIS small finds plot — Small finds plotted in the GIS system.

The amazing GIS (Global Information System) tool is proving its weight in gold as a means to organise, manipulate and interrogate the mountains of data we have gathered over the last 20 plus years.

The terabytes of data so far gathered are being further refined and added to, with the wealth of new detailed information being produced by our body of specialists. This is keeping our GIS supremo Paul Durdin very busy.

All of the data must be reviewed, checked, corrected and cleaned and new layers of data added. For instance, old Ordnance Survey maps have been georeferenced and added to the GIS, which allows us to compare and contrast some of the anomalies revealed by the geophysical surveys to historical features. Some linear features revealed are not prehistoric at all but merely old field boundaries!

In order to improve the system, Paul has been creating an overall database of the innumerable strands of information. This has initially meant a lot of head scratching and codebase consolidation and fixing bugs, but this now means that our QGIS can connect directly to the mega database.

This means that any data that gets updated in the database is immediately visible in the GIS, without having to import a new version every time a spreadsheet is updated. So we can do things such as filter the display of buildings by phase (see above) or the distribution of types of small finds by phase, location etc by the ability to import more data columns from the small finds spreadsheet and link it to the other specialist data with more searching/filtering functionality (e.g. listing small finds with/without photos) – the permutations are endless!

For our specialists the GIS is an absolute necessity as they try to come to terms with not only their own specialist data but also having the ability to compare and contrast with the results from other specialist studies. For instance, the distribution of different types of finds can be plotted out on plans of the structures by phase so we can look at changing distributions throughout the life of the buildings (see flint and pottery distribution plots below).

Pottery finds from Structure Twelve’s northern annexe.

When combined with the other information such as the XRF (X-ray fluorescence) data from the chemical analysis of the floors of the buildings, it can provide indications on what activities were conducted in locations within structures and how this changed over time. Vital for our understanding of what these buildings were used for.

Structure Twelve in 2018, with the northern annexe at the bottom of the picture. (📷 Scott Pike)

A case in point happened recently. Jan, one of our pot specialists, presently doing the analysis of the massive assemblage from Structure Twelve (which alone accounts for over 35 per cent of the total ceramic finds from the site!) wanted to look at the distribution of pottery relating to the small annexe added to the north end of Structure Twelve during its secondary main phase.

With the press of a button she was able to bring up this distribution plot with the Small Find numbers of all the pottery relating to this particular area. This will facilitate her analysis, allowing her to see potentially which individual pieces are parts of the same pot and hopefully fit together, and how other categories of finds may be related.

As post-excavation analysis proceeds the GIS will be further developed and refined as more data and layers are added – all of which will help with unravelling the history of the Ness.