The New Norwegian Rock Art Database

The Rock Art Project was set up by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment in 1996. The database was originated within the EU supported INTERREG IIA, a joint Norwegian-Swedish project called Rock Art in the Borderlands 1998-99. The Norwegian Rock Art Database combines photographs, drawings and digital maps to provide a useful multimedia source. Any feature described in the text part of the database can be linked to one or more photographs. The photos can also be linked to an overview of the selected site, which is represented either by a tracing or by another form of small-scale map. An important function of the database is to store the complete documented history of each site. By selecting a specific site from the database, the user is presented with a list of all previous scientific evaluations and records for that particular example, including dates of earlier field studies, the names of the project leaders, and types of documents available. The application is designed for the data input and interrogation using an Oracle database. The software used to develop the application is Visual Basic and Map Objects. The application executes 100 percent on a Citrix application server and only mouse clicks and screen updates are transmitted over the network between server and client. This allows the use of inexpensive computers and enables high application performance even over limited bandwith connections. The regional institutions and the regional museums are responsible for updating the database.