Plants in our Past: Transcribe archaeobotanical data

This project is simple and quick to do. It asks you to look through fieldwork reports written by commercial archaeological units across the UK who conduct desktop assessments, watching briefs, surveys and full-scale excavations in advance of modern development projects. Often you don't need to read through the whole thing, just search for key words, but the full text is there if you are interested. Radiocarbon dates are sometimes taken as part of UK commercial archaeological fieldwork, but have as yet not been gathered systematically from these reports. The tasks for this crowd-sourcing project can be completed on a desktop computer or laptop (but not on a tablet or phone). You can use any web browser, although we recommend Firefox for the best report-searching functions. For any given task, you will be presented with a multi-page fieldwork report. Scroll or search through it until you find mention of a radiocarbon date. We are looking for the following information for each date (if available):

You will see that we wish you to fill in information about any dates in the spreadsheet columns provided below the report. Brief remarks on the intended role of each column are provided below:

1. LabCode: This is the code assigned by the radiocarbon laboratory. For example, for the first date in the example image below your could write "SUERC-16897 (GU-16061)".
2. AgeBP: This is probably the tricky bit. We are looking for the 'uncalibrated' date if possible, sometimes call the ' C14 Age BP' (BP is before present) of the 'conventional age' or the 'uncalibrated age'. The date is often followed by a "±" symbol and then a measure of its accuracy or error (see below). For the first date in the example image below, the AgeBP would be "915". Sometimes a 'calibrated' date or dates are mentioned (often expressed as a range BC/AD). You can put these in the Comments column, but please look for an uncalibrated date (which should be present most of the time) to place in the AgeBP column (or otherwise leave the column blank)./li>
3. Error: This is the instrument error associated with the uncalibrated radiocarbon measurement, usually express immediately after a ± symbol. For example in the first date in the example below, you might write "35".
4. dC13: This is a common extra measurement used to correct the sample for different fractions of different carbon isotopes. It is often referred to as "δ13C and in ‰ units". Please simply put the decimal number, not any unit symbols etc. So for example, for the first date in the image below, you would put "-22.2" in the dC13 column.

You will see that we wish you to fill in information about any dates in the spreadsheet columns provided below the report. Brief remarks on the intended role of each column are provided below:

1. Material: Please enter the material the sample was taken on. For example this is often "bone" or "charcoal" or "grain". Please also put any information about the species, for example "wheat","human" or "oak". Always retain the original wording: if the species is "Hordeum" which refers to barley (as in the example below), please write "Hordeum". If it is says "barley", write "barley". Try to separate material and species by a colon, so for example "grain: Hordeum".
2. SiteName: Please give the name of the site here, complete with county name as well if present (hint: of the site name is in th title of the report)
3. SiteContext: This is for anything relating to the feature on a site from which the sample was taken (e.g. "outer ring ditch", "pit 236" or, in the example below, "context 4/5")
4. Comments: You make your own remarks here if you like and/or add further information about a particular date you think is useful. For example, sometimes the type of bone (e.g. radius, ulna) will be mentioned, or a field sample number.