Poll: Database Mini Project of an Ancient Civilization -- Which One to Choose?

[fireflies]

Hello everyone!

So, this is my varsity project to create a mini database. Since I love history and geography, I've thought to come up with that. So, I thought to do a project on an ancient civilization or similar..

I googles and found out top 10 civilizations:

• 10. The Incas Civilization
• 9. The Aztecs Civilization
• 8. The Roman Civilization
• 7. The Persian civilization
• 6. Ancient Greek Civilization
• 5. Chinese Civilization
• 4. Mayan Civilization
• 3. Ancient Egyptian civilization
• 2. Indus Valley Civilization
• 1. Mesopotamian Civilization

But I don't know which one to work with?

Ours is a mini project and asked to work on not less than 3 and upto 5 tables. We need to make our project scalable so that we could update it as our teaches continue teaching (it's a sessional course). So, any suggestion here, which one to work with??

(Well I'd love opinions primarily, but I saw add a poll section to while creating the thread, so why not! :) )

 

[fresh_42]

In my opinion, and which I voted for, the civilizations least known to westerners would be those I'm interested most. There are myriads of documentations and articles out there about Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians or the there big Latin American ones. Therefore I voted for the remaining. I would have added Bell-Beaker, Alans, Celts and Clovis out of personal interest.

 

[fireflies]

In my opinion, and which I voted for, the civilizations least known to westerners would be those I'm interested most. There are myriads of documentations and articles out there about Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians or the there big Latin American ones. Therefore I voted for the remaining. I would have added Bell-Beaker, Alans, Celts and Clovis out of personal interest.

Thanks for your vote :)

 

[berkeman]

Ours is a mini project and asked to work on not less than 3 and upto 5 tables. We need to make our project scalable so that we could update it as our teaches continue teaching (it's a sessional course). So, any suggestion here, which one to work with??

Fun project. What kind of database? What kind of tables/figures? Something like GDP versus time or similar? Geographical area versus time?

 

[fireflies]

Fun project. What kind of database? What kind of tables/figures? Something like GDP versus time or similar? Geographical area versus time?

Well, no.. I was thinking about adding periods, geography, locations, kings, contribution on science, math, or human society etc...

btw, I chose Maya Civilization.

 

[fresh_42]

Well, no.. I was thinking about adding periods, geography, locations, kings, contribution on science, math, or human society etc...

btw, I chose Maya Civilization.

I can think of many interesting tables, e.g. reasons for rise / decline, ethics, religions, wars, inventions, lacking inventions (e.g. the wheel in Latin America), population (size, ethnics), funerals, natural catastrophes, traces today, findings, relations to other parallel cultures, eventual influences etc. In any case the time management of the datasets should be quite challenging. The easiest would be to provide from-to-entries where needed, but some might lead to overlaps. I would spent a lot of time and thoughts on what to choose as primary and foreign keys.

 

[fireflies]

I can think of many interesting tables, e.g. reasons for rise / decline, ethics, religions, wars, inventions, lacking inventions (e.g. the wheel in Latin America), population (size, ethnics), funerals, natural catastrophes, traces today, findings, relations to other parallel cultures, eventual influences etc. In any case the time management of the datasets should be quite challenging. The easiest would be to provide from-to-entries where needed, but some might lead to overlaps. I would spent a lot of time and thoughts on what to choose as primary and foreign keys.

That's a huge and definitely amazing suggestion! Well, I will be spending some time about those tables deciding exactly what contents I can put in.. But since we are asked not to make it too complicated and keeping the size within 5 tables, so that part is a bit tricky.

 

[fresh_42]

In this case I would reduce it to one table about the cultures: name and id and maybe some fundamentals as location (only for non migrating civilizations, the Romans, Celts or Clovis wouldn't fit in here), and a description, or a list of references. In your case this will be a small one with only three datasets, then one with a variety of - possibly overlapping - time periods only: from - to - id - name (e.g. prehistorical, Spanish occupation etc.), and at last three tables with the information you want to keep. Thus you can e.g. store in a table HISTORY the dataset "1 (Maya) - FK-CULTURE, "1 (-3000,-900),2 (-900-400),3 (-400,+250),4 (+250,+600),5 (+600,+900),6 (+900-1700),7 (1520-1821),8 (1800-2000), 50 (today) - string of FK-PERIODS), etc. " However, a string of keys is already a compromise due to the constraints given, which database purists (correctly) won't like, and which might lead to future trouble if the database would be actually used and extended. The alternative has the difficulty, that you don't know the number of necessary fields beforehand, e.g. if the year 1697 would have to be added. But to insert this year into a string afterwards is likewise bad, as it can hardly be done by means of SQL. The management of time periods is probably the most challenging task here.

The general goal is to keep as many data as possible separated, which might be used in other tables, e.g. REASONS for something as war, natural disaster, hunger crisis, outer influences, occupation and so on. I would probably deny to tackle this project in real life given the restriction of only five tables, and without the written promise to never change the database: no future additional tables or fields.

The crucial point is to prepare the kind, content, volume and dependencies of all the information beforehand! Draw pictures with arrows. Many pictures. Many arrows.

 

[Evo]

Well, no.. I was thinking about adding periods, geography, locations, kings, contribution on science, math, or human society etc...

btw, I chose Maya Civilization.

Amazing new discoveries have been made using LIDAR.

Scientists find massive Mayan society under Guatemala jungle
February 3, 2018

Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping technique have found tens of thousands of previously undetected Mayan houses, buildings, defense works and pyramids in the dense jungle of Guatemala's Peten region, suggesting that millions more people lived there than previously thought.

The discoveries, which included industrial-sized agricultural fields and irrigation canals, were announced Thursday by an alliance of U.S., European and Guatemalan archaeologists working with Guatemala's Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation.

The study estimates that roughly 10 million people may have lived within the Maya Lowlands, meaning that kind of massive food production might have been needed.

"That is two to three times more (inhabitants) than people were saying there were," said Marcello A. Canuto, a professor of Anthropology at Tulane University.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-scientists-massive-mayan-society-guatemala.html#jCp

 

[Asymptotic]

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to dig into the specifics of how the folks at Seshat global history databank go about arranging their databases?

 

[fireflies]

In this case I would reduce it to one table about the cultures: name and id and maybe some fundamentals as location (only for non migrating civilizations, the Romans, Celts or Clovis wouldn't fit in here), and a description, or a list of references. In your case this will be a small one with only three datasets, then one with a variety of - possibly overlapping - time periods only: from - to - id - name (e.g. prehistorical, Spanish occupation etc.), and at last three tables with the information you want to keep. Thus you can e.g. store in a table HISTORY the dataset "1 (Maya) - FK-CULTURE, "1 (-3000,-900),2 (-900-400),3 (-400,+250),4 (+250,+600),5 (+600,+900),6 (+900-1700),7 (1520-1821),8 (1800-2000), 50 (today) - string of FK-PERIODS), etc. " However, a string of keys is already a compromise due to the constraints given, which database purists (correctly) won't like, and which might lead to future trouble if the database would be actually used and extended. The alternative has the difficulty, that you don't know the number of necessary fields beforehand, e.g. if the year 1697 would have to be added. But to insert this year into a string afterwards is likewise bad, as it can hardly be done by means of SQL. The management of time periods is probably the most challenging task here.

The general goal is to keep as many data as possible separated, which might be used in other tables, e.g. REASONS for something as war, natural disaster, hunger crisis, outer influences, occupation and so on. I would probably deny to tackle this project in real life given the restriction of only five tables, and without the written promise to never change the database: no future additional tables or fields.

The crucial point is to prepare the kind, content, volume and dependencies of all the information beforehand! Draw pictures with arrows. Many pictures. Many arrows.

A rough idea that I am having is creating a table of periods- which will describe the language, starting, ending year, locations, kings, language of four mayan periods. Another table about kings, a table about scientific discoveries, another arts and literature. I like the idea you gave about the relations with other civilizations and war part, but to make it I have to give some time to it to think how can I really represent them on the database. I hope it will be great if I can add.

And yes, I can increase the database in future, there is no limitation to that, but for this course only the project is limited upto 5 tables.

 

[fireflies]

Amazing new discoveries have been made using LIDAR.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-scientists-massive-mayan-society-guatemala.html#jCp

Thanks Evo for sharing this article!

 

[fireflies]

@Asymptotic Checking on it!

 

[WWGD]

Seems like a job for a GIS Database. Sorry if I am necroposting. : (