Welcome to an illustration of SEAD’s Database Structure
This illustration of the SEAD database structure was created using the note-taking program, Obsidian., chosen for its graphical representation of the connections between notes.
The Strategic Environmental Archaeology Database (SEAD)
is a national research infrastructure for environmental archaeology data developed and managed at the Environmental Archaeology Lab (MAL) in collaboration with Humlab at Umeå University, Sweden. For more information, check out the SEAD web page, or check out the SEAD Browser to explore the data itself.
This web page provides a graphical representation of the structure of the SEAD database, with a note for every table and column in the database itself with links showing which columns are part of what tables. This page is intended to be a compliment to the official public record for the SEAD database schema.
This page was developed as a tool for mapping new datasets to the SEAD structure. The Radiocarbon Data folder is the first test of this tool, and is being used to document the workflow process. Each note in that folder describes a specific column in the example radiocarbon dataset spreadsheet we were provided by the researcher. As these columns are mapped to the SEAD structure, they are linked to the appropriate tables and columns in the SEAD folder. This part of the project is a work in progress (slightly delayed by the need to learn how to use Quartz to convert the Obsidian vault to this web page) and will be updated regularly as work progresses.
One can also explore the database structure by clicking on the upper right corner of the graphical interface to expand the graph.
On mobile devices it takes a bit of time to open the graph, but once open, it works.
Graph View
The current web version of the graph view shows only the connections between the Radiocarbon Data mapping files that have already been mapped and the SEAD structure
If you have any questions, you may contact me directly.
—Riia , SEAD Project Assistant/Data Steward 2025-12-05