How to make the best use of the database?

The website is designed to be best viewed and searched on a computer; not all features are optimized for use on a smartphone.

When you click directly on an image it will open in a new window where you can view it in large format and upload it. Below each image you will find how to cite it: each image has a DOI and can be reused under the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence. For instance: Bruneau, L. (2023). IND-CHA-TAV-Zo01-Ro0001_Ph002, Himalayan Rock Art Database (Version 1) [Image]. NAKALA - https://nakala.fr (Huma-Num - CNRS). https://doi.org/10.34847/NKL.0AAC1QFS

HiRADa in short

The Himalayan Rock Art Database (HiRADa) is one of the Digital Humanities outcomes of the Himalayan Rock Art project that complies with FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets) and relies on the services of the French Platform for Digital Humanities (Huma-Num^IR*)namely the multilingual thesaurus manager Opentheso and the data repository Nakala.

Background and objectives of the Himalayan Rock Art Project here.

Methodology: the database relies on the combination of a multiscalar approach and a specific thesaurus. See the poster Introducing a Standardised and Adaptable Method for Rock Art Recording.

Thesaurus: Illustrated Thesaurus for Himalayan Rock Art (2023).

Dataset: visual data (in the form of photographs, tracings; sketches; maps; etc..) was collected in the field along matching descriptive information recorded through field sheets. After digital processing the whole dataset is available here: https://hirada.nakala.fr/.

Disclaimer: bibliographic references in relation to Himalayan Rock Art are not included. It was decided to share the locations of the rock art sites at the request of some local authorities to facilitate future preservations and research plans.

The team

You can access the academic profile of each team members on ORCID and their respective list of publications on HAL.

Prinicpal Investigators

Laurianne BRUNEAU: ORCID | HAL
Martin VERNIER: ORCID | HAL

Post-doctoral researchers

Ani DANIELYAN: ORCID | HAL
Nils MARTIN: ORCID | HAL

Research assistant

Vydhegi Brice and Alexandra VANLEENE

Technical conception of the database

Abram Pointet and Solange Gaillard, MICROGIS (2024-2026).
We are also indebted to Lelia Elbourani Alcaraz (developer of the tool Mynkl), Philippe Pons (CNRS engineer at the CRCAO until 2023) and Miled Rousset (engineer at the MOM, Lyon and developer of Opentheso) for their temporary technical support during the project.

Acknowledgements

The PIs would like to thank everyone who shared their rock art data with them—data that was often collected at great effort in the Himalayas! Thanks go to members of the Rock Art and Historical Society of Spiti (India): Tsering Norbu, Michael Dowad, Lobsang Palmo and Urgyan Dolma; Rajeshwar Thakur Kyarpa (Lahaul, India); Jean-Louis Taillefer and Pascale Dollfus (Ladakh); Zafar Iqbal and David-Sarmiento Castillo (Yasin, Pakistan) and Jean Bourgeois (Laghman, Afghanistan).

Contact us

If you notice an error or a malfunction or have any other comment please write to both PIs:
laurianne.bruneau[at]ephe.psl.eu
zskvernier[at]gmail.com