Visit the online EARTH Columella Database.

The Columella database aids the members of the EARTH programme in the investigation and analysis of the techniques, processes and context of non-industrial agriculture. It provides them with a broad base of comparative data, images, movies and other relevant documents. It is maintained by the EARTH programme, and material is contributed by the programme's members.

This online version of Columella was developed in 2007 from a Microsoft Access database developed by Carolina Carpinschi, Centre d'Histoire des Techniques et de l'Environnement, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Paris, France). It was designed and developed by Damian Evans, University of Sydney Archaeological Computing Laboratory (ACL) using the ACL's T1000 database templating system.

An earlier online version (April 2006) was constructed by Mark Beagan as part of a Hunterian Museum scholarship at the University of Glasgow and implemented by John Ewing. Other contributors included Dr Patricia C. Anderson, Norman R. Arnold, John Ewing, Mark Herraghty, Dr Jim Devine, Dr Michael Given, Marie Russel and Dr Thomas Schippers.

Columella was a Roman estate owner, agriculturalist and author, originally from Spain, who lived in the 1st century AD. His De Re Rustica was a 12-volume treatise on all practical and social apsects of agriculture. He particularly valued thorough knowledge, hard work, and social responsibility.