index.qmd

---
title: "Tutorials: Overview"
---

Welcome to the iSamples tutorials! These tutorials demonstrate how to work with sample data using modern browser-based tools and geoparquet files.

## Available Data Sources

With iSamples Central currently unavailable, all tutorials now use **geoparquet files** as the primary data source:

### Primary Data Sources
- **Zenodo Complete Dataset**: ~300MB, 6+ million records from all iSamples sources
- **OpenContext Parquet**: Curated archaeological sample data
- **Domain-specific Collections**: Specialized datasets for focused analysis

### Tutorial Categories

**🗺️ Geographic Analysis**
- Interactive mapping and spatial exploration
- Regional distribution analysis
- Cesium-based 3D visualizations

**📊 Data Analysis**
- Statistical analysis with DuckDB-WASM
- Material category distributions
- Cross-collection comparisons

**🚀 Performance Demonstrations**
- Browser-based big data analysis
- Efficient sampling and visualization techniques
- HTTP range request optimization

## Why Geoparquet?

Our tutorials showcase how **geoparquet + DuckDB-WASM** enables:
- ✅ **Universal access**: No software installation required
- ✅ **Fast analysis**: 5-10x faster than traditional approaches  
- ✅ **Memory efficient**: Analyze 300MB datasets using <100MB browser memory
- ✅ **Minimal data transfer**: Only download what you need
- ✅ **Interactive exploration**: Real-time parameter adjustment