Computer Supported Excavation Documentation

By Martin Schaich

ArcTron Ltd. has been developing various computer-supported information systems and electronic surveying instruments for use in archaeology for more than a decade. Several archaeologists and two specialist programmers, Hans-Juergen Quick and Boris Schuetz, have been involved in the various projects. The following online publication outlines the current status of our developments.

This article is a collection of edited and updated versions of various handbook literature. See, for example: M.Schaich, Computergestützte Grabungsdokumentation (Computer-Supported Excavation Documentation). In: E. Gersbach, Ausgrabung heute. Methoden und Techniken der Feldgrabung ( Excavation Today: Methods and Technology for Field Excavation)(Darmstadt 3rd Edition. 1998) 117-142.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Objectives and Requirements
3. Pre-Excavation Organisation of Digital Data
4. Surveying Equipment: Tachymeters/Total Stations
5. Surveying Equipment: Digital Pantographs
6. Surveying Equipment: Digital Photography and Photogrammetry
7. Structured Data Recording Using ArchaeoCAD
8. Recording Plana and Layers
9. Recording Sections
10. A Discussion of Approaches to Three Dimensional Illustration
11. Databases and Mapping
12. Data Security and Data Archiving