UC San Diego

Archaeological excavations are the last stronghold of analog recording in this era of digital archaeology. Around the world perhaps at this very moment excavations are occurring where artifacts, architecture, stratigraphic layers, and other archaeological datasets are recorded using only the paper and pen. Every evening after an excavation, supervisors and their volunteers huddle over their illuminated graph paper to convert their written notes and drawings into daily top plans. It is these paper top plans, journal notes, and overstuffed binders filled with printed spreadsheets that much later are meticulously entered into a computer. At this point, long after the season of excavation has been wrapped up, that the drudgery of data entry begins, which with large excavations can take months to digitize, process, and produce data that can be digitally analyzed. As multiple seasons of excavations compound, the delay between field excavation, ability to analyze and to publish increases exponentially.