Going Paperless: The Digital Age of Archaeology

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Technology has played a large role in shaping how archaeology was conducted, especially towards the end of the 20th century. From telescopic transits to total stations, from map and compass to hand held GPS devices, and from film cameras to digital cameras are just a few example of how technology shaped archaeology. In the last decade or less a rapid change is occurring with technology and equipment becoming cheaper and more suffocated such as smart phones and tablets replacing paper and brick GPS units, video recorders and drones recording surveys and excavations, or a tablet replacing a physical conference paper, are all changing archaeology for better or worse. This symposium will explore the positive and negative, express hesitation and admiration for "going paperless" or moving into the digital age of archaeology.

Other Keywords
Technology • digital archaeology • Digital • Archives • Big Data • interpretive • Digital formats • black hole • Digital Age • Free and Open Source

Temporal Keywords
21st Century • 18th to 20th centuries

Geographic Keywords
North America • Coahuila (State / Territory) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Nuevo Leon (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)

  • Documents (5)
Documents
  • After the Gear is Gone: Perspectives from the Digital Index of North American Archaeology on How Archaeologists Implement Digital Instances of Past Peoples and Scientific Concepts (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelsey Noack Myers. Robert DeMuth. Joshua J Wells. David Anderson. Eric Kansa. Stephen Yerka. Sarah W. Kansa. Alex Badillo. Molly Mesner.

    Archaeologists today engage with digital records of primary data, derivative interpretive information, and ontological descriptors used to represent intellectual models of individual research, and instantiations of theoretical constructs from the local to the landscape. Prior to and into the digital age, the archaeological record writ large as a testable and defensible set of hypotheses and factual statements is constructed from a melange of meaningful information expected to correlate with...

  • Going paperless in Calabria: an open-source digital data collection workflow. (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Isaac Imran Taber Ullah.

    In this paper I discuss the construction and deployment of a paperless data collection workflow that focuses on the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools, such as GeoODK, Qfield, OpenDroneMap, QGIS, and GRASS, and "off-the-shelf" technology such as mobile tablet computers, Bluetooth GPS, and compact unmanned aerial vehicles. A focus on FOSS tools ensures availability to all, encourages reproducibility and open scientific methods, and fosters wide compatibility in data collection...

  • Going Paperless: The Digital Age of Archaeology (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew J. Robinson.

    Technology has played a large role in shaping how archaeology was conducted, especially towards the end of the 20th century. From telescopic transits to total stations, from map and compass to hand held GPS devices, and from film cameras to digital cameras are just a few example of how technology shaped archaeology. In the last decade or less a rapid change is occurring with technology and equipment becoming cheaper and more suffocated: smart phones and tablets replacing paper and brick GPS...

  • The Growing Pains and Resulting Benefits in our Transition to Mobile Data Collection (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alicia Valentino.

    Technology has made construction monitoring and shovel probing faster, easier, and more consistent. In this paper, I’m going to demonstrate how our office evolved from paper forms, to GPS recording, to tablets and phone apps to simplify most fieldwork. The change is not without its issues, but the result is faster, cheaper, and a whole lot better.

  • Unintended Consequences of Digitalization in Archaeology: A Cautionary Tale (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Polk.

    We are hurtling swiftly into the digital realm, finding faster and more complex ways to record and excavate sites, analyze data, and publish results. While most of this wave of increasing digitalization seems a good thing, all is never what it seems. In this paper, I explore some pitfalls of this ever speedier and efficient mode of archaeology. Most will recognize the oft described short lifespan of digital formats and the need to migrate data to new formats. But, it is highly unlikely that this...