Beyond Research Design: Digital Resource Management for the Next Generation

Summary

Digital technologies in the field of archaeology have often been promoted as a tool enhancing productivity and efficiency, usually implying that the immediate digital recording of data would allow for the excavation of greater volumes and covering larger areas. Moreover, the strength of Paperless Archaeology comes with the enabling of immediate dissemination of observable data while breaking up the ‘sealed’ relationship between the raw data and the First Interpreter.

What remains less addressed, however, is the long-term impact of digital recording. Because field projects often last several decades, there is a large gap between the initial methodological outlay and research design on one hand, and the final publication on the other. The true value of such digital resources becomes apparent only with the need of contextualizing and illustrating large volumes of artifacts, architectural or skeletal remains and other types of archaeological data, many years after the initiation of an archaeological project. The authors will use the example of the current Pylos excavations in Greece to emphasize the collection, storage, and dissemination of an avalanche of digital information with an emphasis on the integration of a complex database design, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), photogrammetry and aerial photography.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20967