About the Book

Sample Chapters

To download these documents you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Click here to download a version.

Introduction
We live in a digital age; a world where computers are omni-present, but in which we are only just beginning to understand how to productively apply them to our lives. In a very short period computers have come from being great number crunching machines to being 'neat' and 'nifty' gadgets, from being almost inaccessible to being everyday devices that we have come to rely upon - perhaps too much. Yet, despite the presence of computers in our offices, homes, cars, planes and, in fact almost every device in the modern world, we do not always know how to utilize them to their best advantage. This is certainly the case in the study of archaeology. To this end one can say that digital archaeology is not so much a specialism, nor a theoretical school, but an approach - a way of better utilizing computers based on an understanding of the strengths and limits of computers and information technology as a whole. This volume presents an overview of some of the more useful and innovative applications of computers to our understanding of the archaeological past. It shows good examples of how technology is being integrated into our approaches to theory, practice and indeed demonstrates how they are assisting in the marriage between the two...

Download the full introduction 54KB

Part II: Data Collection - Archaeological Survey in a Digital World
One of the most dramatic influences digital techniques have had within archaeology is their impact upon archaeological recording. One aspect of this is the spatial recording of sites using 'real-time' survey software combined with surveying equipment, such as the Total Station Theodolite (TST), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and laser scanners.

This chapter examines the use of such 'real-time' techniques in recording archaeological sites. It does not examine the high-end or cutting edge aspects of such work because, such techniques, although innovative, are expensive, and their worth for archaeological recording unproven. Instead, it looks at the practical application of digital techniques to real archaeological cases. Two quite different archaeological sites are examined, Dorchester Abbey - a historic complex of ecclesiastical buildings, and the Ferrybridge Chariot - an Iron Age inhumation placed within a square barrow. Each of these investigations faced very different problems, but produced generally similar solutions that have helped to develop practical survey techniques for the twenty-first century...

Download the full chapter 6.1MB