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Found a better way to map a dig site after a muddy mess in Cornwall | Archaeology Discoveries - Thought Shares

Found a better way to map a dig site after a muddy mess in Cornwall

On a site near Truro last spring, we tried sketching everything by hand on grid paper like my old professor taught. After three days of rain turned our trench into a swamp, the paper got soaked and half the notes ran. Now I bring a rugged tablet with a GPS mapping app, which lets me drop pins and log finds right in the field. Has anyone else switched to digital site plans for wet weather digs?

4 comments

4 Comments

mason_fisher7mo ago

Absolute game changer, right? We had a similar disaster with paper sheets in Wales a few years back. The wind took a whole set of context cards and we spent an hour chasing them across a field. My department finally got tough tablets last year, and being able to link photos directly to a find's coordinates on the map saved a huge amount of time during post-ex. Do you find the GPS accurate enough for your recording needs?

the_tyler7mo ago

Remember chasing a runaway context sheet into a river, @mason_fisher. Our GPS is okay, but I still double-check grids with a total station for anything tricky.