30th October 2008, 02:07 PM
Looking specifically at one point Hal has raised:
On the "technology is the future" side of things, I can see the appeal of a paperless site. Many units have started using GPS units for walkovers etc, and some of these units can allow you to add points and polygons along with an electronic form to fill in with each record. However, I reckon it'll be a long time before site assistants are seen filling in context sheets on palmtop computers, primarily because those computers would have to be-
a)waterproof
b)able to resist falls from height onto hard ground
c)futureproof (who wants to invest thousands in a rapidly obsolete technology?)
d)remotely downloadable (oops left the whole site record on a corrupted hard drive)
e)cheap- ("got a big site on, will need to buy half a dozen palmtops")
So I reckon it'll be another good few years yet before we have paperless archaeological sites.
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Hal Dalwood
3) Archaeological contracting organisations will address technical training in a more coherent fashion than at present. I believe that the driver for this change is technology, and the unrelenting process of ever cheaper and better kit. Technology has the capacity to reduce staff time on site and hence reduce overall costs, but there is a trade-off with the costs of the kit itself (and especially the replacement costs): within 5 years robust wireless devices for onsite recording will be ridiculously cheap. But to really make the most of the benefits of technology on site, archaeologists are going to need to be given more organised technical training. This training will need to be at a number of levels, as their knowledge and competence increases (this is an aspect of CPD that will be directly relevant to site staff).
On the "technology is the future" side of things, I can see the appeal of a paperless site. Many units have started using GPS units for walkovers etc, and some of these units can allow you to add points and polygons along with an electronic form to fill in with each record. However, I reckon it'll be a long time before site assistants are seen filling in context sheets on palmtop computers, primarily because those computers would have to be-
a)waterproof
b)able to resist falls from height onto hard ground
c)futureproof (who wants to invest thousands in a rapidly obsolete technology?)
d)remotely downloadable (oops left the whole site record on a corrupted hard drive)
e)cheap- ("got a big site on, will need to buy half a dozen palmtops")
So I reckon it'll be another good few years yet before we have paperless archaeological sites.