Jane Presentation at BANEA

This last weekend, Jane gave a presentation (co-authored with myself and Itzick) at the annual meeting of BANEA (the British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology) on the different digital methods we used in recording the excavations. Here is a link to the schedule. Way to go Jane!

Full title:

Gaastra, Jane, McKinny, Chris, Shai, Itzhaq; 2020: The death of paper recoding? Implications of advances in digital documentation systems in archaeological excavation. BANEA

Abstract:

Digital documentation and excavation recording technologies have seen gradual incorporation into archaeological research since the new millennium. Over the last ten years of excavation at Tel Burna
(Israel), the incorporation of new techniques and technologies has streamlined the excavation recording and finds documentation process. In the absence of spare funds for more common items of digital site recording equipment (e.g. laser scanning or total station) the excavation team has
integrated the widely available software packages Agisoft Metashape and PlanGrid into field documentation. With a few simple tweaks this has created a low-cost and high-precision integrated documentation system which has allowed the excavation process to become fully paperless. In the
light of our experience with the incorporation of digital methods into the excavation and recording process at Tel Burna, alongside those of other excavations across the Near East, we review the pros and cons of paperless excavation methods and the need (or lack thereof) for hard-copy documentation in the excavation process.