About
Welcome to Archaeogeek
Archaeogeek is about one person’s experiences using modern computing technologies in archaeology, in the UK. My name is Jo Cook, and I am the Information Systems Coordinator at the northern office of Oxford Archaeology, based in Lancaster. My job is pretty varied. It involves sysadmin duties, GIS, databases, and anything else that’s thrown at me. My real passion is building web-based interfaces to maps and data, but more generally I simply want to improve the digital tools and processes that my colleagues have available for doing archaeology.
The problem is that archaeology should be one of those disciplines that embraces digital technologies, GIS and the web, but it isn’t, yet. Furthermore, given the nature of what we do, we should be much better at open standards and data preservation, but we’re still working on that as well. Finally, we should investigate the ways in which modern technology can make our workflow more efficient, both in terms of time and money.
At Oxford Archaeology we’re investing a lot of time into improving this situation, and in the process I am learning about a lot of new things (new to me anyway). Some of these are new technologies, and some are simply new ways of doing things. So, as well as documenting the company’s progress into a new, more open and standardised era, I hope to document my own learning process, and in particular flag up those things that really inspire me.
I’ve amassed a fair collection of useful links and documentation over the last few years as well. Some of this at least might be useful to other Archaeo-Geomatician/Sysadmin types, so hopefully over the next few months I’ll start including it on this site.
Discovered your site from my comments section and just wanted to check it out. I used to be what we in the states title a shovel bum and I hold a BS in archaeology. Good to see some one discussing GIS in archaeology as there was very little while I was in my field years.
There was a really cool article in the Practical Archaeology (I think I have this right, been a while) where they used GIS as a tool to map the layers of a burial site in South America, really cool stuff.
What areas of Archaeolgy do you practice, I was focused in Casas Grandes (other word too difficult to spell) and Moche Peru.
Looking forward to reading more.
Aaron W. VanWieren
http://www.gisdevcafe.com
I just found your helpful blog. I’m working with an archaeologist who uses tablet PCs, some GIS, and Windows Journal to sketch her test pits. I wonder if you know of an academic journal that we could submit a manuscript to regarding this use of technology which would be either 1) education, or 2) field archaeology, or 3) assessment of the technology. I have not found anything in the archaeology field that seems promising. Here is a copy of a poster that describes briefly what she is doing with the tablets.
http://gisatvassar.blogspot.com/2007/04/fifth-annual-teaching-with-technology.html#johnson
Thanks,
Meg
Hi Meg,
Thanks for stopping by! Has your colleague tried Internet Archaeology http://intarch.ac.uk/? That would be my best guess. It sounds interesting, and just the sort of thing they would go for.
Jo