Don't get me wrong. This is really a very well made video and the narration is wonderful both for content and delivery. It's just an amusing reminder of those days when the archaeologists were using some beater transit that had last been adjusted during the Korean War to lay out grid lines across a site and graduate students were an endless supply of slave labor for mapping work.
Don't think its all tape and offset methods, though. No, not by a long shot. There's handheld GPS:
One interesting thing about those videos is that it may well be that their intended audience consists of amateur archeologists.
Evidently the organization known as Scotland's Rural Past is mustering an army of volunteers in documenting sites in an effort they call "community archaeology", which includes high school students. That strikes me as a really great idea.
It's really cool when they work in fast time!!
Interesting videos. And I applaud their work for archaeological conservation. THey generally cover the basics fairly well.
On a side note: I had no idea, but I seem to find a lassie with a Scottish dialect particularly calming, almost somatic.
Who knew?
I'm going to try and find some relaxation tapes with a young Scottish female narrating.
> On a side note: I had no idea, but I seem to find a lassie with a Scottish dialect particularly calming, almost somatic.
Yes, the videos wouldn't be the nearly same without that delightful narration.
Some years ago I had two experienced archeologists enroll in a basic surveying course. They had been doing site investigations for archaeologic and historic impact statements. While working on a site in conjunction with a highway project a survey crew had tied their grids into the highway control from over a thousand feet away. The archeologists wanted to learn how to use total stations.
While completing the basic course they asked how many of the other courses would help them understand survey control. Both ended up completing a one year surveying certificate that included highway center-line staking, state plane coordinates, boundary law and AutoCAD. After they completed the courses the leader told two of the surveying faculty these were some of the most usable courses he had ever taken. During the conversation we learned he had a bachelors in geography and a masters in archeology. Applied technology courses have their place and tied all of his prior training and experience together.
Some archaeologists in Iowa are using total stations to record 3-D coordinates on every artifact and soil sample with appropriate codes for sorting. They can quickly extract much more information from that data than they ever could using traditional methods.
Spatial plots by artifact type are quite valuable and quickly generated. They can reveal what type of work was done in each area of a camp site and differentiate occupations at different times.
From a textbook published in 2002, "Archaeology: Basic Field Methods," by Richard Michael Stewart, describing GPS and base stations (as well as compasses, alidades, & plane tables):
https://books.google.com/books?id=LpeRPfsMMvIC&pg=PA129...
Page 129:
"The best way to learn is to actually use an instrument, something that should be part of your formal training as an archaeologist. Once you have experience on one type of instrument, learning how to handle a different model will be relatively easy. GPS units, electronic theodolites, EDMs, and total stations can simplify and speed up many surveying tasks in the field while providing incredible accuracy. However, they all have one POTENTIALLY FATAL FLAW - THEY ARE POWERED BY BATTERIES!" [my amused emphasis]
During the conversation we learned he had a bachelors in geography and a masters in archeology. Applied technology courses have their place and tied all of his prior training and experience together.
I'm curious how one could get a bachelors in Geography and Masters in Archaeology and never had an intro to surveying class??/ That seems odd.
> I'm curious how one could get a bachelors in Geography and Masters in Archaeology and never had an intro to surveying class??/ That seems odd.
His into surveying class was with transit and tape. Although he had seen total stations he didn't understand the capabilities. Seeing several different grids located in a few minutes was a wake up call. He said it would have required a day or more and been less accurate with his methods. Also he had never been taught anything about route location systems. The concept of station and offset from a curved line apparently was not part of either degree program.
EDIT: Should have mentioned I started teaching part time in the early 90s and full time in 1997. We stopped using open transits in our introductory class while I was part time. Went to optical theodolites and tape. Route surveying class was theodolites and standards mount EDM. School started buying total stations and by 1997 all classes used total stations.