Page 388 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

Chapter 13: Post-Excavation Research 367
Figure 13.10 The Shinan ship model in the Mokpo Conservation Laboratories, South Korea. (Courtesy of Jeremy Green, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Mar- itime Museum and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Bodrum, Turkey.)
VI. INTEGRATION
The final phase of any archaeological research is the integration of the whole into some form of coherent summary. This is often a difficult thing to complete because the nature of research is neverending. Each new answer often poses another set of questions which, in turn, leads the inves- tigator along more and more detailed research pathways. It is important, therefore, to attempt to review from time to time the research being under- taken in order to keep some form of perspective. This is best done by writing up the work and publishing at regular intervals. The act of writing is, in itself, stimulating, because it forces the committal of thoughts and ideas to paper and this helps to put the work into a particular context. Reports and pub- lication are discussed in Chapter 15.