Page 226 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

Chapter 7
Site Plans and Geographical Information Systems
I. INTRODUCTION
Plans, particularly site plans, are an essential part of the archaeological record and come in many different formats and qualities. It should always be remembered that it is easy to produce a high-quality plan based on a low-quality survey, so it is important to indicate on the plan the level of the accuracy of the survey. The situation when the first edition of this handbook was written is quite different from today. The availability of graphic pack- ages and computer programs which assist in the surveying of sites has radically altered the potential for producing high-quality plans. Indeed, currently it is quite easy to produce three-dimensional plans of sites and it is anticipated that the development of the geographical information systems will make the ability to integrate survey, remote sensing, predis- turbance, and excavation work commonplace, with enormous potential to link text-based data with the graphic three-dimensional reality.
With all site plans, it is essential to draw up the information at the time the data are being collected. If one vital measurement is missing, this can be identified on the spot and rectified. If this is discovered later after leaving the site, the measurement will be impossible or very difficult to recover. Thus, at the very least a basic or rough plan should be produced at the time the survey work is undertaken.
The production of plans also requires careful thought. A plan of a whole site on a very large scale will be an essential part of the archaeological process, however, such plans can be 1 or 2 m in size and are quite unsuit- able for publishing in an archaeological report. With some planning it may
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