Page 30 - TVH 2000 Anniversary Shipwreck Project

A computer-based system was chosen over a paper-based system for a number of reasons: • The vessel had mains power, the space required and the computers were available from sponsors. • Information could be added quickly and then easily checked against the real artefact if any questions arose. • Rapid searching, retrieval and interpretation of information were possible. • There was no provision for post-excavation report writing we wanted as much writing undertaken on site as possible. This required easy access to the finds’ information. • The team, each chosen for bringing a specialist skill to the project, would be pressured with other tasks once the excavation ended. • Reports could be rapidly generated from the records. • Copying data for security and sharing was possible. • The system could easily be made to handle text, database records, charts and photographs. Efficiency The system developed had to be simple and easy to use. We wanted all members of the team to commit their dive reports to the database. The range of experience was very wide; this necessitated a lot of time in the preparatory phase ensuring that the system was both useable and practical. The only drawback was not having a computer dedicated to dive reports, often a backlog occurred due to the computers being used for other tasks. The excavation season was short and individual dives were restricted by time as we had decided to use air and keep in-water decompression to less than an hour. This still enabled a twelve to fifteen- hour diving day to be maintained. These constraints necessitated efficiency underwater; in particular for in-situ recording and positioning of structure and artefacts. The helmet camera and voice communications to the diver provided an efficient means for the archaeologists to monitor progress. Voice communications allowed for supervision and discussion where necessary. As the artefact positions could be computed during the dive and displayed next to the dive supervisor/surveyor and archaeologist, it was possible to re-do any measurements which were suspect before the dive was terminated. Real Time Reporting Survey and archaeological information was processed each day and the site charts were updated. This meant that tasks could be planned based on the latest information about the site. The CAD program was used for site charting and also for generating ‘what-if’ scenarios. The CAD system was especially useful during discussions about the nature and amount of extant structure (Photo 13). Security No security was used to restrict editing within the database of access to the computers in general as the team was small. A fixed form of version control might be beneficial with a larger team. All data was archived to CD at the end of each day, so accidental editing or deletion could be recovered, fortunately this situation did not arise. Finds from Previous seasons Records from the 2000 season were added to the database as required while finds from the 1990’s were also incorporated. These were on paper and the format of the information was different. - 28 -