Recording System

Aside from the perennial controversy over the right trowel, one area that is the subject of much discussion among archaeologists is field recording systems. When I ran my own consulting company (ARCH-M), I adapted what is known as the pro-forma single context recording system, commonly used in British and European CRM and research archaeology, to Ontario CRM archaeology. As part of that, I constructed a field manual. As I am no longer running the company, and do not expect to operate a CRM company again in the future, I have decided to make the manual and its accompanying forms available for use by any archaeologist, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Any user may use any part of it, including making modifications to suit their own situation. Alternatively, it can be used as inspiration or source material as you develop something that works best for you.

The ARCH-M Field Manual contains an explanation of the system, and specifics explaining each form. Some areas are not complete, as a few forms remained undeveloped. Originally, the computer file was planned to have the actual forms following the appropriate explanation pages. Unfortunately, this tended to mess with the formatting of the forms, and therefore the hard-copy version of the manual was constructed by separately printing the forms and physically interleaving them. I have included the individual forms here as separate pdf files. NOTE: Manual delayed pending upgrading of some diagrams.

I. STAGE ONE (Desk-based assessment of potential)

A. Documentary Evidence Recording Form

B. Site Visit Recording Form

II. STAGE TWO (Field, topographic, and geophysical survey, plus shovel tests)

A. Topographic Survey Recording Form

B. Geophysical Survey Recording Form

C. Field Survey Recording Form (Controlled surface pickup)

D. Field Survey Recording Form (Gridded surface pickup)

E. Shovel Test Recording Form

F. Auger or Coring Recording Form

III. STAGE THREE (Evaluation)

A. Meter Square Recording Form

B. Trial Trench Recording Form

IV. STAGE FOUR (Excavation and mitigation)

A. Day Book (Bound notebook, also used at Levels 2-3)

B. Context Register

C. Context Recording Sheet

D. Finds Register

E. Photographic Film Register

F. Graphics/Drawing Register

G. Levels Recording Sheet

H. Photographic Record

I. Sample Register

J. Sample Recording Sheet

K. Burial Excavation Recording Sheet

L. Masonry Record (Guidance sheet only - see manual)

M. Timber Record (Guidance sheet only - see manual)

N. Material Processing Record

O. Continuation Sheet