Professor Chris Roosevelt and Brandon Olson publish the most downloaded JFA article in history
Boston University Department of Archaeology Dr. Chris Roosevelt and his co-authors, which also include grad student Brandon Olson published in the JFA issue 40.3 what has become the most downloaded JFA article in history, 851 times and counting!! The article is on his project’s use of digital technology to basically change the saying that archaeology is destruction.
This article modifies an old archaeological adage—“excavation is destruction”—to demonstrate how advances in archaeological practice suggest a new iteration: “excavation is digitization.” Digitization, in a fully digital paradigm, refers to practices that leverage advances in onsite, image-based modeling and volumetric recording, integrated databases, and data sharing. Such practices were implemented in 2014 during the inaugural season of the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) in western Turkey. The KAP recording system, developed from inception before excavation as a digital workflow, increases accuracy and efficiency as well as simplicity and consistency. The system also encourages both practical and conceptual advances in archaeological practice. These involve benefits associated with thinking volumetrically, rather than in two dimensions, and a connectivity that allows for group decision-making regardless of group location. Additionally, it is hoped that the system’s use of almost entirely “off-the-shelf” solutions will encourage its adoption or at least its imitation by other projects.