Documentation in the field
Fieldwork requires the careful gathering of various kinds of data which are then analysed and record on the mission’s database. This information underpins all studies and research carried out once an individual campaign season is concluded. The diary of the dig, notebooks, maps and annotated photographs are all documents on which the various members of the mission have worked every days. Notes and graphs put down on paper represent the first phase, a series of observations, interpretations and re-examinations of what has been brought to light by excavations which will then lead to the preliminary reports, specialised articles and books on the research conducted. All of the documentation is then saved on laptops and memorised in other forms through scanning and digitalisation, alongside paper copies which are held in the mission’s archive. Drawings (plans and sections) are produced by the archaeologists and topographers on a daily basis both in the field and in the mission house, so as to give non-specialists an idea of how our work is progressing.