Open Dig Reports - Overview

The main goal of Open Dig Report software is to help archaeologists organize digital data produced in the context of archaeological projects, and make the data available online.

At its core, it is a "notes and pictures" web-accessed catalogue database that is tailored to store, retrieve, and display digital data related to archaeological projects.

It was designed to be use both in the field and on later colloberative online data processing, support large record and media sets, facilitate nuanced data retrieval, and allow for a smooth transition to future institutional online publication.

In addition, it was designed with material specialists in mind and with the intention of giving them access to data about the contexts from which their objects of study originated. Accordingly, a central design choice for the software was to divide the archaeological record into distinct modules, e.g., ceramics, lithics, stones, loci, areas, etc.

Each module has its own set of properties and forms, and all of the modules fit into standard pages, menus, and display elements.

In the following sections, we briefly describe a typical Open Dig Report website and its standard pages. The order of presentation follows a random user`s exploration of the website.