GIS within Archaeology?

[CBuckmaster]

I am a recent graduate with a degree in GIS (Geographical Information Systems).

I am interested in Archaeology and am trying to find out whether there are GIS jobs within the Archaeology industry?

I would of thought that GIS could become quite beneficial within the field and would be interested to hear from any employers or anyone who can provide any information on the topic, whether it be Archaeology companies that may use GIS, or people who can point me in the right direction to looking into the possibilities of job opportunities.

Thanks a lot, Chris

[John Walford]

Quite a few jobs in archaeeology require GIS skills, particularly those in county SMRs. You might also want to take a look at the website for Oxford Archdigital (http://oxarchdigital.com/index.php), which is a company specialising in the development of databases and other software for archaeological organisations.

John

"Hidden wisdom and buried treasure, what use is there in either?" (Ecclesiasticus ch20 v30)

[rachstebbs]

Seeing as there is a thread going on the subject of GIS I am hoping someone can advise me with small query I have. As part of my dissertation I want to produce regional and national maps with different features on them. (Plotting of monuments around the country) What would be the best program to use, and would I have to get every region as seperate software. Please bear in mind that I am a student and the uni will probably not pay for the software...

[gumbo]

Hi Rach, Hope you are well. Does your uni have ArcView thats quite good you can plot HER spots if they send them to you on CD against layers that you draw up from the Edina website (the British Geological survey data is coming online in january). Failing that MapInfo is v user freindly but you might have to get more data from the HER's (e.g. map bases). Failing both of these its good old AutoCAD im afraid. If you want to chat re this get Dave to give you my mobile number.

All the best,

G

[Penfold]

Rach
I guess this would depend on several main factors
a) which Uni are you studying (Partying) at? They may have GIS software that you are unaware of, I did my UG at Bradford and they had ArcGIS which I was unaware of until my final year, had to teach myself to use it though and its a steep learning curve.
b) How accurate do you wish your plots to be? If you are simply depicting general areas then I see no need to use a GIS package as there are many pieces of Geographic "ClipArt" freely available that you can simply put dots onto.
c.) Does your Uni subscribe to Edinburgh Universities digital map library? Bradford didnt while I was there and believe me you would freak if you knew the costs involved in getting OS maps in digital form that you can use in GIS, and lets not get into copyright issues
If you feel that you need to go the GIS route I have GIS compliant shape files of the UK, with county boundaries added and any spatial data you get from HER etc will be plotted accurately within them. If you want to try this and you can get access to the software You can contact me by email and I will try to send them to you as attachments, they will work with either ArcGIS or MapInfo.
Good luck with the diss



Vive La Revolution

Penfold

[Steve]

Chris, there are a few companies that I know of that specialise in this field. Can you contact me offline and I'll give you the details.

Rach, if you want to plot data on free mapping software I suggest you have a look at these:

• http://www.google.com/apis/maps/
  
• http://local.live.com/
  
• http://www.openlayers.org/
  

There are quite a few OS APIs now, but my preference is the Google API, for it's ease of use and interface.

I've written an application that uses this API and sends AJAX requests to the Y! geocoder because the Google API geocoder does not yet cover the UK.
Check it out here: http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/GoogleMap

You can use many different data sources and plot them on these maps: XML, GML, GeoRSS, use a Web Mapping Service to query SHP files.

Give me a shout if you need more info.

Steve White
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk

[BAJR Host]

I was hoping you would answer this... (and ps... yes I am writing as we speak )



"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[Steve]

How could I resist?

That's great news, we should be able to move quickly, been busy myself

PS:
If anyone is interested in GIS, technology and archaeology, I've started a new blog here:
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/wordpress/

[1man1desk]

quote:As part of my dissertation I want to produce regional and national maps with different features on them. (Plotting of monuments around the country) What would be the best program to use,

If what you want to do is produce paper maps to illustrate your dissertation, then you are probably best off using a drawing package such as CAD.

If you want to use the data analytically on screen (running queries, displaying different combinations of information, linking the graphic data to database information) then you are best off using GIS.

I would be surprised if your university does not make software available to you on campus. However, the data you would have to get from various sources. For student purposes, I would hope that SMRs/HERs/the NMR would not charge - depending on how much data you ask for. Many of them will issue data in GIS format if you ask nicely, but some can't.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[drpeterwardle]

Dr Peter here

Buckmaster said:
"GIS could become quite beneficial within the field and would be interested to hear from any employers"

I should say so. I am employer in archaeology and my advice is check out what is being used in the field before contacting employers. GIS has been used in archaeology for about 18 years.

What do you think it can be used for that it hasnt been used for already?

Dr Peter