Archaeological plan

In an archaeological excavation, a plan is a drawn record of features (and artifacts) in the horizontal plane. It can either take the form of a "top-plan", or pre-excavation plan, which is drawn before any features are excavated and can help with the management of the excavation, or of a post-excavaton plan, where excavated features are drawn in three dimensions with the help of drawing conventions such as hachures. Plans can be made of complete sites, trenches or individual features. Their scale is usually 1:50. They are linked to the site recording system by the inclusion of known grid points and height readings, taken with a dumpy level or a total station (see surveying). Rescue excavation in Southwark, London by the Museum of London Excavation is the best-known and most commonly used technique within the science of archaeology. ... In pattern recognition, features are the individual measurable heuristic properties of the phenomena being observed. ... An artifact (also artefact) is a term coined by Sir Julian Huxley meaning any object or process resulting from human activity. ... A total station is an optical instrument used in modern surveying. ... Surveying is concerned with the application of mathematics and physics in obtaining accurate measurements for the determination of the position of points on the Earths surface. ...

Plan and section drawings have an interpretive function as well as being part of the recording system, because the draughtsperson makes conscious decisions about what should be included or emphasised. Photographs are complementary, but cannot perform the same role. Half-section through a Saxon pit In archaeology a section is a view of an excavated archaeological trench or feature showing the contents of that feature in two dimensions (vertical and horizontal) and thereby illustrating its profile and stratigraphy. ...