CHAPTER V

RECORDING IN THE FIELD

[Sidenote: Need of record.]

After finding things the first consideration is to record and preserve all the information about them. The most ignorant dealer or plunderer may be a very successful digger, but he will not care for the value of a record. Recording is the absolute dividing line between plundering and scientific work, between a dealer and a scholar. The most blue-blooded _dilettante_ collector who digs to possess fine things, but records no facts about them, is below the level of the dealer who will publish an illustrated priced catalogue, and state what was found together, and the details of the discovery. The unpardonable crime in archaeology is destroying evidence which can never be recovered; and every discovery does destroy evidence unless it is intelligently recorded. Our museums are ghastly charnel-houses of murdered evidence; the dry bones of objects are there, bare of all the facts of grouping, locality, and dating which would give them historical life and value. And it is only the self-evident facts of age that we already know, which can be observed in such a useless condition. So ignorant are curators that they will even divide up a tomb-group of objects, which are the keys to knowledge, and foolishly scatter them up and down the galleries merely as second-rate specimens of what is already there, without any date or history. This is actually the case in the three largest national museums. It is therefore imperative not only to record, but also to publish, the facts observed; so that when in future the elements of scientific management may come to be understood, a fit curator may succeed in reuniting the long-severed information, as is being to some extent happily done at Dublin.

In recording, the first difficulty is to know what to record. To state every fact about everything found would be useless, as no one could wade through the mass of statements. It would be like a detective who would photograph and measure every man on London Bridge to search for a criminal: the complication would entirely defeat the object. It is absolutely necessary to know how much is already known before setting about recording more. In some periods, such as the XVIIIth Dynasty, so much is ascertained that it is seldom that new facts can be brought to light; and only fine or unusual discoveries are worth full publication. On the other hand, in such an age as the early dynasties our only resource lies in complete records of the levels or collocations of hundreds of pots, whole or broken; and most important historical conclusions may hang on a single potsherd.

[Sidenote: Value of record.]

It is plain therefore that the accuracy and certainty of the record is necessary. At the moment that a fact is before the eye,--a fact which may never be seen again, and perhaps never paralleled,--it is needful for the observer to make certain of all the details, to verify every point which is of fresh value, and to record all that is new with certainty and exactitude. Statements with a query, or a doubt about them, are worth nothing in themselves, and can only serve to add to the range of similar facts that may be safely recorded from elsewhere. Everything seen should be mentally grasped, and its meaning and bearings comprehended at the moment of discovery, so clearly that a definitive statement can be made, which shall be as certain and as absolute as anything can be which depends on human senses. The observer should at least feel no possible doubts or qualms about his recorded facts; and what uncertainties there are should only be those which lie beyond his perceptions. It is well to work slowly over all the petty details of an important discovery, perhaps for half an hour, while considering all the facts and their meaning, before finally and irrevocably removing the main evidences of position. All this needs practice, and a full knowledge of what is important and what is trivial.

[Sidenote: Resulting view.]

And not only should such a record be made at the time, but the record should be presented finally in an intelligible form. To empty the contents of note-books on a reader’s head is not publishing. A mass of statements which have no point, and do not appear to lead to any conclusion or generalisation, cannot be regarded as an efficient publication. The meaning of each fact should be made apparent, and the relative importance of the details should be kept in view, so as to present the conclusions as a picture, in which each touch is in its proper place, and where each point adds to the whole without being disproportionately treated. Thus the final result is a statement much like what might have been written by a contemporary of the times in question; proved and enforced at each point by the various facts discovered.

In many cases our materials are not enough to give such a picture; and then, either the blanks must be noted and the limits of uncertainty stated, or else, at the worst, the facts must be grouped, and their results stated, leaving the question with two or more solutions open to future settlement.

Thus the final result to be aimed at is a picture full of detail and accuracy; and, where material is insufficient, with the limits of doubt clearly laid down, so that fresh material can at once be incorporated, and its value seen and grasped, so soon as it may be discovered.

[Sidenote: Marking.]

A very needful part of the recording is the marking of the objects with their source. Generally each part of a site is distinguished by a letter, and each group of objects found in that part by a number; thus a cemetery may be E, another adjoining it on different ground F, yet another G, a temple site T, and so on, sometimes using up the whole alphabet on a varied district. Then E 17, F 8, G 65, will be different tombs in those cemeteries, as denoted in the note-book and on the objects. Every bone of a skeleton should be marked, and always on one fixed position for each bone. It is best to trust to writing the reference with China ink on the base or back of most objects; for pottery and coarse things Brunswick black thinned with turpentine is best; for dark stones scratching the number is safest, and also for wet pottery at the time it is found. Jewellers’ tag-labels with strings are useful for small objects. It is very unsafe to trust labelling only to the wrapping papers, which may be all thrown away; separate labels should be wrapped with the things if they cannot be marked otherwise.

[Sidenote: Nature of notes.]

The nature of the notes must vary with each kind of material and each period; but we may here give some examples of the nature of such records.

_Town Plan._--Survey of every wall of each house; thickness of each wall (easily neglected); reveals of doorways; doorsills if of stone; sizes of bricks; levels of top and base of each wall if any rebuilt or superimposed; contents of each chamber, note if on floor or in filling; objects buried in floors; special note of position of exactly dated objects; copies of any frescoes or decoration.

_Tomb._--Position relative to other tombs. Size of pit, direction, depth. Position of chamber. Filling intact, or estimate of time that it has stood open anciently by the weathering of the sides. Objects found loose in filling. Chamber plan. Primary or secondary burial. Position of body, head direction, face direction, attitude of body and limbs. Position of beads and small objects on body. Note if beads follow any pattern or order; record order of as long groups of beads as possible for rethreading; wrappings, amount and nature. Coffin or cartonnage; inscription and figures, if any, often need copying or photographing before removal, as they may fall to pieces. Skull and jaw to be removed for measurement; or, if in rarer periods, whole skeleton to be preserved. Position and nature of all offerings and objects placed in the tomb. Copies of any inscriptions or paintings on the walls of the tomb.

To such outlines of the usual character of records are added any special details which are but rarely found; but the above will serve to remind an excavator of what must always be looked for.

[Sidenote: Planning.]

In making a plan of any large area, such as a town, it is best to start with a rough key-plan divided into a few dozen squares, each row of squares lettered, each column of squares numbered, so that every square is designated, as B 5, etc. (Fig. 32). Then the detailed plan of each square is to be made on one opening of a note-book of squared paper, the openings running A 1, A 2, A 3; B 1, B 2, B 3, etc. Thus any connection from one page to another can be found at once by looking for the next letter or number: the whole plan is in the pocket, and can be added to, chamber by chamber, as the clearing progresses. It need hardly be said that every plan or detail should be drawn north upwards in the note-book. Main lines are of course to be connected together by long lines of measurement.

As a general principle it is best to measure positions of as many points as possible along one single line of measurement, rather than take many piecemeal short distances and add them together. Thus (Fig. 29) a series of walls should be stated as, 66, 76, 201, 220, 257, 269, 330, 353, 434, 446 inches, rather than as lengths of 66, 10, 25, 19, 37, 12, 61, 23, 81, and 12 inches; for the total is more accurate when measured all in one, the positions are plotted quicker, and the comparison with any symmetric lengths of the building are easier made on the spot, so as to detect errors.

In the direct measurement of groups of walls, etc., it is the quicker and more accurate method to adopt two outside sighting lines, say one along the north, the other along the east, of the ground, marked out by high walls or large stones always visible, and then measure every point out to the two sighting lines at right angles. Spaces of over 100 feet across can be divided into separate groups.

The general use of instruments cannot be entered upon here. But amongst the means of work the divided rod is indispensable, and it is all that is wanted for most small buildings that are met with. The tape is the most practical for distances of 10 to 50 feet; and the steel tape for accurate measuring of base lines, or long distances. The box-sextant is for very broken ground, and isolated details, or if working alone; and the theodolite for accurate work anywhere between the accuracy of, say, 1 inch on 500 feet and the refinement of a ¼ of an inch on a mile. The plane table may be convenient for approximate plans, and is simple and rapid to use. The prismatic compass is of use for the directions of single blocks or fragments of wall, and is handy for rough topography (generally with paced distances), or for underground passages.

In considering the accuracy required, if dimensions in figures are to be given, then minute measurement is wanted, somewhat more accurate than the original workmanship. But where only a plan is to be produced, it is seldom practicable to show more accuracy than 1/100th inch on a book page 10 inches high, or 1/1000th of the whole, and therefore it is of no use to measure closer than 1 inch on a space of 200 feet or so across.

[Sidenote: Plotting.]

It need hardly be said that the barbarous irregular fractions, such as ⅜ of an inch to a foot or to a mile, should never be used for plotting. Simple decimal scales should alone be used, and generally 1/100th is the most suitable and easy for all plans of ordinary buildings, towns, etc.; this is further reduced by photolithography to whatever scale will best fit the size of publication.

Though the ordinary methods of survey need not be stated here, the box-sextant is so seldom seen that some account should be given of its use. The objection to its use on short distances, that parallax between the direct and reflected ray causes errors, can be avoided by overlapping the images about ¾ inch, the usual amount of the parallax. The main use of the sextant is for three-point survey. Over broken ground where many isolated points have to be fixed, within a few inches on a few hundred feet, there is no method so quick and useful as the nautical three-point method, when improved by rigid plotting. At any three points which shall be visible from the whole of the ground, and within its general plane, three signals are placed, best lettered by the quarter of the horizon nearest to each, say _n_, _s_, _w_. The three points must be so placed that the one circle passing through them all shall not pass through points needed in the survey; otherwise they may be in any position, though best as a triangle of about equal sides. The three angles and one side are to be measured, thus defining the whole triangle. Then at any point to be fixed, A, the two angles between _n_ to _s_ and _w_ to _s_ are measured with the sextant, and these suffice to fix the position. For plotting (Fig. 30), lay down the triangle of the three fixed points, say to scale 1/100th (the triangle with shaded corners _n_, _s_, _w_), and the perpendiculars to each side of it; this is most accurately done by a large protractor with vernier, setting out the radii and perpendiculars of the triangle from its centre. Then tabulate the half of each base × cotan. angles observed on that base, _e.g._

logs. n.n. logs. n.n. logs. n.n. ½ bases _n_ ·27314 _s_ ·36621 _w_ ·29223 _n_ ------ ------ ------ x cotan. { 1 ·43223 2·705 ·26272 1·831 angles at { 2 ·56671 3·687 ·48214 3·035 places 1, 2, 3 { 3 ·41995 2·630 ·67709 4·754

Here the log. half base _n_ to _s_ is ·27314; this added to log. cotan. of angle subtended by _n_-_s_ from station 1 is log. ·43223, giving a value 2·705 inches. From station 1 the angle _s_-_w_ was observed; and from stations 2 and 3 the angle _w_-_n_ was observed. All this calculation can be rapidly done in this form, placing the sheet upon the log. book, with the written log. half base next below the printed log. cotan. angle, and writing down the sum of the two against the number of the station. Then on the plan, plot these (½ base × cotan.) on the perpendiculars of their respective bases as at B and C, marking the station number to each. Then with compasses sweep an arc from one centre B, with radius Bs equal to the distance from the centre to its two points of the triangle. The same from the other centre C that has the same number of station. The intersection of the arcs is the point A of that station on the plan.

Of course the prolonged perpendiculars (broken lines) are used as often as the direct perpendiculars; the _aspect_ of the angle from the station, whether _n_-_s_ or _s_-_n_ showing on which half of the perpendicular we should lay off the centre. For angles over 90° the complement of the angle should be used in calculation, the centre then laid off on the wrong half of the perpendicular, and the arc swept across the right half. This mode of plotting gives the fullest accuracy, such as is never possible with the use of station-pointers, or trial and error devices which are used in nautical survey. A field of 40 stations can be easily calculated in an hour, and plotted in a couple of hours more. If it is needful to work any point with pure calculation instead of plotting, it can be accurately done by the principle that the line joining the two centres of arcs, B and C, forms with their common point s an equal and opposite triangle to that which they form with the survey point A. It will be seen on looking at the diagram that _w_-_s_, the angle by which B is plotted, is equal to the angle _w_-_s_ from A; and similarly the angle of the half base _n_-_s_ from C, is equal to _n_-_s_ from A. Hence the points _n_, _s_, _w_ subtend from A, the observed angles, and A is the point from which they must have been observed.

For levelling, the handiest instrument is a short rigid pendulum, with mirror attached, to hang truly vertical. The reflection of the eye back to itself is then a truly horizontal line, and can be sighted on to any distance. The pendulum is best made about 5 inches long, with tetrahedral net of suspension thread, to avoid twisting, passing through two eyes on the mirror and two eyes on the holder, and a covering tube to shield it from wind. With this, readings can easily be taken to an inch on 100 feet, and this is sufficient accuracy for most archaeological work.