Expert: Ralph Salier - 1/8/2008

Question
why do u think it is important for an archaeologist to keep good notes

Answer
Hi Brooke,

A very good question. Imagine that the site is like a book. Each time you put shovel or trowel to the soil it is like tearing a page or part of a page out of the book and burning it. There is no way to recover what was on those pages.  Taking good notes on the other hand should be an approximation or a paraphrase of what those pages contained so that the book can be reconstructed.  It may not be word for word but if you can get close, it would be like the Spark Notes version.  If you don't keep good notes, drawings, photos, maps etc... then its more like a simple book report, which is not nearly adequate to do a complete reconstruction of the culture.

I hope this answers your question, if not ask more.