58 ARCHAEOLOGICALRECORDING
accuracy and consistency of the reduction to be checked
very carefully. It is very important to remember to label
all drawings with identification numbers and to mark the
position of any cross-sections that have been drawn.
Some points to remember:
- Care should be taken to ensure that distortion in the
drafting film or movement during tracing is mini-
mized. Light pinning or weighting can help but
care must be taken not to damage the timber. - Reference points should be marked in all direc-
tions and measurements should be made between
these points to check for distortion. The marks are
also useful for checking the accuracy of subsequent
copies. - The tracings are waterproof and useful for check-
ing the originals for shrinkage. However, even
waterproof ink on polythene will rub off and care
should be taken in their use and storage. - Tracings are useful for working out displays where
full-size paper templates are often used, and for
checks during conservation. - Tracings must be accompanied by section or profile
drawings, preferably on a level datum to record
twist. Section lines should mark the position of
section profiles. - Tracings can be fast and cheap. Symbolic conven-
tions may be used to designate particular features
such as details of fastenings (e.g. iron nails may be
shown as red circles; wedged treenails as hatched
circles, etc.). Measurements of fastenings should be
marked on the sheet. - With plank-type timbers it may not be necessary
to draw edge views – only faces and profiles. - End views of planks showing the orientation of the
rays of the grain are an important aid to recon-
structing the method of timber utilization. - A photographic record should accompany the
drawings.
Further information about recording timbers, includ-
ing a timber recording form can be found in Nautical
Archaeology on the Foreshore(Milne et al., 1998).
Recording Contexts
What do archaeological contexts look like? Contexts can
be categorized as structures, cuts (e.g. scour-pits), fills and
layers (see chapter 4). The easiest context to recognize on
a shipwreck is the vessel’s hull, which survives as a coher-
ent structure and is an obvious indication that the vessel
sank to the sea-bed. Collapsed parts of the hull may
represent the events in the disintegration of the ship
structure. Collections of objects (e.g. a pile of cannon
balls or a galley oven made up of a large number of
bricks) must also be recorded as contexts as this helps the
overall future interpretation. The digging of any hole on
an archaeological site, by nature or by humans, is obvi-
ously a very important event or process and, as such, should
be recorded as a context. These holes or voids may fill
up with sediments and other material and the hull can
become buried, sometimes in recognizable stages. Each layer
of the infilling material should be designated as a context,
as each represents a specific episode in the history of the
site (figure 8.2). In general, stratigraphy (see the section
on dating in chapter 4) under water can be as complex,
or more so, than on terrestrial sites, due to factors such
as movement of tides, scour, human intervention and the
attention of the local flora and fauna, to say nothing of
the conditions of the site itself, such as low visibility and
dynamic water movement.
Most stratigraphic layers are recognisable because the
material in them is slightly different (in composition,
texture, or colour) to the neighbouring areas. Renfrew and
Bahn (2004) provide a good discussion of stratigraphy
and its appropriate recording. The differences between
types of sediment may be so subtle that they are almost
undetectable, so great care is needed to recognize them
(plate 8.2). This is where personal interpretation and
experience comes to the fore. All the variables that make
up the distinctive character of a context should be recorded
for each context encountered on a site. For deposits,
this might include parameters such as: colour, texture,
consistency, particle size (for sediments), bonding
agent, sedimentary structures, shape, dimensions and
precise location. Dinacauze (2000) gives further details
about the nature of these parameters and their recogni-
tion on land sites.Recording Stratigraphy
When recording contexts, it is very important that the
position of each one in relation to those around it is
recorded. This can be done by a written description
(below, above, within, etc.) supplemented by a diagram-
matic representation detailing the sequence of individual
contexts. The method of presenting such a sequence is
known as a Harris Matrix (Harris, 1989; also see http://www.
harrismatrix.com). Such diagrams are constructed as an
investigation progresses to clarify relationships between con-
texts within the site (figure 8.3). An alternative means
of representing stratigraphy is shown in figure 8.4.
Measured drawings (or site-plans) of the physical rela-
tionships between contexts are also fundamental to the
site record and must be cross-referenced to any other
documentation relating to stratigraphy.