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Researchers from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences worked with a Russian firm, Constructor, to create an accesssory to AutoCAD® that assists with recording field data. This new system, designed to work on the Russian version of AutoCAD (Release 12 or Release 13), is called ARHEO. It works within AutoCAD, adding one menu to the standard ones.
ARHEO has been designed to speed the process of entering grid data and object findspots in a traditional excavation trench. It also automates the attachment of object data - with fields determined by the user - to the drawing entities. Data are stored in standard DBF files.
The system creates five layers to contain surface terrain, the grid, the objects, and so on. Each is color coded. Of course, adjustment of layers is possible after their creation.
The developers tested the sytem at the neolithic site of Krasnoe X, which is located in the central part of the Rousskaya plain at the Volga-Dnepr watershed. Two drawings are included here to illustrate the results; their analytic value would be more obvious if it were possible to publish them in color. The upper drawing is a section view of the trench wall; the lower one is a three-dimensional view from the opposite side of the trench.
For more information, please contact Alexander Smirnov, Head of Rescue Archaeology Department, Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitria Ulianova St., 19, 117036 Moscow (asmirnof@iaras.msk.su).
For other Newsletter articles concerning the use of CAD in archaeology and architectural history, consult the subject index.
Next Article: A New Aid for Drawing Pottery Profiles
Table of Contents for the Feb, 1997 issue of the CSA Newsletter (Vol. 9, no. 4)
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