Dear Lee,

The projects in The Netherlands (Europe) carried out for the
railwayconstruction in the Betuweroute, all the sites were 'digitized'
in the field with a handheld computer. The system was developed by
computer-archaeologists working for the National Railways and costed a
fortune. In the beginning the system called 'Digit' was a disaster, too
many functions at one time and not users-friendly and not weatherproof.
It was hard to put all data from the middle- stoneage to postmedieval
into one similar database system for 40 sites. After one year of big
troubles things were working better, both in the field and in inside.
There was some satisfaction with it.
Still, I believe it was too much trouble in the field. When there is
pressure and time (money) runs out, the weather is bad, you cannot waste
time typing data in your handheld. You need very skilled
fieldtechnicians and fieldarcheaologists for that.
My advice: keep it simple, only put in a handheld database the things
you really need (or even less) and even an untrained but willing student
can work with. The rest you can do inside.

regards,

Michiel Bartels
Archeologie Deventer
PO Box 5000
7400 GC Deventer
The Netherlands (NL)
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Lee Bennett schreef:

> Does anyone have experience collecting field data using a
> hand held computer?  I'd like to learn more about this
> possibility.  Thanks.
>
> Lee Bennett
> Bennett Management Services LLC
> Monticello, Utah