3.4. The Development of the PaleoWay Digital Workflows in the Context of Archaeological Consulting

Abstract

PaleoWest Archaeology began to develop technology and methods for digital data collection in 2010, and quickly became the first archaeological consulting firm in the United State to adopt an all-digital workflow. The initial phase of research and development of this workflow coincided with a period of rapid software and hardware development, most notably the launch of the first- and second-generation iPads. The digital archaeological toolkit we assembled was used to collect survey data from tens of thousands of acres, document thousands of isolated artifacts, and record hundreds of archaeological sites throughout the American Southwest and elsewhere. This experience informed a second phase of development in which a custom database was constructed using FileMaker Pro. Ultimately, we developed a number of all-digital workflows that we refer to collectively as the PaleoWay. The development of this workflow has allowed us to collect better-quality data while becoming more efficient in our field and reporting operations.