Free Software for ARCHAEOLOGISTS & Treasure Hunters

I often get asked by students, friends and colleagues about software solutions for a variety of tasks that treasure hunters do in their daily work routine. Things like mapping dispersion patterns, site documentation etc. Since I’m asked about this so frequently, I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of my personal recommendations for these requests and share it here. I’ll add more resources as time permits.

Win-BASP
A Windows-based version of the enormously useful BASP program, by Irwin Scollar, including more than 60 functions for seriation, clustering, correspondance analysis, and other tools for archaeologists. http://www.uni-koeln.de/~al001/basp.html

The Harris Matrix
The classic statistical method for diagramming stratigraphic sequences; this site is intended to “provide an international focal point for information and discussion.”

PitCalc
While it’s standard archaeological practice to work in square holes, sometimes it’s simply not possible. PitCalc is an ancient (well, 20 years old) computer program brought back to java life to help us out in those situations. http://www.pitcalc.com/

Ox-Cal
By Christopher Bronk Ramsay of Oxford, a program to provide radiocarbon calibration and analysis of archaeological and environmental stratigraphy. http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/embed.php?File=oxcal.html

ArchEd
The ArchEd Program is a tool for drawing Harris matrices which are used in archaeology. Beside its ability to edit such drawings it also contains an automatic drawing feature which redraws a given graph nicely. A similar program was developed at the Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege in Bonn in 1990. While this older program runs on DOS – systems and uses the keyboard as input device, ArchEd runs with Win2000, XP or WinNT and can also use a mouse as input device.

You can find more free software HERE http://archaeologicaltraces.org/index.php?option=com_weblinks&view=category&id=51&Itemid=58

The internet brings a wealth of information to our finger tips. All we have to do is point, click and grab it. I would really love to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments, please post them below or send me an email; and do me a favor, if this article was helpful please share it on facebook or twitter that way I’ll be able to keep bringing you useful information to make more and better metal detecting finds.