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When people hear about archaeology they often have instantaneous images flashing through their mind. Those images are often of some ubiquitous adventurer ala Indiana Jones or some dusty old man digging a dusty hole in the ground in some remote location. What people don’t realize is that modern archaeological method attempts to minimize the amount of excavations carried out in the field. Excavations are time consuming, costly, labor intensive, expensive, and destructive to the site. Additionally, the actual amount of field work pursued in archaeology is vastly dwarfed by pre-field research and fundraising and post-field reporting, documentation, and analysis. The true vision of an archaeologist could more aptly be pictured as a man or woman in cramped office with piles of books, paperwork, and boxes stacked to ceiling- drowning in paperwork. When one does finally make it out into the field, there is a lot of time and energy expended upon administrative data collecting and set up. The entire site is surveyed and mapped. Mapping is an important aspect of the archaeological process and it is a task that is carried out with meticulous precision in order to attain the most accurate measurements during the process of data collection. A profile view provides detail of a vertical section of a site or feature. A site is the entirety of an area of archaeological interest, and a feature is a particular unit within the site. For example, the heiau and the surrounding areas are the site, and the east wall is a feature. When an area or feature is chosen for mapping, a datum or zero point is set. The datum, usually a stake pounded into the ground, provides a point of reference from which to take accurate measurements. A transit line (measuring tape) is run from the datum point to the end of the feature being mapped. Measurements are taken below or above the datum point depending upon the site being measured (for example, when measuring from the floor of a cave to the ceiling you’d measure the roof of the cave above datum point, but when measuring into an excavation pit from a datum point above, you’d measure below datum point). Profile maps of features are important because they are used to as components of a site plan. Essentially, all the small maps are put together into a composite of the entire site. It’s like putting a puzzle together where all the small pieces go together to make a big picture. Each map section is an enhancement to the overall site plan because they all help to provide clarity and detail for the larger picture. They’re also important because they allow researchers to analyze detailed features of the site as needed. by Matthew J. Bielecki
