M. Doneus1, W. Neubauer2
1 Inst. für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Universität Wien, Austria
2 VIAS -Vienna Inst. for Archaeological Science, Vienna, Austria

Beside the creation of a stratigraphic sequence (Harris matrix) the stratigraphic excavation method is based on the recording of every single unit of stratification. Conventionally it is done by analogue drawings. GIS is a perfect tool for the digital recording of stratigraphic excavations.
During the last years we developed a GIS based procedure for the digital documentation of stratigraphic excavations. To be able to fully reconstruct the part of the site destroyed by excavating, the surfaces of the excavated deposits have to be fully documented in 3D ("single surface mapping"). Every single surface is photographed using a digital camera and rectified on site. The boundary polygon, the topography and the location of finds are recorded using total stations. All data are imported into a ArcView GIS, where the georeferenced data are immediately available for further on-site analysis. Import, terrain modelling, and contouring, of the surfaces is automated by the developed extension ARCDig 1.1. Further modules of the extension allow to calculate cross sections along arbitrary defined lines and to calculate the volume of any deposit. All additional attributable data as descriptions of surfaces and deposits, the find database etc. are integrated in the GIS for further analysis of the data.
Key words: GIS, Stratigraphic Excavation, Digital documentation