Archaeological excavation is expected to provide, if methodologically sound, a detailed image of the physical remains of the past encountered, and to further enable us to reconstruct them beyond their state of preservation. The largest set of recorded data pertains to spatial information, both descriptive and by image. In trying to overcome the problems of representing three-dimensional space, archaeologists have been limited, in quality and quantity, by the fact that the information would be processed manually, and in post-excavation period. Now that digital recording and data processing are common in excavation, we would seem to have finally mastered the tool, which permits to reconstruct and visualize our complex stratigraphic situations any time. But - is that achievable without changes in the very concepts and procedures of data recording?
The paper intends to discuss some of the related problems. Our emphasis is on ways to obtain data sets, which can later be used in surface and volume modelling, study of physical relations, surface morphology, spatial analysis etc.. New/modified technologies are necessary, but are not sufficient; above all, a serious reevaluation of archaeological procedures in preparing the elements to be recorded is needed, and there must be real time control of the results.
A case of intrasite photogrametric data recovery is used to demonstrate how adequate information to reconstruct stratigraphy can be obtained and evaluated in the field, to be used later as a source in post-excavation analysis. Resulting images can also be merged with the remote sensing generated data for the adjacent areas.