The Artefact Post

Eight photographs of black plastic trays in two rows, each tray holding washed ceramic fragments laid out on a yellow or green cloth, mostly blue and white transfer-printed sherds with some stoneware and glazed earthenware, and a handwritten paper label in each tray. Under each photograph is its exported file name, from 467 (Ceramic) [00104]-Photo.jpg to 467 (Ceramic) [00115]-Photo.jpg. — Tray photographs after export, each renamed by Fieldmark with the context number, artefact class, and bag ID in the file name.

Photographs: The Artefact Post.

Domain: historical archaeology, post-excavation artefact processing · Deployment: Fieldmark-hosted · Scale: a small specialist consulting firm, working with a team from a fellow archaeological firm · Year: 2025

Tallying before the catalogue

The Artefact Post is a small specialist consulting firm in Sydney, run by Penny Crook, a co-founder of Electronic Field Notebooks. The firm processes large volumes of artefacts from historical-archaeological excavation sites across Sydney. Those artefacts have to be tallied before detailed cataloguing begins.

The tallies used to be done in Excel spreadsheets. A spreadsheet produced the same working number at the end of the day. What it did not produce was the detail needed to cross check an errant record.

Recording the trays

Working with a team from a fellow archaeological firm, Penny Crook used Fieldmark® to photograph and count artefacts in artefact trays, after the artefacts had been washed and dried. Each tray was given a tag with a barcode, which Fieldmark scanned. The recorder then entered the Context Number and the Quantity of fragments, selected the Artefact Class, and tapped to take a photograph. One record therefore holds the scanned barcode, the Context Number, the number of fragments in the tray, the Artefact Class, and the image.

Each record carries an identifier built from all of those details, so the tray photographs were renamed on export. One arrives as 481 (Ceramic) [00050]-Photo.jpg, carrying the Context Number, the Artefact Class, and the Bag ID. The photographs are therefore searchable by Context, by Class, or by Bag ID, on the file name alone.

What it changed

Whilst this is a simple use of Fieldmark, it made tracking large quantities of information at scale much easier. The photographs also became a reference in their own right. When the cataloguing came round and Contexts had to be identified again, they were identified from the photographs.

Using Fieldmark gave us the opportunity to collect more information in an efficient and retrievable way.

Penny Crook, The Artefact Post, 2026.

Penny Crook is a co-founder of Electronic Field Notebooks, which makes Fieldmark. The Artefact Post is her own practice, and she supplied this account of it herself.