GIS and archaeology in France

Daniel Arroyo-Bishop

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1998, 9, 31-45

Abstract

Due to the limited response to the CNR questionnaire on GIS usage in French archaeology, this paper cannot expect to give either the full extent of implementation, nor fully document its impact on this field of research. It has been possible however to extrapolate general trends, and to discuss the development of several projects and undertakings. The most important implementation of GIS is the Ministry of Culture’s nationwide SCALA program for French archaeological survey, and the most comprehensive is the CNRS’s ArchéoDATA Archaeological Information System (AIS). The majority of the smaller projects are in three sectors: regional governmental archaeological offices, the CNRS research laboratories and archaeological field units. As the majority of GIS projects are undertaken by small teams that are looking for flexibility and autonomy, the general trend in hardware/software configurations has been away from elaborate centralised systems and towards micro-computer based installations, with the combination usually being Map Info running on PCs and Macintoshs. Whilst the use of GIS is still not entirely common practice in French archaeology, it is important to note that considerable research is going into innovative ways of implementing GIS concepts in archaeology and that important results can be expected in the years to come.

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