Single context recording

Single context recording was initially developed by Ed Harris and Patrick Ottaway in 1976, from a suggestion by Laurence Keen.

It has become a popular system of recording and planning being used in many countries in Europe and in Lebanon, it is especially suited to the complexities of deep, typically urban, archaeology.

Heights are recorded with a dumpy level or total station by relation to the site temporary benchmark (abbr.

it is common practice to have special sheets available to record contexts denoted by; masonry, timber and skeletons listing the many variables that are of interest to the archaeologists both onsite and post excavation.

(see Stratification (archeology) and Harris matrix) This is demonstrated in the gallery below of a hypothetical and abstract 5 step sequence of contexts.