Archaeology of the ballpoint pen: or the interpretation and significant properties of archaeological findings

Interpretations, meaning and the question of significant properties in the context of contemporary archaeological archiving are complex issues that pertain to the entire archaeological information process and spans from the past human activity to the deposition processes, field archaeology, documentation, archiving and interpretation of archaeological data. The aim of this study is to increase our understanding of the premises of how archaeologists interpret artefacts and to explore techniques for incorporating these premises as a part of an information system. The study is based on the analysis of the interviews of 25 Nordic archaeologists conducted by the author. The analysis of the interview transcripts resulted in three broad categories of properties of archaeological findings (A: observations, B: context of discovery and C: context of use). On the basis of the study, a prototype of a wiki-based framework was developed for capturing, expressing and debating the interpretations of digital archaeological data.