The second part of the training: "Mapping of archaeological heritage resources"

The second part entitled the Mapping of archaeological heritage resources was aimed at presenting methods of recognizing and recording archaeological resources as well as managing and analysing spatial data for the needs of archaeological heritage protection and management. It began by presenting the impact of different archaeological paradigms on the recognition and valorization of archaeological resources as well as strategies of protection and management of archaeological heritage. Changes in archaeology determined the development of methods applied to protect and manage archaeological heritage resources and it is widely assumed that the development of academic archaeology has significantly influenced our views on archaeological heritage and the methods applied in this field.

A major objective of this part of the training was to present methods of collecting, transferring and analysing spatial data. It focused in particular on the systematical discussion of non-destructive methods of recognizing archaeological resources, such as aerial photography and geophysical prospection, and the evaluation of their usefulness in archaeological heritage protection and management. The effectiveness of aerial photos depends on their integration with other methods. This mostly implies compounding aerial photos with various geophysical surveys. In the process of integrating these different methods, all of them should be treated as complementary to each other. Any differences in the results obtained via different methods provide a stimulus for reflection on the reasons for differences, on the site condition, its preservation and stratification processes.

A separate module was aimed at providing a brief discussion of GIS in the context of its use in heritage management practice, as well as to present a background and solid introduction to the applications and types of information for which a GIS is well suited. It further discussed the limitations of GIS applications in particular contexts. It stressed that the role of GIS in any given project must be well defined to become its useful component, and issues such as accuracy and resolution of a data set must be taken into account when performing analyses and interpreting results.