Let’s Dig with QField! A F/OSS Mobile GIS Management System for Archaeological Excavation

Abstract In recent years, mobile GIS systems have become essential tools for the real-time management and recording of archaeological data, particularly in archaeological survey projects. This article explores their potential for the real-time digital management of archaeological excavations and presents a practical application. One of the main limitations to the use of mobile GIS applications in archaeological excavation has been that global navigation satellite system receivers embedded in mobile devices do not provide the necessary accuracy for detailed stratigraphic documentation. The free and open-source mobile GIS application QField offers a possible solution to this problem. Because of the Bluetooth connection with external differential global navigation satellite system receivers, QField achieves the high accuracy required by stratigraphic excavation workflows. At the same time, because it shares the core libraries of QGIS, QField supports the development of a real-time excavation GIS environment, in which each stratigraphic unit is uniquely encoded and becomes the focus of the digital data acquisition process.