Workflow Bottlenecks Archaeologists Face in the Field — and How to Fix Them

Archaeology Is Evolving. Your Tools Should Too.

Whether you're leading a large excavation or working on a rapid watching brief, archaeologists know that fieldwork is only half the challenge. The real bottlenecks often arise not from the ground beneath your feet, but from the tools and systems you rely on to record, manage, and share data.

Here are four of the most common workflow slowdowns for archaeologists and how the right technology can help you work faster.

1. Save Time in the Field

Still levelling the bubble for every reading during a pre-excavation plan or a rapid strip, map, and record project?

Manual levelling takes time and on a pressured project with tight deadlines, every second counts. Tilt errors, awkward trench access, or unstable surfaces all slow you down when using traditional equipment.

Fix:

The Zenith60 Pro and the Zentih55 with Tilt compensation in X-PAD Ultimate, you can record accurate data without having to level the pole for every single reading. This speeds up point collection during large-scale mapping and makes work more efficient in uneven or confined areas. It’s a small change with a big impact on your daily productivity.

2. Save Time in the Office

Still leaving the site with a plan that needs tweaking back in the office?

Many archaeologists are stuck in workflows where the field drawing is only half-finished and the real job of cleaning it up happens in CAD later. Why? Because most field software lacks the CAD tools you need to finish the job on-site.

Fix:

X-PAD Ultimate includes powerful built-in CAD tools, such as the Splining tool, which allows you to accurately draw curves, features, and ditches in the field. Instead of creating rough sketches that need refining later, you leave the site with a finished plan, saving hours of rework and reducing the risk of transcription errors.

3. Collaborative Working Without the Morning Catch-Up

Still starting each day with a team huddle to figure out who did what yesterday?

On big sites, this used to be the only option. Each surveyor would work separately, upload later, and spend time syncing up the next morning. This slows down the team, creates confusion and pushes more admin work onto the office staff.

Fix:

With X-PAD 365 collaboration feature, everyone works from the same shared dataset in real time. Whether you’re two people or a full crew, you can see exactly what’s been surveyed and what still needs to be done.

• Large sites benefit from instant updates across all field teams, so no need to guess where your colleague stopped.

• Smaller teams save time by picking up instantly where the other left off.

• Office staff stay out of the field admin loop, because decisions and edits are made directly on-site by the people doing the work.

4. Use Drone Footage and Other External Data Seamlessly

Using drones to map sites, but now you’ve got even more data in even more places?

Drone imagery is powerful, but without integration, it becomes another file sitting in another folder, disconnected from your working plan.

Fix:

X-PAD Ultimate makes it easy to import external references, including drone images, directly into your project.

From the main screen, simply choose:

➡️ External Reference → Add → Select your georeferenced drone image.

The image will load in the background of your live job, giving you instant context while you survey. No more switching between systems or trying to align data by hand.

Archaeology Is Evolving. Your Tools Should Too.

GeoMax’s X-PAD Ultimate and X-PAD 365 are designed to remove friction from your workflow from the first reading in the trench to the final plan in the archive.

So whether you're battling time constraints, managing large teams, or integrating new tech like drones, you stay in control, on schedule, and ahead of the curve.

Want to See It in Action?

Book a demo and see how X-PAD can transform your archaeological fieldwork or give us a call on 01342 458461