These were the questions which faced the LRP at the end of the 1993 season: how can we manage the data more efficiently while in the field, and how can we disseminate that data quickly and efficiently to others in the discipline? We believed that similar questions challenged other excavation teams. It is our hope that the experience of the 1999 field season at Tell Halif will point the way for future work to be done with better systems for data management and for dissemination of basic archaeological information.

We began the season, accordingly, with several notebook computers in the field, each linked to a server (also a notebook), a fact which permits both the control of the input of data and allows any member of the staff to track progress in laboratory treatment, photography, disposition, etc. Because the server assigns sequential numbers as requests from the field are made to register an object find, a material culture sample, or a new locus, the field and laboratory staff are guaranteed that accidents of duplicate numberings will not occur. Simultaneously, progress in the field and in the lab can be tracked from any of the several laptops on such matters as the drawing or photography of an object, as well as the formal description assigned by specialists. Every entry becomes part of the common database immediately and is available by search for a specific item or by browsing the database entries. Significantly, reports on aspects of the excavation, recording, or reporting can, therefore, be generated quickly. And, we believe, the fact that a supervisor in the field-or an artist in the lab-can simply select descriptive terms from drop-down windows saves time and brings greater accuracy to the recording procedures.

Another important feature of the computerized database is that it allows the introduction of 3D analysis and simulation into a dig while it is still in progress. By using the data entered into the database by field personnel, we are able to construct a computerized view of the progress and finds in the field. Each area, locus, and basket is represented as a volumetric area. Each object, when found in-situ, is also recorded in three-dimensional coordinates and shown in the 3D browser window. The significant insights rewarded through use of the 3D display is magnified as the dig season progresses. Early, there is not enough data to create any kind of visual anomalies, but we have been using it as a visual error checking device for data entry and recording errors. Later, as more data is introduced to the system, visual clues are created by the grouping of objects and architecture. The 3D browser is still in its infancy and we are currently only tracking object finds found in-situ although we are planning to add architectural analysis and reconstruction to the program very soon. We will offer a complete description of our processes and methods as soon as possible.

Reporting responsibilities mark the other main problem this 1999 experimental season addresses. We have shown in previous work that modern digital communication devices permit archaeologists to report findings far more completely than ever before; in fact, in displaying the Persian and Iron Age figurines discovered in the 1992 and 1993 seasons on the DigMaster website, we made available to web browsers more than 5,000 color photographs and drawings and 84 QuicktimeVR object movies of the ceramic and stone figurines, something impossible except through digital and and electronic media. This DigMaster web publication project, however, occurred well after the seasons had ended. In the 1999 LRP field season, the attempt is to prepare basic excavation data and graphic representations of all artifacts, architecture, and field photographs while yet in the field, all of which will be made available, as far as possible, on a daily basis on this web page.

The benefits of this experiment in dissemination of LRP excavation data are several. First, if successful, we will have demonstrated the viability of rapid (nearly immediate) reporting. Colleagues and staff members not on location will see high resolution images of the excavation as it progresses and of the artifacts recovered in the excavation; we believe that the images will be sufficiently detailed to permit close study on monitor. Second, the numbers of photographs that can be contained and disseminated in digital format will have demonstrated the viability of "total publication," something not economically permitted in traditional publication.