Context Sheet
Definition
The primary recording document for a single context: a standardised form capturing description, dimensions, relationships, samples, and finds before the context is removed or disturbed.
- Field
- Single-context recording system
- Function
- Primary recording document for one context
- Captures
- Description, dimensions, relationships, samples, finds
- Timing
- Completed before removal or disturbance
Common questions
How does a context sheet relate to a context plan and site photographs?+
The context sheet is the written record, while the context plan is the scaled drawing and photographs are the visual record; together they form the full documentation package for a single context, and each is normally cross-referenced to the same context number so all three can be reassembled later.
Why must the context sheet be filled out before the context is removed?+
Once a deposit or feature is excavated away, its physical relationships to adjoining contexts, exact boundaries, and in-situ finds can no longer be directly observed, so any detail not captured on the sheet before removal is permanently lost to the record.
Related terms
- Context Number
- A unique integer assigned to each discrete stratigraphic unit at the moment of identification. Numbers are sequential and non-reusable. Even if a...
- Photographic Log
- A written record, kept on site alongside the context records, that logs each photograph with its file name, date, time, photographer, subject...
- Relationship Matrix
- A section of the context sheet or a separate table that lists which contexts this context is directly above, directly below, and...
- Site Archive
- The complete record of a forensic excavation: field notebooks, context sheets, photographic record, sample register, finds catalogue, and digital survey data. In...
- Skeleton Context Sheet
- A context sheet with additional fields specific to human remains: skeletal element list, body position, articulation status, orientation, and cross-references to associated...