Digger עברית

Excavation recording software

Digger

Digger takes an excavation from the first locus to the final report: plans, baskets, levels, sections, the Harris matrix, photos and the complete excavation file, all in one project on your own computer.

See it workRead the tutorial
Tracing walls from a scanned plan. Each wall takes its width and number as it is drawn.
Cross-section of the sample project
Section A–A′ of the sample project in these clips, as Digger draws it from the recorded outlines and levels (m above sea level).
01

Build the workspace your dig needs.

Every excavation is its own story and every archaeologist has their own way of telling it. That’s why Digger is designed with flexibility in mind. In Digger, you can split the window into as many areas as you want and choose what each area displays. View the plan, Harris Matrix and a cross-section side by side, or put the plan on the whole screen.

  • Split, join, resize and swap areas by dragging corners and borders, or from an area’s menu
  • Adjust your UI: Dark and Light modes, colors, interface and plan text size
  • Plan, Section, Harris Matrix, Outliner, Properties, Spreadsheet, Diary, Photos, Reports: each one fits in any area
  • Ready to go workspaces in six tabs, and you can add your own
  • Add your own fields to loci and baskets: a tick box, a number or text
  • Create your own types and subtypes of loci and baskets
Turning a panel into a different editor from its corner menu.
An area’s menu: split, swap, maximize or close.
Your own fields, added as columns while you work.
02

Hyper-fast, from the first click to the last report.

Recording shouldn’t be the slow part of the day. One key picks a tool, snapping lands the point where it belongs, and Digger fills in what it can already work out.

Fill: click an empty space and the new locus takes its exact shape.
Round locus: a tabun or a pit in a click and a drag.

Digger has a key for everything:

D
Draw a locus
B
Draw a basket
Ctrl+B
Basket with the locus’s outline
W
Draw a wall from its centre-line
H
Record a height
S
Draw a section
E
Edit a shape’s outline
F3
Search every command
Alt+← →
Move between excavation days
Ctrl+Z
Undo the last step

Documentation at the speed of light

  • Closing dates and heights: Auto close and Auto heights read them from the locus’s baskets
  • Duplication, trace, and fill tools speed up the drawing process
  • Auto-diary that summarises the working day
  • Partially automated loci relations
  • Harris Matrix that draws itself
  • Ready-to-go walls and special elements
03

Connected to what’s in the field.

Readings and photos go straight into the record, where you’re working, instead of waiting in a notebook or on a memory card.

Your phone as the camera Experimental

Take photos with a phone and they appear in the working area, with the locus and camera direction chosen on the phone. No app and no internet: the phone and the computer only share a Wi-Fi network.

Digital levels and total stations Experimental

Leica GSI (GSI-8 and GSI-16) over a cable or Bluetooth. Each reading goes to where you’re working.

GNSS receivers Experimental

NMEA position, height and fix quality, with the antenna height taken off when you take a point.

Survey files

Total-station and GNSS CSV with column mapping and reprojection. Point codes do the rest: L205T is a top level, L205B a bottom level, L205P builds the outline.

Plans and GIS

Bring in orthophotos and scanned plans, DXF, GeoJSON and Shapefile. Send out GeoJSON for QGIS or ArcGIS, DXF for AutoCAD, and CSV for spreadsheets.

These live connections are new and still being tested. Check what arrives in Digger.

The Devices window in Digger.
The Devices window in Digger.
04

The whole record in one program.

Everything an excavation file needs, connected. When you change a locus the plan, spreadsheets, cross-section, and matrix all follow.

Plans on real coordinates

Drop a scan or an orthophoto on the plan, then move, scale and rotate it, or georeference it from control points.

Sections along any line

Draw a line anywhere on the plan to explore your site.

Harris matrix

Get a broad view of the relations of your loci, editable and automatically updating.

Registration sheets

Loci and baskets spreadsheets to give you a deep, broad view of your data.

Photo album

Set direction, mark your loci or annotate on an image.

Diary and logs

A diary that summarises itself and a ‘what’s missing’ log to speed up your workflow.

Every report you’d need

Locus List, Basket List, Locus Cards, Diary, Photo Album, Top Plans, Sections and Harris Matrix, as PDFs with your excavation’s name on every page.

Pages from the sample project’s excavation file.

Locus or Context Experimental

Digger now has two ways to record, chosen when you create an excavation. Locus is the system this site shows. Context is single-context recording, as used on many European excavations.

The Context method is experimental. It follows published British recording manuals and hasn’t been reviewed by working archaeologists yet, and practice varies by country and unit. The clips on this page show the Locus method.

  • Every cut, deposit, fill and structure has its own number, written [12] for a cut and (13) for the rest
  • Context sheets for deposits, fills, cuts, masonry, timber and skeletons
  • Single-context plans that overlay by selection, with hachured cuts
  • Bulk finds, small finds and samples, with their own registers
  • Checks for the method’s rules, such as a fill with no cut or a cut holding finds
  • Context Register, Context Sheets and a Harris Matrix built from immediate relations
05

Your work stays with you

One open file

A project is one SQLite file with a media folder beside it. SQLite can be read with any SQLite tool, so your record never depends on Digger.

No cloud, no account

Digger does not require an internet connection to function, so working deep in the field is uninterrupted.

Hard to lose

Timed backups every 1–4 hours and one more on closing.

Six languages

English, Hebrew with full right-to-left layout, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Reports follow the interface language.

The same project in Hebrew and German.
06

Three editions.

The Demo and Student editions are for trying and learning. Each edition opens only its own project files. You can download the Demo with the buttons below the table. For the Student edition, email dumpsterfirestudio.art@gmail.com.

DiggerStudentDemo
ForReal excavationsLearning and teachingA first look
Loci / contextsUnlimitedUp to 75Up to 16
Baskets / findsUnlimitedUp to 150Up to 21
PhotosUnlimitedUnlimitedUp to 10
AreasUnlimitedUnlimitedOne
Report PDFsCleanWatermarkedWatermarked
Commercial or field useYesNoNo

Download Digger Demo

Download for WindowsDownload for Linuxabout 130 MB
  1. Click the button for your system. The file is stored on GitHub and starts downloading straight away. You don’t need a GitHub account.
  2. If a GitHub page opens instead, find Assets and click the file ending in .exe for Windows or .AppImage for Linux.
  3. Windows may warn about an unknown publisher: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  4. On Linux, allow the file to run as a program in its Properties, then open it.

Open the GitHub download page

The full edition is coming soon. dumpsterfirestudio.art@gmail.com

Read the tutorial now

The full illustrated tutorial is free to read, in every interface language (PDF, about 1 MB).

EnglishעבריתFrançaisDeutschItalianoEspañol

Questions

Which systems does it run on?

Windows and Linux. There is no Mac version at the moment.

Does it need the internet?

No. Digger works entirely offline and has no account. The phone link only needs the phone and computer on the same hotspot network.

Does it fit how we record?

The Locus method follows the site, area, square, locus and basket system used on excavations in the Levant. The Context method, which is experimental, follows single-context recording as used on many European excavations. You choose one when you create an excavation and can’t change it afterwards. Both let you add your own types and fields.

Can I get my data out?

Yes: the project is an open SQLite file, and every table exports as CSV. Plans export as GeoJSON and DXF.

Can the instruments be relied on yet?

The live links to instruments and phones are marked experimental in the program itself, so check what arrives. CSV import is the established route.