Data

Records obtained through procedural/methodological activities or investigative processes.

Data has three functions:

• To describe the observable sets of characteristics, properties of features pertaining to objects of interest
• To serve as the evidential basis upon which inferred claims are either verified or refuted, and
• To serve as communicative records made about objects of interest, which are inscribed upon some medium, and can be consulted, accessed or used as stand-ins for the objects that they have been constructed to represent. {Fotiadis 1992}

In this third functional capacity, archaeological data relates to the broader set of records and activities that comprise an information system, which allows archaeological work to be distributed among collaborating peers. Therefore, archaeological data also embody the commitments imparted by the communities, interests and expectations that drive the systems under which the data are derived. {Fotiadis 1993; Gero 1996, and response by Politis 2001; Thorpe 2012}