An integrated digital workflow for archaeological survey in the Gotera area (southern Ethiopia)

Conducting archaeological surveys in some remote areas presents significant methodological challenges due to erosional phenomena and limited fieldwork time, making the efficiency and reliability of data collection systems critical factors. This contribution presents a digital field documentation workflow developed for systematic survey in the Gotera Archaeological Area (GAA), designed to maximise data quality and operational efficiency under such conditions. The GAA has been under investigation since 2016. It lies within a marginal lacustrine basin in the southern Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), characterised by short-lived MSA occupations spatially structured by dynamic hydro-morphological patterns, and preserves the first stratified open-air MIS 3 occupation documented in the MER (GOT-10, ~50–45 ka BP). Previous survey campaigns relied on separate systems for spatial and descriptive data, integrated only during post-fieldwork processing. The new workflow brings all data collection into a single open-source platform built around QField and QGIS, allowing multiple operators to work simultaneously and integrating positional data, photographs, finds descriptions, and sample records within a single recording environment. A key feature is the possibility of loading raster layers derived from hydromorphological analyses directly into QField, allowing surveyors to contextualise archaeological evidence and samples within specific geomorphological units in real time during fieldwork. Dedicated recording fields for geomorphological description further support their systematic analysis in relation to the landscape's hydromorphological features. This study shows how integrated digital tools, tailored to challenging conditions, can substantially enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and analytical potential of archaeological survey, offering a replicable model for standardised digital field recording.