Abstract
The University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) is trustee to one of the world's most unique Archaeological sites known as Little Salt Spring. The site consists of one hundred ten acres of land and major cenote or sinkhole. It is in this water filed cenote that some of the oldest and unique artifacts in Florida, if not the Western Hemisphere have been uncovered.
Over the last four years I have had the privilege of serving as teaching assistant/ research associate under the supervision of Dr. John Gifford. The following paper if the result of these four seasons of field work.
Dr. Gifford's team has successfully utilized a geographic information system (GIS) underwater. This report explains the recording and conservation techniques used in correlation with this GIS system. An underwater archaeology is a relatively young science, only becoming a true discipline in the 1950's, the use of these techniques meshes new cutting edge technologies with old-school archaeological techniques. The use of computer mapping database management in underwater archaeology will revolutionize this field of study and bring much deserved recognition and acceptance to the field of underwater archaeology into the scientific community.