Beginning in late 2021, ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives (CHI) and its partners developed a series of tutorials and training modules in English, French, and Arabic aimed to help cultural heritage specialists perform surveys and condition assessments through open source tools and software, including QGIS, KoboToolbox, LibreCAD, and MetaShape. Through these tutorials, the ASOR CHI team has trained hundreds of archaeology professionals, university students, and heritage enthusiasts in northern Africa, in the Sahel region of western Africa, and in America. This summer, ASOR CHI is in the process of updating these tutorials, including adding new techniques and analytical tools. Work on these resources has been made possible by a grant from an anonymous donor.

While the goal of this project is to assist heritage professionals in documenting and mapping sites, these tutorials are also an excellent resource for anyone in the ASOR community who is looking to learn new skills and take advantage of open source software. ASOR remains committed to providing open-access online resources such as these for the benefit of the entire ASOR community.

The ASOR CHI Tutorials cover:

• Site Documentation
  • KoBoToolbox and KoBoCollect Application: open source software package for location and descriptive data collection in the field can then be synched up with GIS software

• Mapping Activities
  • QGIS: free and open source Geographic Information System (GIS)
  • LibreCAD: free open source computer-aided design (CAD) application for 2D design
  • Photogrammetry using Agisoft Metashape: software that performs photogrammetric processing of digital images and generates 3D spatial data

Tweets by ASOResearch