Last summer I spent a happy 2 weeks digging at Marden Henge with students and staff from Reading University. One image that sticks in my head is the (very hot) afternoon a group of us spent scratching our heads over various mistakes in the levels book. In an off the cuff comment I said that an App for calculating levels would be a really good idea, which was greeted with a chorus of “yes, please!” from the students.
Several months later a search of various App stores revealed plenty of Apps that do indeed calculate levels, and much more besides, but all aimed at surveyors rather than archaeologists.
Level-Pad is my attempt to fill the gap with a simple, easy to use App that works the way that excavators work on site. Looking just like a traditional levels book, when you move to a new page it asks how many levels you’re planning to take and all you have to do is enter the TBM, BackSight and ForeSights and Level-Pad fills in the calculations for you.
You can write the levels in a physical book when you’re done, email or print a copy of the page or send it to another Level-Pad user to store in their phone or tablet.