The areaExtent field captures the size or spatial footprint of a Site — for example "approximately 120 by 80 meters", "roughly 2 hectares", or "extends 300 m along the terrace edge". It is stored as free text rather than a single number because site boundaries are often irregular, approximate, or described in different units depending on how the survey was done. Recording it gives a quick sense of the scale of the site, which matters for planning excavation, estimating effort, and reporting to agencies. It complements the point coordinates latitude and longitude, which mark where the site is, by describing how much ground it covers around that point.
Technical section
Data model, API, and internals — visible to developers.