The northern rim of the Neuchâtel Lake is characterised by a large variety of landforms situated between the altitudes of about 429 m and 1200 m asl. Geomorphologically it is consisted of succession of lake-shores, alluvial plains, plateaus crossed by streams and eventually the more or less steep slopes of the Jura Mountain regularly cut across by large valleys. The sediments encountered are also very diverse: close to lake, the lakeshore, alluvial and marshy sediments are interfingering with deposits witnessing the passages of Pleistocene glaciers; higher up the bedrock composed of Jurassic and Cretaceous and sometimes Tertiary sediments are regularly covered by glacial, alluvial and slope deposits and peatlands. Moreover, throughout time, but particularly starting from the Neolithic onward, anthropic activities strongly affected soils, sediments and landscapes. In this context, the soils are also very diverse. Consequently, the soil and sedimentary characteristics to record during the archaeological operations are very numerous. These field campaigns require a fast documentation and evaluation of the features observed. In this framework, the use of standard recording sheets containing a long list of items to be checked might seem to be a good idea. Nevertheless, such an approach has its limitations: one should check an infinite number of features and the obtained list, in the best case, can feed databases, but does not provide the interpretation of the pedosedimentary environments and their evolution that are necessary to understand the presence/absence of the archaeological vestiges . To overcome these, a setting-oriented recording is developed and used. The talk aims to present the essential elements of this protocol. They are part of a toolbox that is successfully used in a strongly diverse preventive and programmed archaeology as illustrated by several examples to be shown.