Precise dates of Bonsor's university-level studies are unknown. There are widely repeated (though otherwise undocumented) reports that at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels he won a significant prize for "archaeological technical drawing". This reported prize may reflect "an element of archaeological training", also mentioned by biographers, which otherwise remains unattested, but proved useful after he decided to pursue archaeology as a career. Bonsor became the first self-taught archaeologist who systematically used technical drawings in documenting materials and structures discovered, which he saw as genuinely artistic items. He was a strong advocate of the importance of recording archaeological discoveries. Some time later, he shared his opinion that "no one not intending to provide serious drawings [should be encouraged to embark on an archaeological dig]. I consider it a crime to undertake an excavation without providing a minutely detailed drawing of the excavation." Bonsor was always eager to exploit newly emerging technologies, and complemented drawings with photographs, the latter of which he primarily relied on Ramón Pinzón or Augusto Pérez Romero.
