Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.
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Transcript of Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.
![Page 1: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Chapter 4
Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for
Archaeological Sites
![Page 2: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Outline
• Good Old Gumshoe Survey• Archaeology Is More than Just
Digging Sites• Surface Archaeology in the Carson
Desert• Does Sampling Actually Work? The
Chaco Experiment
![Page 3: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Outline
• Quality Control in Surface Survey• What about Things that Lie Below
Ground?• GPS Technology and Modern Surveys• Full-Coverage Survey
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Finding Archaeological Sites
• Archaeological sites are found in different ways, and there is no single formula.
• Luck and hard work are the major keys; other sites are found through systematic regional survey.
![Page 5: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Systematic Regional Survey
• A set of strategies for arriving at accurate descriptions of the range of archaeological material across a landscape.
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Seasonal Round
• Hunter-gatherers’ pattern of movement between different places on the landscape timed to the seasonal availability of food and other resources.
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Settlement Pattern
• The distribution of archaeological sites across a region.
• A settlement system is the movements and activities reconstructed from a settlement pattern.
![Page 8: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
The Surveyor’s Toolkit
• A GPS instrument• A two-way radio• A good but cheap
watch (We’ve crushed several climbing over rocks.)
• A good compass• A K+E field notebook• Pencils• Ziploc bags
• A black Sharpie marker• A trowel (for test pits)• A metric tape measure• Graph paper (for site
maps). • A small flashlight• A snake bite kit,,
pepper spray, mosquito repellent, or shin guards.
![Page 9: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Map of the Carson Desert and Stillwater
Mountains
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Statistical Population
• A set of counts, measurements, or characteristics about which relevant inquiries are to be made.
• Scientists use the term “statistical population” in a specialized way (quite different from “population” in the ordinary sense).
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Sample Universe
• The region that contains the statistical population and that will be sampled.
• Its size and shape are determined by the research question and practical considerations.
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Getting the Sample
1. Decide on the sample fraction. What portion of the sample population would be included—1% of the sites? 5%, 10%, 50%?
2. How do you actually acquire the sample? Ideally, we would take all the sites in the sample universe, give each one a number, and randomly select a portion and examine those sites.
![Page 13: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Stratified Random Sample
• A survey universe divided into several sub-universes that are then sampled at potentially different sample fractions.
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Smithsonian Number
• A unique catalog number given to sites.
• It consists of a number (the state’s position alphabetically), a letter abbreviation of the county, and the site’s sequential number within the county.
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Does Sampling Work?
• Experimental studies show that survey sampling does work—it can accurately characterize a region’s archaeology.
• But survey sampling is not good at finding the rare sites that are important in understanding a region’s prehistory. – These are found by gumshoe
survey.
![Page 16: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
What’s a Site?
• Often geography places a clear boundary on a site’s edges, for example, a riverbank or a steep slope.
• Deflation is a geologic process whereby fine sediment is blown away and larger items remain.– This results in archaeological remains,
which might have been discarded at different times, being left together.
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Topographic map of Quadrat 36 in the Stillwater Mountain
survey
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Hypothetical Artifact Scatter 4 Site-definition Scenarios
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Total Station
• A device that uses a beam of light bounced off a prism to determine an artifact’s provenience.
• Total stations make the precise mapping of large areas practical and the archaeologist treats the entire survey unit as one large site.
• He or she can use a variety of statistical methods to find patterns in which artifact types are physically associated.
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Shovel-testing
• A sample survey method used in regions where rapid soil buildup obscures buried archaeological remains.
• It entails digging shallow, systematic pits across the survey unit.
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GPS Technologyand Modern Surveys
• GPS consists of 24 satellites that circle the earth in 12-hour evenly distributed orbits at an altitude of 17,000 kilometers.
• Each satellite carries a computer and a very accurate atomic clock.
• Handheld GPS units operate by picking up the continuously broadcast signals from at least four satellites.
• GPS is funded and controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense.
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Full-coverage Survey
• Most useful when:1. The research question concerns
complex settlement systems and seeks to explain their changes through time.
2. A surface archaeological record is clearly visible.
3. Addressing questions regarding specific relations between specific sites.
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Quick Quiz
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1. The systematic regional survey is the single best formula for finding an archaeological site.
A. TrueB. False
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Answer: B. False
• Archaeological sites are found in different ways, and there is no single formula. Luck and hard work are the major keys; other sites are found through the systematic regional survey.
![Page 26: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
2. A settlement system is:A. The distribution of archaeological
sites across a region.B. The movements and activities
reconstructed from a settlement pattern.
C. A set of counts, measurements, or characteristics about which relevant inquiries are to be made.
D. All of the above.
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Answer: B
• A settlement system is the movements and activities reconstructed from a settlement pattern.
![Page 28: Chapter 4 Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649e8f5503460f94b9375a/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
3. Full-coverage surveys are necessary when trying to ensure that no rare but significant site will be missed.
A. TrueB. False
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Answer: A. True
• Full-coverage surveys are necessary when trying to ensure that no rare but significant site will be missed.