Lecture 03: Recon, Survey, and Excavation

research design

Prerequisites of archaeological excavations

goals of research design

formulate questions, define objectives, locate potential sites, establish a site grid, assess the site, choose sampling strategies, excavate

methods to locating sites

documents and records, local communities, by chance or mistake, reconnaissance

reconnaissance

the initial physical exploration of an area

types of reconnaissance

pedestrian survey, aerial survey, LiDAR, satellite imagery

pedestrian survey

Traditionally had a compass, find a spot, and used it to give bearing to everyone else, knew how many centimeters separated each step

transects

straight lines

aerial survey

aerial photography that is purchased, look for discoloration, shadows, patterns, shapes, and anomalies

vertical photography and oblique photography

LiDAR and SLAR

pulses are emitted, they hit something and are reflected back

help cover ground below heavy tree cover

satellite imagery

finding sites on google earth, problem is resolution

assess a site after:

pinpointing its location or defining a general area where a site might be

artifacts of circumstance

artifacts not in where they were surveyed to be

archaeologists assess sites to

define its possible boundaries, discover associated features, artifacts, and ecofacts, determine the time period of a site, conserve, test potential and integrity, maximize time and effort

noninvasive assessing

pedestrian survey, geophysical survey, magnetometry, electrical resistivity

geophysical survey

ground penetrating radar: radio waves that bounce off things in the earth that get read by a satellite dish

magnetometry

places that hold dense clays and pottery, does the same thing as geophysical but no time slices

electrical resistivity

probes in the earth, one emits a current and the other receives

invasive assessing methods

probes, auger survey, shovel test pits, test trenches

probes

metal rods with a sharp bottom penetrate the soil, determine how deep, if it doesn't go in as far you found something

auger survey

stick it in, pull it out, shows the soil

shovel test pits

get pointed shovel and dig hole slightly larger than width of shovel, align them with transects

test trenches

most invasive, dig a long trench so there’s no gaps in information, also systematic transects

sampling strategies

simple random, systematic, stratified random, stratified unaligned systematic, preferential

sample universe

contains all possible points of data, any potential artifact below the surface

probabilistic

give every single point of data in the sample universe an equal chance of being selected

non-probabilistic

not all data has an equal chance of being chosen in the sample

simple random sample

probabilistic, number spaces and get a random number generator to spit out spaces to excavate

systematic sample

use one number as a starting point, place every unit equidistant from that starting point

stratified random sample

same as simple random, but split into two parts and pick percentages of both sides

stratified unaligned systematic sample

create 10 meter grids and say “i want one unit in each grid” then dig those up

preferential sample

focus on areas which you know historic sites to be

in excavation, archaeologists document

associated activities during one point in time and change in activities over many points in time

archaeologists often dig

stratigraphically or arbitrary layers

types of excavations

penetrating and clearing

penetrating excavations

deep units, not very horizontal, reveal vertical dimensions and cost effective

difficult to establish association

clearing excavations

expansive horizontally, limited vertically, establishes association

time consuming, does not expose change over time

step trenching

urban areas that have long periods of occupation, steps into the site, helps prevent cave ins

basic tools of the trade

trowels, picks, spoons, shovels, spades, heavy machinery, sieves, screens

ways archaeologists keep records

context sheets, logs, notes, journals, sketches, drawings, illustrations, photographs, and videos

post excavation work

process artifacts, identify and classify, analyze, interpret