Module 2 - Archaeological Methods (Reconnaissance Survey, and Excavation)

Archaeological field survey

Method used to collect information about the location, distribution, and organization of past human activities through the surface distribution of material remains over larger areas

Survey traverse

An individual survey paths walked by a surveyor in which direction and length are recorded

Why do we survey?

• To identify and record sites

• To find a representative sample of the kinds of sites from particular periods

• To identify multi-period settlement patterns

Survey and mapping tools

General

• Pocket transit

• Navigational compass

• Topographical map

GPS

• GPS satellites

• Field survey

• GPS unit

Settlement pattern

Refers to the distribution of archaeological sites over the landscape

• Research method first developed by Gordon Willey in the 1950s during a survey of the virus valley on the north coast of Peru

How do settlement patterns change over time?

1. Location and size of archaeological sites

2. Chronology: when were these sites in use?

3. Comparison over time: settlement histories

What do settlement patterns tell us?

• Economic strategies:

  • Subsistence practices, craft production, land use and trade

• Defensive concerns (fortifications)

• Religious/ritual significance

• Demography and population

• Political relationships and organization

Vertical excavation

• Limited in their horizontal expanse and generally quite deep, often as deep as is necessary to reach the base of cultural deposits

• Used to assess:

  • Site chronology

  • Occupational history

  • Depositional structure of particular areas

Horizontal Excavation

• Designed to uncover large areas of a site, especially settlement layouts, at particular points of time in a site’s occupational history

• Used to assess:

  • Spatial relationships between features

  • buildings and neighborhoods

  • Spatial, social, and economic organization of cities

Doing excavation

• Excavating

• Screening

• Sorting artifacts and ‘ecofacts’

• Drawing and mapping

• Notetaking

• Photography