Finding the Past

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Finding the Past

• Locating Archaeological Sites

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Finding Archaeological Sites

• How do you find sites?
• There is nothing mysterious about it.
• You have to have the ability to locate places on
  the landscape at which people left material
  remains.
• The archaeologists must be able to read the
  landscape.
• There is nothing mysterious about it.
• Instead, it is a combination of hard work,
  experience, scholarship, and familiarity with
  basic human needs.

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• The most common term used to label this process
  are reconnaissance or site survey.
• In the world of CRM,
• phase 1 research (first type of research that
  must be undertaken in the assessment of
  archaeological resources).
• However, as will be explained later,
  archaeologists often begin their research in the
  library with predictive models.

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Before We Find the Past Research Design

• The purpose of archaeological fieldwork is to
  acquire new information within the context of a
  program of research.
• Archaeologists simply do not wander about in
  hopes of chancing upon some important find
  (although this is how we find a lot of our sites).

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• Scientific research today range from
  goal-specific one-day ventures to long-term
  projects covering many field seasons.
• These projects are designed to accomplish
  specific goals or objectives.
• In sum, the archaeological research design
  justifies the fieldwork and describes what is to
  be done this requires much thought and planning.

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Research Design

• The research design states the strategies of the
  proposed research and defines the goals of the
  project.
• It is a guideline that describes step by step how
  the project is to be carried to completion.
• Three function of a research design

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Three Functions

• Delimits the goals of a research project by
  clarifying the actual questions that
  archaeologists and other scientists want
  answered.
• Provides more focused approaches by determining
  through trial formulation which goals and
  procedures will most economically, effectively,
  and objectively answer the questions that have
  been proposed.
• Minimizes error through the use of appropriate
  sampling methods and standardized collection and
  excavation procedures and through the control of
  other extraneous variables that might adversely
  influence the outcome of a project.

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• A research design is analogous to the formal
  description of a scientific experiment and can
  take the form of a research proposal to the
  National Science Foundation of the National
  Endowment for the Humanities.
• Research Designs are an integral part of
  contractual agreements in CRM archaeology.
• Sharer and Ashmore (1993) provide a general model
  of a research design that outlines seven
  principle stages
• (1) formulation
• (2) implementation
• (3) data acquisition
• (4) data processing
• (5) analysis
• (6) interpretation
• (7) dissemination of the results.

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Reconnaissance Preceding FieldworkLiterature
Search

• The first place-- library or in a specialized
  database of site locations maintained by
• state government
• the Army Corps of Engineers
• the National Park Service.
• Here in California, we have Information Centers.
• The best known and arguably the largest data set
  in the US is the National Archaeological Database
  (NADB), which is accessible via the Internet.

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• Other important written resources include
  firsthand accounts of cultural resources in a
  given area.
• EX DB Rodgers and Phil Orr
• This is sometimes referred to as documentary
  archaeology
• Oral historytraditions and tales passed from
  generation to generation by word of mouth.
• Journals
• Grey literature.

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Remote Sensing

• In addition to written resources, archaeologists
  have the ability to use high technology to find
  archaeological sites.
• Satellite images
• Aerial photography
• Sonar
• Airborne radar units
• All provide archaeologists with valuable data
  about where sites might be found, in addition to
  providing images of the sites themselves.
• Other forms of technological probes are
  specifically designed to be used in the field.
• Ground penetrating radar
• Magnetometers
• Metal detectors

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• Remote sensingthe application of technology to
  identify cultural resources without having to
  excavate.
• It does not directly detect artifacts or features
• it detects differences in a range of physical
  traits in or on the earth that have the potential
  to be related to human activity.
• Anomalies in the local readings of the earths
  magnetic field brought about by the presence of
  stone that contains metals
• such as a wall
• changes in the density and reflectivity of soils
  that might suggest pits
• Burials
• buried structures.

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Aerial photography
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Sideways-looking-airborne-radar (SLAR)

• SLAR- projects radar pulses from an aircraft.
• These pulses are differentially reflected by
  various soil, sediment, and stone types and can
  be used to identify cultural resources.
• EX large architecture
• What about the small stuff?

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Ground penetrating radar (GPR)

• GPR and sonar work in essentially the same
  manner.
• A data collecting unit sends an electromagnetic
  signal outward, into the ground in the case of
  GPR and into water in the case of most sonar.
• The signal or ping penetrates through the soil or
  water at a known rate
• when it encounters something that it cannot
  penetrate, it is reflected back to the data
  collector.
• The time it takes the ping to return and the
  pattern of the return is collected by the GPR or
  sonar unit and is subsequently displayed in a
  readout.
• While they are highly useful, they can be
  somewhat cumbersome to deal with. The size is
  often bulky and may be too big.
• http//www.archeologymapping.com/mtvernon.htm

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Magnetometers

• These are often highly mobile units designed to
  measure changes in magnetic fields and/or
  gravitational fields.
• While such units can be easily upset by the
  presence of strong electrical fields, such as
  power lines, they can provide good, basic data
  about what is beneath the surface of the earth.
• In general such units read the magnetic field of
  the earth at a specific location and record the
  data.
• They can be mounted on a pole and used to collect
  data on a predetermined grid, or they can be
  mounted on sleds and used to provide continuous
  reports.
• When the data are interpreted, the archaeologists
  is essentially looking at a graph of either the
  magnetic field or the gravitational field across
  the landscape.

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Ground-proofing methods

• The most common form of archaeological
  reconnaissance has traditionally been pedestrian
  survey.
• Here the key work is systematically.
• It is important that the archaeologists examine
  regions for sites along specified pathways and at
  fixed intervals.
• Ideally we would like to examine every square
  inch of every possible site, but this simply is
  not feasible in terms of time and money.
• As a result, we have adopted sampling methods
  based on statistical models

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Subsurface Survey

• When surface survives are not of much use
• In area of dense foliage such as in forests
• Or when substantial sediments have been deposited
  over archaeological remains, such as on the
  floodplains of rivers

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• This is the process of excavating small,
  controlled tests in search of buried cultural
  material.
• These work essentially the same way as do
  pedestrian surveys, but the intervals also
  control the precise points at which
  archaeologists will locate tests.
• EX if crew members are working in 5m intervals,
  then each crew member or team of crew members
  will again line up at the appropriate interval.
• Each member will then walk 5m along this transect
  and do a subsurface test at this point.
• One this is complete, the team walks another 5
  meters and along the same transect and conduct
  another test pit.

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• The goal of this project is to determine what, if
  any, cultural material might be buried in the
  area
• These tests typically must be relatively rapid to
  complete and limited in how much of the site they
  disturb.
• A balance must be struck between costs, potential
  information gained, and time constraints.
• As a result, most archaeologists adopt a policy
  of excavating a small test pit.
• This could range from auger samples to shovel
  test pits.

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Putting It Together

• An important element of archaeological
  reconnaissance is that is it interpreted in light
  of human behaviors
• This means that archaeologists of more with the
  data they generate than write them down.

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• As the third general goal of archaeology, it
  seeks to identify past human lifeways.
• Part of this goal means that archaeologists will
  develop as thorough an understanding as possible
  of where past peoples chose to live and why they
  chose to live in such locations.
• Sometimes resources help determine where people
  choose to live
• Other times access to defense or community labor
  may play an important part in the decision-making
  process.
• The sum of these processes, however, is recorded
  by the careful survey of the region.

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• This pattering in the archaeological record
  allows archaeologists to produce models of past
  behavior.
• Once archaeologists identify what factors played
  significant roles in the placement of
  archaeological sites, we can generate predictive
  models.
• Such models serve to indicate where sites are
  likely to be found in a well-determined
  geographic region.
• Archaeologists then undertake the testing of this
  model.
• While predictive models are useful and can be
  powerful tools in helping to structure research,
  it is imperative that archaeologists remember
  that they are just predictions, not proven facts.

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Sampling Basics

• Everything about site survey that we have
  discussed so far is based on something called the
  normal curve.
• It is also called the bell curve or the standard
  distribution
• This is a statistical construction what predicts
  how points would be distributed on an idealized
  mathematical curve.

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• According to the curve, approximately 2/3 or 66
  of all points fall under the center of the curve
  within 1 standard deviation from the mean.
• The mean is nothing more than the average value
  of all the points.
• The standard deviation is a measure of how far
  away from this value all of the points on average
  tend to fall.
• A total of approximately 95 of all points fall
  within 2 standard deviations of the mean.
• Continuing outward, 98 of all points are
  expected to fall within 3 standard deviations of
  the mean.

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• What this means for the archaeologists is that we
  never have the entire picture of the past unless
  we excavate an entire site and recover every
  artifact.
• We seldom do this because of the need to preserve
  some of the past in place for future generations
• Therefore, all of out interpretations are based
  on inferences.
• Inferences are predictions based on what is known
  about a certain situations.
• In archaeology, these inferences are often based
  on the bell curve

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