1. Doing Fieldwork: Surveying for Archaeological Sites

2. This chapter will enable you to answer these questions: 1. Why do archaeologists “survey”? 2. What is the main principle of survey? Why does this matter? 3. What limits surface survey? What are the basic remote sensing techniques and their benefits? 4. What is “landscape archaeology”?

3. Outline  Good Old Gumshoe Survey  The Fallacy of the “Typical” Site  Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert  Looking Below the Ground  How to Find a Lost Spanish Mission  The Benefits of Noninvasive Archeology  Geographic Information Systems  Landscape Archaeology

4. Good Old Gumshoe Survey Archaeological site, any place where material evidence exists about the human past. Usually, “site” refers to a concentration of such evidence. Material evidence can include projectile points, arrowheads, dart points, or spear points. Archaeological sites are found in different ways, and there is no single formula to finding them. Luck and hard work are the major keys; sites are also found through systematic survey.

5. The Fallacy of the “Typical” Site The seasonal round, or hunter-gatherers’ pattern of movement between different places on the landscape, timed to the seasonal availability of food and other resources. Settlement pattern, or distribution of archaeological sites across a region. Settlement system, or movements and activities reconstructed from a settlement pattern.

6. The Fallacy of the “Typical” Site  Which site do you excavate?  No matter which site you choose, you will miss a great deal; no site is typical of the entire settlement system.  The goal of archaeological survey is to document the range of archaeological remains across a landscape.

7. The Surveyor’s Toolkit  A GPS instrument  A two-way radio  A good but cheap watch  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

8. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert

9. Surface Archaeology Archaeologists should have a good idea of what should be found before going to the field.

10. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert  Mano, a fist-sized, round, flat, handheld stone used with a metate for grinding foods.  Metate, a large, flat stone used as a stationary surface upon which seeds, tubers, and nuts are ground with a mano.

11. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: Sampling Considerations Systematic regional survey, a set of strategies for arriving at accurate descriptions of the range of archaeological material across a landscape. Statistical population, a set of counts, measurements, or characteristics about which relevant inquiries are to be made. Note: scientists use the term “statistical population” in a specialized way (quite different from “population” in the ordinary sense).

12. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: Sampling Considerations 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.

13. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: Getting the Sample Decide on the sample fraction. What portion of the sample population will be included—1 percent of the sites? 5 percent, 10 percent, 50 percent? How do you actually acquire the sample? Ideally, take all the sites in the sample universe, give each one a number, and randomly select a portion and examine those sites.

14. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: Getting the Sample Random sample, a sample drawn from a statistical population such that every member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample. Sample fraction, the percentage of the sample universe that is surveyed. Areas with variability in archeological remains require larger sample fractions than do areas of low variability.

15. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: Getting the Sample Sample units, survey units of a standard size and shape, determined by the research question and practical considerations, used to obtain the sample. UTM, Universal Transverse Mercator, a grid system in which north and east coordinates provide a location anywhere in the world, precise to one meter.

16. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: Doing the Work Stratified random sample, a survey universe divided into several sub-universes that are then sampled at potentially different sample fractions. Wickiup, a conical structure made of poles or logs laid against one another that served as a fall or winter home among prehistoric Shoshone and Paiute.

17. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: Doing the Work 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. 26CH798 26 – Nevada, the 26 th state listed alphabetically CH – Churchill County 798- the 798 th site recorded in the county

18. Surface Archaeology in the Carson Desert: What’s a Site? Often geography places a clear boundary on a site’s edges, for example, a riverbank or a steep slope. Sites are formed by a means called deflation, a geologic process whereby fine sediment is blown away and larger items – including artifacts– are lowered onto a common surface and thus become recognizable as a site. Non-site archaeology, the analysis of archeological patterns manifested on a scale of kilometers or hectares, rather than of patterns within a single site.

19. Topographic map of Quadrant 36 in the Stillwater Mountain survey

20. GPS Technology and Modern Surveys GPS stands for Global Positioning System, handheld devices that use triangulation from radio waves received from satellites to determine your current position in terms of either the UTM grid or latitude and longitude. Operates by picking up the continuously broadcast signals from at least four of 27 satellites (24 active and 3 spares). Within seconds the GPS receiver triangulates a position fix within a 5-meter accuracy.

21. Looking Below the Ground Plow zone, the upper portion of a soil profile that has been disturbed by repeated plowing or other agricultural activity. Plow Zone archaeology, walking through plowed fields after tilling (and especially after a rain) because the plow turns up shallow buried remains.

22. Looking Below the Ground 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.

23. How To Find a Lost Spanish Mission

24. How To Find a Lost Spanish Mission: Subsurface Testing  Field testing by plotting materials recovered from shallow holes  135 sites, with 1-meter square test units in each site, totaling over 400 test units  Remote sensing, the use of some form of electromagnetic energy to detect and measure characteristics of an archeological target.

25. How To Find a Lost Spanish Mission: Subsurface Testing Proton magnetometer, a remote sensing technique that measures the strength of magnetism between the earth’s magnetic core and a sensor controlled by the archaeologist.

26. How To Find a Lost Spanish Mission: Subsurface Testing Soil resistivity survey monitors the electrical resistance of soils in a restricted volume near the surface of an archeological site; changes in the amount of resistance registered by the resistivity meter can indicate buried walls or features.

27. How To Find a Lost Spanish Mission: Subsurface Testing Ground-penetrating radar (GPR), a remote sensing technique in which radar pulses directed into the ground reflect back to the surface when they strike features or interfaces within the ground, showing the presence and depth of possible buried features.

28. Benefits of Noninvasive Archaeology Expensive, but becoming more affordable and can reduce a project’s overall cost Some form can work anywhere, except where there is background noise – such as a high groundwater table, considerable background rock, or natural subsurface features

29. Benefits of Noninvasive Archaeology Permits the construction of robust linkages between walls, structures, and features and the way that they are remotely perceived by the sensors Transcends archaeology “by capture” utilizing noninvasive, conservation-oriented approach

30. GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Geographic information system (GIS), a computer program for storing, retrieving, analyzing, and visually displaying cartographic data (geographically related information) ArcView ArcInfo Georeferenced, data is input to a GIS database using a common mapping reference – e.g. the U.T.M. grid – so that that all data can be spatially analyzed.

31. Landscape Archaeology Landscape archaeology, the study of ancient human modification of the environment. “Landscape” – the material manifestation of the relation between humans and their environments.

32. Landscape Archaeology: Chacoan Roads

33. Thermal infrared multispectral scanning (TIMS), Uses equipment mounted on aircraft or satellites to measure infrared thermal radiation given off by the ground. Sensitive to differences as small as 0.1degree centigrade, it can locate subsurface structures by tracking how they affect surface thermal radiation.

34. Landscape Archaeology: Chacoan Roads, Interpretation Roads may have facilitated movement of food and other goods. Roads may have served ceremonial function with symbolic meanings, possibly as religious paths.

35. Landscape Archaeology: Chacoan Roads, Interpretation

36. Summary Questions 1. Why do archaeologists “survey”? 2. What is the main principle of survey? Why does this matter? 3. What limits surface survey? What are the basic remote sensing techniques and their benefits? 4. What is “landscape archaeology”?

37. Summary 3. What limits surface survey? What are the basic remote sensing techniques and their benefits? ❂ Survey can only find what lies on the ground; remote sensing helps us understand what lies below the ground.