Chapter 3: Where do you Find it? Surveys and Excavations in Practice

Question 1

Mention the 4 steps in an archaeological project design.

Answer 1

Formulation of Strategy, Collecting and Recording of Evidence, Processing and Analysis, and Publication

Question 2

Mention 5 ways of discovering a site (divide these 5 points into 2 groups). Explain each method.

Answer 2

1. Ground Reconaissance:
   - Historical Sources
   - Salvage/rescue archaeology
   - Reconnaissance Survey
2. Aerial Reconnaissance
   - Aerial Photography (Vertical (better for maps) and oblique (overview and perspective))
   - High Altitude Remote Sensing = imagine from space

Question 3

Mention 4 of the 5 elements of modern archaeological survey.

Answer 3

Recording prominent and non-prominent features in landscapes.

Recording human and natural remains

Looking for sites, but also looking at their environment/landscape.

Looking for settlement patterns in the landscape: distribution of sites across the landscape within a region.

Question 4

Mention 4 of the 5 advantages of surveys over excavations.

Answer 4

Cheap

Quick

Less tools/physical labor

Relatively non-destructive

Question 5

Explain in your own words what the following sentence means: ‘Excavations tell us a lot about a little of a site, and can only be done once, whereas survey tells us a little about a lot of sites, and can be repeated’.

Answer 5

In an excavation, you can find a lot of information around a small area but then the site is torn up after and can not be dug up again. Whereas surveys can cover a lot of land to tell us information on the surface level, and can be done over and over again to try and find more information about the landscape.

Question 6

What is a systematic survey, what is an intensive/extensive survey?

Answer 6

Systematic = Start with a research question before looking and surveying the site.

Intensive/Extensive = Intensive is walking close together (5-10m) to find as many things in a small area as possible, Extensive is increasing the space between people (15m) to cover more ground.

Question 7

When we have discovered a site, we first have to record and map it, and then assess the lay-out of a site; give 3 examples of methods for recording/mapping; and 3 for assessing the lay-out.

Answer 7

Recording/mapping = Recording, mapping (topographic or planimetric), and GIS

Assessing Layout = Site surface survey (SSS), probing, and ground based remote sensing (GBRS).

Question 8

What is the difference between a reconnaissance survey and a site surface survey?

Answer 8

Reconnaissance Survey = Finding archaeological sites through surveying over large areas.

Site Surface Survey = Studying remaining features of an area and recording/collecting the remaining artifacts.

Question 9

What is the difference between planimetric and topographic maps?

Answer 9

Topographic shows height differences and contour lines.

Planimetric shows features of the city/area.

Question 10

Tell something about how the Groningen University surveys in the surroundings of New Halos worked: was it a systematic/unsystematic survey; was it an intensive/extensive survey; how was the field work organized?

Answer 10

Systematic (otherwise it wasn’t a good survey) and extensive (people walked further apart, around 15m).

Once someone found something, the person in the middle would raise a stick and everyone would gather around where the materials were found and they would record.

Question 11

What were the 2 aims of the Wroxeter Hinterland Project?

Answer 11

To develop different aspects of regional archaeology (especially using GIS and remote sensing), without having to do any excavation.

To study rural and urban relationships, especially in process during romanization.

Question 12

What is a GIS or Geographical Information System? How was it of use in the Wroxeter Hinterland Project?

Answer 12

Map based interface to a database for collection, storage, analysis, retrieval and display of spatial data.
- CASDR

• Viewed data from different sources as one set of maps (layers.
• Analyze and interpret data with non-destructive techniques.
• Make models for the landscape and see where it’s easiest travel between areas.

Question 13

What is stratigraphy?

Answer 13

Study of stratification, where the vertical time dimension tells us the age of the layers of the horizontal space dimension.

Uses law of super position = older layers are deposited under younger layers.

Question 14

Which 3 excavation techniques do you know?

Answer 14

Step trenching

Open area excavation (open up to see horizontal)

Wheeler box grid

Question 15

What technique was used to assess the site of Uffington Castle, U.K.?

Answer 15

Magnetometer survey
- Needed to start digging around the site very fast, did not have the time or the money.
- Could locate where to di by finding iron deposits.

Question 16

What is the Harris Matrix?

Answer 16

Way of marking the layers of a site to graph the deposition of youngest to oldest.

Numbering system, continuous and unique

Horizontal layers are placed beside each other