Hostname: page-component-65f69f4695-5b78l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-27T00:34:22.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Systematic, Intensive Surface Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles L. Redman  and
Patty Jo Watson
Charles L. Redman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Patty Jo Watson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeologists would agree that the cultural debris lying on the surface of a site in some way reflects what is buried below. However, few attempts have been made to discover just how closely one can predict from detailed knowledge of surface distributions what he will find if he digs.

In October and November, 1968, surface collections based on statistical sampling techniques were made at two mounds in Diyarbakir Vilayet, Turkey. The tabulated data were put into the form of contour maps. We find that study of these maps, singly or in combination as overlays, suggests numerous hypotheses that can be formulated much more precisely than those deriving from the usual intuitive method based on simple inspection of the site surface. Soundings were made to test some of the major hypotheses. The results of the soundings plus subsequent statistical analyses suggest that intensive, systematic surface collection is an extremely useful technique for determining where to dig. It is also highly productive of testable hypotheses relevant to the total interpretation of the site.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , July 1970 , pp. 279 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Berry, B. J. L. 1962 Sampling, coding, and storing flood plain data. United States Department of Agriculture, Farm Economics Division Agriculture Handbook 237.Google Scholar
Berry, B. J. L., and Baker, Alan 1968 Geographic sampling. In Spatial Analysis, edited by B. J. L. Berry and D. Marble. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R., Binford, S. R., Whallon, R. C. Jr., and Hardin, M. A. 1966 Archaeology at Hatchery West, Carlyle, Illinois. Southern Illinois University Museum Archaeological Salvage Report 25.Google Scholar
Cattell, R. 1965 Factor analysis: an introduction to essentials. Biometrics 21: 190–215.Google Scholar
Couch, A. S. 1966 The Data-Text system. A computer language for social science research. Department of Social Relations, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G. L. 1968a Archaeological applications of factor, cluster, and proximity analysis. American Antiquity 33: 367–375.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G. L. 1968b Counts, ratios, and percentages: problems in quantifying archaeological data. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November, 1968.Google Scholar
Deming, W. 1950 Some theory of sampling. Dover.Google Scholar
Downie, N. M. and Heath, R. W. 1965 Basic statistical methods. Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Fisher, H. K. 1963 SYMAP, Version V, UCSM 810. Laboratory for computer graphics, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Freeman, L. G. Jr., Brown, J. A., and Thomas, S. 1968 Alternate approaches to a multi-variate analysis of archeological materials. Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, May, 1968.Google Scholar
Haggett, P. 1965 Locational analysis in human geography. Edward Arnold, Ltd.Google Scholar
Robinson, W. S. 1951 A method for chronologically ordering archaeological deposits. American Antiquity 16:293–301.Google Scholar
Whallon, R. C Jr. n.d. The systematic collection and analysis of surface materials from a prehistoric site in southeastern Turkey. Türk Tarih Kürümü Belleten (In Press).Google Scholar
Whallon, R. C Jr., and Kantman, S. 1969 Early Bronze Age development in the Keban Reservoir, east-central Turkey. Current Anthropology 10:128–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar