Quality Assurance in Archaeological Survey

To have confidence in the results of an archaeological survey, whether for heritage management or research objectives, we must have some assurance that the survey was carried out to a reasonably high standard. This paper discusses the use of Quality Assurance (QA) approaches and empirical methods for estimating surveys’ effectiveness at discovering archaeological artifacts as a means for ensuring quality standards. We illustrate with the example of two surveys in Cyprus and Jordan in which resurvey, measurement of surveyor “sweep widths,” and realistic estimates of survey coverage allow us to evaluate explicitly the probability that the survey missed pottery or lithics, as well as to decide when survey has been thorough enough to warrant moving to another survey unit.     

Ice Patch Archaeology in Global Perspective: Archaeological Discoveries from Alpine Ice Patches Worldwide and Their Relationship with Paleoclimates

In recent years, in association with global climate change, researchers have found significant quantities of preserved archaeological material melting from kinetically-stable alpine and subalpine ‘ice patches’ all around the world. This paper synthesizes the findings and the methodologies of ice patch archaeology worldwide thus far in an effort to provide researchers with a broadened perspective on artifact collection and interpretation. In addition, I test the hypothesis that increased quantities of alpine ice in prehistory should correlate with decreased human use of these areas, and vice versa. I analyze the relationship between the frequencies of regional artifact dates over time, the nature of these artifacts, and glacial advances and retreats. Ultimately, I conclude that fundamental differences among these assemblages and their correlation (or lack thereof) with prehistoric alpine ice extents stem from the intention and the activity of the people who deposited the artifacts.     

Developing a Landscape History as Part of a Survey Strategy: A Critique of Current Settlement System Approaches based on Case Studies from Western New South Wales,Australia

In Australia, geomorphological change since the late nineteenth century ensures surface artifact visibility but the contribution of full coverage regional survey to an understanding of past landscape use is limited by the lack of easily datable artifacts. Here, we describe a multi-stage survey strategy based around intensive archaeological, geomorphological and chronological studies as an alternative to traditional site-based approaches. We view the formation of the archaeological record as a sedimentary process and use a geomorphological approach to understand the history of landscape use from surface artifact scatters. We pay particular attention to recording datasets with reference to the timescales over which they have accumulated, and we discuss the types of behavioral inferences that can be drawn from the results of intensive survey, illustrated using the results from our western New South Wales research.     

Evaluating the usefulness of phytoliths and starch grains found on survey artifacts

Archaeologists use survey artifacts to study any number of interesting topics. The focus of this study is to test the usefulness of starch grains and phytoliths found on artifacts recovered during archaeological survey. Phytolith and starch grain analysis was used to determine the level of environmental contamination on three types of medieval ceramics collected during survey work from plowed fields in the parish of Wicken, Northamptonshire, England. The plant residues found on these artifacts were compared with their surrounding soil and with contemporaneous excavated artifacts recovered from under the floorboards of a medieval house in nearby Wyton, Cambridgeshire, England. Through the use of the “piggyback” approach pioneered by Chandler-Ezell and Pearsall, phytoliths and starch grains were systematically removed from the artifacts surface. Residues associated with contamination were removed from the outermost layer of the artifact surface while potentially uncontaminated residues were removed from the innermost layer of the artifact surface. Matching phytoliths and starch grains were found on the outermost surface of the survey artifacts and in the surrounding soils. No phytoliths and starch grains were found on the innermost surface of the survey artifacts suggesting that residues from the surrounding soils did not penetrate into the pores and crevices of the artifacts. The overall results suggest that, although they are preliminary, there is potential for plant residue analysis of survey artifacts.     

Putting the Spotlight on Small Metal Age Pottery Scatters in Northern Calabria (Italy)

This paper presents the results of an in-depth multidisciplinary restudy of small Metal Age surface scatters recorded in earlier fieldwalking surveys in northern Calabria (Italy). Guided by a stratified sampling approach based on site types and topographic positions, high-resolution surface collections at the selected sites were combined with geophysical surveys, test pits, and soil studies to investigate both archaeological deposits and the site formation processes that have an effect on their detectability. This approach is shown to result in a better definition of archaeological ‘sites’, and to help fill in details of regional exploitation and settlement dynamics at the landscape scale. At this broader scale we are also able to model post-depositional processes and slope dynamics affecting the preservation of the archaeological record. With regard to methodology, our study has enabled the evaluation of diverse archaeological detection methods and the fine-tuning of field strategies for the study of Metal Age remains.     

Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales,Australia

Abstract

Surface visibility is a significant constraint in archaeological survey, and estimates of surface visibility are a common addition to cultural resource management reports. Despite this, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the factors affecting visibility and quantify their effects. We report the results of such a study based on analysis of surface stone artifacts deposited by prehistoric hunter-gatherers from the Stud Creek area in what is now Sturt National Park, western New South Wales, Australia. While we are able to demonstrate and quantify relationships between high artifact visibility and erosional surfaces, and low visibility and vegetated or depositional surfaces, our findings also indicate a high degree of local variability. This variability sometimes obscures the predicted relationships. The outcome of this research leads us to question the way some sampling designs for archaeological survey are constructed.     

Core Use-Life Distributions in Lithic Assemblages as a Means for Reconstructing Behavioral Patterns

Artifacts with varying use-lives have different discard rates and hence are represented unequally among archaeological assemblages. As such, the ability to gauge the use-lives of artifacts is important for understanding the formation of archaeological assemblage variability. In lithic artifacts, use-life can be expressed as the extraction of utility, or work potential, from existing stone volume. Using experimental data and generalized linear modeling, this study develops models of artifact use-life on cores in the form of reduction intensity. We then apply these models to two archaeological case studies to (a) reconstruct the reduction intensities of archaeological cores and (b) investigate the survivorship curves of these archaeological cores across the reduction continuum using the Weibull function. Results indicate variation in core reduction and maintenance with respect to raw material properties and place use history and implicate evolutionary differences between Early Stone Age hominins and Holocene modern humans.     

Initial Archaeological Survey of the ex-USS <Emphasis Type="Italic">Independence</Emphasis> (CVL-22)

The Boeing Company, collaborating with NOAA to address innovative ways to make ocean observations, provided their autonomous underwater vehicle, Echo Ranger, to conduct the first deep-water archaeological survey of the scuttled aircraft carrier USS Independence in the waters of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in March 2015. While a preliminary effort, and not comprehensive, the survey confirmed that a sonar feature (previously not proven to be an archaeological feature) charted at the location was Independence, and provided details on the condition of the wreck. At the same time, new information from declassified government reports provided more detail on Independence’s use as a naval test craft for radiological decontamination as well as its use as a repository for radioactive materials at the time of its scuttling in 1951. The wreck is historically significant, but also of archaeological significance as an artifact of the early years of the atomic age and of the Cold War. This article summarizes Independence’s contexts, its nuclear history, and the results of the survey of the wreck site.     

Applications of integrated geophysical method in archaeological surveys of the ancient Shu ruins

The Jinsha site is one set of excavated ruins of the ancient Shu state, late Neolithic, early Bronze Age. The archaeological survey of the site is especially important for study of Shu culture, because there is hardly any written record of this period. As technology progresses, more and more advanced techniques and equipment have been used to conduct archaeological surveys. In this study, four nondestructive methods of geophysical detection were used to locate ancient relics at the site. The validity of these different types of archaeological detection methods (method of high-density resistivity, induced polarization, multi-frequency electromagnetic, ground-penetrating radar and so on) and techniques were analyzed. And a multi-scale, multi-method detection system to non-destructive detection of cultural relics was established.     

The Potential Relationship Between Archaeological Artifact Exposure and Surface Geomorphic Processes: Northeastern Peloponnese,Greece

Complex interactions between topography, near-surface geology, active tectonics, climate, and human activity shape a landscape, conditioning archaeological deposits and making sediment deposits from surface erosion important archives. There is a potential relationship between the intensity of geomorphic processes and surface artifact distribution. This study assesses the potential relationship between soil erosion by water and the spatial distribution of archaeological surface artifacts in the Inachos River watershed, Greece. The mountainous, semi-arid Mediterranean region is particularly vulnerable to soil loss. Soil erosion is quantified by applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation in a GIS framework. Estimates of soil loss vary spatially compared to surface artifact finds of the pedestrian survey of the Western Argolid Regional Project. A statistically significant relationship is identified between surface erosion rates and artifact density. Preferential topography for occupation suggests this is an associative rather than causative relationship. Knowledgeable interpretation of artifact distribution enables accurate reconstruction of human settlement history.     

Paleolithic occupations of the Göllü Dağ, Central Anatolia,Turkey

Abstract

Systematic archaeological surface reconnaissance of the Göllü Da? volcanic complex from 2007 to 2012 documented more than 230 findspots with Paleolithic artifacts, ranging from isolated finds to extensive and dense scatters of artifacts. Most of the activities represented relate to exploitation of the rich obsidian resources in the region. Paleolithic artifacts are attributed mainly to the Middle Paleolithic based on the presence of Levallois technology but there is a substantial Lower Paleolithic component represented by handaxes and other large bifacial tools. Upper and Epipaleolithic sites and artifacts are scarce or absent in the survey sample. The distributions of handaxes and Levallois elements differ substantially, reflecting differences in site preservation and exposure as well as organization of prehistoric activities. Multiple variants of Levallois are represented but centripetal preferential and unipolar flake production dominate. The frequent co-occurrence of different Levallois forms suggests flexible reduction strategies. Distributions of different classes of artifact across the survey area indicate that the Middle Paleolithic occupations of Göllü Da? were not entirely oriented toward workshop activities.     

Virtual Representation: the Production of 3D Digital Artifacts

As new digital technologies now pervade the discipline of archaeology, the practice of creating digital 3D representations of artifacts has become widespread. The rapid growth and acceptance of these technologies into the discipline leaves us in a position where we must engage with how these tools fit our epistemologies. I propose that we look to a much older technology, photography, to inform the way that these digital artifacts are dealt with as we move into an increasingly digital field. In doing so, I will argue that the creation of a 3D digital artifact is a productive process, just as any form of media used to document and interpret the archaeological record. Through this production, the digital form is decoupled from the original physical artifact. The creation of a new representation of the artifact (in the form of a photograph or digital model) provides a new dimension to our interactions with these artifacts. The result of the digital movement in archaeology is a more interactive experience with artifacts, allowing researchers and the public alike digital access to archaeological collections. If the current trend continues, digital artifact modeling will become as indispensable to archaeology as traditional photography. It is therefore necessary for archaeologists to be aware of the subjectivities and biases that exist during this productive act as we move into a more integrated field of digital, representational technologies.     

A Twenty-First Century Archaeology of Stone Artifacts

Archaeologists today, as in the past, continue to divide their stone artifact assemblages into categories and to give privilege to certain of these categories over others. Retouched tools and particular core forms, for instance, are thought to contain more information than the unretouched flakes and flake fragments. This reflects the assumption that information to be gained from stone artifacts is present within the artifact itself. This study evaluates a continued interest in the final form of stone artifacts by first considering ethnographic accounts of stone artifact manufacture and use in Australia and then by utilizing the patterns observed in these accounts to investigate assemblage patterning within an Australian archaeological case study. Reading the ethnographic accounts provides no indication that Aboriginal people valued more or less complex artifacts, in uniform ways, in every situation. In fact, the opposite is true. Stone artifacts were always valued in some sense but which ones, and in which ways, depended on the situations the people who needed the artifacts found themselves in. Aboriginal people were quite capable of making and using expedient and informal artifacts in complex ways. The significance of these observations is considered for stone artifact studies in general and in relation to a case study from western New South Wales, Australia.     

Cultural Imperialism and Heritage Politics in the Event of Armed Conflict: Prospects for an ‘Activist Archaeology’

The production of archaeological knowledge is embedded in a long-standing tradition of colonial encounters. This paper asks how political-economic interests impinge on archaeological work, specifically in the event of armed conflict. To answer this question I discuss commodification of cultural heritage and analyze it as a form of structural violence. I argue that the attitude that allows treatment of archaeological artifacts as saleable items with international owners is part of a strategy of global cultural imperialism. Exemplified by the case of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, this paper shows how the clash of global ‘heritage’ politics with local practices of memorializing the past results in a tension: because capitalist governments consider the locales whose glorious pasts are studied by archaeologists to be culturally inferior, the nexus between (trans-)national actors and local communities is an asymmetrical one. In order to overcome the hegemonic role of archaeology within these dynamics, I propose an ‘activist archaeology’ that enables a political activism grounded in recursivity.     

Geochemical impacts to prehistoric iron-rich siliceous artifacts in the nearshore coastal zone

In the Middle Atlantic region of the United States, landscapes drowned by sea level rise contain scores of prehistoric archaeological sites. These sites provide archaeologists with a rare opportunity to investigate various geologic processes. During the transition from a terrestrial to an offshore setting, the materials associated with an archaeological site are exposed to a series of geochemical processes inherent to the formation of tidal marsh. The duration of the geochemical exposure to tidal marsh is largely dependent on the rate of marine transgression. Here we describe the stages associated with the sulfidization and sulfuricization scheme and the impact to iron-rich lithic artifacts from naturally drowned archaeological sites. Sulfidization and sulfuricization should also impact buried archaeological materials as a result of anthropogenic dredge spoil dumping and the creation of man-made tidal marshes along modern coastlines. Our results indicate that the surfaces of an iron-rich artifact, as well as its interior are visually and geochemically altered by prolonged exposure to the anaerobic conditions of a tidal marsh. Not only should researchers be cautious about making lithic material identification on artifacts found within coastal tidal marsh areas, but museum curators should be aware of the damaging impact of long-term aerobic storage. The geochemical tidal marsh scheme that has altered or corroded iron-rich lithic artifacts in the nearshore zone is an expression of a process that has impacted numerous earlier prehistoric sites currently located on the continental shelf or beneath the coastal estuaries around the world.     

Investigating absence: Assessing the cumulative effects of casual collecting at a 19th century Bahamian plantation

Abstract

Recent archaeological work at Prospect Hill, a 19th century plantation in the Bahamas, revealed artifact patterns that are inconsistent with expectations for a plantation site. The quantity and quality of artifacts in residential areas associated with the planter family and the enslaved population were inverted and suggest significant post abandonment changes. The site of Prospect Hill has been a destination for tourists and student groups since the mid-20th century, and the areas of the site most accessible to these visitors are also those with surprisingly low artifact counts. I investigated the possibility that regular visitation involved casual collecting using historical data as well as artifact assemblages from archaeological work at Prospect Hill. My analysis suggests that the archaeological record has been altered significantly through casual, opportunistic collecting, and it offers insights for identifying casual collecting elsewhere.     

湖北郧县乔家院墓地出土战国及东汉铜器的成分与金相分析

2006年3 ～12月,在南水北调中线工程中,湖北省文物考古研究所等单位对郧县五峰乡乔家院墓群进行了考古勘探和发掘工作.限于考古发掘材料和学者关注度等因素,利用科技手段对该墓地出土战国及东汉时期青铜器的研究尚未见报道.同时,关于鄂西北地区出土古代青铜器的科学分析研究目前并不多见.鉴于此,本研究利用金相显微镜、XRF等方法分析了湖北省郧县乔家院墓地出土的14件战国及东汉时期铜器样品.分析表明除铜壶镶嵌丝为低锡二元(Cu-Sn)合金外,其他13件均为Cu-Sn-Pb三元合金;其制作工艺以铸造为主,另外还采用了热锻、热锻后冷加工、铜质芯撑、错红铜等工艺.以上分析数据为湖北地区战国及东汉时期青铜合金构成及成型工艺积累了相关数据.     

Applied geomorphology and archaeological survey strategy for sites of Pleistocene age: An example from Central Alaska

The development of a survey strategy for archaeological sites of Pleistocene age through the application of historical geomorphology is described. Geomorphic contexts in the northern foothills of the Alaska Range with potential for producing archaeological remains from the 30,000-12,000 bp interval were identified and subjected to exploratory testing. Contexts were selected on the basis of estimated age, palaeotopographic setting and geomorphic history, and included glaciofluvial outwash, side-valley fan alluvium, loessic colluvium and primary frozen loess. Testing was eventually focused on formerly deflated terrace surfaces—a potential source area for artifacts redeposited in the outwash or alluvium. Although the results of the exploratory testing were negative, and archaeological sites in the region remain confined to loess deposits of the later Late Glacial (12,000-10,000 bp), discoveries in other parts of Beringia suggest that sites of earlier Late Glacial age (14,000-12,000 bp) are also likely to be present in the foothills. The application of historical geomorphology in surveys for early prehistoric sites is essential for effective use of available resources and for maximizing the significance of the results (positive or negative).     

Floating culture: the unrecorded antiquities of England and Wales

In England and Wales there exists a corpus of unprovenanced and unrecorded antiquities; a corpus adrift from archaeological context and now ebbing and flowing across the antiquities market and which could be described as ‘floating culture’. This corpus includes illicit antiquities and also antiquities found legitimately but not recorded and subsequently sold with or without the landowner’s knowledge. The definition of floating culture as ‘traces of the human past not fixed on one position, place or level’ presents a way of conceptualising what is, in essence, a transnational issue. This paper explores floating culture and suggests that the impact of non-reporting of antiquities remains a significant ethical and legal challenge both for heritage protection policy and the antiquities market in the U.K. and beyond. Attention is given to the Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales, and to the landowner-finder search agreement as potential ways of mitigating the flow of unrecorded antiquities of uncertain legal status. While neither document is enforceable, both have potential to improve the protection of the archaeological record. Many of the themes conceptualised by ‘floating culture’ are relevant to the wider discussion on heritage protection and the global trade in illicit antiquities.