DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENTED-ASSISTED METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTIONAL SURVEY

EBERT AND ASSOCIATES PROPOSE TO REFINE A TECHNIQUE FOR DOCUMENTING ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURFACE DISTRIBUTIONS. THE METHOD OF DISTRIBUTIONAL SURVEY, USED TO DOCUMENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURFACES, EMPLOYS TASK SPECIFIC TEAMS WHO TOGETHER INTENSIVELY SURVEY AN AREA LOCATING, CODING ATTRIBUTES FOR, AND MAPPING ALL ARTIFACTS AND FEATURES WITHIN A PRESCRIBED AREA. AS PRESENTLY IMPLEMENTED, THIS SURVEY PROCEDURE RECOVERS LARGE AMOUNTS OF PERTINENT DATA ON THE CHARACTER OF REGIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY, BUT IS EXPENSIVE IN TERMS OF NUMBER OF PERSON DAYS EXPENDED FOR AMOUNT OF AREA SURVEYED. THROUGH INCORPORATION OF PORTABLE SURVEYING AND DATA ENTRY EQUIPMENT INTO THE SURVEY PROCEDURES, IT IS PROPOSED THAT THIS DISTRIBUTIONAL SURVEY PROCEDURE WOULD BECOME MORE EFFICIENT, REPLACING MANUAL RECORDING SYSTEMS AND OFFERING COST-EFFICIENT ALTERNATIVES TO CURRENT INTENSIVE ARTIFACT MAPPING AND RECORDING TECHNIQUES.