Decision Making in Modern Surveys

A Simple Mathematical Procedure for Estimating the Adequacy of Site Survey Strategies

“…While this is an improvement over randomly inspecting the area to be surveyed, decisions about the spacing of transects have generally relied more upon the intuition of the field director than on an understanding of the mathematical relationships between the transect pattern and the probability of finding sites of a given size (Plog, Plog, and Wait 1978;Judge 1981;Plog, Weide, and Stewart 1977;Ebert 1988). Survey reports often contain a statement that 100% coverage was attained by the survey, when, in fact, the probability that the survey was adequate to find all sites present in the area was much lower.…”

“…Survey reports often contain a statement that 100% coverage was attained by the survey, when, in fact, the probability that the survey was adequate to find all sites present in the area was much lower. The phrase "100% coverage" too frequently is merely the opinion of the field director of the adequacy of the survey, rather than an actual quantitative measure (Plog, Plog, and Wait 1978;Ebert 1988).…”

“…First they are more than adequate to bring meaning to frequently used, but infrequently defined, terms like "completely surveyed" or "100% coverage" (e.g., Judge 1981; Plog, Plog, and Wait 1978;Ebert 1988). They also give CRM personnel a non-subjective basis for gauging whether research designs are adequate to accomplish stated goals of site discovery.…”

Systematic Archaeological Survey at Dholi Mangari: A Preliminary Report

“…Archaeological surface surveys form an integral part of the archaeological research and have in recent past out-paced excavations for generating information about the past [1].Archaeological surveys are usually aimed at locating or identifying the vestiges of human past and are carried in a number of ways and using a wide range of methods and techniques, which are considered useful for generating the kind of information required to fulfill the objectives of the survey project.For the successful execution of a survey project and to get the desired results, it is very important to design or devise the survey strategy with great care [2]. The methodology adopted for the successful execution of a survey project needs to be in accordance with the aims and objectives of the project.…”

Neolithic rock art in context: Landscape history and the transition to agriculture in Mediterranean Spain

“…In order to obtain comparative data, our survey strategy was similar to that applied in the Alcoi Basin. We conducted an intensive off-site survey with a multi-stage sampling design (Molina and McClure, 2004; see also e.g., Plog et al, 1978;Read, 1986), using the collection units as the units of measurement instead of defining site borders. Previous work in the Serpis and Polop Alto valleys in the Alcoi Basin suggested temporal and density differences in cultural material based on location, highlighting the need for independent samples of different locations Bernabeu et al, 1999).…”