CHAPTER 2: DISCOVERY, FIELDWORK AND RECORDING
Note: this is part of an electronic companion that supplements Kevin Greene's book Archaeology: an introduction (1995); click on the title to start from the home page.

CHAPTER 2: DISCOVERY, FIELDWORK AND RECORDING

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
  1. THE DISCOVERY OF NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
  2. FIELDWALKING AND SITE RECORDING
    2.1 Sites and Monuments Records
  3. AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
    3.1 Visible sites, 3.2 Invisible sites
  4. GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYING
    4.1 Resistivity, 4.2 Magnetic, 4.3 Metal detectors, 4.4 Radar and sonar, 4.5 Soil analysis, 4.6 Dowsing
  5. ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE LANDSCAPE
  6. FIELD SURVEY PROJECTS
  7. GIS
  8. CONCLUSIONS
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1 THE DISCOVERY OF NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

'Discovery is pointless without recording, but observers (ancient or modern) only record what they see, and what they see is determined by what they consider to be significant. ... Perhaps the greatest contrast with the past is that fieldwork today is rarely directed at a single site. It usually forms part of a comprehensive study of an area selected either because it is threatened with destruction, or because it offers potential answers to questions generated by wider archaeological research.' (p. 37)

2 FIELDWALKING AND SITE RECORDING

2.1 Sites and Monuments Records; Go back to chapter heading
'The simplest (and oldest) procedure is fieldwalking, which relies upon the observation of minor fluctuations in the character of the ground surface, and, where possible, the recognition of ancient artefacts lying upon it. If fieldwalking is conducted systematically the results can be analysed to reveal significant patterns of finds.' (p. 38)
2.1 Sites and Monuments Records
'Ideally, a database should be created to serve a number of different purposes, including further research by individuals who may not have been involved in its collection. 'Rescue' archaeology has provided a stimulus to this kind of recording, and many countries now have a policy of maintaining Sites and Monuments Records on a regional basis.' (p. 41)

3 AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

3.1 Visible sites; 3.2 Invisible sites; Go back to chapter heading
'The greatest single contribution to fieldwork and recording has undoubtedly been made by aerial photography. Besides giving a bird's-eye view of surviving sites, aerial photography can, in favourable circumstances, record details of buried sites revealed by discolourations in the overlying soil or vegetation.' (p. 41)
3.1 Visible sites
'Aerial photography provides a useful supplement to observations made during fieldwork on visible earthworks. Isolated features may become more coherent when seen in an overall view, and new features not easily noticed on the ground may be revealed... The best conditions are provided by low light, because it emphasises irregularities by highlighting bumps and filling hollows with deep shadow.' (p. 41)
3.2 Invisible sites
'...aerial photography has been much more important in providing information and discoveries about sites that have been levelled, and are therefore unlikely to be spotted during normal fieldwork. Even when sites are discovered by fieldwalking, after ploughing has scattered finds on the surface, their form and extent are rarely evident. Such sites are commonest in areas of heavy agricultural exploitation, where different settlement patterns and field systems may have come and gone several times during the evolution of the modern landscape. Their detection relies on a number of phenomena that influence vegetation or the soil.' (p. 42-3)

4 GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYING

4.1 Resistivity; 4.2 Magnetic; 4.3 Metal detectors; 4.4 Radar and sonar; 4.5 Soil analysis; 4.6 Dowsing; Go back to chapter heading
'It must he stressed that these instruments are only suitable for use on sites whose location is already known or suspected, for their operation is much too time-consuming to be applied 'blind' to large areas. As with aerial photography, their main purpose is to distinguish anomalies, hopefully of human origin, from the natural subsoil. Geophysical prospecting devices are useful wherever details need to be checked, or where trial excavation would be an inefficient method of locating buried features.' (p. 46)
4.1 Resistivity surveying
'When an electric current is passed through the ground between electrodes, the resistance to its flow may be measured. A current will pass relatively easily through damp soil, but drier compact material such as a buried wall or a cobbled road surface create higher resistance. Resistivity surveying is rather cumbersome, because it normally requires a number of electrode probes (usually four) to be pushed into the ground at precise intervals for each reading.' (p. 47)
4.2 Magnetic surveying
'Magnetometers also detect deviations from the general background of the subsoil, in this case indicated by variations in its magnetic field. Several aspects of past human occupation cause suitable anomalies. ... Magnetic surveying does not require probes in the ground; the instrument can be carried along a line or a grid by its operator, and it is generally preferred to resistivity for this reason when conditions are favourable.' (p. 48)
4.3 Metal detectors
''Metal detectors' are not only popular with members the public who regard their use as an innocent hobby, but also with professional treasure-hunters who plunder sites for profit. The fine dividing line between these types of users accounts for the bad press metal detectors have received from archaeologists. Most types penetrate the soil only to a very limited extent, but they have been used by archaeologists to locate dispersed metal artefacts - for example a hoard of Roman coins scattered by ploughing.' (p. 49)
4.4 Radar and sonar location devices
'A recent development with considerable potential for the examination of buried sites in future is the use of radar, but a disadvantage is that it performs best on very dry deposits. It works in the same way as sonar scanning, but electronic (rather than sonic) signals are transmitted into the soil, and bounce back into a receiver.' (p. 50)
4.5 Soil analysis
'Probing or augering are also useful for testing the depth of soil, or to remove samples to gain some idea of buried stratification.' (p. 50)
4.6 Dowsing
'An unpredictable prospecting technique is dowsing, traditionally employed to locate underground water sources.' (p. 50)

5 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE LANDSCAPE

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'Landscape archaeology places humans into a broad context where they are seen to have been in a state of continuous interaction with the environment; sometimes their actions helped to shape the physical form of the natural world, normally their lives were shaped by it to a large extent.' (p. 51)
5.1 Landscape archaeology
'Thus, landscape archaeology now requires a thoroughly integrated approach, involving both written and material evidence. ... Landscape archaeology is also inseparably connected with environmental archaeology, notably in the context of the soils and surface deposits that have influenced agriculture and the exploitation of other resources for food-production or crafts and industries. ... Anthropological studies and local history both underline the view that human settlement is a very complex subject with an indisputable social component.' (p. 51-3)

6 FIELD SURVEY PROJECTS

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'...fieldwork today is rarely directed at individual sites. It is normally part of a regional study, devoted to answering questions generated by wider archaeological research. The most successful projects have been aimed at the analysis of long-term changes in settlement patterns, seen in the perspective of environmental factors that influenced, or were affected by, human exploitation.' (p. 53)

7 GIS

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'Computers that combine large data-storage capacity with fast mathematical processors and a high quality of graphic display ... are very suitable for running programs known as Geographical Information Systems. ... As with other forms of computer-based data handling, an initial investment of time and energy in recording data in an appropriate form is repaid by the flexibility that it allows at the analytical stage.' (p. 56-7)

8 CONCLUSIONS

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'Archaeological fieldworkers now require many skills, some of them traditional and subjective, others based on new scientific techniques. They also need to be experts in the use of documentary evidence and aerial photographs, besides understanding geology and geography. These skills have important implications for the process of excavation, which is examined in the next chapter. Our ability to investigate ancient landscapes and environments, without resorting to the destructive process of digging into sites, means that no excavation work should ever be carried until a programme of fieldwork and documentary research has been completed. It is impossible to ask valid questions about an individual site without understanding its place in the historical and natural environment.' (p. 57)
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