Survey (archaeology)
Narrowing it down

Because of the high costs involved in some kinds of surveys, it is often helpful to use " predictive modelling " to narrow down the search for archaeological materials. This is particularly important for purposive surveys, but can also be used to guide sampling surveys by eliminating the need to survey areas where, for geological or other reasons, we can reasonably expect all ancient traces to be destroyed (e.g., by erosion) or far too deeply buried (e.g., by alluvium) to be detectable. Modern predictive models in archaeology employ Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
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