Design and Evaluation of Shovel-Test Sampling in Regional Archaeological Survey

Abstract

Shovel-test sampling, the excavation of small test units at regular intervals along survey transects, is a widely used technique for archaeological survey in heavily vegetated areas. In order to achieve efficiently the archaeological goals of a survey employing the technique, the survey should be designed with consideration of the statistical properties of shovel-test sampling. In this paper we examine the effects that test–unit size, spacing, and patterning have on the discovery of archaeological sites of varying size and artifact density. This examination presents some simple procedures both for the efficient design of surveys and the evaluation of existing survey results.