Volume 4, Issue 3 (12-2024)
Archaelogy 2024, 4(3): 19-36 |
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Jayez M. A Research on Survey and Sampling Methods with a Focus on Paleolithic Archaeology. Archaelogy 2024; 4 (3) : 2
URL: http://archj.richt.ir/article-10-1928-en.html
URL: http://archj.richt.ir/article-10-1928-en.html
Assistant Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran , mozhgan.jayez@yahoo.com
Abstract: (1444 Views)
Despite its considerable importance, the issue of methodology in the survey of Paleolithic sites has received relatively little attention. Existing publications rarely provide comprehensive guidelines or protocols concerning the methods of surveying, recording, and sampling such sites. International efforts in this area have largely been shaped by opportunistic and location-driven approaches, in which geomorphological features play a central role in site identification. In most cases, the primary aim of surveys has been the discovery of sites with cultural deposits that can reveal cultural and environmental sequences, ultimately contributing to the construction of a regionally based cultural-chronological framework derived from one or a few key sites. This focus, however, stands in contrast to the nature of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, who led highly mobile lives characterized by complex patterns of movement. Their existence should be understood as a spatially dispersed array of activities across a mosaic of ecological landscapes, with varying durations and intensities of occupation. Therefore, archaeological surveys of Paleolithic landscapes must be designed with the objective of reconstructing mobility patterns. This requires both spatial and temporal control over the findings, and a recognition that Paleolithic landscapes have undergone significant transformations over time due to erosion, sedimentation, tectonic activity, fluctuations in water levels, climate change, vegetation dynamics, and hydrological shifts. This study seeks to address some of these methodological gaps by critically reviewing international field practices, highlighting their strengths and limitations, and drawing attention to underexplored aspects of Paleolithic site survey and sampling strategies. These include: the systematic documentation of locations lacking cultural material alongside those with such remains; the in situ recording of movable Paleolithic artifacts as opposed to their removal to research facilities; sampling techniques employed within sites; and the integration of geomorphological studies into survey strategies.
Article number: 2
Type of Study: Original Research Article |
Subject:
Archeology and History of Art
Received: 2024/10/7 | Accepted: 2024/12/5 | Published: 2024/12/20
Received: 2024/10/7 | Accepted: 2024/12/5 | Published: 2024/12/20
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