Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1986

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

Walter E. Klippel

Committee Members

Charles H. Faulkner, R.L. Jantz

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of naturally occurring variables on surface artifact recovery. This was accomplished by isolating and reviewing pertinent variables, which are rainfall and soil factors. Information from this review was incorporated into an experiment designed to measure the effects of rainfall on artifact exposure and recovery. The results from the surface recovery experiment were used to form baseline data that allowed meaningful interpretation of three additional plowzone data recovery exercises. These were (1) artifact detection by shovel test, (2) prediction of surface density from plowzone excavation data, and (3) reliability of surface collections as indicators of plowzone assemblage content.

Results of repeated collections following precipitation ranging from no rain to more than 11 cm demonstrated drastic increases in artifact densities, yet a recovery threshold was recognized past which more rainfall produced few additional artifacts. Small plowzone shovel tests (25 cm2) proved to be fairly good detectors of surface scatters as sparse as .10 artifacts/m2, and increasing test size to 50 cm2 allowed detection of scatters as sparse as .04/m2. Results of least squares model regression revealed that the relationship between the artifact density/m2 for a 5 m2 surface collection and the artifact density/liter excavated beneath it is a strong one. However, this relationship weakens with a decrease in excavated volume to a point where densities from a 25 cm2 test demonstrate very little association with surface density. Comparative analysis showed artifact size to be the primary difference between surface and plowzone assemblages. In instances where artifact type is size-dependent, assessments of total plowzone assemblages based on surface samples could be incorrect. It is stressed that integration of the surface recovery information produced by this study, with plowzone recovery techniques such as shovel-testing, will alleviate the problem of incompatibility of results derived from surface and subsurface data recovery techniques prevalent in regional archaeological survey.

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