An Extensive Alternative to Intensive Survey: Point Sampling in the Riu Mannu Survey Project, Sardinia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v14i1.24Abstract
Intensive surveying is restricted to limited areas. As it is a line-walking method, there is a smearing effect on the results from averaging over larger stretches of land, compounded by archaeological visibility problems, the definition of diagnostics and walkers idiosyncrasies. Numerical correction cannot produce qualitative differentiation, however, and thus reliability (replicability) of the results is compromised. The present paper discusses a field methodology in which systematically arranged (gridded) points of two square metres are cleared of vegetation, and all non-soil objects in the points taken in for further analysis. That way, the definition of -diagnostics-, most of the time conceived of as practical/logistic in nature, but in the final count a reliability problem (e.g. Bintliff et al. 1999), is obviated and additional fabric analysis considerably enhances the database. Numerical analysis of the results from nine field seasons of the Riu Mannu Survey Project in Sardinia shows that visibility effects are reduced far below customary confidence levels. Illustrations are provided by a general description of the finds in one transect and a more detailed analysis of the finds from a Punic farm site.References
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Annis, M.B., P. van Dommelen and P. van de Velde 1994 The Riu Mannu Survey Project in West Central Sardinia: a first interim report. Newsletter Department of Pottery Technology 11-12: 31-44.
1995 Rural settlement and socio-political organization: the Riu Mannu Survey Project in Sardinia. Bulletin Antieke Beschaving 70: 133-52.
1997 Insediamento rurale e organizzazione politica. Il progetto Riu Mannu in Sardegna. Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica per le Provincie di Cagliari e Oristano 13 (1996): 255-86.
Attema, P.A.J. 1992 Measuring landscape perception in archaeology: a model for the Pontine Region (Southern Lazio). In M. Maaskant-Kleibrink (ed.), Caeculus I: Images of Ancient Latin Culture, 3-10. Groningen: Archaeological Centre, Groningen University.
Barker, G. 1991 Approaches to archaeological survey. In G. Barker and J. Lloyd (eds.), Roman Landscapes, 1-9. London: British School at Rome.
1996 Regional archaeological projects: trends and traditions in Mediterranean Europe. Archaeological Dialogues 3: 160-75.
2000 Hidden prehistoric landscapes: an Italian perspective. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 13: 100- 102.
Barrett, J. 1991 The archaeology of social reproduction. In J. Barratt, R. Bradley and M. Green, Landscape, Monuments and Society: The Prehistory of Cramborne Chase, 6-8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bintliff, J.L. 1991 The Roman countryside in Central Greece: observations and theories from the Boeotia Survey (1978-1987). In G. Barker and J. Lloyd (eds.), Roman Landscapes, 122-32. London: British School at Rome.
1997 The role of science in archaeological regional surface artefact survey. In D. Derksen and G. von Bally (eds.), Optical Technologies in the Humanities, 9-28. Berlin: Springer.
2000 Beyond dots on the map: future directions for surface artefact survey in Greece. In J. Bintliff, M. Kuna and N. Venclova (eds.), The Future of Surface Artefact Survey in Europe, 3-20. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Bintliff, J.L., and P. Howard 1999 Studying needles in haystacks: surface survey and the rural landscape of Central Greece in Roman times. Pharos 7: 51-91.
Bintliff, J.L., P. Howard and A.M. Snodgrass 1999 The hidden landscape of prehistoric Greece. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 12: 139-68.
Bintliff, J.L., and A.M. Snodgrass 1985 The Cambridge/Bradford Boeotian expedition: the first four years. Journal of Field Archaeology 12: 123-61.
1988 Off-site pottery distributions: a regional and interregional perspective. Current Anthropology 29: 506-13.
Brandt, R.W., W. Groenman-van Waateringe and S.E. van der Leeuw (eds.) 1987 Assendelver Polder Papers 1. Amsterdam: Instituut voor Pre- en Protohistorie.
Cowgill, G.L. 1990 Towards refining concepts of full-coverage survey. In Fish and Kowalewski (1990), 249-59.
Dunnell, R.C., and J.F. Simek 1995 Artifact size and plow zone processes. Journal of Field Archaeology 22: 305-20.
Fentress, E. 2000 What are we counting for? In Francovich et al. (2000), 44-52.
Fish, S.K., PR. Fish and J.H. Madsen 1990 Analyzing regional agriculture: a Hohokam example. In Fish and Kowalewski (1990), 189-218.
Fish, S.K., and and S.A. Kowalski (eds.) 1990 The Archaeology of Regions: A Case for Full-Coverage Survey. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Flannery, K.V. 1986 A visit to the Master. In K.V. Flannery (ed.), Guila Naquitz, 511-19. New York: Academic Press.
Flannery, K.V. (ed.) 1976 The Early Mesoamerican Village. New York: Academic Press.
Foley, R. 1981 Off-site archaeology: an alternative for the short-sited. In I. Hodder, G. Isaac and N. Hammond (eds.), Pattern of the Past, 157-83. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Francovich, R., H. Patterson and G. Barker (eds.) 2000 Extracting Meaning from Ploughsoil Assemblages. The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes 5. Oxford: Oxbow.
Gaffney, C.F., and V.L. Gaffney 1988 Some quantitative approaches to site territory and land use from the surface record. In J. Bintliff, D.A. Davidson and E.G. Grant (eds.), Conceptual Issues in Environmental Archaeology, 82-92. Edinburgh: University Press.
Gaffney, V.L. and Z. Stancic 1991 GIS Approaches to Regional Analysis: a Case Study of the Island of Hvar. Ljubljana: Znanstveni institut Filozofske fakultete.
Given, M., A.B. Knapp, N. Mayer, T.E.G. Gregory, V. Kassianidou, J. Noller, N. Urwin, L. Wells and H. Wright
1999 The Sydney Cyprus survey project: an interdisciplinary investigation of long-term change in the North Central Troodos, Cyprus. Journal of Field Archaeology 26: 19-40.
Hays, W.L. 1973 Statistics for the Social Sciences. 2nd rev. edn. London: Holt, Rinehart &. Winston.
Hodder, I. 1990 The Domestication of Europe: Structure and Contingency in Neolithic Societies. Cambridge:
Basil Blackwell. Judge, W.J., J.I. Ebert and R.K. Hitchcock 1975 Sampling in regional archaeological survey. In J.W. Mueller (ed.), Sampling in Archaeology, 82'123. Tucson: University of Arizona.
Kamermans, H. 1995 Survey sampling, right or wrong? In J. Huggett and N. Ryan (eds.), Computer Applications in Archaeobgy 1994. BAR International Series 600: 123-26. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
Knapp, A.B. 1997 The Archaeology of Late Bronze Age Cypriot Society: The Study of Settlement, Survey and Landscape. Glasgow: University of Glasgow Department of Archaeology.
Knapp, A.B., and W. Ashmore 1999 Archaeological landscapes: constructed, conceptualized, ideational. In W. Ashmore and A.B. Knapp (eds.), Archaeobgies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectivesy 1-30. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lloyd, J., and G. Barker 1981 Rural settlement in Roman Molise: problems of archaeological survey. In G. Barker and R. Hodges (eds.), Archaeobgy and Italian Society. BAR International Series 102: 289-304. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
Loving, S.H., and H. Kamermans 1991 Field trials and errors: field methods used in the Agro Pontino survey. In Voorrips et al. (1991), 79-86.
Loving, S.H., H. Kamermans and A. Voorrips 1991 Randomizing our walks: the Agro Pontino sampling design. In Voorrips et al. (1991), 61-78.
McCall, C.H. 1982 Sampling and Statistics Handbook for Research. Ames: Iowa State University.
Millett, M. 1991 Pottery: population or supply patterns? The Ager Taraconensis approach. In G. Barker and J. Lloyd (eds.), Roman Landscapes, 18-26. London: British School at Rome.
Nance, J., and B. Ball 1986 No surprises? The reliability and validity of test pit sampling. American Antiquity 51: 457-83.
Orton, C. 2000 Sampling in Archaeobgy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plog, F. 1976 Relative efficiencies of sampling techniques for archaeological surveys. In Flannery (1976), 136-58.
Schofield, A.J. 1991 Interpreting artefact scatters: an introduction. In A.J. Schofield (ed.), lnterpeting Artefact Scatters: Contributions to Plough Zone Archaeology, 3-8. Oxford: Oxbow.
Shennan, S. 1985 Experiments in the Collection and Analysis of Archaeobgical Survey Data: the East Hampshire Survey. Sheffield: Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield.
Shott, M.J. 1995 Reliability of archaeological records on cultivated surfaces: a Michigan study. Journal of Field Archaeobgy 22: 475-90.
Snodgrass, A.M. 1987 An Archaeobgy of Greece: The Present State and Future Scope of a Discipline. Berkeley: University of California Press.
1994 Response: the archaeological aspect. In I. Morris (ed.), Classical Greece: Ancient Histories and Modem Archaeobgies, 197-200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Snodgrass, A.M., and J.L. Bintliff 1991 Surveying ancient cities. Scientific American 264: 64'69.
Taylor, J. 1995 Cultural depositional processes and post-depositional problems. In Francovich etal. (2000), 16-28.
Terrenato, N. 1996 Field survey methods in Central Italy (Etruria and Umbria): between local knowledge and regional traditions. Archaeobgical Diabgues 3: 216-30.
2000 The visibility of sites and the interpretation of field survey results: towards an analysis of incomplete distributions. In Francovich et al. (2000), 60-71.
Thomas, D.H. 1975 Nonsite sampling in archaeology: up the creek without a site. In J.W. Mueller (ed.), Sampling in Archaeobgy, 61-81. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Thomas, J. 1999 Understanding the Neolithic. London: Routledge (2nd rev. edn of Rethinking the Neolithic, 1991).
Van der Leeuw, S.E. 1987 Outline of the project and first results. In Brandt et al. (1987), 1-21.
Van de Velde, P. 1984 Gunung Wingko: the 1982 surface survey. Modem Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 8: 165-76.
1987 Post-depositional decay: a simulation. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 20: 169-75.
Van Dommelen, P.A.R. 1998 Ort Colonial Grounds: A Comparative Study of Colonialism and Rural Settlement in First Millennium BC West Central Sardinia. Leiden: Faculty of Archaeology.
Van Dommelen, P.A.R., and M. Prent 1996 The history, theory and methodology of regional archaeological projects. An introduction. Archaeological Dialogues 3: 137-39.
Verhoeven, A.A.A. 1991 Visibility factors affecting artifact recovery in the Agro Pontino survey. In Voorrips et al. (1991), 87-98.
Voorrips, A.A.A., S.H. Loving and H. Kamermans (eds.) 1991 The Agro Pontino Survey Project. Amsterdam: Instituut voor Pre- en Protohistorie.
Wilkinson, T.J. 1989 Extensive sherd scatters and land-use intensity: some recent results. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:31-46.
1994 The structure and dynamics of dry-farming states in Upper Mesopotamia. Current Anthropology 35: 483-520.
1998 Water and human settlement in the Balikh Valley, Syria: investigations from 1992-95. Journal of Field Archaeology 25: 63-87.
Ammerman, A.J. 1993 Review of J.F. Cherry, J.L. Davis and E. Mantzourani, Landscape Archaeology as Long-Term History: Northern Keos in the Cycladic Islands (Los Angeles: Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, 1991). Journal o f Field Archaeology 20: 367-72.
Annis, M.B. 1992 Ricerche mineralogico-petrografiche e analisi fisica-chimica di campioni ceramici provenienti da diversi contesti romani. In L. Paroli (ed.), La ceramica invetriata tardoantica e altomediaevale in Italia, 603-20. Firenze: L’Insegna del Giglio.
1996 Paesaggi rurali nella Sardegna centro-occidentale. Il progetto Rio Mannu dell’Universita di Leiden (Paesi Bassi). L'Africa Romana: Atti del XII convegno di studio (Olbia, 12-15 dicembre 1996): 571-87. Cagliari: Editrice Democratica Sarda.
Annis, M.B., P. van Dommelen and P. van de Velde 1994 The Riu Mannu Survey Project in West Central Sardinia: a first interim report. Newsletter Department of Pottery Technology 11-12: 31-44.
1995 Rural settlement and socio-political organization: the Riu Mannu Survey Project in Sardinia. Bulletin Antieke Beschaving 70: 133-52.
1997 Insediamento rurale e organizzazione politica. Il progetto Riu Mannu in Sardegna. Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica per le Provincie di Cagliari e Oristano 13 (1996): 255-86.
Attema, P.A.J. 1992 Measuring landscape perception in archaeology: a model for the Pontine Region (Southern Lazio). In M. Maaskant-Kleibrink (ed.), Caeculus I: Images of Ancient Latin Culture, 3-10. Groningen: Archaeological Centre, Groningen University.
Barker, G. 1991 Approaches to archaeological survey. In G. Barker and J. Lloyd (eds.), Roman Landscapes, 1-9. London: British School at Rome.
1996 Regional archaeological projects: trends and traditions in Mediterranean Europe. Archaeological Dialogues 3: 160-75.
2000 Hidden prehistoric landscapes: an Italian perspective. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 13: 100- 102.
Barrett, J. 1991 The archaeology of social reproduction. In J. Barratt, R. Bradley and M. Green, Landscape, Monuments and Society: The Prehistory of Cramborne Chase, 6-8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bintliff, J.L. 1991 The Roman countryside in Central Greece: observations and theories from the Boeotia Survey (1978-1987). In G. Barker and J. Lloyd (eds.), Roman Landscapes, 122-32. London: British School at Rome.
1997 The role of science in archaeological regional surface artefact survey. In D. Derksen and G. von Bally (eds.), Optical Technologies in the Humanities, 9-28. Berlin: Springer.
2000 Beyond dots on the map: future directions for surface artefact survey in Greece. In J. Bintliff, M. Kuna and N. Venclova (eds.), The Future of Surface Artefact Survey in Europe, 3-20. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Bintliff, J.L., and P. Howard 1999 Studying needles in haystacks: surface survey and the rural landscape of Central Greece in Roman times. Pharos 7: 51-91.
Bintliff, J.L., P. Howard and A.M. Snodgrass 1999 The hidden landscape of prehistoric Greece. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 12: 139-68.
Bintliff, J.L., and A.M. Snodgrass 1985 The Cambridge/Bradford Boeotian expedition: the first four years. Journal of Field Archaeology 12: 123-61.
1988 Off-site pottery distributions: a regional and interregional perspective. Current Anthropology 29: 506-13.
Brandt, R.W., W. Groenman-van Waateringe and S.E. van der Leeuw (eds.) 1987 Assendelver Polder Papers 1. Amsterdam: Instituut voor Pre- en Protohistorie.
Cowgill, G.L. 1990 Towards refining concepts of full-coverage survey. In Fish and Kowalewski (1990), 249-59.
Dunnell, R.C., and J.F. Simek 1995 Artifact size and plow zone processes. Journal of Field Archaeology 22: 305-20.
Fentress, E. 2000 What are we counting for? In Francovich et al. (2000), 44-52.
Fish, S.K., PR. Fish and J.H. Madsen 1990 Analyzing regional agriculture: a Hohokam example. In Fish and Kowalewski (1990), 189-218.
Fish, S.K., and and S.A. Kowalski (eds.) 1990 The Archaeology of Regions: A Case for Full-Coverage Survey. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Flannery, K.V. 1986 A visit to the Master. In K.V. Flannery (ed.), Guila Naquitz, 511-19. New York: Academic Press.
Flannery, K.V. (ed.) 1976 The Early Mesoamerican Village. New York: Academic Press.
Foley, R. 1981 Off-site archaeology: an alternative for the short-sited. In I. Hodder, G. Isaac and N. Hammond (eds.), Pattern of the Past, 157-83. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Francovich, R., H. Patterson and G. Barker (eds.) 2000 Extracting Meaning from Ploughsoil Assemblages. The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes 5. Oxford: Oxbow.
Gaffney, C.F., and V.L. Gaffney 1988 Some quantitative approaches to site territory and land use from the surface record. In J. Bintliff, D.A. Davidson and E.G. Grant (eds.), Conceptual Issues in Environmental Archaeology, 82-92. Edinburgh: University Press.
Gaffney, V.L. and Z. Stancic 1991 GIS Approaches to Regional Analysis: a Case Study of the Island of Hvar. Ljubljana: Znanstveni institut Filozofske fakultete.
Given, M., A.B. Knapp, N. Mayer, T.E.G. Gregory, V. Kassianidou, J. Noller, N. Urwin, L. Wells and H. Wright
1999 The Sydney Cyprus survey project: an interdisciplinary investigation of long-term change in the North Central Troodos, Cyprus. Journal of Field Archaeology 26: 19-40.
Hays, W.L. 1973 Statistics for the Social Sciences. 2nd rev. edn. London: Holt, Rinehart &. Winston.
Hodder, I. 1990 The Domestication of Europe: Structure and Contingency in Neolithic Societies. Cambridge:
Basil Blackwell. Judge, W.J., J.I. Ebert and R.K. Hitchcock 1975 Sampling in regional archaeological survey. In J.W. Mueller (ed.), Sampling in Archaeology, 82'123. Tucson: University of Arizona.
Kamermans, H. 1995 Survey sampling, right or wrong? In J. Huggett and N. Ryan (eds.), Computer Applications in Archaeobgy 1994. BAR International Series 600: 123-26. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
Knapp, A.B. 1997 The Archaeology of Late Bronze Age Cypriot Society: The Study of Settlement, Survey and Landscape. Glasgow: University of Glasgow Department of Archaeology.
Knapp, A.B., and W. Ashmore 1999 Archaeological landscapes: constructed, conceptualized, ideational. In W. Ashmore and A.B. Knapp (eds.), Archaeobgies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectivesy 1-30. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lloyd, J., and G. Barker 1981 Rural settlement in Roman Molise: problems of archaeological survey. In G. Barker and R. Hodges (eds.), Archaeobgy and Italian Society. BAR International Series 102: 289-304. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
Loving, S.H., and H. Kamermans 1991 Field trials and errors: field methods used in the Agro Pontino survey. In Voorrips et al. (1991), 79-86.
Loving, S.H., H. Kamermans and A. Voorrips 1991 Randomizing our walks: the Agro Pontino sampling design. In Voorrips et al. (1991), 61-78.
McCall, C.H. 1982 Sampling and Statistics Handbook for Research. Ames: Iowa State University.
Millett, M. 1991 Pottery: population or supply patterns? The Ager Taraconensis approach. In G. Barker and J. Lloyd (eds.), Roman Landscapes, 18-26. London: British School at Rome.
Nance, J., and B. Ball 1986 No surprises? The reliability and validity of test pit sampling. American Antiquity 51: 457-83.
Orton, C. 2000 Sampling in Archaeobgy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plog, F. 1976 Relative efficiencies of sampling techniques for archaeological surveys. In Flannery (1976), 136-58.
Schofield, A.J. 1991 Interpreting artefact scatters: an introduction. In A.J. Schofield (ed.), lnterpeting Artefact Scatters: Contributions to Plough Zone Archaeology, 3-8. Oxford: Oxbow.
Shennan, S. 1985 Experiments in the Collection and Analysis of Archaeobgical Survey Data: the East Hampshire Survey. Sheffield: Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield.
Shott, M.J. 1995 Reliability of archaeological records on cultivated surfaces: a Michigan study. Journal of Field Archaeobgy 22: 475-90.
Snodgrass, A.M. 1987 An Archaeobgy of Greece: The Present State and Future Scope of a Discipline. Berkeley: University of California Press.
1994 Response: the archaeological aspect. In I. Morris (ed.), Classical Greece: Ancient Histories and Modem Archaeobgies, 197-200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Snodgrass, A.M., and J.L. Bintliff 1991 Surveying ancient cities. Scientific American 264: 64'69.
Taylor, J. 1995 Cultural depositional processes and post-depositional problems. In Francovich etal. (2000), 16-28.
Terrenato, N. 1996 Field survey methods in Central Italy (Etruria and Umbria): between local knowledge and regional traditions. Archaeobgical Diabgues 3: 216-30.
2000 The visibility of sites and the interpretation of field survey results: towards an analysis of incomplete distributions. In Francovich et al. (2000), 60-71.
Thomas, D.H. 1975 Nonsite sampling in archaeology: up the creek without a site. In J.W. Mueller (ed.), Sampling in Archaeobgy, 61-81. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Thomas, J. 1999 Understanding the Neolithic. London: Routledge (2nd rev. edn of Rethinking the Neolithic, 1991).
Van der Leeuw, S.E. 1987 Outline of the project and first results. In Brandt et al. (1987), 1-21.
Van de Velde, P. 1984 Gunung Wingko: the 1982 surface survey. Modem Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 8: 165-76.
1987 Post-depositional decay: a simulation. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 20: 169-75.
Van Dommelen, P.A.R. 1998 Ort Colonial Grounds: A Comparative Study of Colonialism and Rural Settlement in First Millennium BC West Central Sardinia. Leiden: Faculty of Archaeology.
Van Dommelen, P.A.R., and M. Prent 1996 The history, theory and methodology of regional archaeological projects. An introduction. Archaeological Dialogues 3: 137-39.
Verhoeven, A.A.A. 1991 Visibility factors affecting artifact recovery in the Agro Pontino survey. In Voorrips et al. (1991), 87-98.
Voorrips, A.A.A., S.H. Loving and H. Kamermans (eds.) 1991 The Agro Pontino Survey Project. Amsterdam: Instituut voor Pre- en Protohistorie.
Wilkinson, T.J. 1989 Extensive sherd scatters and land-use intensity: some recent results. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:31-46.
1994 The structure and dynamics of dry-farming states in Upper Mesopotamia. Current Anthropology 35: 483-520.
1998 Water and human settlement in the Balikh Valley, Syria: investigations from 1992-95. Journal of Field Archaeology 25: 63-87.
Published
2001-09-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Velde, P. van de. (2001). An Extensive Alternative to Intensive Survey: Point Sampling in the Riu Mannu Survey Project, Sardinia. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 14(1), 24-52. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v14i1.24
