Revisiting a Stratified Random Sample of the 18th-Century Liberty Hall Campus of Washington and Lee University

Summary

Many of us at institutions with long-standing archaeology programs benefit greatly from the collections we inherit. However, these also present certain challenges. One such example is a stratified random sample done by Washington and Lee Archaeology in the 1970s on its 18th-century Liberty Hall Campus. Exceptional in historical archaeology at a time when many archaeologists were still stripping the plowzone from sites, a stratified random sample provides the statistical benefits of randomness, while still ensuring systematic coverage of the test area that a simple random sample does not achieve. Spatial analysis of this collection with statistical methods unavailable at the time of its excavation has led us to realize that we needed a larger sample in order to meet new preservation needs and to answer new research questions. Recent excavations have supplemented the sample in our attempt to determine adequate quadrat size and spacing to accomplish our research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage