The Utility of Metal Detector Surveys in CRM

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Metal detectors are rarely employed in CRM research yet their utility in locating historic sites of low visibility and artifact density have been effectively demonstrated in Battlefield Archaeology studies. This paper will argue for the importance and utility of metal detector surveys in CRM through several case studies that compare the results obtained from shovel test pit surveys followed by metal detector surveys. These examples indicate that shovel test pit surveys, even at 5-meter intervals, are completely ineffective in locating more ephemeral seventeenth and eighteenth century Native- and Euro-American domestic sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24688