Refining Archaeological Probability Models: Case Studies from Georgia DOT Systematic Wetland Surveys

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Byways to the Past: An American Highway Archaeology Symposium" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The results of several recent wetland surveys for the Georgia Department of Transportation are raising new questions about traditional archaeological probability models for inundated areas. Wetlands are often left largely uninvestigated during archaeological surveys due to restricted access, logistics issues, and by assumptions that swamps were not suitable for long-term habitation. This logic is somewhat flawed, as wetland resources are known to have been crucial to certain precontact subsistence strategies and many "swamps" are only newly or seasonally inundated. This presentation will use recent data from systematic wetland surveys, combined with regional LiDAR data, to initiate discussions on how to more accurately distinguish between high and low probability areas in different wetland types, how to determine appropriate levels of effort in searching for wetland sites, and how updates to traditional field methods can increase survey accuracy for these areas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Byways to the Past: An American Highway Archaeology Symposium   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25668