How Precise Are My Survey Data? GNSS Receivers Test and Comparison

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Novel Statistical Techniques in Archaeology II (QUANTARCH II)" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological surveys using GNSS receivers (Global Navigation Satellite System) to register artefact location generally state the accuracy of used devices, but rarely discuss the precision of resulting data. In other words, we have an idea of how "true" individual points are, but not as much regarding the statistical variability of groups of points. Yet, the later information is critical in assessing how confidently artefact clusters can be interpreted on surveyed archaeological sites. With this question in mind, we designed an experiment using four different GNSS receivers with various price ranges and advertised accuracy. This experiment was carried out in a way to (1) compare these devices in field-like conditions and (2) document how their precision holds up at different spatial and temporal scales of data collection. Is the variability stable through time while retaking the same group of points hour after hour and how does this variability affects spatial relation between points? This poster will set out how the experiment was implemented as well as showing the visual and statistical results of our comparison.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Novel Statistical Techniques in Archaeology II (QUANTARCH II)   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24710