Regional Sampling in Archaeological Survey: The Statistical Perspective

Publisher Summary Sampling is a valid and respectable archaeological concept. Statistical sampling theory occupies a central position in the discipline. This chapter discusses fundamentals and issues relating to how different statistical procedures function and focuses on the statistics of sampling. It discusses the fundamental expectations that archaeologists hold when they sample. The potential objectives of statistical survey in archaeology vary over a broad spectrum. These objectives range from the sometimes relatively simple task of estimating the average density of cultural remains in a region or sampling area to the perhaps more interesting one of estimating some substantively meaningful parameter of those remains. The chapter presents the basic conceptual models that archaeologists labor under when they use probabilistic methods in survey sampling. The concepts of discovery and statistical precision have been related to operational realities, showing explicitly how discovery probabilities and various statistical estimates are derived, and what variables govern their efficiency and effectiveness. Both element sampling and cluster sampling are regularly required in archaeological survey sampling. Both are most frequently implemented by subdividing the area to be sampled into arbitrary spatial units, quadrats or transects.

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