S is for Survey

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A "Survey" is how archaeologists look for sites over a large area. They use it to collect information about the people who lived in an area by looking at the number of sites and how those sites may relate to each other.

For some surveys, archaeologists will go out and walk around the land, looking for artifacts (tools, weapons, utensils or fragments of them) on the surface that have been plowed up or exposed by erosion, construction, or burrowing animals. For others, especially those that cover very large areas, they will examine aerial photographs and data gathered from satellites in space that might show where buildings or communities once existed and use computers to help analyze this data.

In many field surveys, archaeologists will do very little excavating other than shovel testing in scattered areas by turning over the surface to get below the vegetation and see if there are any artifacts in the soil. Sometimes, they will use information collected during earlier excavations, which is one reason why it is so important for archaeologists to take detailed notes. Field surveys don't always take place in actual fields (like those found on farms); some field surveys are done in cities or along highways or even under water.