Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 17:58
Forums
Kuril Islands Biocomplexity 08

 My name is Carole Buchanan I am taking an online oceanagraphy class and was wondering:

How big are the ares you survey and are there different things you look for such as new tree growth when surveying for specific things like charcoal or pottery?

Wed, 08/13/2008 - 10:33

KBP Team

Truthfully, we survey only a very tiny proportion of the total land area of the Kuril Islands (or anywhere else that archaeologists do work). But we do get pretty good coverage of the types of landforms that were attractive to the people living here in the past, such as flat terraces fairly high above sea level, or beach ridges that follow the shoreline. Vegetation can be helpful sometimes, like when we use stinging nettles to indicate nutrient-enriched soils (which often indicate the presence of an archaeological site). But sometimes the vegetation is so thick that we can't find any sites, even if the area had been densely occupied. We have to recognize that our searching is only going to yield a sampling of all the archaeological sites that are out there. And if we do our job right, that sampling will provide a good representation of the overall patterns of what is out there!
-- Dr. E.