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Sampling ancient towns

Sampling ancient towns
Sampling ancient towns
Until comparatively recently the archaeological study of ancient towns had been largely conditioned by urban development or individual research interests. This is especially true of Mediterranean sites whose especial richness has generated most attention upon their monumental aspect. Such work provides us with only partial glimpses of urban landscapes which are by definition complex and dynamic. An increasing awareness of this in recent years has led to archaeologists explicitly adopting sampling based strategies when confronting ancient towns. This paper attempts to outline the sampling-based research design employed at a multi-period town site in southern Spain. The integrated use of topographical survey, systematic surface shreding and geophysics provided a valuable insight into the spatial patterning of surface and sub-surface archaeological features. This allowed a hypothesis about the ancient topography of the town to be proposed and for it to be successfully tested by open-area excavation.
0262-5253
371-383
Keay, S.
52b4cdfd-fc5e-4fa0-bd3e-8dd896624f41
Creighton, J.
232d713b-5613-484c-a01c-efb4c974cb4a
Jordan, D.
1dd279a4-f202-47bd-b027-5d89b309f92f
Keay, S.
52b4cdfd-fc5e-4fa0-bd3e-8dd896624f41
Creighton, J.
232d713b-5613-484c-a01c-efb4c974cb4a
Jordan, D.
1dd279a4-f202-47bd-b027-5d89b309f92f

Keay, S., Creighton, J. and Jordan, D. (1991) Sampling ancient towns. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 10 (3), 371-383. (doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.1991.tb00026.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Until comparatively recently the archaeological study of ancient towns had been largely conditioned by urban development or individual research interests. This is especially true of Mediterranean sites whose especial richness has generated most attention upon their monumental aspect. Such work provides us with only partial glimpses of urban landscapes which are by definition complex and dynamic. An increasing awareness of this in recent years has led to archaeologists explicitly adopting sampling based strategies when confronting ancient towns. This paper attempts to outline the sampling-based research design employed at a multi-period town site in southern Spain. The integrated use of topographical survey, systematic surface shreding and geophysics provided a valuable insight into the spatial patterning of surface and sub-surface archaeological features. This allowed a hypothesis about the ancient topography of the town to be proposed and for it to be successfully tested by open-area excavation.

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More information

Published date: November 1991
Organisations: Archaeology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 336852
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/336852
ISSN: 0262-5253
PURE UUID: 5f81cd62-6c77-4a4d-b039-6168e1f4d11b

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Date deposited: 13 Apr 2012 10:37
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 10:46

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Contributors

Author: S. Keay
Author: J. Creighton
Author: D. Jordan

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