Archaeological survey

This text aims to be a simple and short manual on the basic recording tools and strategies in the archaeology of industrialisation. For that purpose, we use as an example our own experiences working with the railway heritage of the São Paulo State (Brazil). Recording tools are divided into two groups pertaining to the scales of the items studied. First, the macro-scale, involving the exploration of the territory, the localisation and identification of material remains, the elaboration of analytical descriptions, and the production of photographic surveys. Second, the meso- and micro-scales, for the recording and deeper analysis of delimitated spaces, including plant design (horizontal level) and stratigraphic reading (vertical level), among other techniques. The methodology presented is characterised by the integration of all the sources of information available (material, written, visual and oral), the data of which being systematised, crossed, and read onto the physical space

Our main objective is to meditate on some methodological strategies of archaeological surveys starting from several cases carried out in the SouthWest of the Iberian Peninsula. The necessity to maximize the yield of the archaeological survey and the existence of territories of minimum archaeological potential-to cause of geo-morphological and human factors they are the common denominator in some surveys made in geographical units so different as the countryside of Seville, the coast of the Straits of Gibraltar, the surrounds of the Guadalquivir's marsh, or the mining area of Huelva.

The Shawbak North Archaeological Project (SNAP) aims to shed new light on the general occupational history of the large depression below the Fjayj escarpment and the surrounding hilly terrain. The survey area corresponds to the western extension of the Jafr basin, the main focus of our long-term research project (JBPP [the Jafr Basin Prehistoric Project]) and, in this sense, has the potential to bridge an information gap between the ‘desert’ and the ‘sown’. It is also anticipated that the survey will go some way towards connecting the Kerak / Tafila area to the north with the Petra area to the south. This report briefly summarizes the results of the second to fourth seasons, conducted from 2012 to 2013.

Sommario
Nell’Italia romana – come in molte altre società agricole pre-industriali – i centri rurali sono stati dei punti focali per le popolazioni agricole circostanti, offrendo una vasta gamma di servizi giornalieri. Nonostante la loro presumibile impor-tanza, sono siti scarsamente documentati archeologicamente.
Il cosiddetto “Minor Centres-project”, realizzato tra il 2011 e il 2016, mirava nello specifico ad implementare la cono-scenza dei centri rurali e il loro ruolo nelle economie locali.
Il progetto prevede due diversi approcci: in primo luogo lo studio della geografia economica dell’Italia romana e le considerazioni che da questa si traggono sul ruolo dei centri rurali nei sistemi di insediamento e nelle infrastrutture regionali. In secondo luogo, un programma di nuove ricerche archeologiche, comprendente la mappatura geofisica, rico-gnizioni a tappeto sul campo e lo studio della ceramica, nei siti di Forum Appii e Ad Medias, due stazioni stradali lungo la Via Appia nella Pianura Pontina (Lazio, Italia centrale) e i loro immediati dintorni. I risultati ottenuti indicano, da una parte, che entrambi gli insediamenti erano importanti centri di produzione artigianale, attivi nella produzione della ce-ramica e del metallo, corroborando in modo convincente la presunta importanza dei centri rurali nella fornitura di beni di uso quotidiano. Dall’altra parte che entrambi i siti si differenziano significativamente nello sviluppo. Forum Appii fu occupato per almeno otto secoli e fiorì nel tardo periodo repubblicano e nella prima età imperiale, quando divenne un centro commerciale di importanza regionale dotato di un porto fluviale, mentre Ad Medias, era di dimensioni molto più modeste, iniziando il suo declino già nel periodo tardo repubblicano, rispecchiando il destino dei siti rurali circostanti.
Parole chiave: Regione Pontina; periodo romano; centri minori; reti economiche, geofisica, ricognizioni di superficie.

Abstract
In Roman Italy - as in many other pre-industrial agricultural societies - rural centres must have formed important focal points for surrounding rural populations, providing a wide range of day-to-day amenities and services. Despite their presumed importance, such sites are poorly documented archaeologically.
The so-called Minor Centres-project, carried out between 2011 and 2016 specifically aimed to advance knowledge on rural centres and their role in local economies. The project comprises two different approaches: first, a study of the eco-nomic geography of Roman Italy, leading to assumptions about the role of rural centres in regional settlement systems and infrastructure. Secondly, a programme of new archaeological research, comprising large-scale geophysical mapping, field surveys and pottery studies, at the sites of Forum Appii and Ad Medias, two road stations along the Via Appia in the Pontine plain (Lazio, Central Italy) and their immediate surroundings.
The obtained results indicate that both settlements were craft production centres, active in the manufacturing of pottery and metal, convincingly corroborating the presumed importance of rural centres in the provision of everyday goods. On the other hand, both settlements differed significantly in their development. Forum Appii was occupied for at least eight centuries and flourished in the Late Republican and Early Imperial period, when it became a trade hub of regional importance equipped with a river harbour. In contrast, Ad Medias was of much more modest dimensions and already fell in decline in the Late Republican period, mirroring the fate of surrounding rural sites.

Nearly three decades of archaeological work at the East St. Louis Precinct have repeatedly demonstrated that much of this Mississippian site has survived the effects of urbanization and industrial development. Historic period excavation and filling have reshaped and obscured the prehistoric landscape, complicating the delineation of the site boundaries and identification of mounds, plazas, and habitation areas. Therefore, predicting the archaeological potential of any part of the site has been difficult. This paper examines this issue using an archaeological survey conducted for the MetroLink St. Clair County extension in East St. Louis. Systematic trenching established a boundary for a small portion of this buried site. The survey also revealed an association between sandy or silty soils and Mississippian occupation and no evidence for occupation of areas with clayey soils. Comparing these findings with those of the subsequent data-recovery investigations shows that systematic sampling is effective for detecting buried prehistoric deposits in East St. Louis, but it is less useful for characterizing such deposits and predicting their distribution across landforms.