About.com: How did you proceed in the field and why?
Gary Feinman: We began with a plan to follow a field methodology roughly similar to what we employed in the Valley of Oaxaca, since those procedures had proven highly informative and time/cost effective. One difference was that in China we were using topographic maps (which got far better after year one!), while in Oaxaca, we mostly employed aerial photos. We tended to send out teams of surveyors, who would walk 30-50 meters apart with the center person holding the map. The crews would keep together as they walked transects of several kilometers. When a crew reached a designated road or riverbed at the end of the pass, they would move over one person length and start back in the other direction, making certain that the entire area was ultimately walked over.
When surface artifacts (sites) were encountered, the distribution of surface artifacts was drawn on the map and artifacts were collected. The specific collections were made in defined zones, which also were drawn in by the person carrying the map. The dating of pottery from each collection was a key factor that was used to determine the size of the different occupations at multi-component sites.
When we began in the field, we quickly found out that we had to make several tweaks to our survey methods. For one, sites in China were often less obvious on the surface with fewer surface artifacts present and only rare earthen features. To facilitate site recovery and dating, we kept the members of each survey crew closer together (with less distance between them). We also generally collected all of the potsherds and other artifacts that we observed on the ground. This would be impossible in Oaxaca where the sites are more recent and the subsequent use of the landscape was less intense so that surface pottery was generally much more abundant.
About.com: How do you collect the data?
Gary Feinman: The sites we recorded were drawn on the map. We also marked on the map the limits of the area that we walked over or covered. The bags of artifacts picked up from each collection area were brought back to our hotel each night. On rainy days and when the fieldwork ended, we washed the artifacts and analyzed each collection. For each collection, we determined which periods or eras were present (e.g., Longshan, Han). This information was examined spatially to assess site size in each phase or occupation.
In 2010, some of our original team will survey for the fifteenth year.
