The Alexandria Archive Institute

OPENING THE PAST, INSPIRING THE FUTURE

Learn to Conduct a Basic Archaeological Survey

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A wavy line with numbers on either side along it's length to denote a path. Above the path is the title of this piece in light blue. It reads "Learn to Conduct a Basic Archaeological Survey". Next to that on the right is a narrow dark blue bar that reads "A Data Story Short" perpendicular to the other text. Below the path is the Open Context logo of a blue rhombus with long edge oriented up and down on the left and light blue rhombus in the same orientation to form a book next the the words "Open context". This is above words that say "The Alexandria Archive Institute".

Welcome to the Alexandria Archive Institute and Open Context‘s Data Story Shorts! Here in Learn to Conduct a Basic Archaeological Survey, you’ll conduct an archaeological-style survey of your neighborhood and use those observations to cultivate your data literacy. We based this short on practices from the “slow” movement and if you’d like to learn more about different approaches to “slow” you can check out our references or explore the Digital Data Story this short was based on, The Road Most Traveled: An Archaeological Survey Guide.

In general, observing as much as we can about something is one way to cultivate archaeological data literacy. That’s because quality observations help us create quality data. Archaeologists regularly use mindful and careful observation in the field when conducting pedestrian survey. Sometimes just called “survey”, this method of observation is how we locate and relocate archaeological places, sites, features, or assemblages out in the real world.

For this short, you’ll conduct a survey of your local area and focus on looking for, observing, and recording a motif of your choosing. This motif will focus your survey so you can practice your mindful observation skills. These skills are important because on real archaeological surveys we’re often in unfamiliar places that can make noticing archaeological elements tough. That means we’ve got to observe as much as we can, as closely as we can because our survey might be the only one a place gets for a long time! 

Before embarking on this survey though, we’ll explain how to map your survey location and route. That way you can provide the observations and records you make during your survey with information about where they happened. This is what archaeologists like to refer to as context. Once you know how to map your route, we’ll explain how to conduct your survey and fill out the survey forms included in the activity packet for this short. Then, you’ll conclude this short by answering a few reflection questions about your experience to help you reach some conclusions about what you observed during your survey. 

Mapping your survey

While on a real archaeological survey, project goals or research questions will guide where and how you’ll survey. For this exercise though, the reasoning behind surveying and measuring a specific place isn’t important. Instead, we want you to focus on honing your observation skills so that you can use them anywhere. So to help minimize decision-making stress, in this section we’ll give you our criteria for selecting a survey location, pick and explain your sampling strategy for your observations, and then explain how you’ll map where you surveyed.

1. Your survey location and route

The first part of any survey is deciding where you’ll go to do the survey. For this short, this can be anywhere, as long as you have permission to access it and the route is short enough that the whole survey will take 2 hours or less to complete. However, ensure the route isn’t too short so you can space out your observations. We suggest picking a familiar place to help remind you that archaeological surveys happen in both exciting and mundane places. In fact, the cool thing about this short is that the more familiar you are with the survey location, the more fascinating it might be when you take the time to truly notice it.

2. The sampling strategy

Another important part of an archaeological survey is deciding where to stop and observe. This is referred to as sampling because we can’t notice and record everything, everywhere and so we have to choose where to observe and what to observe.

There are four main types of sampling strategy archaeologists use during surveys. These are random, stratified random, systematic, or stratified unaligned systematic sampling. For this short, you’ll use random sampling. Random sampling is exactly what it describes, it’s random.

To use this strategy on your survey, you’ll stop 10 times, randomly, throughout the journey to fill out the survey form included with this short. If you’re interested in learning about the other sampling strategies, check out the full Digital Data Story or this cool activity. 

3. Recording your route

While many urban areas have digitally accessible maps to draw on or adapt, these aren’t always available for archaeological surveys. Instead, pencil, paper, your own steps, and something to measure angles are your friends.

You’ll map your survey route by picking a starting point and then moving in a straight line while counting your distance unit (step, pedal, push, etc.) until you’d like to change direction. Counting your distance unit gives you the length of the straight segments of your route in that unit. We’ll explain how to convert that distance unit in the section Converting steps, pedals, pushes, or other movements to real measurements.

When you want to change direction, stop moving. Then, note the angle you reorient yourself off your original “straight ahead” line direction. This can be done using a magnetic compass, to get the angle in terms of magnetic degrees, or by using another method to assess angles, such as considering the numbers of a clock and noting if you turned to “9 o’clock” or “2 o’clock”.

Once you’ve rotated, start moving again and reset your count of unit movements so you can get the length of this new line. Each point you stop at and reorient will create a vertex on your map between the old line you were walking on and the new line you’re walking on.

Putting these all together will then give you a rough map of your survey route. You can draw this map using these as you go, or make notes like “30 steps, turned to 3 o’clock, 10 steps, turned 3 o’clock…” so that you can draw your map when you get a chance to go over your notes. In the next section, we explain how to turn your movements into real measurements. 

Converting steps, pedals, pushes, or other movements to real measurements

To avoid bringing a tape measure on your survey, you’ll need to convert your movement to a real unit of measurement. While it might seem funny, this method of measuring can be and has been used on real archaeological projects when other methods for measurement were inaccessible.

To do this conversion, lay out a tape measure to a significant distance (the longer the better). After that, move along that length and note how many movements it takes to traverse that distance. To get a good average, move as you would normally, like you did (or will) for your survey.

You’ll want to repeat this process 10 times and note down the amount of movements you used each time. To help organize these recordings, you can fill out a copy of our movement conversion table, pictured below, included in the activity packet for this Data Story Short. Your movements will go in the third column, labeled “Number of motions for your established length with its unit”.

This is a table that one can fill out to get the average units per motion. It includes various headings and two examples of how to calculate the units per motion.
Use a table like this one to help organize your motions and calculations. Or you can use this exact table, available in the Data Story Shorts activity packet.

Once you have 10 observations of your movement for that distance, take the length that you traversed in real units and divide it by the number of movements you used. That will give you a unit distance (such as meters or feet) per step, push, pedal, or motion count. You can add those results directly to the table as well to keep you organized.  

You’ll then average the results of those calculations together to get your typical unit distance-per-movement. To get the simple average, you’ll start by adding up the results from your unit distance-per-motion observations. If you want help organizing this process, you’ll find a reproduction of the table below in the activity packet, which organizes the first part of getting the simple average. 

This is another table to organize your calculations. It has spaces above the numbers 1-10 where folks can write their calculations for each one and then write in the sum of those numbers
Put the calculations from column four in the unit-per-motion table above the corresponding row number in this table to help organize your addition. Then add those numbers together and put that in the Total box.

Once you’ve added those up, the second step is to divide the total by the number of rounds you did to get the average unit-per-motion. During your calculation, make sure you remember to include your measurement and your motion units in the right spots. Otherwise, any distances you calculate might be incorrect or represent the opposite of what you thought. The activity packet also includes a space for this calculation (like that pictured below) and you can read the caption to understand where to put your numbers. 

This is an empty formula section where one divides the total number of steps per unit divided by 10 or however many times one took that observation. It allows a space to put the answer and the units
Put the Total on the first line, the number of rounds on the second (after the slas). Then, in the blank space after the equals sign, write the result of that calculation. After that put your measurement unit on the line after that calculation and the unit of motion on the line after that. These should be the same units as those in the first table you filled out.

Once you have that calculated, you can convert the movements you took (or will take) along your survey route and convert them to real distance! 

A single survey, with several stops

In this short, we want people to practice their data literacy skills by both closely observing and recording what they notice. That’s because without recording, we have no ability to share what we observed about our world!

For this survey, make at least 10 observation stops along your route and fill out a copy of the forms included in the activity packet at each one. Filling out the form is important because, out in the field, your recording of the landscape might be the only one a place gets for a very long time! And unlike real archaeological surveys, there’s no rush for this exercise. You can take your time to practice these skills and go at the pace that feels comfortable to you. 

Furthermore, rather than observing everything in the landscape, you’ll focus your attention on a single theme, motif, belonging, or symbol. Examples include a particular color, a specific type of item, the concept of “Holiday Decorations”, something abstract like “symmetry”, the texture of the pavement, or the sound from wind chimes. This replicates how on real archaeological surveys we focus on looking for specific kinds of artifacts, belongings, features, or other materials related to the past rather than observing everything about the environment.  

So you don’t forget your motif, note it down some place and bring that note with you on your survey. We provide space to do that in the activity packet in something that looks like the box below.

On the left is the question 'What motif do you want to look for during your traversal?" and on the right is a large box to put that motif, you can draw, write, or etch something in that space
Look for a box like this in the activity packet to note what you want to focus on during your survey. You can draw, write, color, or use another method to record the motif so you don’t forget.

Once you’ve picked the specific motif you’ll focus on for your survey, read about how to fill out the survey form and then get started!

Filling out the survey form

In this section, we explain how to fill out the survey form. You can grab copies of the form in the Data Story Short activity packet. If you’re familiar with forms (particularly archaeological site forms) feel free to skim this section and get started.

This is a form that is used in the survey. The Activity packet has this as a text table and the boxes in are explained within the google document. it includes 5 major sections in bold and smaller ones under it.
Here’s a reproduction of this short’s survey form. It’s different from the one included with the full Digital Data Story, so make sure to use the one from the activity packet.

The survey form is divided into five sections with their names in Bold. These explain the general purpose of the things we’d like you to observe and include in your form. Capitalized phrases describe what information we’d like you to record in a box provided either below or next to those phrases or words. 

The Project information section is primarily metadata for the survey observation stop because they describe the who/what/when of data creation. A lot of this information will be the same for each of your 10 forms but it’s important to include them every time in case sheets get separated, out of order, or if someone else combines those records together. Here’s more specific explanation for each box in that section: 

  • “Surveyor” is you.
  • “Weather” is the current weather at the time of the observation.
  • “Date” is the date of the observation.
  • “Time” is the time of the observation. 
  • “Stop #” is the survey stop number, tracking how many observation stops and forms you’ve filled out.

The Location section records where data creation took place. It’s also part of the metadata and helps you locate where the survey took place. This is an important part of archaeological survey because if you don’t know where you were surveying you can’t relocate or understand the context of what you observed. If where you’re surveying doesn’t use the listed area designations, remove them and put the ones that are the equivalent for your area in your local version of the activity packet and forms.

  • “State” is a larger location area unit that is a size smaller than the country designation.
  • “County” is the spatial area unit below the State.
  • “Town” is the municipal area unit below the County. 

The Project description section gives us an idea of what you’re observing during this particular survey and its relationship between other observation events. These help place this specific observation in the context of the broader survey you’re conducting.

  • “Total length of survey” is the distance of the total survey. You’ll do this by adding up the length of all your line segments.
  • “Distance since last stop” is the distance between the current observation location and the one preceding it along the surveyed route.
  • “Motif focus” is the particular subject you hope to observe during this survey.
  • “Environment type” describes the environment the survey takes place in.

The Motif observations section is a chance to note down observations about your motif, such as the number of them you can observe from that stop. If you observe more than 4 iterations of your motif from that survey stop, please expand the table by adding lines in your local version of the activity packet.  

  • “Motif observed” should be a more specific descriptor for the version of the motif you are recording observations about in that line. 
  • “Direction from survey location” is the angle (in relation to the direction you were moving when you stopped to take this observation) that you need to orient towards to observe the specific motif you’re recording.
  • “Notes” are any additional pieces you think are important to include about the specific version of the motif you observed in that line. 

The Media log section is to keep track of any media (photos, videos, sound recordings, etc.) you create as part of your observations at this location. They may be created in any format and at least one should be created for each stop. In your local version of the activity packet, you can expand the table to account for more than four media if more than four are created at a particular observation location. 

  • “Media number” is the locally unique identifier, number, or name that media has so you know which media this entry relates to.
  • “Direction” is the direction that the media looks towards using the same angle designations as while you mapped your route.
  • “Purpose of media” is an explanation of why you created that media and what you wanted it to depict.
  • “Media type” is the specific type of media created. It states whether the creation is  a video, photo, sound recording, or other format for media.

Starting the survey

Now that you know how to pick a survey location, what kind of sampling strategy to use, how to create a basic map, what you’ll want to notice, and how to fill out the included survey form, you’re ready to get surveying! Remember to stop 10 times to fill out new copies of the form and create at least one piece of media at each stop. More than anything though, be safe and have fun traversing, observing, and recording your world!

Concluding the survey

Once you’ve exercised your observation skills, filled out your survey forms, and finished your survey, you’ll have created some data about the appearance of your chosen motif in your environment. With that completed, take a second to review your observations and consider what they say about your landscape, the route you took, and what you noticed. Once you’ve done that, answer the following questions and include them with your notes and forms.

  • What were the similarities between the different places you stopped along your route? What did you notice that was different?
  • How did you observe the same motif in different ways? Did you notice different features or attributes when you located that motif at different places during the survey? 
  • If you wanted someone to note the same motif in another place, what would you record or ask others to record? How would you structure that request to ensure similarity between your records and theirs?
  • What kind of data did you create based on your observations? Would you consider these quantitative or qualitative?

After you’ve answered these questions, remind yourself that these are the same skills you’d use on a real archaeological survey, just in a different context. And archaeologists are all about context. 

If you’d like to turn these notes into structured tabular data (expanding your archaeological data literacy skills), you can use Gabbing About Gabii: Going from Notes to Data to Narrative to turn your forms into a data table. That Digital Data Story provides guidance on identifying data types, selecting appropriate attribute headings, and how to record observations for specific attributes. After doing that, you can use Part Two of Gabbing about Gabii to write short narratives about the survey.

Even if you don’t turn your observations into structured tabular data or a narrative, you can repeat this exercise, or explore The Road Most Traveled, to continue honing your observation, survey, and recording data literacy skills. With that, thank you so much for using this Data Story Short! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Data Literacy Program team at: datastories@opencontext.org. 

References and further reading

We list our references in order of appearance in the text and include some suggestions for further reading on the topics presented. If any URLs navigate to a broken page, please check the Wayback Machine for an archived copy of the material.

Find out more about the Alexandria Archive Institute at: https://alexandriaarchive.org/

Explore some data publications over at Open Context: opencontext.org

Check out other Digital Data Stories here: https://doi.org/10.6078/M74F1NW0

Learn more about other Solo Series resources (like this short) here: https://alexandriaarchive.org/2023/05/25/solo-steady-and-structured-data-literacy/

Slow Looking: The Art and Practice of Learning Through Observation by Shari Tishman (2017) http://www.pz.harvard.edu/resources/slow-looking-the-art-and-practice-of-learning-through-observation

On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz (2013) https://alexandrahorowitz.net/On-Looking

Check out an example of a real archaeological survey on Open Context: https://doi.org/10.6078/M7SF2T9Q

Take yourself on The Road Most Traveled over at: https://doi.org/10.6078/M79S1P6F

Explore our definition of data literacy here: https://doi.org/10.6078/M73F4MRM

For access to the sampling strategies activity by Jess Whalen check out this link: https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Anthropology/Archaeology/Digging_into_Archaeology:_A_Brief_OER_Introduction_to_Archaeology_with_Activities_%28Paskey_and_Cisneros%29/06:_How_to_Find_Archaeological_Sites/6.04:_Activity_3_-_Sampling_the_Past

Find the activity packet for this short at: https://doi.org/10.6078/M7MP51F0 

Learn more about metadata in this article published by Internet Archaeology: https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue2/wise/toc.html 

Check out this definition for archaeological context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_archaeology#context 

Gabbing about Gabii: Notes to Data to Narrative by Paulina F. Przystupa and L. Meghan Dennis (2022) https://doi.org/10.6078/M7DV1H1R

The Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Gain access to any broken links by getting an archived copy from the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/

Credits

Unless otherwise specified, this work and its components are shared under a CC BY license. To attribute this short, please use our suggested citation:

Paulina F. Przystupa, 2025, “Learn to Conduct a Basic Archaeological Survey”, Data Stories Program, Alexandria Archive Institute / Open Context, Published Online, DOI: https://doi.org/10.6078/M7GX48Q8.

This Data Story Short also includes the following licensed and credited work: 

“AAI-OC_DataStoryShortPublished_Header-PracticeArchaeologicalSurvey” by Paulina F. Przystupa and L. Meghan Dennis from the DLP / CC BY-SA.

Acknowledgements

This is Version 1.0, published July 2025. At this time, this page has not been updated since initial publication. Updates and changes will be noted here if this page changes.

This Data Story Short is a collaboration between the authors and the open peer reviewers of the original Digital Data Story, The Road Most Traveled, which we adapted into this short. We are grateful to all the work that people in the existing slow looking movement have done to inform our creation of this exercise. Dr. Eva Mol’s presentation on the topic during the Teaching and Learning conference hosted by Drs. Karina Croucher and Hannah Cobb, Shari Tishman’s work, and Alexandra Horowitz’s application of slow looking on walks, helped bring this short and its original Digital Data Story to life. We appreciate how being “slow” encourages us to practice our data literacy skills.