Future Directions

The first law of regional survey states that ‘‘other things being equal more survey coverage is always better’’. But how should one follow this mandate while still getting good answers to anthropologically informed questions? Survey methods of all kinds must be justified with reference to the structure, scale, and questions being asked of past settlement. Those issues aside, several observations on the future of survey seem in order. First, not all surveyors hold to common standards of site recording and publication, making regional comparisons more difficult (more impressionistic, less quantifiable) than they ought to be. Second, the burgeoning ‘gray literature’, or backlog of unpublished survey data is reaching scandalous proportions. Since for most sites the survey visit is the only scientific work that will ever be done, and given the unprecedented rates of site destruction, surveyors and funding agencies must allow for the costs

Of analysis and write-up in their research designs. Third, the greatest hidden strength of pedestrian survey should be further exploited: the surprising results that come with each expansion of a region’s existing survey coverage. Fourth, the discovery and analysis of variation within regional and macroregional settlement systems remains a ‘growth industry’ for young scholars with sufficient stamina who are looking for future research directions.

See also: Cultural Resource Management; Settlement Pattern Analysis; Settlement System Analysis; Sites:

Mapping Methods.