ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how archaeologists find and excavate sites, recover the record of the past, and date it. Modern industrial development such as road construction, deep plowing, and dam-building frequently uncovers important archaeological sites. Deliberate archaeological survey begins in space, with satellite imagery and what is called remote sensing. Today, many archaeologists begin with readily accessible remote sensing with Google Earth. Archaeologists in many parts of the world are now using Google Earth, especially with CRM projects involving extensive surveys and for more remote locations where access is difficult. The primary purposes of many remote-sensing surveys are to map concentrations of sites and, on larger projects, to identify where maximal efforts in ground surveying and excavation should be concentrated. Archaeological excavation is an extremely precise recording process that provides the context of prehistoric societies in time and space. Until a generation ago, excavation was considered a primary objective of archaeological fieldwork.
