Transect Interval Sampling in Forests

Sampling design in excavation calls for previous estimates of site dimensions, artifact variability, and density. Sites covered by forest cannot be surface-collected to gain such data. Transect interval sampling provides the data at an early stage of research, at low cost with the collection and processing of soil samples of standard volume taken along a series of transects at regular intervals when the transects extend outward from the known area of the site. The screening of standard-volume soil samples provides a measure of artifact density across space, and empirically discoverable density values can be plotted to create an artifact density contour interval display. An adopted value of artifact density can be used to define site limits for sampling purposes (for example, 0.04 artifacts/liter). Use of such a measure would add to the precision and validity of sampling designs that frequently use more casual ways of estimating site dimensions.