The ArchaeoTech Podcast · The Archaeology Podcast Network

The Changing Landscape of Archaeological Survey - Ep 195

·47 min·3 clips

A frozen bathroom pipe in Minnesota cracked and flooded a house after repeated freezes.

1. The ArchaeoTech Podcast episode 195 is about the changing landscape of archaeological survey, from field walking to GIS-driven planning and digital recording. 2. Chris Webster hosts with co-host Paul Zimmerman, who brings CRM survey experience, Lagash surface-survey work, and technical experimentation with sensors and programming. 3. The episode asks what archaeological survey is for now, after decades of technological change and changing expectations in academic archaeology and CRM. 4. Paul opens with a sub-$20 weather sensor built from a BMP280 chip, a Raspberry Pi Pico, a small display, and 3D printing for total-station atmospheric corrections. 5. Chris connects that sensor idea to Ruuvi sensors in an RV refrigerator, a wine refrigerator, a freezer, and a water bay, with phone alerts for temperature changes. 6. Chris then shifts the conversation to Lagash, where he is writing articles based on the 2022 surface survey and wants one paper coauthored with Iraqi colleagues. 7. Paul explains that the Lagash survey began in spring 2022 and finished in the fall season, which pushed him back into survey literature after years away from archaeology as a profession. 8. He says the first article will be more of a “cookbook” for Archaeology and Archaeometry Practice, while the second may go to Sumer as a results paper. 9. He emphasizes that the Iraqis on the project “did the bulk of the work” and should be credited as coauthors. 10. Paul describes spending time in journal articles from the 1960s through the last 15 years to build citations for survey methods and interpretation. 11. Chris and Paul compare survey planning to budget control, with Chris joking about a $150-an-hour burden rate and Paul explaining billable multipliers, insurance, taxes, and overhead. 12. Paul gives a concrete Nevada example where GIS, road mapping, slope analysis, and client data let his team avoid dangerous or unnecessary terrain before fieldwork began. 13. Chris says the client’s high-resolution imagery and digital elevation models cut the acreage they had to survey by about 70 percent because cliffs and steep slopes were flagged in advance. 14. Chris adds a New York example where freely available LiDAR data later showed the footprint of a long-gone building exactly where he and his team had suspected it was. 15. Paul says availability of imagery has changed dramatically since his 1997-to-2004 dissertation work, when access could require permission, payment, and government bureaucracy. 16. He also notes that in some places the best topo data still comes from geological firms, oil companies, or military sources, while SRTM remains too coarse for much archaeological work. 17. The episode keeps a conversational, two-host interview style with long back-and-forth examples, jokes about the Boston Dynamics dog, and practical field anecdotes. 18. Its energy is reflective and technical rather than dramatic, with Chris and Paul moving between CRM cost control, GIS workflow, and digital survey methods. 19. Archaeologists, CRM managers, and readers interested in GIS and survey methods. 20. Listeners wanting narrative archaeology stories with no method talk.

As heard by us

Survey tech matters most when better maps turn field planning into safer, faster decisions.

It moves from archaeological survey fieldwork into the plain mechanics that make it possible: atmospheric corrections in total station work, a homemade weather sensor, then GIS planning, slope analysis, recorded sites, and road layers. The strength is its practical focus.

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Why you'd press play

You want survey tech that saves time without pretending the terrain will cooperate.

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