The Challenge of Digitized Survey Data

This paper discusses the issue of the archaeological site as a unit for spatial analysis in the reality of the transition from analog to digitized data. The paper is based both on conventional survey conducted in the Negev desert between 1979 and 1990 and on a digitized mapping project of ancient agricultural systems in 2003–2013. The desert is characterized by an unusual density of well-preserved sites and features. The basic method of conventional surveys is to mark sites as centralized points where pottery has been collected, representing a considerable discrepancy with the fact that the same sites are made up of tens of scattered dwelling structures, cisterns, burials, installations, terraces, etc. It is believed that only this alternative display of features provides a basis for analysis exploiting efficiently the full potential of the rich data.