Page 34 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

Chapter 2
Research
Some form of research must be carried out as a prerequisite to archae- ological fieldwork, be it an initial field survey or excavation work on a site. Without this preliminary study, it is likely that a great deal of time will be wasted in the field solving problems that could have been solved much more easily and efficiently at the home base. This is often referred to as a research design, although that is a rather restrictive term and is often simply the basis or justification for conducting work, rather than the more encompassing research that provides all the available information before the field opera- tions begin. The aim of this chapter is to give a broad overview of the complex problems associated with preparation for fieldwork. There are many different types of research work required to be done before going into the field, which should give information about the location of the site or the nature of the area and help in the planning of the fieldwork. These include such diverse fields such as archival research, site research and, finally, the detailed preparation for fieldwork. For further information on this general subject, see Alexander (1970), Flemming and Max (1988), and Palmer (1986).
I. PROJECT PLANNING
Before embarking on any archaeological project it is essential to have some sort of plan which should be made up of an assessment of the objec- tives, an outline of the methods that will be used to gather the data, and a careful analysis of how the collected data will be recorded, conserved,
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