Dealing with biases

Book excerpt: This books explores the bias that is introduced by erosion and sedimentation on the distribution of archaeological materials in Mediterranean landscapes. It describes innovative and interdisciplinary work that led to the formulation of a broad range of geo-archeological approaches that are applied to two Italian areas, studied intensively by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology: the Pontine Region in South Lazio, and the Raganello Basin in North Calabria. The approaches deal with geological biases affecting the study of protohistoric remains in the sedimentary part of the Pontine plain; the development of a detailed landscape classification approach to predict and test site location preferences and survey biases in the uplands of both study areas; and the development and evaluation of an innovative computerised landscape evolution model for a test area in the Raganello Basin uplands. In addition to the presented case study, this book also shows how the three geo-archaeological approaches can be applied in a wider context to quantitatively understand how erosion and sedimentation bias our understanding of archaeological records.