evaluation
evaluation (evaluation excavation/field evaluation) [Te].The process of determining the nature, extent, quality of survival, and preservational characteristics of a known or suspected archaeological site. This is usually achieved by one or more of a variety of field techniques such as sampling with test-pits or trenches, geophysical surveys, geochemical prospection, and fieldwalking. It may also involve desk-based research using aerial photographs, historic maps, place-name evidence, and so on. Such studies typically follow from an archaeological ASSESSMENT of some kind. They might be undertaken in the context of preparing for the investigation of the site for purely research purposes (when they are sometimes referred to as trial-trenching), but increasingly such evaluations are undertaken in the context of ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. Here such work is done in advance of...
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