One Method of Recording Scatters of Stone Artefacts during Site Surveys
Peter Dixon Hiscock, Philip Hughes · Australian Archaeology · 1983
Surface scatters of stone artefacts are the most commonly occurring prehistoric archaeological sites in Australia, but until recently they have received scant attention from researchers. Notable exceptions to this are the ongoing research projects of Dan Witter in New South Wales and Victoria, Peter Hiscock in northwest Queensland and Sylvia Hallam in the Perth region of Western Australia. Artefact scatters are often located in the course of consulting projects carried out for government agencies and private developers. Archaeological consultants have expended considerable effort in devising methods by which such sites can be recorded systematically and quickly. At the same time these methods must provide descriptions of sites which allow an assessment of their significance and which are an adequate archival record. As an example of the processes involved in devising such a recording system we discuss below our work on the Olympic Dam project, a proposed mining development on Roxby Downs station and its surrounds in arid South Australia to the west of Lake Torrens.