Founded 1906
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Surface And Excavation Finds At Rocky Clump As part of an undergraduate student project with the University of Surrey, flints from Rocky Clump were examined by kind permission of John Funnell. The study looked at some of the differences between finds collected by surface collection and excavation, in terms of type, size and colour. It has been suggested (Boismier 1991: 18, Drennan 1996: 88) that surface finds are of more unusual type, are bigger and of brighter colour. Analysis of literature reports and assemblages showed that in seven of ten cases, significantly more worked flint tools and special pottery sherds were recovered from surface collection than from excavation. Surface artifacts were significantly larger in one (Rocky Clump) of three examples. Significantly more obtrusively coloured tesserae and sherds were recovered from the surface in four of seven assemblages studied; neither of the two flint assemblages showed this effect. At Rocky Clump the flint assemblage obtained by fieldwalking was compared with a 20 % random sample of excavated flints; results for type were as follows: Table 1: Comparison of tools and debitage
Chi square analysis indicates there is no significant difference (0.19 for one degree of freedom, p> 0.05). For size, flint measurements in three dimensions were compared: Table 2: Flint sizes compared
Kolmogorov-Smirnov analyses showed that the difference in length was significant (p <0.05, approaching 0.01), as was that for breadth (p <0.05), but depth showed no significant difference. The fleldwalking flints were bigger. For colour Table 3: Flint colours compared
Chi-square analysis indicated no significant difference (1.04 for two degrees of freedom, p > 0.05). It is gratifying that there is no type difference, which is what is hoped for in surface collection. The "size effect" (Baker 1978), it is suggested, means that on plough soil larger objects tend to come to the surface through natural processes. This was supported at Rocky Clump, though not elsewhere. The question of whether surface collection selects for colour remains a possibility that needs further investigation. I am grateful to Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society for permission to study their material. References. Baker,	C. M, 1978. The Size Effect: An Explanation of Variability In Surface Artifact Assemblage Content, American Antiquity, 43 (2), 288-293. Boismier, W. A, 1991. The Role of Research Design in Surface Collection: an Example from Broom Hill, Hampshire, in A. J. Schofield (ed.), Interpreting Artefact Scatters: Contributions to Ploughzone Archaeology, 11-25. Oxford: Oxbow, Monograph. Drennan, R. D. 1996. Statistics for Archaeologists. London, Plenum.
Alison Gaitonde
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