Assessment of land surveys in Greece: Contributions and limitations

Abstract

For over a quarter of century, successive surveys, which are still continuing, have supplied a considerable though varied collection of data on the lands of ancient Greece. From around 1990, a fresh start was made with the grid-based method of systematic exploration, used in particular by J. Cherry in Keos and subsequently practised elsewhere. The idea is no longer merely to produce synopses on published sites or to conduct new explorations with the ultimate aim of locating and identifying habitats mentioned in written sources. Rather, it is to make a systematic exploration of a specific zone, which is intended to be used as an example, in order to index all archaeological vestiges that suggest the existence of habitats, whether permanent or not © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.