Abstract The Eurasian steppes present the following challenges for conducting regional settlement pattern surveys: low artifact densities, poor surface visibility, the need to cover unusually large territories. There are indicators that the survey methods traditionally employed in the steppes - surface collection, aerial photography, and excavation of 1 × 1 m test pits - are inefficient when it comes to dealing with such challenges. This paper describes an alternative adaptive systematic shovel testing methodology developed in the context of a 40 sq. km settlement pattern study conducted in the Southern Urals region of Russia. My study has utilized all of the aforementioned survey techniques simultaneously over the same areas and found that systematic shovel testing was more effective than the other three methods in determining how Bronze Age (2050–1400 BCE) populations distributed their residences across a regional-scale landscape. In particular, the new technique was more effective in detecting occupation areas and generating paleodemographic proxies.

中文翻译：

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欧亚草原区域定居格局调查的最新方法学方法

摘要欧亚草原在进行区域定居模式调查时面临以下挑战：低人工密度，低表面能见度，需要覆盖异常大的领土。有迹象表明，在草原上传统上采用的调查方法-表面收集，航空摄影和1×1 m测试坑的开挖-在应对此类挑战时效率低下。本文介绍了在俄罗斯南部乌拉尔地区进行的40平方公里沉降模式研究的背景下开发的另一种自适应系统铁锹测试方法。我的研究在同一地区同时利用了上述所有调查技术，发现系统的铁锹测试比其他三种方法更有效地确定青铜时代（2050-1400 BCE）的人口如何在区域范围内分配居住地。尤其是，这项新技术在发现占领区和生成古地理代理方面更有效。