Surface Collections Surface Collections Surface materials are important for archaeological first-impressions.
Archaeologists make many research judgements based on surface information.
Comparisons of surface materials might also be used to distinguish among different types of sites. However, surface collections may be influenced by natural selective processes that cause certain kinds of artifacts to be buried quickly or driven to the surface frequently. Understanding these influences is necessary if accurate predictions about buried materials are to be made and if meaningful site comparisons based on surface materials are to be drawn. This study indicates that surface material from one location may be as different from subsurface material at that location as is material from two different sites. In order to evaluate how static the frequencies of artifact types are in surface collections, we conducted three complete surface collections at the Tenderfoot Site over several field seasons.