5.9.1. Lithic density raster index

Concentrations of lithics and ceramics were delimited and recorded as low density loci when they exceeded 1 artifact per meter, medium density at 2-10 artifacts/m2and high density at 10+ artifacts/m2. The resulting GPS polygons describe regions of increasing lithic density, which is the familiar 'fried-egg' distribution of archaeological artifact scatters. These polygons are based on estimates of artifact scatter density but the resulting GPS vectors with firm boundaries are not a suitable way to analyze data that had its origin as estimated artifact density scatters (Figure 5-6b). In order to examine lithic surface distributions as a statistical model of artifact density, the mobile GIS derived polygon vectors were converted to a raster data model with a 1m cell size.