Dig It, Design It: A new simulation tool for the design of optimal subsurface testing programs

This paper presents a new simulation tool, Dig It, Design It, which allows the archaeologist to easily design an optimal subsurface sampling program for the detection of buried artefacts. The design of such a program rests upon the relationship between the sampling methodology and the characteristics of the artefact concentrations under study, principally their size, density and density distribution. While the need to consider this relationship has been previously established, a model which automatically performs these calculations had not yet been designed. Dig It, Design It is the first model to be presented which considers artefact site properties and detection probabilities to produce an optimal sampling strategy for the archaeologist, and to provide the detection probabilities for artefact sites with different properties. The model is available online, is very easy to use, and no mathematical knowledge is required. Dig It, Design It thus has the potential to dramatically increase the use of statistically defensible sampling programs within the archaeological community.