A case study in the analysis of patterns of aerial reconnaissance in a lowland area of southwest Scotland

Analysis of aspects of an ongoing programme of aerial reconnaissance, looking for archaeological sites revealed as cropmarks, in a lowland part of southwest Scotland has identified biases in the survey. Areas of known potential tend to be targeted at the expense of less rewarding ground, contributing to an imbalance in the known distributions of sites created by regional variations in land‐use patterns. A relationship between areas with a high density of sites, in a year of exceptional cropmark formation, and a high incidence of sites that have not been adequately recorded also can be identified. The ongoing assessment of survey data is a key factor in offsetting the impact of such biases in the longer term, recognizing the active role of survey methods in data creation and the importance of understanding the biases inherent in data. Copyright © Crown Copyright 2002. Recorded with the permission of the controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.