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<br />II. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS • <br />2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND GOALS <br />The principal theoretical assumption underlying the present invest- <br />igation is the assumption that cultural systems are rational systems, <br />particularly with regard to economic concerns. It follows that sites of <br />human activity were not randomly distributed over the landscape. The pattern <br />of site locations is a product of rational decisions made by members of <br />the cultural group that occupied the sites that take into account the <br />various environmental and social factors pertaining to the activities <br />carried on at the site. This is true of any cultural group, no matter how <br />primitive or unsophisticated their cultural system might appear to be. One <br />objective of archeological research, then, is to discover the patterning of <br />sites in an area, attempt to ascertain the kinds of activities that were <br />carried out at those sites, and relate the site and activity patterning to <br />relevant environmental variables. <br />When first investigating an unknown area, there is a tendency to assume • <br />that sites will be located in particular locations, an assumption based on <br />previous work in other areas. If only those locations are investigated, <br />however, previously unknown patterns of sites in other locations may be <br />missed. Consequently, an adequate cultural inventory requires that all parts <br />of an area be investigated. If the area is too large for complete cover- <br />age, a sampling technique that eliminates any potential of bias should be <br />employed, such as random selection of squares of a predetermined size or <br />randomly placed transects cross-cutting environmental zones. In the present <br />investigation it was possible to conduct a complete coverage of the area <br />included in the project. <br />2.2 LONG TERM EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS ON THE ANTIQUITIES RESOURCE <br />BASE <br />Any activity that modifies the land surface can destroy potentially <br />valuable archeological resources and population expansion and the tech- <br />nological developments that accompany that expansion are destroying those <br />resources at a rapidly increasing rate. It is estimated that the land • <br />