Phosphate analysis is a good general indicator of human activity, therefore it is one of the most commonly used soil analysis in archaeology. The purpose of phosphate analysis is to establish the following : 1) Site prospection, 2) Identify and interpret space use and activity areas, 3) Identify the extent of human activity around archaeological sites, 4) Identify buried soils, 5) Identify graves where the bone and organic matter remains have decayed and 6) To study land management and soil fertility. These are just some factors that can be examined using field-based phosphate analysis.http://www.sassa.org.uk/index

Disadvantages and advantages of phosphate analysis are : two advantages of phosphate analysis are that the analysis involves low cost analysis and the examinations are less time consuming unlike other type of testing. Also large samples can be refrigerated, frozen, and dried. Disadvantages of phosphate analysis is that : Large numbers of samples are often required because of the inherent spatial variability of chemical concentrations.^[1]