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The Interpretation of Archaeological Floor Assemblages: A Case Study from the American Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael W. Diehl
Michael W. Diehl*
Affiliation:
Center for Desert Archaeology, 3975 N. Tucson Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85716
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Abstract

Analyses of the assemblages from the floors of Upland Mogollon pithouses show that variation in artifact frequencies may be attributed to differences in the intensity of abandonment and post-abandonment formation processes, such as caching, scavenging and trash dumping. The proportion of pithouses that contain caches or de facto assemblages is provocatively constant across sites—roughly 18 percent. This observation may be useful for refining estimates of the populations of sites or regions, for recognizing the size of social groups, or for identifying the abandonment sequences of pithouse villages. Prior studies that attribute variation in the frequencies of different classes of artifacts to functional differences in the uses of pithouses are rejected on the grounds of methodological inadequacy.

Résumé

Résumé

El análisis estadístico se emplea para examinar conjuntos de suelos de aldeas en la montañas Mogollón. Se atribuye variación en las frecuencias de tipos diferentes de instrumentos a los efectos diferenciales en procesos de formación tales como el tirado de basura, almacienamiento, y reciclado. La proporción de casas que contienen conjuntos de facto (Schiffer 1987:89–97) es casi constante—18%. Esta observación es útil porque permite 1) estimar la población, 2) estimar los tamaños de grupos sociales, o 3) identificar el proceso de abandono de casas. Estudios previos (Hunter-Anderson 1986; Stafford and Rice 1981; que atribuyeron variación de frecuencia de tipos a diferencias funcionales) fallaron en considerar estos otros procesos. Esos estudios son rechazados porque usaron métodos inválidos.

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Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , October 1998 , pp. 617 - 634
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1998

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