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The Impact of Site Sample Size on the Reconstruction of Culture Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles Perreault
Charles Perreault*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California at Los Angeles, 341 Haines Hall, California, 90095 (cperreault@ucla.edu)
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Abstract

I examine how our capacity to produce accurate culture-historical reconstructions changes as more archaeological sites are discovered, dated, and added to a data set. More precisely, I describe, using simulated data sets, how increases in the number of known sites impact the accuracy and precision of our estimations of (1) the earliest and (2) latest date of a cultural tradition, (3) the date and (4) magnitude of its peak popularity, as well as (5) its rate of spread and (6) disappearance in a population. I show that the accuracy and precision of inferences about these six historical processes are not affected in the same fashion by changes in the number of known sites. I also consider the impact of two simple taphonomic site destruction scenarios on the results. Overall, the results presented in this paper indicate that unless we are in possession of near-total samples of sites, and can be certain that there are no taphonomic biases in the universe of sites to be sampled, we will make inferences of varying precision and accuracy depending on the aspect of a cultural trait’s history in question.

Resumen

Resumen

Examino como nuestra capacidad de producir reconstrucciones culturo-históricas exactas aumenta cuando descubrimos, fechamos, y agregamos a nuestros bancos de data, más sítios arqueológicos. Más precisamente, describo, utilizando datos simulados, como aumentando el número de sítios conocidos impacta la exactitud y precision de nuestras estimaciones de (1) la primera y (2) ultima fecha de una tradición cultural, (3) la fecha y (4) magnitud de su popularidad en su apogeo, y también su tasa de (5) difusión y (6) desaparición en la población. Notablemente, muestro que la exactitud y precision de las inferências sobre estos seis procesos históricos no están afectado por el cambio en el numero de sítios conocidos de Ia misma manera. Finalmente, considero el impacto de dos tipos de procesos de tafonomía simples sobre estos resultados. Resumiendo, los resultados de este articulo indican que a menos que tengamos muestras que sean casi completas de los sítios, y esternos seguros de que no haya influencias tafonómicas en el universo de sitios en la muestra, haremos inferências que varian en exactitud y precision según el aspecto de la historia del rasgo cultural siendo investigado.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 547 - 572
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2011

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