Fired Rifle Cartridges as an Archaeological Tool for Dating Later Historical Sites: Harrington Histograms and Measures of Central Tendency

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The wealth of qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques that have been used in researching tobacco pipestems from 16th-19thcentury sites can be employed on fired cartridges from 19thand 20th-century sites.  When Harrington-style occupation histograms and Binford-type mean dates are applied on spent cartridges they provide remarkable chronological precision.  The histograms are based on production ranges, and the number of different of distinct types per decade provide generalized occupation ranges or multi-occupation nuances.  Likewise, measures of central tendency—based on individual count and production midpoint—offer a mean date of occupation. Using the Harrison site as a case study, this paper demonstrates the utility of this artifact as an anchor for temporal analysis.  The occupation date range, mean date, and singular-occupation designation determined by analysis of the sites 200 rifle cartridges are nearly identical to the same chronological research done on the entire assemblage of over 40,000 artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 499