Developing Methods of Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology in Western North America: 1983–2022 (or, from Map-O-Matics to Total Stations)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Developing Paleolithic Excavation Methods for the Twenty-First Century" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Although not the Paleolithic in the classic sense of the word, prehistory of North American western Plains and Rocky Mountains is a study of stone tool–using hunter-gatherers. Excavation techniques changed radically over the past 70 years perhaps stimulated by theoretical concerns and questions. In this presentation we briefly review the earlier parts of this period of developing methods, focusing on the last 20 years. Today’s cutting edge techniques using digital instruments, preliminary in-field recording, and analysis of recovered artifacts have resulted in creating an extremely high-resolution archaeological record unavailable to earlier investigators. Results of several site databases are highlighted and evaluated, illustrating drawbacks, benefits, and possible future directions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Developing Paleolithic Excavation Methods for the Twenty-First Century   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36812.0