Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semisedentary Peoples

Describing the nature and meaning of artifact spatialpatterning can be highly subjective, yet many patternscan be quantified to create general models that arecomparable across time periods and geographic space.The authors employ various techniques in this endeavor,including large sample sizes, model-driven analysesof the ethnographic record, bone and lithic refitting,and a careful consideration of artifact attributes thatelucidate spatial patterning. Such detailed analyses allowarchaeologists to better interpret site formation processesand address large-scale anthropological questions. This volume includes studies that span archaeologicaland ethnographic contexts, from highly mobile Paleoindianforagers to semi-sedentary preagriculturalists of the Epipaleolithicand modern pastoralists in Mongolia. The authorshold that commonalities in human behavior lead to similarpatterns in the organization and maintenance of space bypeople. They present a series of ideas and approaches tomake it easier to recognize universals in human behaviors,which allow archaeologists to better compare intrasitespatial patterns. The book creates a baseline for newintrasite spatial analyses in the twenty-first century.