Abstract
Although size is a basic empirical observation in most earth science research, such as sedimentology, pedology, and stratigraphy, attention to this basic physical parameter is relatively undeveloped in archaeology and in the study of artifacts. Artifacts are particles generated by human activity or by anything displaying one or more attributes resulting from human activity (Spaulding, 1960). Archaeological analysis of artifacts has conventionally concentrated on attributes other than size, such as composition and morphology, which are used to make inferences about technology, chronology, and style. Such attributes are observed in macro-or in large artifacts. Therefore, archaeologists have assumed that as an artifact’s size decreased so did its ability to provide useful information (Dunnell and Stein, 1989). As archaeologists’ questions evolved, however, beyond a narrow technological and chronological focus to include the formation of the archaeological record (Binford, 1978, 1981; Schiffer, 1987), the potential has been recognized for the size distributions of materials in an archaeological deposit to provide information on site locations and their complex depositional histories.
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Sherwood, S.C. (2001). Microartifacts. In: Goldberg, P., Holliday, V.T., Ferring, C.R. (eds) Earth Sciences and Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1183-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1183-0_12
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