As a bedrock of archaeological research, seriation and pottery dating methods have proliferated and become increasingly statistically sophisticated. Yet, rarely do archaeologists critically evaluate the effectiveness of our methods in relation to each other to ensure that results are meaningful. This study compares four techniques—Pecos Classification, Correspondence Analysis, Uniform Probability Density Analysis, and a Village Ecodynamics Project (VEP) Bayesian Statistical Model—using the same site data from Park Mesa on the Mesa Verde Cuesta in the U.S. Southwest to assess the comparability, strengths, sensitivities, and weaknesses of these methods. Importantly, the occupation histories produced by each of these methods differed in ways that had significant implications for their interpretive narratives underscoring the critical need for us to understand how the methods we use bias outcomes. In this case, the methods’ outputs varied due to a combination of factors including changes in what data were used as inputs, how phases were defined, how pottery types were weighted, and how multicomponent sites were handled. Methods varied most significantly during well-documented periods of social change, generating a multiverse of possible histories of what these Ancestral Pueblo settlements and communities were like in the past. This study serves as a caution for archaeologists to consider how the methods they select bias results and to select their methods with care.
Archaeological interpretations often associate particular forms of artefact modification with greater processing investment and social significance, although their underlying technological processes may differ. This study develops a non-destructive trace-analysis framework for examining technological choices and their social implications. The framework combines macroscopic and low-magnification microscopic observation, controlled experiments, and feature-based comparison. Perforation morphology, technical traces, profile morphology, and structural relationships between traces are evaluated together to identify force-input modes and operational sequences. Cowrie shells from the Western Zhou cemetery at Dahekou, Shanxi Province, China, provide a case study for testing the framework. Experimental replication distinguishes percussion, sustained abrasion, and composite procedures involving percussive opening followed by abrasive refinement. Comparison with selected archaeological specimens identifies percussion-dominant, abrasion-dominant, and composite technological pathways where diagnostic features are sufficiently preserved. Broadly similar large dorsal oval perforations can be produced through distinct operational pathways that differ substantially in duration and action counts under the experimental conditions. These results show that similar final forms need not represent equivalent technological processes or levels of relative operational investment. By separating final form from reconstructed technological process, the framework provides a basis for testing whether socially patterned forms of cowrie modification also reflect differences in technological choices and relative processing investment.
Middle Pleistocene archaeological contexts are fundamental for understanding the behavioral and technological strategies of early hominin groups. However, functional interpretations of lithic assemblages remain challenging, particularly in contexts where variability in raw materials may affect the formation and visibility of use-wear traces. Assessing how different lithic materials influence use-wear formation is essential for improving traceological interpretations and reconstructing hominin activities. The open-air site of Ambrona (Soria, Spain), one of the most significant Middle Pleistocene localities in Europe, provides an important case study for investigating the activities carried out by hominin groups within a fluvio-lacustrine landscape. This study presents the results of an experimental reference collection designed to investigate use-wear formation on three flint varieties representative of the Ambrona lithic assemblage. The experimental program documented macro and micro use-wear traces generated during activities archaeologically plausible for the site, particularly animal carcass processing and woodworking. Different worked materials, motions, and durations of use were incorporated to evaluate the variability and development of use-wear traces under standardized conditions. The results show that raw material properties significantly influence the rate and visibility of use-wear development, even among lithologies broadly classified as flint. The worked material plays a primary role in determining polish distribution and microtopography, allowing a clear differentiation between traces produced by carcass processing and those related to woodworking, whereas marginal scarring patterns show substantial overlap between activities and motions. These findings provide an experimental framework for the functional interpretation of flint tools from Ambrona and other Middle Pleistocene sites with comparable raw materials. More broadly, this study highlights the importance of developing experimental reference collections tailored to specific lithic materials to refine traceological interpretations and improve reconstructions of hominin technological behavior, including activities involving perishable materials that rarely preserve in the archaeological record.
This paper applies networks science to the archaeology of the Bronze Age in southern Iberia, with the aim of extrapolating large-scale social, economic and productive dynamics from artefactual, topographical and architectural data gathered during more than a century of archaeological research. We compare three different networks of archaeological settlements connected through shared economic categories, integrating for the first time the diachronic dimension: Early Bronze Age (EBA) for sites dated between ∼ 2200–1800 BCE, Middle Bronze Age (MBA) for sites dated between ∼ 1800–1550 BCE, and Early and Middle Bronze Age (EMBA) for sites that persist across both chronologies. Although all networks align closely with a random graph structure, the MBA network stands out for its different values in degree centrality, betweenness centrality and modularity, compared to EBA and EMBA. When the interpretation of the archaeological context is considered in the analysis, MBA appears characterised by extensive procurement and distribution networks compared to EBA, implying a more integrated web of inter-community interaction.
This paper develops a continuous-surface approach to horizon morphology as a measurable archaeological variable. Whereas conventional viewshed analysis maps visible terrain, this approach describes how the horizon itself is formed and organised. Directional profiles extracted with HORAYZON are analysed through principal component analysis (PCA) and a gaze-centred weighted discrete cosine transform (DCT), allowing skyline morphology to be mapped and compared across landscapes. Applied to Baomacheng, a Jin dynasty royal sacrificial temple at Changbai Mountain, the method reveals a Tianchi-facing skyline defined by low relief, close lateral balance, central alignment, and distinctive higher-order structure. Relative to the wider Changbai landscape, several aspects of this configuration are unusual; within the constrained northern comparison populations, however, measures of flatness, centring, and spectral form become more typical, while the higher-order PCA structure remains the clearest distinction. Directional comparisons at the site further identify a consistent Tianchi-facing spectral structure marked by weak broad low-frequency dominance, while tests using alternative spatial sampling, elevation data, observer positions, and model settings support the overall configuration. Together, the results identify a restrained but strongly organised visual relationship between the temple and the sacred mountain. This landscape composition echoes the temple’s axial symmetry and the Jin imperial ritual emphasis on rank, measure, symmetry, and controlled access. The study demonstrates that archaeologically meaningful visual order can be expressed through balance, patterned restraint, and controlled emphasis, and provides a reproducible framework for identifying such configurations across continuous landscapes.
