Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:23:27.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Costs of Shell Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alan Koloseike
Alan Koloseike*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Windsor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Excavation of a coastal site often involves the temptation to perform a quantitative analysis for mollusc shell present in the midden. A major factor in such an analysis is the time expense involved. This paper presents the minimal time costs for the sub-processes of standard shell analysis. Time costs for an actual shell analysis are reconstructed to illustrate the use of sub-process rates and as an independent check on the rates as reported. An adequate standard shell analysis is an expensive undertaking. The time and/or money involved might well be applied to more productive research.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , October 1970 , pp. 475 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cook, S. F., and Heizer, R. F. 1962 Chemical analysis of the Hotchkiss site (CCo-138). Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey, No. 57:1–24.Google Scholar
Heizer, Robert F., and Cook, Sherburne F. 1956 Some aspects of the quantitative approach in archaeology. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 12:229–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koloseike, Alan 1969 The logic of midden analysis with respect to shell. Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 7965:371–382. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Koloseike, Alan 1970 On calculating the prehistoric food resource value of molluscs. Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1969. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Koloseike, Alan, and Peterson, M. 1963 Macro-column shell analysis. Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1962-63:439-459. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Meighan, C. W., Pendergast, D. M., Swartz, B. K., and Wissler, M. D. 1958 Ecological interpretation in archaeology, part I. American Antiquity 24:1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nevill, Gale, and Falconer, David 1962 Critical path diagramming. International Science and Technology 1:43–49.Google Scholar
Warren, Claude N., and Pavesic, Max G. 1963 Shell midden analysis of site SDi-603 and implications for cultural development on Batiquitos Lagoon, San Diego County, California. Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1962-63: 411-438. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar