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Weighing and Counting Shell: A Response to Glassow and Claassen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Roger D. Mason ,
Mark L. Peterson  and
J. A. Tiffany
Roger D. Mason
Affiliation:
Chambers Group Inc, 17671 Cowan ste 100, Irvine, CA 92614-6074
Mark L. Peterson
Affiliation:
Peterson & Associates, 5232 Michelson Drive 21C, Irvine, CA 92612
J. A. Tiffany
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Iowa State University, 319 Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 50011
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Abstract

Glassow discusses several "problems" with the use of minimum number of individuals (MNI) in archaeological shellfish analysis, including the difficulty of identifying non-repetitive elements (NRE) to species level for several taxa. However, these problems, especially fragmentation, are more critical for the weight method than for MNI estimates. We have successfully identified thousands of NRE for all species common in southern California coastal archaeological sites. We also suggest that a measure, such as MNI, that provides estimates of numbers of individuals is a more reliable and valid measure with which to address most research questions. The weight method only provides a measure of the weight of some of the fragments from the shells of those individuals.

Resumen

Resumen

Glassow identifica unos “problemas” con el número mínimo de individuos (NMI) en el análisis de concha, que incluye las dificultades de indentificar elementos no repetidos (NRE) al nivel de especies para algunas taxa. Sin embargo, estos problemas, especialmente “fragmentación,” son más críticos para el método de peso que para NMI cálculos. Nosotros hemos identificado, en una manera exitosa, miles de NRE para todas las especies comunes en los sitios arqueológicos en la costa del sur de California. También sugerimos que una medida, tal como NMI, que da cálculos de números de individuos es válida para estudiar otras preguntas de investigación. El método depesonos da simplemente una medida de peso de algunos pedazos de los concha de estos individuos

Type
Comment
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , October 2000 , pp. 757 - 761
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2000

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References

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