Statistical Fact and Archaeological Faith: Two Models in Small-Sites Sampling
Jack D. Nance · Journal of Field Archaeology · 1981
The study of prehistory, or any science for that matter, is predicated upon certain fundamental assumptions relating to the investigator's ability to make valid observations about the phenomena constituting the subject matter of that discipline. These fundamentals often go unquestioned and, because they are integral to the practice of the discipline, the validity of the basic methodology of the science remains untested and undemonstrated. It is the purpose of this paper to examine some assumptions about the archaeologist's ability to recover certain classes of data through excavation. Specifically, some of the models that archaeologists have implicitly and explicitly invoked in site sampling are examined for their capacity to yield elementary kinds of data archaeologists say they need to establish culture histories, reconstruct past life ways, and investigate culture process.