Artifact Size and Plowzone Processes

AbstractAbstractTheoretical consideration of the formation of plowzone archaeological deposits implicates artifact size as an important and heretofore under-used source of information. Modality in size distributions of degradable artifacts, such as low-fired pottery and bone, indicates the addition of stratigraphically deeper materials to a plowzone assemblage. This means that different ages and/or depositional contexts are mixed in such assemblages. With sufficiently large and well-controlled samples, the location and characterization of subplowzone deposits may be possible from the analysis of size distributions of surface materials alone. Application to a "worst case" surface assemblage from SE Missouri demonstrates the general feasibility of the approach.