A perspective for the archaeology of the 1980s is developed based upon the conclusion that we have entered an era of big archaeology analogous to the advent of big science in the 1950s. The birth of big archaeology coincided with a significant paradigm shift that brought us processual archaeology, but the creation of the field of cultural resource management altered the nature of archaeological research even more drastically. The scope and scale of big archaeology are defined and problems challenging this new style of archaeology are identified. The most serious is one of managing research more efficiently. To provide a framework for assessing the current status of our discipline an "external" history of American archaeology is outlined by identifying three earlier paradigms and reviewing the context of research during each. These include (1) an early 19th century paradigm focused on the origin of American Indians and more generally racial diversity, (2) a late 19th century captivation with sociocultural evolution, and (3) an early to mid-20th century enthusiasm for defining culture areas and chronologies. This review shows that our most recent paradigm shift and the rise of cultural resource management, as the dominant institutional base of research support, are not dissimilar to changes associated with each of the earlier paradigms. However the level of research funding during the current paradigm has exceeded the historic growth trend tremendously, thus creating big archaeology. An in-depth case study of the 15-year history of the cultural resource program associated with the Central Arizona Project is presented to show how one example of big archaeology originated and evolved. Trends of growth and increasingly intensive survey and salvage are documented and evaluated. (An appended annotated bibliography presents the data for this analysis.) The experience of big science is reviewed to provide insight into the issues challenging big archaeology. Several structural problems in the current context of archaeological research are highlighted and strategies for attacking them are broached.

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The objective of this dissertation is to develop methods to draw relevant information from previously underexploited sources for behavioral inference in archaeology. The sources of information to be discussed are ceramics and formation processes. Ceramics have been the center of archaeological inquiry since the "Time-Space Revolution" during 1910's. Numerous studies have vigorously sought ceramics as a source of information for chronological, typological, and, more recently, locational inferences. In clear contrast, information encoded in ceramics about specific activities in the past has been surprisingly underexploited. This is because most extant ceramic analyses seldom have a perspective broad enough to recognize that those sherds are only fragments of once-functional tools. In this dissertation, extending the concept of tool kits, a method is proposed to treat a set of ceramics as tools to accomplish a certain task. Formation processes are another underexploited information source for behavioral inference. Initially, formation process theory was developed in reaction to studies by "new" archaeologists, who considered the archaeological record as a direct reflection of past human behavior. Owing to this historical reason, while this theory has demonstrated that formation processes must be an integral part of inferential processes, the role of information contained in formation processes tends to remain as negative, confounding factors. This dissertation proposes that information derived from formation processes can make more positive contributions to behavioral inference. Since formation processes, by way of the structure of refuse, encode qualitatively different aspects of past human behavior, an integration of such information with information about specific activities from once-functional artifacts would bring a fruitful result. An area of study that craves the exploitation of more information is small site analysis. Behavioral inference in small sites always suffers from the paucity of remains. Hampered by this limitation, conventional methods have failed to generate sufficient information for unequivocal behavioral inference at small sites. A specific analysis of Hohokam small sites is presented to demonstrate that the proposed methods are effective in exploiting relevant information from the same limited remains.

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Problems with the identification and interpretation of rockshelter and cave sites were recognized in the archaeological literature from Indiana. Often, when these sites are identified in archaeological research and survey reports, realistic views of the potential cultural significance they may actually have is lacking. Based on data obtained from recent rockshelter surveys in southern Indiana, a method for evaluating the archaeological potential of rockshelter sites is presented. This methodology systematically accounts for geomorphological and geological factors as well as environmental considerations. Geographic information system (GIS) software is used to assist in the analysis and visualization of the variables associated with these rockshelters. While stressing the importance of these sites as potentially providing conditions for the preservation of cultural material, this method can also be used as a model for further studies on this topic. / Department of Anthropology

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Survey is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, it needs to be both effective and efficient. Some archaeologists have argued that current survey techniques are not effective (Shott 1985, 1989), but most archaeologists continue to employ these methods and therefore must believe they are effective. If our survey techniques are effective, why do simulations suggest otherwise? If they are ineffective, can we improve them? The answers to these practical questions depend on the topological characteristics of archaeological site distributions. In this study I analyze archaeological site distributions in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, using lacunarity and fractal dimension. Fractal dimension is a parameter of fractal patterns, which are complex, space-filling designs exhibiting self-similarity and power-law scaling. Lacunarity is a statistical measure that describes the texture of a spatial dispersion. It is useful in understanding how archaeological tests should be spaced during surveys. Between these two measures, I accurately describe the regional topology and suggest new considerations for archaeological survey design. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection