Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Time-Averaging Slows Down Rates of Change in the Archaeological Record

  • Published:
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Measuring the pace of cultural change, and understanding its determinants is a fundamental goal of anthropological research. The archaeological record is the main source of information about the pace of cultural change, but it is an imperfect one, as taphonomic loss and mixing distort rate measurements. Here, I focus on the impact of time-averaging on rate measurements. Time-averaging arises when archaeological materials associated with activities and events that took place at different points in time are mixed into the same unit, whether because of depositional processes, disturbance factors, or because archaeologists lump together archaeological contexts when creating analytical units. I use analytical models to show how time-averaging can slow down the observed rates of change under two general modes of cultural change: random drift and directional change. I test this prediction using empirical rates of change from the archaeological record of North America. I show that empirical rates of change are indeed inversely correlated with the duration of time-averaging and provide a range estimate for this correlation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ascher, R. (1968). Time’s arrow and the archaeology of a contemporary community. In K. C. Chang (Ed.), Settlement archaeology (pp. 43–52). Palo Alto: National Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, G. N. (1981). Concepts, time-scales, and explanations in economic prehistory. In A. Sheridan, & G. N. Bailey (Eds.), Economic Archaeology (pp. 97–117). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 96.

  • Bailey, G. N. (2007). Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology of time. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 26(2), 198–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Behrensmeyer, A. K., & Schindel, D. (1983). Resolving time in paleobiology. Paleobiology, 9(1), 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. R. (1981). Behavioral archaeology and the “Pompeii premise”. Journal of Anthropological Research, 37(3), 195–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, D. P. (1987). Coevolution of sedentism, pottery technology, and horticulture in the Central Midwest, 200 B.C.-A.D. 600. In W. F. Keegan (Ed.), Emergent horticulture economis of the eastern woodland (pp. 153–181). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, R. L., Bettinger, R. L., Borrero, L. A., Bronitsky, G., Brown, K. L., Carlson, D. L., et al. (1982). Events in the archaeological context and archaeological explanation [with comments and replies]. Current Anthropology, 23(1), 67–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Currie, T. E., & Mace, R. (2014). Evolution of cultural traits occurs at similar relative rates in different world regions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1795). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1622

  • Eerkens, J. W., & Lipo, C. P. (2005). Cultural transmission, copying errors, and the generation of variation in material culture and the archaeological record. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 24(4), 316–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2005.08.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, R. (1992). Time perspectivism, annales, and the potential of archaeology. In A. B. Knapp (Ed.), Archaeology, Annales, and Ethnohistory (pp. 35–50). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Foley, R. A. (1981). A model of regional archaeological structure. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 47, 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, J. (1962). A quantitative method for deriving cultural chronology (technical manual no. 1). Washington, DC: Pan American Union.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallivan, M. D. (2002). Measuring sedentariness and settlement population: accumulations research in the middle Atlantic region. American Antiquity, 67, 535–557.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenhill, S. J., Atkinson, Q. D., Meade, A., & Gray, R. D. (2010). The shape and tempo of language evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1693), 2443–2450. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0051

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haldane, J. B. S. (1949). Suggestions as to quantitative measurement of rates of evolution. Evolution, 3(1), 51–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, M. J., & Buchanan, B. (2009). The accumulation of stochastic copying errors causes drift in culturally transmitted technologies: quantifying Clovis evolutionary dynamics. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 28, 55–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding, J. (2005). Rethinking the great divide: long-term structural history and the temporality of event. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 38(2), 88–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/00293650510032707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holdaway, S., & Wandsnider, L. (Eds.). (2008). Time in archaeology: time perspectivism revisited. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kowalewski, M. (1996). Time-averaging, overcompleteness, and the geological record. The Journal of Geology, 104(3), 317–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kowalewski, M. (1998). High-resolution estimates of temporal mixing within shell beds; the evils and virtues of time-averaging. Paleobiology, 24(3), 287–304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipo, C. P., & Madsen, M. E. (2001). Neutrality, “style”, and drift: building methods for studying cultural transmission in the archaeological record. In T. D. Hurt & G. F. M. Rakita (Eds.), Style and function: conceptual issues in evolutionary archaeology (pp. 91–118). Westport: Bergin & Garvey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas, G. (2008). Time and archaeological event. 18(1), 59–65.

  • Lycett, S. J., & von Cramon-Taubadel, N. (2008). Acheulean variability and hominin dispersals: a model-bound approach. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 553–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyman, R. L. (2003). The influence of time averaging and space averaging on the application of foraging theory in zooarchaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science, 30(5), 595–610.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malinksy-Buller, A., Hovers, E., & Marder, O. (2011). Making time: ‘living floors’, ‘palimpsets’ and site formation processes—a perspective from the open-air lower Paleolithic site of Revadim quarry, Israel. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 30, 89–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mariano, N., Lopéz, F., & Cruz, F. (1998). Performance analysis of technology using the S curve model: the case of digital signal processing (DSP) technologies. Technovation, 18(6/7), 439–457.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathew, S., & Perreault, C. (2015). Behavioural variation in 172 small-scale societies indicates that social learning is the main mode of human adaptation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1810), doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0061.

  • Mathew, S., & Perreault, C. (2016). Cultural history, not ecological environment, is the main determinant of human behaviour. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1826), doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0177.

  • Mills, B. J. (1989). Integrating functional analysis of vessels and sherds through models of ceramic assemblage formation. World Archaeology, 21, 133–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, T., & Walker, M. J. (1988). Like WHAT? A practical question of analogical inferences and archaeological meaningfulness. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 7(3), 248–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neiman, F. D. (1995). Stylistic variation in evolutionary perspective: inferences from decorative diversity and interassemblage distance in Illinois woodland ceramic assemblages. American Antiquity, 60, 7–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olszewski, T. (1999). Taking advantage of time averaging. Paleobiology, 25(2), 226–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perreault, C. (2012). The pace of cultural evolution. PLoS One, 7(9), e45150. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plog, F. T. (1974). The study of prehistoric change. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Premo, L. S. (2014). Cultural transmission and diversity in time-averaged assemblages. Current Anthropology, 55(1), 105–114. https://doi.org/10.1086/674873

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, D. S., & Ehrlich, P. R. (2008). Natural selection and cultural rates of change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(9), 3416–3420. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0711802105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (1972). Archaeological context and systemic context. American Antiquity, 37(2), 156–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (1975). Archaeology as behavioral science. American Anthropologist, 77, 836–848.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (1976). Behavioral archaeology. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (1987). Formation processes of the archaeological record. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schindel, D. E. (1980). Microstratigraphic sampling and the limits of paleontologic resolution. Paleobiology, 6(4), 408–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shott, M. J. (1989). On tool-class use lives and the formation of archaeological assemblages. American Antiquity, 59(1), 9–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shott, M. J. (2004). Modeling use-life distributions in archaeology using New Guinea Wola ethnographic data. American Antiquity, 69(2), 339–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, N. (1994). The implication of time-averaging for reconstructing the land-use patterns of early-tool-using hominids. Journal of Human Evolution, 27, 89–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, A. P. I. (2008). Ethnoarchaeological and archaeological perspectives on ceramic vessels and annual accumulation rates of sherds. American Antiquity, 73(1), 121–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Surovell, T. A. (2009). Toward a behavioral ecology of lithic technology: cases from Paleoindian archaeology. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaquero, M. (2008). The history of stones: behavioural inferences and temporal resolution of an archaeological assemblage from the middle Palaeolithic. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35(12), 3178–3185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varien, M. D., & Mills, B. J. (1997). Accumulations research: Problems and prospects for estimating site occupation span. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 4(2), 141–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varien, M. D., & Ortman, S. G. (2005). Accumulations research in the Southwest United States: Middle-range theory for big-picture problems. World Archaeology, 37(1), 132–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varien, M. D., & Potter, J. M. (1997). Unpacking the discard equation: simulating the accumulation of artifacts in the archaeological record. American Antiquity, 62(2), 194–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, A. A. (2008). A developmental perspective on technological change. World Archaeology, 40(4), 597–608.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiley, G. R., & Sabloff, J. A. (1993). A history of American archaeology. New York: Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, M. V. H. (1988). Paleoscene # 9. Taphonomic processes: Information loss and information gain. Geoscience Canada, 15(2), 131–148.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lee Lyman and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 874102, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Charles Perreault

  2. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, PO Box 874101, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Charles Perreault

Authors
  1. Charles Perreault
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles Perreault.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Perreault, C. Time-Averaging Slows Down Rates of Change in the Archaeological Record. J Archaeol Method Theory 25, 953–964 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-018-9364-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-018-9364-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation