Evaluating the Effectiveness of Archaeological Surveys
Volume: OA49
Year: 1989
Author: MILLER II, C. L.
Page Range: 3 – 12
Abstract: The paper presents statistical methods for evaluating the effectiveness of archaeological survey strategies. Two main types of archaeological survey are discussed: continuous and discrete. These are compared to analogous military search situations and the mathematical solutions developed for the military problems are presented. Techniques for adapting these solutions to archaeological problems are discussed and examples are given of the methods of each type of search strategy.
The Little Ice Age and Neutral Faunal Assemblages
Volume: OA49
Year: 1989
Author: CAMPBELL, C. & CAMPBELL, I. D.
Page Range: 13 – 33
Abstract: The Neutrals and their immediate ancestors lived in southwestern Ontario from ca. AD 1100 to 1650, a period which saw a global climatic cooling episode known as the Little Ice Age (LIA), beginning ca. AD 1450. Neutral faunal assemblages at this time show a decrease in the relative frequencies of field-dwelling species (mainly woodchuck), while forest-dwellers (mainly deer) and dog increase. We suggest two explanations for this shift. One is that the LIA increased the frequency of poor crop years, thus making horticulture a less reliable subsistence strategy and compelling the Neutrals to rely more on meat. The other is that population increases resulted in the creation of more field-edge environments, thus increasing the habitat available for deer. The decline in woodchuck may have been caused by the increase in dog, bred both for food and crop-protection. These two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive.
An Ethno-Archaeological Study of Algonkian Rock Art in Northeastern Ontario, Canada
Volume: OA49
Year: 1989
Author: CONWAY, T., & CONWAY, J.
Page Range: 34 – 59
Abstract: A group of pictograph sites on Obabika Lake, one of a number of Indian rock painting sites in northern Ontario, provides a model for understanding several aspects of Algonkian aboriginal art. The pictographs were studied in 1981 and 1984 during comprehensive ethno-archaeological surveys. While many Algonkian rock art sites have been recorded in northern Ontario, few complete analyses of individual sites in their cultural setting have been published. Obabika Lake provides an opportunity for an in-depth study of a geographical cluster of rock art sites occurring in well-documented family hunting territories of an Algonkian band.