Archaeology Spindle Graphs in the 1930s

2021 ◽  
pp. 128-147
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
Probability Theory ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Statistical Reasoning ◽  
Graph Models ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Ultimate Source ◽  
Rough Form ◽  
Variational Evolution

During the 1930s, archaeological spindle graphs in the form of seriograms (straight-sided spindle graphs) were published. Three of these represent the investigator’s suspicions about culture change rather than being strictly empirical. Stylistically, seriograms were seldom subsequently published, suggesting these graphs minimally influenced later researchers. By the 1920s, based on the basically unimodal frequency distributions observed in frequencies of specimens of various pottery types in the American Southwest, anthropologists had begun to suspect there were so-called stylistic pulses reflecting the vogue or popularity of particular kinds of artifacts. Explanations fell back on probability theory, likely as a result of the influence of Franz Boas’s statistical reasoning; kinds of phenomena simply should display unimodal temporal frequency distributions given probability theory. Although conceptually unsophisticated, graphic models of these stylistic pulses published by anthropologists in the 1920s took the rough form of spindle graphs and represent a then unrecognized nod to the theory of variational evolution. These spindle graph models may be the ultimate source of archaeological spindle graphs, but these models were a bit difficult to decipher. Many graphs of culture change appearing in the 1920s and 1930s imply variational evolution.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
North American ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Line Graphs ◽  
Visual Thinking ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Analytical Tools

Graphs of quantitative data are analytical tools that facilitate visual thinking. In many disciplines, the use of graphs was preceded by tables summarizing quantitative data. Graphs known by North American archaeologists as “battleship curves” are temporal frequency distributions of relative abundances of specimens in each of several artifact types. They are unimodal frequency distributions known as spindle graphs. In the early 1950s, it was suggested that the idea of spindle graphs was borrowed by archaeologists from paleontology. Archaeologists occasionally used bar graphs and line graphs to diagram change in artifact inventories in the early twentieth century. The questions addressed in this volume are: (i) did North American archaeologists borrow the idea of spindle graphs from paleontology, and (ii) what was the frequency of use by North American archaeologists of each of the various graph types to diagram culture change during the early and middle twentieth century?

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal distribution of Holocene populations in North America

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (39) ◽  
pp. 12127-12132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle A. Chaput ◽  
Björn Kriesche ◽  
Matthew Betts ◽  
Andrew Martindale ◽  
Rafal Kulik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Kernel Method ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The North

As the Cordilleran and Laurentide Ice Sheets retreated, North America was colonized by human populations; however, the spatial patterns of subsequent population growth are unclear. Temporal frequency distributions of aggregated radiocarbon (14C) dates are used as a proxy of population size and can be used to track this expansion. The Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database contains more than 35,000 14C dates and is used in this study to map the spatiotemporal demographic changes of Holocene populations in North America at a continental scale for the past 13,000 y. We use the kernel method, which converts the spatial distribution of 14C dates into estimates of population density at 500-y intervals. The resulting maps reveal temporally distinct, dynamic patterns associated with paleodemographic trends that correspond well to genetic, archaeological, and ethnohistoric evidence of human occupation. These results have implications for hypothesizing and testing migration routes into and across North America as well as the relative influence of North American populations on the evolution of the North American ecosystem.

An Evaluative Framework

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
North American ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Franz Boas ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
Measure Change ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Variational Evolution

North American anthropologists and archaeologists have long confused the Midas-touch-like transformational evolution of Lewis Henry Morgan, Edward B. Tylor, and Herbert Spencer with the variational evolution of Charles Darwin. Following Franz Boas, evolution as a theory of change was allegedly discarded by North American anthropologists and archaeologists at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, they used the term “development” instead of “evolution” and spoke of culture change in evolutionary terms, often mixing elements of the theories and ontologies of transformational and variational evolution. Documenting culture change under variational evolution demands the materialist paradox be circumvented. This paradox highlights the question: How do we measure change in continuously variable phenomena? Paleontologists adopted the approach that each population of organisms is polymorphic; individuals are members of the same species but formally variable. Paleontologists compare central tendencies of temporally sequent populations, or chronospecies. Archaeologists who undertook frequency seriations adopted an approach that focuses on morphospecies, forms or types that occur in two or more temporally sequent populations. The occurrence of multiple types per temporal period highlights the variation upon which a sorting mechanism such as selection works, and the occurrence of one or more types in each of two or more temporally sequent assemblages provides evidence of connection between them required of studies of change. Recognizing that graph types, how phenomena are parsed into types, and theories of change are mutually influential allows evaluation of archaeological graphs of change in terms of their implied theories and ontologies.

The Fourth (and Influential) Introduction of Spindle Graphs

2021 ◽  
pp. 175-203
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Graph Type ◽  
Lithic Tools ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Bar Graphs

Close examination of James A. Ford’s self-reported 1952 history of how he developed the centered and stacked bars style of spindle graph for which he is famous indicates he likely invented this kind of spindle graph with a bit of assistance from his colleagues George Quimby and Gordon Willey. In the 1930s, his diagrams of culture change were spatio-temporal rectangles or bar graphs; his first centered and stacked bars spindle diagram appeared in the 1949 published version of his doctoral dissertation. That graph style was picked up by American Southwest archaeologist Paul S(ydney) Martin that same year; Martin had, like many of his colleagues, initially used line graphs and bar graphs to illustrate culture change. Subsequently, numerous individuals adopted Ford’s centered and stacked bars form of spindle diagram. During the 1950s in Europe, French Paleolithic archaeologist François Bordes adopted ogive or cumulative relative frequency curves as a graphic means to compare assemblages of lithic tools. Quickly adopted by many European archaeologists, this graph type was only occasionally used in North America. After Ford, most graphs diagramed variational evolutionary change.

Final Thoughts

2021 ◽  
pp. 228-252
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
Culture Change ◽  
Regression Line ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Communication Tools ◽  
Major Purpose ◽  
Graph Type ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Variational Evolution ◽  
Over Time

Graphs are analytical tools and communication tools, and they summarize visually what has been learned. Granting that a major purpose of archaeology is to document and explain culture change, it is odd that the hows and whys of graphing culture change have received minimal attention in the archaeology literature. Spindle graphs will likely continue to be the most frequently used graph type for diagraming change, but continued development of computer software may result in new graph types and styles. Recent modifications to spindle graphs include scaling bar thickness to temporal duration of the represented assemblage. Classic data on temporal change in kaolin pipe stem hole diameters can be graphed using a regression line, a bar graph, and a spindle graph; the different graphs highlight that how phenomena are classified, how data are graphed, and one’s theory of change are mutually influential. Deciding which graph type to use in any particular situation will depend on what the researcher hopes to illustrate, along with the goal to produce a readily deciphered graph. The majority of archaeological graphs that appeared in the twentieth century depict variational evolution. Once developed in the late 1940s, spindle graphs quickly became the graph type preferred by North American archaeologists. There is weak circumstantial evidence archaeologists may have borrowed the idea of spindle graphs from paleontology, but it seems more likely the idea was stumbled upon by early archaeologists who perceived unimodal pulses in artifact frequencies over time and developed general models of those pulses.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal variation in the preservation of ancient faunal remains

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 20150823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd A. Surovell ◽  
Spencer R. Pelton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Terrestrial Sediments ◽  
Excellent Preservation ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Over Time

Palaeodemographic studies of animals using frequency distributions of radiocarbon dates are increasingly used in studies of Quaternary extinction but are complicated by taphonomic bias, or the loss of material through time. Current taphonomic models are based on the temporal frequency distributions of sediments, but bone is potentially lost at greater rates because not all sedimentary contexts preserve bone. We test the hypotheses that (i) the loss of bone over time is greater than that of sediment and (ii) this rate of loss varies geographically at large scales. We compiled radiocarbon dates on Pleistocene-aged bone from eastern Beringia (EB), the contiguous United States (CUSA) and South America (SA), from which we developed models of taphonomic loss. We find that bone is lost at greater rates than terrestrial sediment in general, but only for CUSA and SA. Bone in EB is lost at approximately the same rate as terrestrial sediments, which demonstrates the excellent preservation environments of arctic regions, presumably due to preservative effects of permafrost. These differences between bone and sediment preservation as well as between arctic and non-arctic regions should be taken into account by any research addressing past faunal population dynamics based on temporal frequency distributions.

Validation of a global model of taphonomic bias using geologic radiocarbon ages

2018 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 325-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara E. Bluhm ◽  
Todd A. Surovell
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Proxy Record ◽  
Correction Model ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Independent Model

AbstractTemporal frequency distributions of radiocarbon ages from archaeological sites can be used as a proxy record for human paleodemography after correction for taphonomic bias, or the time dependent loss of sediments due to erosion. Surovell et al. (2009) presented a global taphonomic correction model based on radiocarbon ages from volcanic deposits that has since been used by several researchers for paleodemographic reconstructions. This method is based on the assumption that the best indicator of relative human population density over time is not the absolute abundance of archaeological materials over time but, instead, the abundance of cultural material relative to geologic contexts in which those materials can occur. To verify the Surovell et al. model, in this paper we take 2457 radiocarbon ages from geologic contexts collected from published literature to create an independent model of taphonomic bias. We find that between 1 and 39 ka, the two curves are largely indistinguishable, but that they diverge in recent times. This suggests that current global models of taphonomic correction can be used to reconstruct human populations for the late Quaternary, but that demographic reconstructions remain challenging for the most recent two millennia.

Correcting temporal frequency distributions for taphonomic bias

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1715-1724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd A. Surovell ◽  
Judson Byrd Finley ◽  
Geoffrey M. Smith ◽  
P. Jeffrey Brantingham ◽  
Robert Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Frequency Distributions
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