Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T01:37:37.069Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Contemporaneity Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert M. Schacht
Robert M. Schacht*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 80523
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Informal impressions or formal estimates of the size of prehistoric populations are often distorted by counting as if contemporary remains that, although dating to the same general period, were not in fact contemporary in a strict sense. In this paper, I evaluate a number of methods for mitigating this problem and propose a new solution. In the process, fundamental questions are raised concerning the nature of period boundaries, the life-cycles of sites, and how these phenomena affect estimates of the size of prehistoric populations. It is suggested that the growth cycles of most sites can be approximated by a relatively simple mathematical formula, or a series of such formulae, each expressed as a function of time. The total population can then be estimated at any point in time. A computer program to perform this task is given as an appendix, and the suggested procedure is illustrated with an example using data from SW Iran.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , October 1984 , pp. 678 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adams, Robert McC. 1965 Land Behind Baghdad: A History of Settlement on the Diyala Plains. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Adams, Robert McC, and Nissen, Hans 1972 The Uruk Countryside: The Natural Setting of Urban Societies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Blalock, Hubert M. Jr. 1972 Social Statistics. 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Carter, Elizabeth 1971 Elam in the Second Millennium B. C.: The Archaeological Evidence. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1975 On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes. American Arthropologist 77: 505–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, Nicholas 1972 On the Life Span of Pottery, Type Frequencies, and Archaeological Inference. American Antiquity 37: 141–142.Google Scholar
Dean, Jeffrey S. 1969 Chronological Analysis ofTsegi Phase Sites in Northeastern Arizona. Papers of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research No. 3. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
de Barros, Philip L. F. 1982 The Effects of Variable Site Occupation Span on the Results of Frequency Seriation. American Antiquity 47: 291–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deevey, Edward S. Jr. 1958 The Equilibrium Population. In The Population Ahead, edited by Francis, R. G., pp. 64–86. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, Pierre 1981 Fouilles du Chantier Ville Royale II a Suse (1975-1977). Cahiers de la Delegation Archeologique Francaise en Iran 12: 9–121.Google Scholar
Dumond, D. E. 1972 Prehistoric Population Growth and Subsistence Change in Eskimo Alaska. In Population Growth: Anthropological Implications, edited by J. Spooner, Brian, pp. 311–328. MIT Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Graves, M. W., Longacre, W. A., and Holbrook, S. J. 1982 Aggregation and Abandonment at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona. Journal of Field Archaeology 9(2): 193–206.Google Scholar
Hassan, Fekhri 1981 Demographic Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hill, James N. 1965 Broken K: A Prehistoric Society in Eastern Arizona. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Hill, James N. 1970 Broken K Pueblo: Prehistoric Social Organization in the American Southwest. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona, No. 18.Google Scholar
Hinz, Walther 1972 The Lost World of Elam: Re-creation of a Vanished Civilization. Translated by Jennifer, Barnes. Sidgwick and Jackson, London.Google Scholar
Isbell, William H., and Schreiber, K. J. 1978 Was Huari a State? American Antiquity 43: 372–389.Google Scholar
Johnson, Gregory A. 1973 Local Exchange and Early State Formation in Southwestern Iran. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Anthropological Papers No. 51.Google Scholar
Kohler, Tim A., and Schlanger, Sarah 1980 Surface Estimation of Site Structure and Content, Delores Project. Contract Abstracts and CRM Archaeology 1(2): 29–32.Google Scholar
Longacre, William A. 1976 Population Dynamics at the Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona. In Demographic Anthropology: Quantitative Approaches, edited by Zubrow, Ezra B. W, pp. 169–183. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. University New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Longacre, William A. 1978 Review of Archaeological Approaches to the Present: Models for Reconstructing the Past, by John, Yellen. American Anthropologist 80: 988–989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1976 The Size of the Early Mesoamerican Village. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by Flannery, K. V., pp. 79–90. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Mood, Alexander M., and Graybill, F. A. 1963 Introduction to the Theory of Statistics. 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Nicholson, A. J. 1954 An Outline of the Dynamics of Animal Populations. Australian Journal of Zoology 2: 9–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odum, Eugene P. 1971 Fundamentals of Ecology. 3rd ed. W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1973 Diachronic Anthropology. In Research and Theory in Current Archaeology, edited by Charles, Redman, pp. 181–198. John Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1974 The Study of Prehistoric Change. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1975 Demographic Studies in Southwestern Prehistory. In Population Studies in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology: A Symposium, edited by Swedlund, A. C.. SAA Memoirs 30: 94–103.Google Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 1972 The Emergence of Civilization. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Schacht, Robert M. 1973 Population and Economic Organization in Early Historic Southwest Iran. Ph. D. dissertation, University of Michigan. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Schacht, Robert M. 1980 Two Models of Population Growth. American Anthropologist 82: 782–798.Google Scholar
Schacht, Robert M. 1981 Estimating Past Population Trends. Annual Review of Anthropology 10: 119–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schif Fer, M. B. 1975 The Effect of Occupation Span on Site Content. In The Cache River Archaeological Project: An Experiment in Contract Archaeology, assembled by Schiffer, M. B. and House, J. H.. Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Research Series 8: 265–269.Google Scholar
Schlanger, Sarah, and Kohler, Tim A. 1980 Estimating Habitation Floor Area and Site Duration from Surface Collections. Paper presented at 1980 Pecos Conference, Mesa Verde.Google Scholar
Siegel, Sidney 1956 Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Steve, M. J., Gasche, H., and de Meyer, L. 1980 La Susianeau Deuxieme Millenaire: Apropos d'une Interpretationdes Fouilles de Suse. Iranica Antique 15: 49–154.Google Scholar
Weiss, Harvey 1977 Periodization, Population and Early State Formation in Khuzistan. In Mountains and Lowlands: Essays in the Archaeology of Greater Mesopotamia, edited by Levine, L. D. and Young, T. C. Jr., pp. 347–370. Undena Publications, Malibu.Google Scholar
Wright, Henry T., and Johnson, Gregory A. 1975 Population, Exchange and Early State Formation in Southwestern Iran. American Anthropologist 77: 267–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, T. Cuyler Jr., and Levine, L. D. 1974 Excavations of the Godin Project: Google Scholar