Weighing vs. Counting
Measurement Reliability and the California School of Midden Analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8217002 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roger D Mason (0000-0003-0236-5348), Mark L Peterson, Joseph A Tiffany (Iowa State University) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 303-324 |
| Publication date | 1998-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Antiquity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2694700 |
| OpenAlex | W2324331943 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 82 |
| References cited | 43 |
The California School of Midden Analysis represents a long-standing tradition of using weight, rather than minimum number of individuals (MNI), to analyze shell recovered from archaeological sites in California. This method originated at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early twentieth century and continues to the present, in spite of the advent of counting measures such as MNI and NISP (number of identified specimens) in faunal studies. We argue that MNI estimates are more reliable than weight as a measure of taxonomic abundance for most research issues being addressed with California shell data. Examples using both weight and MNI measures for shell from California coastal sites produced divergent results. This disparity shows that weight measures produce potentially misleading interpretations regarding the importance of marine habitats exploited and the diet of the site’s occupants
Abundance (ecology) · Archaeology · Biology · Civil engineering · Geography · Midden · Reliability (semiconductor) · Shell (structure) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Engineering · Geology · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Oceanography · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Archaeological and Geological Test Excavations at Site 41HM61, Hamilton County, Texas
Archaeozoology in Mainland Southeast Asia
El sitio Heshkaia 35
Un nuevo método para la estimación de la abundancia de Paracentrotus lividus en yacimientos arqueológicos
Análisis morfométricos en arqueomalacología
Estudio Intrasitio De Un Yacimiento Arcaico Con Arquitectura en La Costa De Taltal, Desierto De Atacama, Norte De Chile
La Extracción Prehispánica De Recursos Minerales en El Internodo Quillagua-Costa, Desierto De Atacama
El uso de moluscos marinos entre los grupos cazadores recolectores del interior norpatagónico en el Holoceno tardío (provincia de Río Negro, Argentina)
Síntesis De Los Estudios Arqueomalacológicos en Concheros De La Costa Norte De Santa Cruz, Patagonia Argentina
Experimentación del proceso de recolección de moluscos de la especie Nacella magellanica y sus implicancias en el análisis de muestras arqueomalacológicas
Los Moluscos Fluviales en La Subsistencia De Los Grupos Cazadores-Recolectores Del Humedal Del Paraná Inferior
Identificación De Cuentas De Collar De Margarella (Thiele, 1893) en Un Entierro Prehistórico en La Desembocadura Del Río Santa Cruz (Patagonia Argentina)
Shell Middens in North America
Shell Middens in North America
Life on the Margins (Terra Australis 38)
The Archaeology of California
Low population density settlement patterns on California's Northern Channel Islands
Exploring ecodynamics of coastal foragers using integrated faunal records from Čḯxwicən village (Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington, U.S.A.)
Sustainable harvesting of Conomurex luhuanus and Rochia nilotica by Indigenous Australians on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 2000 years
Contextualizing Late Holocene Subsistence Change on California’s Northern Channel Islands
Return to the Shellfish Beds
Marine Shellfish Harvest on Middle and late Holocene Santa Barbara Island, Alta California
Estudio tafonómico del sitio arqueológico Yegua Quemada 3, Holoceno medio, Patagonia meridional
Pearl Fisheries in South Asia
Archaeo-Tempestites and Coastal Taphonomy of Shell-Bearing Sites
Thermal Influences on Shells
A Test of Ideal Free Distribution Predictions Using Targeted Survey and Excavation on California’s Northern Channel Islands
Intensification revisited
Beyond hinges and spires
An ancient fishery of Banded dye-murex (Hexaplex trunculus)
Evaluating the Economic Significance of Sharks, Skates, and Rays (Elasmobranchs) in Prehistoric Economies
Molluscan foraging efficiency and patterns of mobility amongst foraging agriculturalists
Historical ecology of late Holocene sea otters (Enhydra lutris) from northern British Columbia
Investigating shellfish deposition and landscape history at the Natia Beach site, Fiji
A refined protocol for calculating MNI in archaeological molluscan shell assemblages
The Haynes Inlet weirs
Making the most of fragments
Measuring Mytilus californianus
Les amas coquilliers du site Imiwaia I (Canal Beagle, Argentine). Étude des coquilles Mytilus edulis au moyen de la FTIR-ATR
Reasoning with Zooarchaeological Counting Units and Statistics
Space Use Patterns and Resource Exploitation of Shell Middens from the Río de La Plata Coast (ca. 6000–2000 Years BP), Uruguay
Prehistoric Human Impacts to Marine Mollusks and Intertidal Ecosystems in the Pacific Islands
Intertidal Foraging on Atolls
Shellfish Resources and Maritime Economy at Caylán, Coastal Ancash, Peru
Far From the Shore
Coastal foragers beyond the mainland
Late Holocene mollusc exploitation and changing near-shore environments
Problems of Identification and Quantification in Archaeozoological Analysis, Part II
Aboriginal marine subsistence foraging flexibility in a dynamic estuarine environment
Focused, intense and long-term
The shell game
Coastal Foraging During the Last ∼4,800 Years at Bajamar-Jatay, Baja California, Mexico
The archaeology of fish and fishing on the central coast of California
Invisible Things Forgotten
Archaeological Evidence for Collecting Empty Shells Along the French Atlantic Coast
Human Ecology and Coastal Foraging At Fishing Bay, Maryland, USA
Risk, Reliability, and the Importance of Small-Bodied Molluscs across the Hawaiian Windward-Leeward Divide
Weighing and Counting Shell
Weighing vs. Counting Shellfish Remains
Quantifying Shell
A trans-Holocene historical ecological record of shellfish harvesting on California’s Northern Channel Islands
Issues in the identification of umbones in California mussel shell assemblages
The land snail midden from Balma del Gai (Barcelona, Spain) and the evolution of terrestrial gastropod consumption during the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in eastern Iberia
Shellfish resilience to prehistoric human consumption in the southern Red Sea
An interpretive framework for assessing freshwater mussel taxonomic abundances in zooarchaeological faunas
Current methodological issues in archaeomalacological studies
Making numbers count
Shellfish and the Chumash
Shell Fragmentation as a Tool for Quantification and Identification of Taphonomic Processes in Archaeomalacological Analysis
Site Context and the Spatial Organization of a Late Holocene Coastal Hunter-Gatherer Campsite in North-Central Chile, South America
Taphonomic analysis of Terebralia palustris assemblage from the prehistoric midden site of Bambhanka near Dholavira, District Kachchh, Gujarat (India)
Temporal Changes in Marine Shellfish? A Preliminary Archaeological Perspective from the Northumberland Strait
The archaeology of 19th century oyster consumption in Melbourne
Quantifying shell weight loss in archaeological deposits
Morphometric analyses of Batissa violacea shells from Emo (OAC), Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea
Life on the edge
The archaeology of the Port Hedland coastal plain and implications for understanding the prehistory of shell mounds and middens in northwestern Australia
Intensified mollusk exploitation on Nevis (West Indies) reveals ~six centuries of sustainable exploitation
The Ancient Shell Collectors
Fieldworker Experience and Single-Episode Screening as Sources of Data Recovery Bias in Archaeology
Geoarchaeology and Coastal Morphodynamics of Harbor Key (8MA15)
The Diablo Canyon Fauna
Archaeological Method and Theory
From the Emeryville Shellmound
Quantitative zooarchaeology
Reliability and Validity Assessment
Shellfish Gathering and Shell Midden Archaeology
Rank Transformations as a Bridge between Parametric and Nonparametric Statistics
Modeling change in prehistoric subsistence economies
Foundations of behavioral research
Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory
Ecological Inference
Bone Counts and Statistics
The analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites
Faunal Assemblages and the “Wiegemethode” or Weight Method
The trouble with transformations
Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast
Archaeozoological Studies
Quantitative zoo archaeology
A note on measurement scales and statistical tests
Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix
Scales and statistics
Quantitative Units and Terminology in Zooarchaeology
Application of Allometry to Zooarchaeology
Coastal Adaptations near Point Conception, California, with Particular Regard to Shellfish Exploitation
Contextual and Nutritional Analysis of Freshwater Gastropods from Middle Archaic Deposits at the Hayes Site, Middle Tennessee
Modelling Change in Prehistoric Subsistence Economies
Minimum Numbers and Sample Size in Vertebrate Faunal Analysis
Available Meat from Faunal Remains
Freshwater Mussels as a Prehistoric Food Resource
On the Methodology of Faunal Analysis
Approaches to Faunal Analysis in Archaeology
Quantitative Analysis of Shells from a Site in Goleta, California
A Method of Calculating the Dietary Percentage of Various Food Animals Utilized by Aboriginal Peoples
Jamaican Site Designation-A Critique
Ecological Interpretation in Archaeology
The Little Harbor Site, Catalina Island
A Reconsideration of Shellmounds with Respect to Population and Nutrition
The Quantitative Investigation of Aboriginal Sites
The Quantitative Investigation of Aboriginal Sites
Considerations in Estimating Prehistoric California Coastal Populations
| Unique citing works | 82 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,15 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2026 (27) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 70 |