The themes of archaeological variability and interpretation are fundamental to practice and have been a cornerstone of disciplinary developments and tensions since the field's origins. Historically, new movements aimed at revisiting assumptions, methods, and theories have periodically surfaced when (1) sufficient evidence suggested that those assumptions could no longer be sustained; (2) stagnant interpretations needed new energy; (3) methodological and technological improvements necessitated the reevaluation of existing data; and (4) the perspectives of different stakeholders affected how interpretations were generated. The contributors to this volume feel that we have reached a new point requiring introspection, for which they deploy a range of approaches—ecological, experimental, statistical, typological, technological, and cognitive. In particular, existing well-known sites are reexamined, particularly for their spatial layouts, mapping conventions, and assumptions of internal contemporaneity. Assemblage-based evaluations emphasize Paleolithic and lithic datasets, with few later or more diverse assemblages based on ceramics or other materials. The spatial scope is international, though the global perspective suggested by the title is overstated, as several world regions are excluded. Instead, case studies emphasize the US/Mexican Southwest and the circum-Mediterranean, with excellent but few examples from elsewhere. Nevertheless, the examples that are included present thought-provoking questions that challenge disciplinary conventions and should be applauded.
The introductory chapter by Sullivan and Olszewski lays out the structure of the volume and argues for the diversity of approaches and contexts exemplified by the contributors. The volume was devised in light of a near-constant string of “dispatches from the field” (p. 4) highlighting breathtaking discoveries made possible through the application of new technologies to seemingly settled archaeological matters. As Sullivan and Olszewski (p. 5) point out, the result is a past that is being continuously recreated. How we account for this pace of innovation in methods, technologies, and theoretically generated research designs is our new reality as practitioners.
Following the introduction, the volume contains 13 chapters, which are organized thematically according to studies considering or illustrating “advances in interpreting regional archaeological records” (Section 1), “venerable sites revisited” (Section 2), and “cross-cultural, conceptual, and experimental perspectives” (Section 3). The five chapters in Section 1 provide new insights regarding mobility, interaction, technological organization, and the importance of place-making. For example, Barbara Roth's chapter examines the emergence of and socioeconomic consequences of persistent places in the Mimbres River valley of New Mexico, with particular attention to how existing settlements were perceived by later inhabitants. In contrast, Simon Holdaway and colleagues argue that landscape approaches to interpretation of lithic surface scatters offer a more fruitful way of reconstructing societal-scale contexts at the margins of the Australian arid zone during the middle to late Holocene.
Section 2 illustrates how reinterpretations of important archaeological sites may be facilitated by new theoretical perspectives and methods. For example, Sissel Schroeder and Lynne Goldstein assess disciplinary interpretations of Aztalan and the influence of nineteenth-century mapping conventions. The timeless quality of early maps imprinted an inaccurate narrative regarding the site's occupational sequence. The authors argue for an alternative perspective that emphasizes the many and complex processes involved in site development and transformation, as well as the social dimensions pertinent to community coalescence. Emilia Oddo and Gerald Cadogan examine how the integrative reexamination of Bronze Age stratigraphy from a cistern at Myrtos-Pyrgos, ceramic cross-joins, and wear on sherd surfaces and breaks can shed light on site formation histories and site function and how both may have related to regional patterns of sociopolitical complexity.
Section 3 closes the volume with case studies that examine the implications that variability and interpretation challenges have for cross-cultural comparisons of places and assemblages that are separated by vast time and space. Examples challenge our understandings of the socioeconomic factors that might affect mortuary practices, the meaning of exotic artifacts, and the causes of variability in artifact form. For example, Brian Byrd and Jeffrey Rosenthal highlight the potential for independence of variables related to mortuary practice and political complexity, as well as the rates at which those variables might change.
The volume succeeds in presenting examples of how reexaminations of old datasets or new methods and theories can fruitfully address challenges of archaeological variability and interpretation. Although the spatial scope of examples may not be as representative of a global volume as some might desire, and more examples from nonlithic-based assemblages would enrich the volume, the case studies presented further the editors’ aim of disciplinary reinvigoration through healthy self-reflection, data reevaluation, and the application of innovative theoretically driven methods.
