The use of statistical size estimations in minimum number calculations

Analyses of archaeological faunal assemblages often require the use of varied quantitative techniques for reconstructing aspects of the harvested populations. This is particularly important with the increasing use of zooarchaeological data outside of the realm of traditional archaeological inquiry. Detailed size estimations of archaeological faunal specimens can be used to distinguish between the remains of individual animals, aiding in the reconstruction of minimum number calculations. Statistical regression provides a particularly useful technique for generating size estimations which may then be used to calculate such modified MNI values. This paper outlines a methodology for utilising regression estimated sizes in MNI calculations, and tests the methodology in the context of a case study involving fish remains from Aleutian Islands archaeological sites. The use of this methodology to generate modified MNI values results in consistent increases over values calculated using traditional MNI approaches. Such an approach, while more costly in terms of required effort, is felt to be preferable to traditional approaches in contexts where detailed size estimations are usefully calculated to answer other research questions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Methodologies for Examining Homelessness and Their Application to a Mandated Statewide Study

Using findings from a federally mandated statewide study of homelessness in the state of Iowa, this paper presents methodologies developed to address various aspects of homeless research, including enumeration of the population, screening for reporting duplications, estimating the annual number of incidents of homelessness, and exploring county-level estimates of homelessness. After implementing an algorithm to eliminate duplicate reporting, and using the baseline unduplicated reported number of homeless persons, a statewide estimate of the number of homeless individuals was derived. Following further adjustments for differences in agency reporting practices and after extrapolating for nonreported time periods, we estimated the number of Unique incidents of homelessness experienced in the state during the year of the study (1997). The policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Regional Approaches to Mesopotamian Archaeology: The Contribution of Archaeological Surveys

This work synthesizes and critically evaluates the results of field surveys conducted over the last 20 years in southern (lower) and northern (upper) Mesopotamia, with emphasis placed on the increasing contribution of off-site and intensive surveys to regional analysis. During the Ubaid period the density of settlement was probably higher in the rain-fed north than the irrigated south, and even during the phase of 3rd millennium B.C. urbanization, settlement densities in the north were probably equivalent to or even exceeded those in the south. Although trends in settlement were often synchronous between north and south, there was also a marked spatial variability in settlement, with declines in one area being compensated by rises elsewhere. Particularly clear was the existence of a major structural transformation from nucleated centers during the Bronze Age towards dispersed patterns of rural settlement and more extensive lower towns in the Iron Age.     

Matchlocks, Flintlocks, and Saltpetre: The Chronological Implications for the Use of Matchlock Muskets among Ottoman-Period Bedouin in the Southern Levant

This paper examines the chronological implications for the prolonged use of matchlock muskets by the Bedouin during the Ottoman Period (1453–1918). Although the technology behind the matchlock ignition system is from the fifteenth century, this weapon was used by many Bedouin until the beginning of the twentieth century. As a result, the presence of gun parts from matchlock muskets poses a potential problem for identifying Bedouin occupations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the southern Levant and in northern Arabia. This issue is heightened by the paucity of diagnostic artifacts found at archaeological sites associated with the Bedouin during the Ottoman Period.     

Banknotes and national identity in central and eastern Europe

This paper provides an account of the imagery portrayed on the banknotes that have been issued in central and eastern Europe during the 1990s. In doing so, it highlights the methodological complexity of undertaking such research, and emphasises the need for the development of a rigorously compiled database that can then be used to draw comparisons between the imagery of different states. Banknotes are more than simply economic phenomena, and they provide an important expression of the cultural and political identities that have helped to shape the nations in the past. Four main conclusions are drawn: first, it is these past identities that continue to dominate the construction of national identity today; second, the imagery associated with such national identity is mainly representative of masculine identities; third, it is mainly portraits of key historic personalities that dominate the imagery; and fourth, a wide range of differing mechanisms have been used to generate these images.