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A Test of the Relationship between Site Size and Population

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Katharina J. Schreiber  and
Keith W. Kintigh
Katharina J. Schreiber
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Keith W. Kintigh
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
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Abstract

Archaeologists, especially those doing regional surveys, generally assume that there is a correlation between the areal extent of a habitation site and the number of people living at that site. This paper uses a combination of archaeological and historical data from the Peruvian Andes to examine this assumption. We find that, in this case, only a weak correlation holds between these two factors. However, a consideration of site function and topography may render the apparent ambiguities understandable.

Entre los arqueólogos, particularmente los que realizan prospecciones regionales, se presume generalmente que existe una correlación entre el área de un sitio habitacional y el número de personas que vivieron en el sitio. Este artículo utiliza una combinación de datos arqueológicos e históricos de los Andes peruanos para evaluar este supuesto. Resulta que, en este caso, sólo se mantiene una correlación muy pobre entre estos dos factores. Sin embargo, si tomamos en cuenta lafunción del sitio y la topografia, las ambiguedades aparentes podrian resultar más comprensibles.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , July 1996 , pp. 573 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1996

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References

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