Like WHAT? A practical question of analogical inference and archaeological meaningfulness

Assessing Iron Age Marsh-Forts

“…However, the combination of a wetland location, a lack of evidence for domestic occupation, and a ritual function in a place which held a special resonance argues strongly for a humanistic interpretation. Sutton Common's characteristics have been summarised as follows to create a working hypothesis (sensu Murray and Walker, 1988) against which potential marsh-forts can be assessed:-1. Large size (cf.…”

Assessing Iron Age Marsh-Forts

“…However, the combination of a wetland location, a lack of evidence for domestic occupation, and a ritual function in a place which held a special resonance argues strongly for a humanistic interpretation. Sutton Common's characteristics have been summarised as follows to create a working hypothesis (sensu Murray and Walker, 1988) against which potential marsh-forts can be assessed:-1. Large size (cf.…”

Cognitive Archaeology, Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission, with Particular Reference to Religious Ideas

“…Some of these decisions, perhaps only a small subset, are made consciously and with intent. As such, this approach explicitly rejects ideas that there are long term, and as yet undefined, processes of culture change, as argued by Murrey and Walker (1988). Long term patterns in the archaeological record are no more than the accumulated results of many individual decisions andpost-depositional processes concerned with site formation.…”

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

“…Davies (2018) points out that archaeologists cannot experiment directly with many suspected generative processes because they are long‐term, cumulative, often variable over time and space, and involve subjects that are logistically or ethically impossible to constrain (e.g., humans and ecosystems). Whilst the use of analogues offers some help (but note the caution from Murray & Walker, 1988), it is problematic to apply analogues at the landscape or regional scale and over long time periods. Social, ecological, formational or other processes that operate at these scales generally rarely leave discrete residues, although separation of these in archaeological palimpsests is always the ideal (Romagnoli et al, 2018).…”

Assessing Iron Age Marsh-Forts

“…However, the combination of a wetland location, a lack of evidence for domestic occupation, and a ritual function in a place which held a special resonance argues strongly for a humanistic interpretation. Sutton Common's characteristics have been summarised as follows to create a working hypothesis (sensu Murray and Walker, 1988) against which potential marsh-forts can be assessed:-1. Large size (cf.…”

Cognitive Archaeology, Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission, with Particular Reference to Religious Ideas

“…Some of these decisions, perhaps only a small subset, are made consciously and with intent. As such, this approach explicitly rejects ideas that there are long term, and as yet undefined, processes of culture change, as argued by Murrey and Walker (1988). Long term patterns in the archaeological record are no more than the accumulated results of many individual decisions andpost-depositional processes concerned with site formation.…”

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

“…Davies (2018) points out that archaeologists cannot experiment directly with many suspected generative processes because they are long‐term, cumulative, often variable over time and space, and involve subjects that are logistically or ethically impossible to constrain (e.g., humans and ecosystems). Whilst the use of analogues offers some help (but note the caution from Murray & Walker, 1988), it is problematic to apply analogues at the landscape or regional scale and over long time periods. Social, ecological, formational or other processes that operate at these scales generally rarely leave discrete residues, although separation of these in archaeological palimpsests is always the ideal (Romagnoli et al, 2018).…”

Assessing Iron Age Marsh-Forts

“…However, the combination of a wetland location, a lack of evidence for domestic occupation, and a ritual function in a place which held a special resonance argues strongly for a humanistic interpretation. Sutton Common's characteristics have been summarised as follows to create a working hypothesis (sensu Murray and Walker, 1988) against which potential marsh-forts can be assessed:-1. Large size (cf.…”

Cognitive Archaeology, Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission, with Particular Reference to Religious Ideas

“…Some of these decisions, perhaps only a small subset, are made consciously and with intent. As such, this approach explicitly rejects ideas that there are long term, and as yet undefined, processes of culture change, as argued by Murrey and Walker (1988). Long term patterns in the archaeological record are no more than the accumulated results of many individual decisions andpost-depositional processes concerned with site formation.…”

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

“…Davies (2018) points out that archaeologists cannot experiment directly with many suspected generative processes because they are long‐term, cumulative, often variable over time and space, and involve subjects that are logistically or ethically impossible to constrain (e.g., humans and ecosystems). Whilst the use of analogues offers some help (but note the caution from Murray & Walker, 1988), it is problematic to apply analogues at the landscape or regional scale and over long time periods. Social, ecological, formational or other processes that operate at these scales generally rarely leave discrete residues, although separation of these in archaeological palimpsests is always the ideal (Romagnoli et al, 2018).…”