Circular Villages of the Monongahela Tradition

6. Data Sources, Variables, and Analytical Approaches

This chapter begins with a discussion of data sources used to address the models and hypotheses presented in Chapter 5. A particular emphasis is placed in this ¤rst section on the nature and quality of data from village components recovered during depression-era federal relief excavations in the Allegheny Mountains region. Next, we consider major variable groups that form the core of the analyses. Finally, methods and analytical approaches used for each village component are reviewed. Each village component’s analysis began with a visual inspection of its layout. A new technique employed in this study for estimating the number of occupants within a dwelling is described. A separate consideration of graves follows because analysis of mortuary data can assist in the interpretation of village social organizations. Finally, the primary analytical approaches applied to each village component are reviewed. These include four intrasite spatial analytical techniques and approaches adapted from the statistical analysis of circular data. Successfully tackling the models and hypotheses set forth in Chapter 5 must rely on the ability to recognize spatial patterns of a particular sort—patterns that are expressly geometric in character. Pattern recognition in spatial relationships is only one step—albeit a critical one—in the efforts required to transform the static archaeological record into an understanding of past social organizations at ring-shaped village components. The analytical approaches selected or designed to accomplish this goal use the disparate elements recovered from the remains of village sites to describe,de¤ne,and distinguish spatial patterning in village layouts and thus aid the delineation of a village component ’s geometric model(s). Further, these analytical approaches provide objective and quanti¤able ways of depicting and interpreting village community patterns. 6 Data Sources, Variables, and Analytical Approaches SOURCES FOR DATA USED IN THIS STUDY There are few Monongahela tradition village sites outside the Allegheny Mountains region that have had their layouts completely—or nearly completely— exposed. For this reason alone, Allegheny Mountains region village sites are a critical resource for examining the spatial aspects of village patterning and whether this patterning can be linked to past village social organizations. The data analyzed in this study come from three primary sources: village sites excavated by the Somerset County Relief Excavations (SCRE); compliance excavations around Meyersdale, Pennsylvania; and Monongahela tradition sites reported in published and unpublished sources. The greatest number of components with the broadest exposure of community patterns is from SCREinvestigated sites. This is why any serious analysis of Monongahela tradition community patterns must always turn its attention toward sites excavated more than six decades ago. SCRE-Investigated Village Sites Data on village sites recovered from the SCRE investigations have been underutilized , unused, or misinterpreted owing to an incomplete understanding of their potential and limitations. The quality, limitations, and research potential of these data have been thoroughly explored (Means 1999a, 1999b, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2000d, 2001, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c, 2003, 2006a, 2006b; Means and Galke 2004; Means et al. 1998). The ¤eld methodology employed during the SCRE, their data-recording procedures, and the quality of extant ¤eld data have been assessed (Means 1998a, 2000b, 2002b). The strong ¤eld methodology employed by the depression-era SCRE differs little from techniques employed in current Cultural Resource Management (CRM) projects in Pennsylvania. This similarity in ¤eld techniques eased the integration of data from the past and the present into the analyses of village spatial and social organizations. One important insight into the usefulness of information gathered by the SCRE was that provenience data for architectural and nonarchitectural features, which were perceived by some as confused at best, were recorded following surveying procedures, not as Cartesian grid coordinates (Means 1998a:53). This should not be too surprising, considering that the principal SCRE ¤eld director was a civil engineer (Means 2000b, 2000c). Provenience data could be and were converted into more analytically manageable grid coordinates using basic trigonometry (Means 2002b). These research efforts demonstrated that the relief excavations were generallyconductedinasystematicfashion (Means 1998a,2002b). It is their systematic nature that enabled relief excavation data to be analyzed to their fullest research potential. Brown (1981:65) pointed out that systematic Data Sources, Variables, and Analytical Approaches / 87 observations and collections of artifacts and ¤eld data, even if not conducted following modern standards and procedures, can have their own integrity. Provenience data and information on feature types and their contents have been used to assess various aspects of Allegheny Mountains region village organization...