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Distributional Archaeology. James I. Ebert. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. xvi + 296 pp. Maps and references. $32.50 cloth.
This volume is both fascinating and frustrating. The work challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of most archaeological research - the existence of archaeological sites. In the preface, Ebert states that his goal is to bring a number of lines of evidence
to bear on what I believe is the most critical question in archaeology today: whether we can continue to think in terms of sites, or whether this most basic unit of archaeological discussion rests upon so many untenable, unarticulated, in fact unarticulatable assumptions as to be a liability to the advancement and credibility of our field (p. xiii).
The first three chapters present a compelling argument that the concept of "site" is inappropriate for either documenting or interpreting the surface archaeological record. He presents the case that, in most surveys, definitions of sites versus isolated occurrences are often arbitrary, usually capricious, and always accompanied by a set of unwarranted assumptions about...