Theses and Dissertations
Issuing Body
Mississippi State University
Advisor
Evan Peacock, Evan
Committee Member
James Hardin, James
Committee Member
Rafferty, Janet
Date of Degree
8-6-2011
Document Type
Graduate Thesis - Open Access
Major
Applied Anthropology
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures
Abstract
Significance and integrity are key concepts for archaeology, and how they are judged is determined by an archaeologist’s perceptions of disturbance. This thesis explicitly considers these concepts and how they relate to evolutionary theory and National Register eligibility. A site with known disturbance was chosen to determine whether it could be judged significant assuming that there was no disturbance. Controlled surface collection, magnetometer survey, excavation and landowner interview data were used to determine whether what made the site significant had been lost due to disturbance. The results indicate that the co-mingling of occupations in the plow zone normally would have prevented the site from being determined eligible. However, because of the clusters of Gulf Formational-period diagnostics and intact Early Archaic midden, the site was determined significant. If future work were to be performed, occupation-based work focusing on the artifact clusters and the Archaic midden is recommended.
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15347
Recommended Citation
Kennedy, Jason Alan, "Disturbance and its effects on archaeological significance and integrity" (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 1545.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/1545