Confronting scale in archaeology [recurso electrónico] : Issues of Theory and Practice / edited by Gary Lock, Brian Leigh Molyneaux.

Introduction: Confronting Scale -- Introduction: Confronting Scale -- Introducing Scale: Space, Time and Size in The Past and the Present -- On Being the Right Size: Affordances and the Meaning of Scale -- Timescales -- Scale as Artifact: GIS, Ecological Fallacy, and Archaeological Analysis -- Artifacts as Social Interference: The Politics of Spatial Scale -- Constructing Scale: Identifying Problems -- Topographical Scale as Ideological and Practical Affordance: The Case of Devils Tower -- Perspective Matters: Traversing Scale through Archaeological Practice -- Artifacts as Landscapes: A Use-Wear Case Study of Upper Paleolithic Assemblages at the Solutré Kill Site, France -- Scale and Archaeological Evaluations: What are We Looking For? -- Scale, Model Complexity, and Understanding: Simulation of Settlement Processes in the Glenwood Locality of Southwestern Iowa, 1976 and 2000 -- Scale and Its Effects on Understanding Regional Behavioural Systems: An Australian Case Study -- Custer's Last Battle: Struggling with Scale -- Interpreting Scale: Towards New Methodologies and Understandings -- Temporal Scales and Archaeological Landscapes from the Eastern Desert of Australia and Intermontane North America -- Large Scale, Long Duration and Broad Perceptions: Scale Issues in Historic Landscape Characterisation -- Multiscalar Approaches to Settlement Pattern Analysis -- Grain, Extent, and Intensity: The Components of Scale in Archaeological Survey -- Persons and Landscapes: Shifting Scales of Landscape Archaeology.

Without realizing, most archaeologists shift within a scale of interpretation of material culture. Material data is interpreted from the scale of an individual in a specific place and time and then shifts to the complex dynamics of cultural groups extending over time and space. This ignoring of scale is the "concession" archaeologists make to interpretation. The introduction of geographical information systems (GIS) remote sensing, and virtual reality have expanded the scale at which data is interpreted even more, using multiple scales at the same time without recognizing the significance of their actions. This book discusses the cultural, social and spatial aspects of scale and its impact on archaeology in practical and applicable cases. Each author takes one of the fundamental elements of archaeology - from the experience of time and space to the visualization of individuals, sites and landscapes to the intricacies of archaeological discourse - and shows how an awareness of scale can create new and exciting interpretations.