Artifact size and spatial process: Macro‐ and microartifacts in a mississippian house

Abstract

Abstract Despite their evident utility in archaeological analysis, microartifacts (those artifacts smaller than 2 mm) have, as a class, been used only sparingly by archaeologists and then only as if they were larger artifacts. This article explores the variable information microartifacts contain, using a case study from the Loy Site, a Mississippian village in East Tennessee. We show that microartifacts provide different information from that obtained from macroartifacts. We also demonstrate that comparisons among different size classes provide new information on dynamic aspects of artifact deposition. Especially in spatial analysis, comparing distributions of different size artifacts enhances our interpretative capabilities over any single artifact size class.