The snowball effect: research bias in prehistoric archaeology
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-04-07

Certain regions of the world have garnered reputations as ‘classic’ locations for the study of particular prehistoric periods. In some cases, academic interest in these periods has led to the neglect of other prehistoric phases in the same location. Here I will discuss the history of archaeological research in two of these ‘classic’ regions/periods; the Palaeolithic of Southwest France, and the Neolithic of Central Anatolia. I will discuss these ‘classic’ prehistoric phases in relation to other periods in the local archaeology. Here, I analyse the radiocarbon date distributions from ‘modelled’ and ‘unmodelled’ dates from these regions and how these distributions relate to research bias. Radiocarbon dates that can be built into stratigraphic models originate from sites for which multiple radiocarbon dates have been produced; sites that have been the subject of intense research programmes. By contrast, unmodelled dates originate from sites where only one or two radiocarbon dates have been produced, hence they cannot be built into stratigraphic models. The difference between the distributions of these two groups of dates gives us a quantifiable measure of research bias within a region; demonstrating how some phases and sub-phases are favoured over others, despite the existence of sites dating from other periods within the same region. I argue that this research bias is partially the result of early research interest in these periods, leading to a snowball effect whereby increasing numbers of researchers were attracted to these periods, a process that continues to this day. A similar effect has led to an uneven distribution of archaeologists with particular material specialisms working in some regions and periods, a further factor that can skew our understanding of the past. We must be aware of the influence of such historical factors on the body of archaeological data available, and try to counter further ‘snowballing’ today.

Chrissy Collins, University of Exeter