Forward to McKellar Paper

Abstract

Among aficionados of behavioral archaeology, the "McKellar hypothesis" has come to describe a rather commonly observed regularity of cultural formation processes: the tendency of small artifacts to be discarded as primary refuse in activity areas. The first statement of this hypothesis, along with supporting evidence, appears in the accompanying article by Judith McKellar, an undergraduate student enrolled in "Archaeological Interpretation" at the University of Arizona in the spring of 1973. This brief exercise, one of several involving the use of modern material culture, required the student to observe and attempt to explain a distribution of artifacts. McKellar chose to investigate trash deposition on the campus of the University of Arizona.