A landfill dump provides a sample from multiple households. In some
respects such a sample is more meaningful than the assemblage from a
single specific site, if we wish to focus on a broader community. There
are useful analyses one can do with such an assemblage. In a forthcoming
article in Historical Archaeology, Adams, Bowers, and Mills examine
several assemblages from Alaska using the commodity flow model discussed
by Riordan and Adams (1985). One of these assemblages was, in part, from
a landfill.

William Hampton Adams, PhD
Department of Archaeology
Flinders University
GPO 2100
Adelaide, SA  5001
AUSTRALIA

For more information about Flinders University, Dept. of Archaeology:
http://wwwehlt.flinders.edu.au/archaeology

For more information about historical archaeology:
http://wwwehlt.flinders.edu.au/wha/histarchinfo.html