I'd like to extend my thanks to Stephen Austin and Gary Vines who responded to
my query for information.

Given that my upcoming masters project will be dealing largely with post-1952
material culture, I thought I'd weigh in on the subject... (Perhaps my
supervisor is lurking on the board and I can score some brownie points.)  1970s
beer cans and discarded sofas don't interest me nearly as much as turn of the
century tobacco tins and eighteenth century trade guns, but they are no less
artifacts and physical remains of human behavior.  Plus, a trash-littered party
spot from 1993 has one element that older archaeological sites do not:  They
occur within a behavioral context that is still observable in the here and
now.  From a theoretical standpoint, modern material culture studies give us an
opportunity to connect, in a very detailed and fine-grained way, the
archaeological evidence we observe in the field with the behavioral patterns of
today.  Call it archaeology, call it forensics, call it bulls__t, but after
groping amorphous lithic flakes and tin cans with the lithography rusted off
for most of my career, I find it refreshing to look at a 1980 Hamms can and be
able to say, "yes, I know exactly what this was and what it was used for."

Anyway, I am still hoping to get some information/references on dating 55
gallon drums, if anyone out there has any.  Thanks folks!


Kris Farmen
Northern Land Use Research, Inc.
Fairbanks, Alaska