CHAPTER 3 - Methodology and Research Design at the Shawnee Minisink Site

Abstract

The upper Delaware valley early man project was an attempt to understand the total life ways of early man as they changed through time in a north-eastern riverine environment. To accomplish this research, the project's goals were fourfold: the development of an early man chronology for this section of the Northeast, the collection of environmental data for each period in the region, the study of the settlement patterns of individual sites, and the study of the way these patterns articulated into a community pattern for each period. The technology is available to improve the project's computer methods. Instead of arc coordinates, a laser transit could be used to generate the three coordinates in one sighting instead of in the three sightings required. The data gathered could be entered into a small hand-held computer using a battery operated cassette recorder for storage.