Toward Settlement Occupation Span from Dispersion of Tobacco-Pipe Stem-Bore Diameter Values

Abstract

Past time is both antiquity and duration, both “when?” and “how long?” Tobacco-pipe stem fragments are a common historical artifact. Harrington histograms and Binford regressions are common dating methods that use pipe stems to answer “when?” questions, regression linking estimated occupation midpoint to mean stem-bore diameter. The value of knowing “how long” justifies the search in three 17th- and 18th-century North American data sets for a relationship between dispersion of stem-bore values (measured by standard deviation) and occupation span. Results further corroborate regression dating, if it needs it, and document qualified but statistically significant correlations between dispersion and occupation span. In the process, they strengthen links between historical and prehistoric archaeology in the science of material culture.