Statistical means for identifying hunter–gatherer residential features in a lithic landscape

• Potential hunter–gatherer residential features and natural clast distributions are mapped.
• Clast frequencies, densities and distributions are determined.
• Residential features are extracted by comparison to ethnoarchaeological data and natural clast distributions.
• Group size, mobility type and site formation processes are discussed.

Techniques are described for extracting circular rock features from landscapes dominated by clasts of the same type from which cultural features are composed, using as a test case a large stone circle residential site in western Wyoming, USA. Methods consist of point plotting all relevantly-sized culturally and naturally-deposited clasts in the field and identifying potential cultural features using point density analyses tools in ArcGIS. Potential rings are either accepted or rejected as cultural features by comparing clast frequency, density and distribution in internal, feature-ring, and external spatial buffers to ethnoarchaeological data recording stone circle size and morphology and to similar data generated from a control sample of off-site, naturally-occurring clasts. The results of the analysis are used to discuss group size, mobility type, and duration of site occupation and to explore problems of assessing such at surface archaeological sites resulting from palimpsest-type site formation processes.