Remember that the archaeological record forms as a process over time, and the archaeological record reflects a process of change. Artifacts and features simply accumate over time. Each dot on this map represents a single artifact or feature that was left for an archaeologist to discover. The next few pages will illustrate how this pattern has emerged.

As you watch this animation, ask yourself how long this pattern took to accumulate? How would you know if this pattern took 5 years or 500 years to reach the point that the archaeologists have discovered? Even if we can't tell how long it actually took to accumulate this archaeological record, we can tell something by knowing simply what the sequence was. We can tell things such as:

Where did the use of the region begin?

What is the last part of the region to have been used by these prehistoric people?

Archaeologists need to be detectives to determine how long something took to accumulate. They use a variety of scientific means to study the archaeological record that helps them determine such things.

As we move on, we will start to put what we have learned to use....