You’ve excavated a high altitude site in the Rocky Mountain region and found evidence of paleoindian occupation. You’d like to know whether archaeological traditions of other geographic regions and time periods show similar evidence of human activities (e.g. projectile points, scrapers, bifaces, etc.) and structures (e.g. camps, shelters) with hunting game animals (e.g. bison, elk, moose, caribou). Ideally you would like to focus only on culture complexes and sites found in high elevations.
eHRAF Archaeology can help find this type of very detailed information. All searches first get “channeled” through major regions such as North and South America. Once you click on a tradition name (e.g. Highland Andean Archaic) you’ll find the results at the paragraph or page-level of documents (e.g. books, journal articles, essays, or dissertations). The ability to “jump” from one culture to the next within or across regions makes eHRAF ideal for comparative archaeology.
Use the HRAF specific cultures and subjects in combination with keywords to build a powerful Advanced Search. This screenshot of an Advanced Search for “high altitude camp sites” gives you an idea of how this works. Contact Christiane Cunnar at hraf@yale.edu to request a temporary log-in for eHRAF Archaeology, and don’t forget to tell her a little bit about your research topic so that she can give you some useful search tips.
HRAF 