This is an experimental calculator to determine the population of a woodland site.  It's based on averages and some information from the Elizabeth Site (Charles, Leigh & Bujkstra: Volume 7,1988).

Put your best estimate for the size of your site and the total number of years you think it was occupied in the first two rows.

The storage pit field in white will only work with certain numbers and it's already programmed with a number.

A point to remember is with terminology.  Life expectancy and lifespan have two different meanings and are often not used correctly.



For example: If you have a group of 10 individuals and all were born at the same time and 4 of those died in the first five years and the rest lived to be 70, some archaeologists will say that group had an average lifespan of 44 years. That is misleading, but true if you averaged everyone who died

In reality, they have a life expectancy of 70 years based on the average of those who survived after the 5th year

Lifespan is the actual length of time that individual lived. There is no end to the ways this actual information can be used, such as dividing that into age groups, sex, disease, and so on.

The point is, and I am guilty as well, we tend to say the life expectancy of a middle woodland individual is about 38 and that is not really true.  It is the average.  Meaning you didn't drop dead on your 38th birthday.  For example:  It means if you have a 50 year old who passes with a five year old, their average life was 27.5 years.  Unless your talking about groups in the hundreds, that number does not really help you at all without knowing a long laundry list of details that can help a person sort it out.

If you were only interested in individuals within a certain age group, then it might be helpful, or looking at a group over an extended time frame over several generations.

Approximate Local Site Sizes in Square Feet

Renner 258,725            Line Creek 196,020

Trowbridge  169,884                Aker 653,400

Young, 217,800

THE ARTICLE BELOW IS UNFLITERED AND OBVIOUSLY UNEDITED AND WRITTEN AS I WORKED ON IT.  I'LL CLEAN IT UP SHORTLY.

I took re-calibrated Kansas City area radiocarbon dates from Mary Adair's work; Refining Plains Chronology, 2012.  Of the  26 closest sites to KC, I picked the top 15 and I chose those because they had more than one radiocarbon date.  I took all the dates, including their +/-  numbers,  and I arranged them on a timeline to music.  This was the result.