These eight papers, plus an introduction and two final discussions, grew from a symposium held at the Society for Americal Archaeology in Philadelphia in 2000, which discussed the effect on analytical scale on the interpretation of the archaeological record. In other words, the contributors debate the validity of archaeologists' choices regarding the limits of their research area, such as geographical and temporal limitations, and the size of the material discussed, ranging from a complete castle or settlement to a few finds. The case studies are broad in their range, including early European farming, the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, the uses of archaeometry, early Anglo-Saxon East Anglia, Late Antique Volterra and early medieval European cities.

Six of the eleven papers in this volume are revised versions of those given at a symposium session at the SAA meeting in Chicago in 1999, along with an introduction and four extra contributions. The papers discuss object, behavioural and process replication and include both specific case studies, such as Controlled experiments with Middle Palaeolithic spear points', to more general studies of Assessing the process of experimentation'.