Root and wood samples
Root and wood samples in a stratigraphically ordered model.
The modeled end of feature use loses its described dated materials.
Inspect the source record →The record that survives.
Remove an evidence channel. Keep the question.
A teaching exercise using six selected case examples. Toggling a category removes its example from view; it does not calculate real decay, missing populations, or the proportion of history lost. Categories overlap in the real world.
6 of 6 teaching examples available.
Charcoal and plant remains
Charcoal and occupation material; not each seed.
The record of plant use and its associated dating become harder to assess.
Inspect the source record →Femur and genome
Directly dated femur; genome used for admixture modeling.
The physical and genomic evidence described in this case is removed from the exercise.
Inspect the source record →Submerged lithics
Inundation model; the stone artifacts were not directly dated.
The underwater assemblage becomes unavailable for assessing transport and inundation.
Inspect the source record →Cave ochre record
Quartz in occupation sediments; not the marks themselves.
This cave record is unavailable; other sites may preserve different traces.
Inspect the source record →Footprint surfaces
Aquatic seeds, terrestrial pollen, quartz and wetland mud.
This footprint sequence is unavailable for the exercise.
Inspect the source record →What follows from a gap?
A missing trace can reflect preservation, discovery, or genuine absence. The strength of an argument from absence depends on whether evidence should have survived and whether an adequate search was made. This exercise cannot establish an otherwise unsupported civilization or transmission.