Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

In this issue, Chartkoff (1995) outlined an approach to enable researchers to evaluate the significance of lithic scatters, a ubiquitous site type in California and elsewhere. He defined five levels of hierarchy: (1) The Within-Site Context; (2) The Assemblage as a Whole; (3) A Site in its Environmental Context; (4) Context of Cultural Systems; and (5) Context at the Regional Level. This approach is a useful tool in site research and likely will open new ways of thinking about lithic scatters. My comments here are a reemphasis, rather than a disagreement, of several important points noted—but not driven home—by Chartkoff.