ABSTRACT
Hunter-gatherer studies have long been a theme of archaeological inquiry. Archaeology has looked to the ethnographic record for guidance in the interpretation of food residues. The development and application of contemporary foraging theory in archaeology brings that challenge into sharp focus. By the mid-twentieth century, mounting concern over the appropriate use of ethnographic data in archaeology caused many to rethink these interpretive frameworks. The lure of ethnographic data stems from the level of observational detail obtainable in an ethnographic context. Optimal foraging theory represents a set of approaches to modelling hunter-gatherer subsistence strategy that has found a receptive audience in contemporary anthropology. The roots of contemporary foraging theory lie in attempts to link observable behaviour with the material correlates of that behaviour and culminates with sophisticated approaches to linking 'inferred' behaviour with observable material correlates of that inferred behaviour.
