A Model for Exploring the Optimal Trade‐off between Field Processing and Transport

Archeologists have long assumed that transport considerations have been important in structuring various aspects of the archeological record. An optimality model, derived from the principles of evolutionary ecology, is presented to investigate the trade‐off between field processing and transport for central place foragers. The model implicates (1) the time required to make a round‐trip and (2) the relationship between time spent field processing and increase in the utility of the transported load as the two critical factors determining what parts of resources are likely to be returned to a residential camp.