This creates a bias in the archaeological record.

A site may once have contained hundreds of objects that are now gone.

What survives can therefore give a distorted impression.

The sword pommel is valuable, but it is only one surviving fragment of a much larger event.

Researchers must remember that the archaeological record is incomplete.

THE ABSENCE OF EUROPEAN BUILDINGS

The lack of substantial Spanish architecture at the site should not be surprising.

De Soto’s army was moving.