All archaeologists use suppositions in their narratives to bridge gaps in empirical knowledge. If these suppositions are reasonable, they often become parts of regional archaeological traditions. However, such suppositions must be testable as new methods and techniques create new empirical evidence. In ancestral Mohawk Iroquoian archaeology, three village sites in the Caroga Creek drainage, thought to date to the sixteenth-century AD, have been accepted as a chronological sequence of villages occupied by the same community over the course of several generations. As reported here, however, social network analysis based on pottery collar design motifs demonstrates it is unlikely the sites represent such a sequence.

所有考古学家在叙述中都采用了假设，以弥合经验知识方面的空白。如果这些假设合理，它们通常会成为区域考古传统的一部分。但是，随着新方法和新技术产生新的经验证据，这种假设必须是可检验的。在祖先的莫霍克族易洛魁人的考古学中，卡罗加溪流域中的三个村庄遗址（被认为可以追溯到公元16世纪）已被接受为按时间顺序排列的同一社区在几代人的时间内占据的村庄。但是，如本文所述，基于陶领设计主题的社交网络分析表明，这些网站不太可能代表这样的序列。