RISKY BUSINESS Archaeology by Robert's Rules

Robert S. Santley approached archaeology like a favorite board game-he loved the intellectual strategies and he took seriously the rules of engagement. This essay explores Roberts archaeological game plan and highlights his emphasis on ancient political economics. This emphasis is well represented along two fronts; settlement pattern studies to model economic geography and craft production analysis to address producer-consumer relationships. His contributions to these fields are framed in terms of "Robert's Rules "-the basic rules of the game that structured Robert Santley's archaeological pursuits.