Statistical Techniques for the Discovery of Artifact Types

Within recent years there appears to have been an increasing awareness on the part of archaeologists that certain statistical techniques offer economical methods of extracting information of cultural significance from archaeological data. The discussions of Kroeber (1940), Robinson (1951), and Brain...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American antiquity 1953-04, Vol.18 (4), p.305-313
Main Author: Spaulding, Albert C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeological methods
Coefficients
Degrees of freedom
Material culture
Population estimates
Pottery
Sampling errors
Smooth surfaces
Surface finishing
Tempering
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Within recent years there appears to have been an increasing awareness on the part of archaeologists that certain statistical techniques offer economical methods of extracting information of cultural significance from archaeological data. The discussions of Kroeber (1940), Robinson (1951), and Brainerd (1951) have appeared in American Antiquity, and the last two even evoked a comment (Lehmer, 1951). In addition to these papers, which are primarily devoted to exposition of method, a considerable number of special applications can be found in the literature. Archaeological research inevitably brings the researcher face to face with the problems of ordering and comparing quantities of data and of sampling error. There seems little doubt that the best approach to these problems involves a search of statistical literature for appropriate methods.
ISSN:0002-7316
2325-5064
DOI:10.2307/277099