Point pattern analysis revisited

Orton, C. (2004) Point pattern analysis revisited. Archeologia e Calcolatori, 15. pp. 299-315. ISSN 1120-6861

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Abstract

Point pattern analysis has been one of archaeology’s quantitative approaches since at least the 1970s, and has been applied at a range of scales, from the region to the site. Various techniques have been “borrowed” from other disciplines, notably ecology, such as quadrat analysis, nearest-neighbour analysis and kernel density analysis. There have also been “home-grown” techniques such as Local Density Analysis, Presab and Unconstrained Clustering, as well as the use of Cluster Analysis itself. This paper reviews these developments, assessing their strengths and weaknesses. A statistical advance was made in the 1970s with the development of the K function approach. This has become embodied in the ecological statistical software package ADE-4 as the Ripley and Intertype programs. These programs were found in a search for suitable affordable software for teaching spatial analysis at post-graduate level, and have been used in this role for three years, taking as a test-bed the Danish mesolithic site of Barmose I. The outcome of this work is presented as a case study and compared with earlier analyses of this dataset. The value of ADE-4 for archaeological spatial analysis is assessed.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	New Frontiers of Archaeological Research. Languages, Communication, Information Technology, Moscati P. (ed.)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Statistics; theoretical and methodological problems
Subjects:	900 Storia, Geografia e discipline ausiliarie > 930 Storia dei mondo antico fino al 499 ca. > 930.1 Archeologia (Classificare qui la Storia fino al 4000 a.C., l'Archeologia preistorica, le opere interdisciplinari sull'Archeologia) > 930.102 Archeologia - Opere miscellanee > 930.1028 Archeologia – Tecniche, metodologie, apparecchi e strumenti (comprende: Archeometria) > 930.10285 Archeologia – Applicazioni informatiche (comprende: tecniche di datazione)
Depositing User:	Dott.ssa Paola Moscati
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2009
Last Modified:	19 Apr 2017 09:51
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/920

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