Quantitative Analysis in Archaeology

374 Pages·2010·2.39 MB·English

by  Todd L. VanPool

QUANTITATIVE
ANALYSIS IN
ARCHAEOLOGY
Todd L. VanPool & Robert D. Leonard
A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
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QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS IN ARCHAEOLOGY
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QUANTITATIVE
ANALYSIS IN
ARCHAEOLOGY
Todd L. VanPool & Robert D. Leonard
A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
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This edition fi rst published 2011
© 2011 Todd L. VanPool and Robert D. Leonard
Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
VanPool, Todd L., 1968-
Quantitative analysis in archaeology / Todd L. VanPool, Robert D. Leonard.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4051-8951-4 (hardback : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-8950-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Archaeology–Methodology. 2. Quantitative research. 3. Archaeology–Research. I. Leonard,
Robert D. II. Title.
CC75.7.V36 2010
930.1072–dc22
2010030199
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Set in 10.5/13pt Minion by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
Printed in Malaysia
01 2011
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To Connie Woebke and Glenn McCoy, two teachers who taught TVP what counts
To Grandmas Maggie and Ferne, for helping RDL learn his numbers
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Contents
List of Tables xi
List of Figures xv
List of Equations xx
Acknowledgments xxii
1 Quantifying Archaeology 1
2 Data 5
Scales of Measurement 6
Nominal level measurement 6
Ordinal level measurement 8
Interval level measurement 9
Ratio level measurement 9
The relationship among the scales of measurement 10
Validity 12
Accuracy and Precision 13
Populations and Samples 15
3 Characterizing Data Visually 18
Frequency Distributions 20
Histograms 25
Stem and Leaf Diagrams 28
Ogives (Cumulative Frequency Distributions) 31
Describing a Distribution 32
Bar Charts 34
Displaying Data like a Pro 36
Archaeology and Exploratory Data Analysis 38
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viii Contents
4 Characterizing Data Numerically: Descriptive Statistics 43
Measures of Central Tendency 45
Mean 45
Median 47
Mode 47
Which measure of location is best? 47
Measures of Dispersion 48
Range 49
Interquartile range 49
Variance and standard deviation 50
Calculating Estimates of the Mean and Standard Deviation 53
Coeffi cients of Variation 54
Box Plots 57
Characterizing Nominal and Ordinal Scale Data 58
Index of dispersion for nominal data and the index of qualitative
variation 59
5 An Introduction to Probability 66
Theoretical Determinations of Probability 66
Empirical Determinations of Probability 68
Complex Events 71
Using Probability to Determine Likelihood 72
The Binomial Distribution 74
The psychic’s trick 76
Simplifying the binomial 78
Probability in Archaeological Contexts 81
6 Putting Statistics to Work: The Normal Distribution 86
7 Hypothesis Testing I: An Introduction 97
Hypotheses of Interest 98
Formal Hypothesis Testing and the Null Hypothesis 100
Errors in Hypothesis Testing 105
8 Hypothesis Testing II: Confi dence Limits, the t-Distribution,
and One-Tailed Tests 109
Standard Error 114
Comparing Sample Means to m 116
Statistical Inference and Confi dence Limits 118
The t-Distribution 121
Degrees of freedom and the t-distribution 122
Hypothesis Testing Using the t-Distribution 124
Testing One-Tailed Null Hypotheses 127
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