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One-Sample Tests in Regional Archaeological Analysis: New Possibilities through Computer Technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kenneth L. Kvamme
Kenneth L. Kvamme*
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
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Abstract

Archaeologists commonly employ two-sample statistical tests in regional locational analyses that compare environmental measurements obtained at site locations against measurements taken at random locations from the background environment. One-sample tests that compare a site sample against a background standard are conceptually and statistically superior, but have been difficult to implement for continuous data types. This situation now is changed owing to a relatively new computer technology known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS can provide a complete description of the nature of the background environment of entire regions for categorical and continuous data types, thereby allowing the ready application of one-sample testing strategies. Examples of several GIS-based one-sample tests are given using data from east-central Arizona. Such conventional tests only should be applied, however, when the observations can be shown to be statistically independent through tests for spatial autocorrelation.

Résumé

Résumé

Arqueólogos comunmente emplean pruebas estadísticas de dos muestras en los análisis de localizatión regional que comparan medidas medioambientales obtenidas en localidades de sitios, con medidas tornados en localidades aleatorias en el medioambiente de fondo. Pruebas de una muestra que comparan la muestra de un sitio con un estándar de fondo son conceptualmente y estadisticamente superiores, pero dificiles de implementar para tipos de datos continuos. Esta situación hoy ha cambiado gracias a una tecnología de computacion relativamente nueva, conocida como “Sistemas de Information Geogrdfica” (GIS). GISprovee una descriptión completa de la naturaleza del medioambiente defondo en regiones enteraspara tipos de datos categoricos y continuos, permitiendo así la aplicación inmediata de estrategias de prueba de una muestra. Aqui se dan ejemplos de varias pruebas de una muestra basada en GIS, usando datos de una región de estudio en el centro-este de Arizona. Sin embargo, estas pruebas convencionales deben ser aplicadas solamente cuando pruebas de autocorrelatión espacial demuestran que las observaciones son estadisticamente independientes.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , April 1990 , pp. 367 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1990

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