Quantitative Archaeology and Archaeological Modelling – serie

This volume investigates the construction of group identity in Late La Tène South-East Europe using an innovative statistical modelling method. Death and burial theory underlies the potential of mortuary practices for identity research. The sample used for this volumes's research consists of 370 graves, organized in a specially crated database that records funerary ritual; and grave-good information.  In the case of grave-goods, this involved found hierarchically organized categorical variables, which serve to describe each item by combining functional and typological features.The volume also aims to show the compatibility of archaeological theory and statistical modelling. The discussions from archaeological theory rarely find methodological implementations through statistical methods.  In this volume, theoretical issues form an integrative part of data preparation, method development and result interpretation.

This book focuses on the analysis of different scales of mobility and addresses parameters and proxies of population movement aiming at the formation of a ‘ground’ for the further development of quantitative approaches. In order to do so, the volume explores wide scale mobility (environmental contexts and cross-cultural trends), seasonal mobility of Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, and migration, niche construction, utilitarian and non- utilitarian factors of mobility.Chapters in the volume include case studies from across Europe and Asia. The editors’ introduction addresses the current state of mobility discourse in archaeology. The chapters address questions related to parameters used to describe different factors of movement and examines correlations between parameters describing environmental diversity, demography, and the values representing spatial movement. This volume is of interest to students and researchers of mobility of human beings in the past.

This book focuses on the analysis of different scales of mobility and addresses parameters and proxies of population movement aiming at the formation of a ‘ground’ for the further development of quantitative approaches. In order to do so, the volume explores wide scale mobility (environmental contexts and cross-cultural trends), seasonal mobility of Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, and migration, niche construction, utilitarian and non- utilitarian factors of mobility.Chapters in the volume include case studies from across Europe and Asia. The editors’ introduction addresses the current state of mobility discourse in archaeology. The chapters address questions related to parameters used to describe different factors of movement and examines correlations between parameters describing environmental diversity, demography, and the values representing spatial movement. This volume is of interest to students and researchers of mobility of human beings in the past.

This book covers the topic of discourse and argumentation in archaeology with an aim to serve the archaeology community. The book presents discourse and argument analysis approaches and techniques in an affordable manner and applied to archaeological situations. It focuses on techniques and approaches that can be applicable to multiple situations, periods and cultures.The book begins with an introduction to discourse and argumentation analysis as a general field and also as an auxiliary technique to archaeology. The work includes conceptual applications, ranging from causality, ontological connections, vagueness, social production of discourse and public debates. The work also devotes a section to computational approaches and describes the specifics of some well-known families of algorithms such as lexical processing, information extraction or sentiment analysis. The conclusion comments on the future and which reflects on the previous chapters and discusses how the presented techniques and approaches should be adapted or improved for easier and more powerful application to archaeology. Contributing authors bring perspectives from archaeology, linguistics, and computer science.

This book covers the topic of discourse and argumentation in archaeology with an aim to serve the archaeology community. The book presents discourse and argument analysis approaches and techniques in an affordable manner and applied to archaeological situations. It focuses on techniques and approaches that can be applicable to multiple situations, periods and cultures.The book begins with an introduction to discourse and argumentation analysis as a general field and also as an auxiliary technique to archaeology. The work includes conceptual applications, ranging from causality, ontological connections, vagueness, social production of discourse and public debates. The work also devotes a section to computational approaches and describes the specifics of some well-known families of algorithms such as lexical processing, information extraction or sentiment analysis. The conclusion comments on the future and which reflects on the previous chapters and discusses how the presented techniques and approaches should be adapted or improved for easier and more powerful application to archaeology. Contributing authors bring perspectives from archaeology, linguistics, and computer science.

This open access book brings together key issues from transformative processes and events across Europe (and in some cases beyond) from 15,000 to 1 BCE. This volume covers the research output produced by the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1266 "Scales of Transformation" – the first interdisciplinary centre to diachronically investigate transformations in past societies with a summary of their individual aspects from the Late Palaeolithic to the Roman Period. Following the introduction, the book is divided into three main sections: In "Identification of anatomies of socio-environmental transformation", the concept of scales of transformations is first explained, and the various parameters of transformational change are identified. This is followed by "Expressions of socio-environmental transformations: from climate preconditions to decision making", in which transformation processes are illustrated with individual examples. The third major part of the book deals with"Perspectives on decision making processes in socio-environmental transformations". In conclusion, the results are framed in a broad temporal framework, and patterns of socio-environmental change are presented across common time frames from the Eastern Mediterranean to Scandinavia. This book is of interest to researchers in archaeology and palaeoecology.

This open access book brings together key issues from transformative processes and events across Europe (and in some cases beyond) from 15,000 to 1 BCE. This volume covers the research output produced by the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1266 "Scales of Transformation" – the first interdisciplinary centre to diachronically investigate transformations in past societies with a summary of their individual aspects from the Late Palaeolithic to the Roman Period. Following the introduction, the book is divided into three main sections: In "Identification of anatomies of socio-environmental transformation", the concept of scales of transformations is first explained, and the various parameters of transformational change are identified. This is followed by "Expressions of socio-environmental transformations: from climate preconditions to decision making", in which transformation processes are illustrated with individual examples. The third major part of the book deals with"Perspectives on decision making processes in socio-environmental transformations". In conclusion, the results are framed in a broad temporal framework, and patterns of socio-environmental change are presented across common time frames from the Eastern Mediterranean to Scandinavia. This book is of interest to researchers in archaeology and palaeoecology.

This volume is designed as a 12-lecture textbook, which can serve as a course companion, self teaching guide and handbook for basic concepts. Each lecture comprises 20 pages, in which the methods are introduced, examples shown and the code is given. All examples are computed with open source software, mainly R, and with archaeological data available from the book's website.The book does not describe elaborated high-end models but rather very basic modelling concepts that serve as components in more complex models. The book enables the reader to construct such models by themselves and be sensitive for certain problems. In addition it gives hints for the interpretation of the results.Students are usually quick to apply fancy methods yet fail in the proper interpretation due to a lack of understanding of the underlying principles. This problem is addressed by the proposed book through three concepts:1. Command line software forces the students to first learn some details before they are able to produce results on their own.2. The book is focused on principles and methods. When the students understand a few basic principles, they have far better access to a wide range of related methods.3. Examples of poor analysis highlight common pitfalls.The volume attempts to be an applied, minimalistic and efficient textbook and is based upon several successful courses.

This volume investigates the construction of group identity in Late La Tène South-East Europe using an innovative statistical modelling method. Death and burial theory underlies the potential of mortuary practices for identity research. The sample used for this volumes's research consists of 370 graves, organized in a specially crated database that records funerary ritual; and grave-good information.  In the case of grave-goods, this involved found hierarchically organized categorical variables, which serve to describe each item by combining functional and typological features.The volume also aims to show the compatibility of archaeological theory and statistical modelling. The discussions from archaeological theory rarely find methodological implementations through statistical methods.  In this volume, theoretical issues form an integrative part of data preparation, method development and result interpretation.