Quantitative Methods in Archaeology
ANT 383M (28725) Fall, 2005
Samuel M. Wilson
Course Description
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Archaeological data lend themselves
to quantitative analyses. Virtually all modern archaeological research
uses some form of computer based methodology, including the collection,
storage, manipulation, and analysis of data, and the communication of
results. This course is intended to be an introduction to the broad spectrum
of quantitative methods available to archaeologists. It is not a course
in statistics, and is not designed to give students a high degree of competency
in abstruse multivariate analyses. Rather, the course is intended to help
you learn to be comfortable working with quantitative data, and to be
a sampler of commonly used quantitative methods in archaeology. The underlying
philosophy of the course is that quantitative methods, especially those
done using a computer, allow archaeologists to look at their data in new
ways, and gain greater insights than they could without them. Being able
to see data in new ways involves learning and internalizing an exploratory
approach to data analysis, and learning to be comfortable using a computer
to search for structure and patterns within quantitative information.
Gaining such proficiency requires experience and practice.
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Note: It is a priority of
this course is that no one will get lost or left behind. We will go at
a pace that is useful for everyone, not just those who already have some
experience with quantitative techniques in archaeology.
Course Requirements
Exercises-
70% of the course grade is
based on 8 exercises that you will hand in. Each is worth 10 percentage
points, but you will have the opportunity to utterly blow (or blow off)
one assignment without penalty (in other words we will count the 7 exercises
that received the highest grades).
Presentations and Final Paper
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20% of the course grade is
determined by a short paper (about 10 pages not including figures, tables,
etc.) and in-class presentations of the work you did for it. The paper
should apply quantitative methods to a data set that is of particular
interest to you. You must give a preliminary overview of the direction
you intend to take the project during weeks 5-8 of the course. Then in
the last 5 weeks of the course you will give a longer presentation on
your project. In an ideal case, a student could use this assignment to
carry out some specific set of quantitative analyses of data that would
form part of his or her Master's thesis or dissertation, or using a subset
of one's data to learn and develop the methods he or she will apply in
a larger study. If you're not in a position to do that, you should try
to anticipate what kinds of techniques will be useful in your future research,
then learn them on a dataset that I can help you find.
Participation
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Active participation (and therefore
attendance) are essential in this class. This counts for 10% of your grade.
Readings
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A list of readings is included
in the schedule. There are two texts, and
a packet of readings. The master copy of the packet will be available
in the Departmental mail room. The texts are:
- Shennan, Stephan (1996 (2nd ed.) Quantifying Archaeology. Edinburgh University Press.
- Drennan, Robert D. (1996)
Statistics for Archaeologists. Plenum Press.
Resources
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Because in the real world
there is no standard machine or software that everyone uses I will not
insist
on the use of particular kinds of computers or software. You will, however,
need to have access to a computer. You will also need to have
a spreadsheet program (such as Excel, Quattro, etc.). You will
also need to have access to a statistical software package (JMP, Minitab,
SAS, SPSS, Statview, Datadesk, Systat, etc.). I will provide information
in
class
about where you might go to find such programs, and you can also look
on the LINKS page for this class. Computers
are available for student use in the FAC computation center, and they
have
spreadsheet programs as well as statistical software (Minitab, SAS, and
SPSS). Computers are also available for this class's use in the Archaeology
Lab (EPS 2.136), and in the Welch computer labs (WEL 2.302 and 2.306).