Society for American Archaeology

Spatial Analysis in Archaeology by Ian Hodder; Clive OrtonReview by: G. A. ClarkAmerican Antiquity, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1978), pp. 132-135Published by: Society for American ArchaeologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/279646 .

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132 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 43, No. 1,1978]

Another chapter presents the information that wood analysis yields toward the reconstruction of the paleoecological environment of man and his influence on the vegetation. Of greatest interest here is the com- parison of the results obtained by different approaches to the same problem, such as pollen, animal, and wood remains. It is encouraging to see that the wood remains and the pollen counts support each other, with the local vegetation component more strongly represented by the wood remains, and the extralocal environment by the pollen analysis.

The final chapter describes the wood content of 60 prehistoric sites in its archaeological context, thus giv- ing a picture of current studies in central Europe, espe- cially in Switzerland.

The literature list given in this volume is short be- cause the author recently published a complete bibliog- raphy of all work on wood and fossil wood remains that has been done (Courier of the Research Institute, Senckenberg, 1976).

The study concludes with several pages of excellent microphotographs of the main European wood types in their fossil state.

Everyone dealing with prehistoric wood remains, especially in an archaeological context, will find this compendium of great value for teaching and for re- search.

VERA MARKGRAF University of Arizona Tucson, AZ

Spatial Analysis in Archaeology. IAN HODDER and CLIVE ORTON. Cambridge University Press, New York and London, 1976. ix + 270 pp., illus. $19.50.

This volume, the first in the "New Studies in Ar- chaeology" series, is a combined effort by Ian Hod- der, a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Leeds, and Clive Orton, a Ministry of Agriculture statistician only recently encouraged to turn his exper- tise to things archaeological. It consists of a survey of statistical methods for the analysis of distribution maps, and is an argument by example that ar- chaeologists have been slow to realize the potential for making inferences about prehistoric behavior which use systematic and replicable procedures for describ- ing and interpreting spatial patterning in archaeological remains. The book can be divided into four parts, which deal respectively with (1) the nature of spatial data in general, (2) point-pattern analysis, synchronic and diachronic models for settlement pattern analysis, and for the analysis of artifact type distributions, (3) measures of association between distributions, and (4) the current status of spatial studies in archaeology.

Part I comprises two chapters which introduce basic spatial analysis concepts (Chapter 1) and which dis- cuss problems associated with the analysis of ar- chaeological distribution maps (Chapter 2). An histori- cal survey of archaeological attempts to cope with dis- tribution maps reveals the inadequacies of the "tradi- tional" approach, which relied upon subjective and at times impressionistic assessments of the degree and significance of spatial clustering (e.g. Fox, The Per-

sonality of Britain, 1943). Subjectivity in map interpre- tation was a general problem in political and economic geography, as well as in a number of other fields but one which was recognized and corrected at a compara- tively early stage in the development of these disci- plines (Harvey: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 44:85-95). Consequently, the authors argue that we have a methodological repertoire de- veloped in other disciplines which can, to varying de- grees, be adapted to spatial problems of concern to archaeologists. A short introduction to statistical con- cepts germane to spatial analysis is appended to Chap- ter 1, for a quantified approach is deemed essential if objectivity and replicability are major research objec- tives, and if large amounts of data are to be processed.

Chapter 2 delineates problems related to the in- terpretation of distribution maps of settlement systems and of isolated artifact types. Distortion of original configurations by erosion and site destruction, and a differential in fieldwork intensity are identified as prin- ciple causes of sampling error in studies of regional scope, regardless of whether site or artifact distribu- tions are being evaluated. Reliability of map distribu- tions is also seen to be influenced by the scale upon which data are recorded; the effect that varying quad- rat sizes has on statistical assessments of randomness and/or aggregation is a well-known example. Once fac- tors of distortion are taken into account, analysis can proceed either inductively, through pattern search procedures, or deductively, through the formulation of hypotheses about what Schiffer (Behavioral Archaeol- ogy, 1976) has called "cultural formation processes." The latter can be modeled mathematically, in many cases, and some of these models are considered in de- tail in Part II.

Part II is the longest and certainly the most valuable section of the book; it comprises three chapters which treat point and block pattern analyses in general terms, and then evaluate statistical methods for assessing the departure from randomness in models for settlement systems and for the regional distributions of single ar- tifact types. Only by vitiating the randomness assump- tion can patterning which may be interpretable in be- havioral terms be demonstrated to exist. Tests for ran- domness can be divided into quadrat methods and dis- tance methods, and these are surveyed in Chapter 3. Data recorded by quadrats (blocks) are analyzed by comparing the observed frequency distributions of point counts per unit with that of the Poisson function adjusted for density using the variance/mean ratio statistic, and the X2 distributed index of dispersion (Greig-Smith, Quantitative Plant Ecology, 1964). An approach which allows the search for structured pat- tern to be carried out at different scales (block sizes), and which tests for goodness of fit at each scale is what Whallon has called "dimensional analysis of variance" (Pielou, An Introduction to Mathematical Ecology, 1969). If a graph of the variance between blocks for each block size is drawn, block sizes which approxi- mate a clustered pattern will appear as peaks in the graph, which can then be tested by the variance/mean ratio test, or interpreted subjectively. Applications most familiar to American readers include Dacey's analysis of the Sde Divshon lithic data (American An- tiquity 38:320-28), Whallon's DANOVA paper (Ameri- can Antiquity 38:266-78), and Thomas' simula-

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REVIEWS 133

tion of Great Basin Shoshonean settlement subsistence systems (Models in Archaeology, D. Clarke, ed., 671- 704, 1972).

The main advantage to quadrat based methods is that much archaeological data is, and has been col- lected in the form of counts by grid units. However, results are seriously affected by quadrat size (and it is not always possible to vary quadrat size unless point- provenienced data are available to begin with), the variance/mean ratio statistic is unstable when the mean is small, the X2 goodness of fit test cannot be applied if the number of quadrats is small and if overall density is low, and, finally, DANOVA is constrained by the use of a rectangular grid of contiguous quadrats in which the number of units along each side must be a power of 2-a feature which limits its usefulness to situations where the scale and shape of the excavated (or collected) archaeological surface can be manipu- lated to form a grid of the required dimensions.

Because of these limitations, tests based upon dis- tance measures are considered more appropriate for archaeological research if point-provenienced data are available. This means nearest neighbor analysis (Clark and Evans: Ecology 35:445-53), or some variation on it; the basic method and rationale are outlined and il- lustrated with an examination of Iron Age hillforts in Wiltshire. Nearest neighbor analyses are perhaps more familiar to archaeologists than are quadrat approaches. On a regional scale they have been applied to surface survey data from Pueblo sites on the Rio Puerco (Washburn: American Antiquity 39:315-35), Peebles on mound sites in Alabama (Moundville: The Organi- sation of a Prehistoric Community and Culture, 1974) and by Hodder and his colleagues to analyze the dis- tributions of Iron Age and Romano-British walled towns in S. England. On the intrasite level, Whallon (American Antiquity 39:16-34) has used the method to describe the distributions of four major artifact categories on a "Protomagdalenian' (Periogordian VII) occupation floor at the Abri Pataud, in the Dor- dogne.

In Chapter 4, an effort is made to articulate theoreti- cal models for interpreting observed spatial patterns with the pattern search approaches outlined in Chapter 3. Aggregate random patterns are regarded as anomalies seen to arise from random resource distribu- tions, and more commonly from post-depositional fac- tors, which may have distorted the original configura- tion. The point here is that the identification of a ran- dom pattern does not preclude the possibility that the pattern may have been generated by randomizing dis- turbances of some other, original spatial pattern. Mod- els for the horizontal and hierarchical organization of settlement systems developed in classical locational analysis in economic geography are reviewed and found applicable in some instances to archaeological data. Even as iconic models, they are theory-laden formulations because ideal configurations are linked with, or held to be directly attributable to explicit, usually economic causal factors (e.g. resource dis- tributions, population density gradients, subsistence activities, marketing and productivity principles, transport media and the like). The result is a package of theoretical relationships which are derived from the analysis of, and which have been tested against con- temporary data from agrarian societies (cf. Smith: Re-

gional Analysis I, II, 1976), and which offer the poten- tial for testing against the archaeological record. The bulk of Chapter 4 consists of just such a series of tests where hypotheses formulated on the basis of idealized locational models are evaluated. The mechanics of analyzing sites arranged into hierarchies on various criteria are examined in the Midwest (Struever and Houart: Anthropological Papers, University of Michi- gan 46: 47-79), in Mesoamerica (Hammond: Models in Archaeology, D. Clarke, ed., 757-800, 1972) and in late pre-Roman Iron Age Britain (Hodder: New Directions in Archaeology, D. L. Clark, ed., 1975). The well- known rank-size rule (Vining: Journal of the American Statistical Association 18:44-64; Haggett: Locational Analysis in Human Geography, pp. 101-107, 1965), an alternative model for examining hierarchical situations in which intralevel variability obscures interlevel dis- tinctiveness, is also discussed at some length. Methods for examining observed variation in the rank-size rela- tionship are illustrated using British Iron Age data, where centers are ranked using a path ordering al- gorithm. A potential difficulty is the necessity for tight temporal control, and the remainder of Chapter 4 is an attenuated discussion of the chronological significance of site density and regularity relationships. Uniform patterns are seen to develop through time as a con- sequence of the marketing and competition principles first outlined by economic geographers. Clustered pat- terns emerge from resource localization and from the process of contagion-the attraction of population to a higher order center to take advantage of a broader spectrum of services and activities than would be available at a lower order center. Statistical models using the probability distribution of the negative bino- mial are used to distinguish between "true contagion" (where the distribution of points is assumed homogeneous and the probability of the occurrence of a point (settlement) directly increases the probability of occurrence of other points nearby) and apparent or "spurious contagion" (where random inhomogeneity in population density is present and where the proba- bility of the occurrence of a point is a function of a differential in the availability of information). Ob- served frequency data based on quadrat counts from Polish Bandkeramik, Lengyel, and TRB sites is tested for goodness of fit against true and spurious contagion models using maximum likelihood estimates. As these data are ordered in time, a model for the pattern of settlement development is outlined which entails an initial stage of contagious growth, the expansion of settlement clusters and finally the development of a more dispersed pattern characterized by local varia- tion in site density.

Regression analysis, the simulation of artifact dis- persal patterns, trend surface analysis and spatial au- tocorrelation are considered in Chapter 5 with respect to the distributions of single artifact types considered in isolation. Regression analysis is discussed in general and at some length; it is used to describe spatial trends in the distributions of single artifact types from known sources by analysis of residuals from fitted regression lines (e.g. Iron Age/Roman pottery types from New Forest, Savernake, Oxford kilns). Plots of positive and negative residuals identify density fall-off patterns which are interpreted subjectively-a drawback be- cause sets of residuals patterned alike can result from a

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134 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 43, No. 1, 1978]

number of distinct spatial processes. Fall-off curves from known sources are also interpreted using simula- tions based upon random walk processes. Random walk processes are stochastic models in which the dis- tances and directions moved by points progressing from a central source are chosen at random within specified limits. Like any simulation, random walk models permit the researcher to specify multiple vari- ables, define interactions of varying complexity among them, and set the resultant system in motion through a large number of cycles to determine what the prob- abilities of different system variables are likely to be at any stage in the process. In the present case, the ef- fects of varying the direction and length of steps and the total number of steps per walk are examined, and the models are tested for goodness of fit by comparing the observed and expected point densities in a series of annular distance bands around the origin. Reciprocal and redistributive exchange processes of some com- plexity can sometimes be distinguished from one another, but a host of survival and recovery factors intervene to make certain identification in archaeolog- ical contexts difficult. These problems also plague trend surface and auto-correlation analyses, and even the use of simple gravity models, which are also dis- cussed. Basically, there is a question about the level of detail at which spatial trends are likely to be detected, and the suggestion of an answer that that level is not always sufficiently precise to allow for significant cor- relation between spatial form and spatial process. It should be kept in mind that the book is about methods for objectifying pattern search approaches. It could be argued that a consideration of ethnoarchaeologically- grounded "cultural formation processes" (Schiffer op. cit.) is logically prior to the use of pattern search ap- proaches, but it is also and equally apparent that ethnographic models are wholly inadequate by them- selves to cope with the behavioral complexities of the processes modeled here. Instead, the authors think it more profitable to look for abstract theoretical princi- ples developed in economics or in economic geog- raphy which might be linked in turn to trade, market- ing principles, and other regional social and economic phenomena of interest to archaeologists (cf. Smith op. cit.). Certainly much of what is "explained" by Hod- der and Orton is explained by deriving test implica- tions from economic theory, rather than in terms of test implications based upon the traditional ethno- graphic models with which archaeologists have been accustomed to deal.

Part III is concerned with measures of association between site and artifact distributions (Chapter 6) and between sites and features of the natural environment (Chapter 7). As was the case with the statistical proce- dures outlined in Chapter 3, methods for the analysis of spatial association depend upon the type of data being examined. The objective is usually to assess the extent or departure from randomness, and, if either significant clustering or dispersion are present, to de- termine whether or not two or more superimposed dis- tributions are intermingled in such a way that be- haviorally meaningful inferences can be drawn from the study of the joint distribution. Methods suitable for data recorded in quadrats usually entail the construc- tion of contingency tables, which are then analyzed by

conventional X2 tests, and X2 based statistics like the variance/mean ratio to determine whether types occur in space independently of each other (Dacey: Ameri- can Antiqiuity 38:320-28). Coefficients which measure the degree of strength of association are also reviewed, following Pielou (op. cit.). Most of these measures vary from + 1 indicative of maximum positive associa- tion between point distributions to - 1 where negative association (segregation) between distributions is as great as possible. a value of zero indicates an absence of association of any kind; observed and expected fre- quencies are equal. A discussion of spatial equivalents of the common measures of central tendency and dis- persion (e.g. arithmetic mean center, median center, standard distance deviation) rounds out this useful chapter. These descriptive statistics can also serve as a basis for comparison if more than one distribution is under consideration (Neft: Statistical AnalYsis for Areal Distributions, 1966).

Chapter 7 comprises an attenuated discussion of two related topics: (1) latterday manifestations of von Thii- nen's concentric ring model for land use, (Des Isolierte Staut, 1826), and (2) approaches to archaeological site catchment analysis. Little methodology is presented here. Instead these models for assessing the relation- ship between point scatters and environmental vari- ables (e.g. soil type, altitude, vegetation cover, fea- tures of the landscape) are evaluated and found want- ing. In the first case, the assumptions built into the ring model are, by present standards, unrealistically sim- ple. Von ThUinen acknowledged that his model was an idealization, created only to be distorted by the ma- nipulation of his variables to improve goodness of fit with the empirical reality of his Baltic Coast estates. However, modern attempts to use it in the same way appear to encounter insurmountable difficulties (Jackson: Area 4, 258-61). Site catchment analysis is regarded as a distant lineal relative of the concentric ring model which focuses attention upon the im- mediate microenvironment of a site, from whence ac- tual or potential resources are assumed to be derived. The analysis of subsistence activities is the principle objective. While concentration on resources available in the localized area around a site lends a precision to the study of exploitation lacking in studies of regional scope, there are disadvantages when catchment analysis is applied to prehistoric situations. Probably the most important objection is that prehistoric land potential is often assessed in terms of modern land use patterns (Vita-Finzi and Higgs: Proceediings of the Prehistoric Society 36:1-37), an unrealistic assumption to make if millenia have elapsed and if the impact of man and of geological agencies on the locale have been severe. Also, it is assumed that the proportion of land use types in the catchment circle should directly re- flect the relative importance of land use in that area, which is probably unrealistic since the catchment cir- cle radius is usually chosen arbitrarily. Finally, there is seldom any attempt to relate site catchment areas to regional land use patterns. While these criticisms of the state of the art are perhaps valid through 1974, they can probably be corrected to a considerable degree on the technical level, as progressively more realistic statements of relationship between past and present environments can incorporated into any given model.

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REVIEWS 135

The book ends with a brief synopsis of problems with archaeological spatial analysis. Problems result- ing from the nature of archaeological data, problems arising from the constraints of the statistical methods employed, and problems of the relationship between spatial form and process are considered. Sampling error due to a differential in site survival, fieldwork intensity and a failure to control for temporal variation are critical factors in the first case, whereas the statis- tical procedures surveyed here have sets of assump- tions which at times limit their usefulness with recal- citrant archaeological data, in the second.

The major limitation at present is, of course, that different spatial processes can produce the same spa- tial form. So, while it may be possible to describe and to measure the strength of association between spatial patterns using rigorous and replicable techniques, and to test for goodness of fit with abstract theoretical models, the fact remains that there is no 1: 1 correlation between spatial form and spatial process. Schiffer (American Antiquity 37:156-65) has suggested that the extraction of behavioral patterns from archaeological remains is by no means the simple and straightforward task which it is sometimes imagined to be since there is no reason to assume that distributions recoverable from the archaeological record are replications of dis- tributions which are meaningful in behavioral terms. From this perspective, archaeological residues are re- garded as static representations of dynamic behavioral and natural systems; consequently the distributional aspects of archaeological remains must be carefully scrutinized so that a host of cultural and natural pro- cesses which might influence the appearance of ar- chaeological remains on the ground can be taken into account. At present, we seem to be in a situation where some fairly sophisticated theoretical statements about spatial process have been made, usually in the context of economic or locational geography. This book presents some ideas about how these hypotheses about spatial process can be assessed archaeological- ly, and that is its major contribution. Although ar- chaeology (and other disciplines) clearly lack a com- prehensive model which relates spatial process in gen- eral terms to spatial form, it is argued that the methods outlined by Hodder and Orton are sorely needed if explicit "systems for indirect observation of the past" are ultimately to be developed (Fritz: Conternporarv Archaeology, M. Leone, ed., pp. 135-37, 1972). Ar- chaeological theory building is at a point when im- plementation of quantitative spatial measures is criti- cal to the resolution of many, perhaps most of its hypotheses. This book has been prepared with that goal in mind. It is not a compendium of "answers' to abstract questions about archaeological theory perti- nent to spatial variables in general, but is instead a necessary methodological bridge designed to span the chasm between the purely abstract and the empirical aspects of spatial behavior.

G. A. CLARK Arizona State University Tempe, AZ

Potterv Stvle and Society in Ancient Perui. Art as a Mirror of History in the Ica Vallev, 1350-1570. DOROTHY MENZEL. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976. xiii + 288 pp., illus. $25.00

Menzel's book is an attempt to reconstruct changing social attitudes, values, and interests through stylistic analysis of pottery. The subject matter of her study is the burial furniture of thirty-eight Late Ica tombs from the Ica Valley on the south coast of Peru that were excavated by Max Uhle in 1900 and 1901. The grave goods are now in the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley, California. Supplementary data were provided through John H. Rowe's surveys and excavations in the Ica Valley carried out between 1954 and 1969, and by unprovenienced vessels from collectors and hutaqlueros. The time-span covered by those burials and other data is the last part of the Late Intermediate period, A. D. 1350 to 1570, a turbulent era in the Ica Valley encompassing the Inca conquest in 1476, and then later the Spanish conquest in 1534. Menzel's objective is to record the impact of these historically documented upheavals as they are re- flected in local art styles. As I am not a Peruvianist by training, I am not competent to evaluate the specifics of her cultural historical reconstructions. However, she claims her study to be a methodological and theoretical contribution to the understanding of the re- lationship of ceramics and society, and it is to these aspects of the book that this review is addressed.

The methodological and theoretical directions Men- zel has given her work may be most succinctly related by citing two brief passages from her introduction (p. 2):

This study is therefore, an exercise in historic ar- chaeology, and the fact gives it some special theoretical importance. We are in a position to study the rate and kind of changes in style as- sociated with a series of known events, and we can ask what archaeological evidence can contribute to an understanding of cultural processes in a situa- tion when some historical evidence is also avail- able.

This study attempts to . .. bring to bear on an American problem the rigorous standards of the best Classical archaeology . . . to make the fullest possible use of archaeological associations in relat- ing style changes to historic events. The methods developed could be profitably applied to many other problems in American archaeology.

These are worthwhile objectives, and much could be learned by similarly rigorous analysis of other localized highland Peruvian pottery styles. However, while Menzel has largely delivered what she promises in her introduction, she has not necessarily done so in the most effective manner.

The problem of presentation does not appear to be one of analytical perception or method (although whatever methods and techniques are involved or de- veloped in applying the "rigorous standards of the best

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