Applications of formal model choice to archaeological chronology building

Sujit K. Sahu
January 9, 2003

o The paper in postscript or in pdf format.

SUMMARY

Statistical methods are now an essential part of the archaeological inference making process. Nowhere is this more important than in the analysis and interpretation of chronological data, especially when information from several sources must be drawn together. Different statistical models may, however, provide widely different interpretations of the same data. Thus it is often possible to make conflicting re-constructions of archaeological past using different models.

Bayesian predictive model choice criteria can be used as possible solutions to this problem. A particular advantage of Bayesian techniques lies in their ability to compare widely different models based on different assumptions and prior information. In this paper, we discuss recent developments in applying formal model choice techniques in archaeological chronology building. We illustrate the methods with two examples one each from the absolute and the relative chronology building problems.



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S.K.Sahu@maths.soton.ac.uk