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Linear Nearest Neighbor Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Barbara L. Stark  and
Dennis L. Young
Barbara L. Stark
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281
Dennis L. Young
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281
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Abstract

Linear nearest neighbor analysis is reconsidered and revised. This statistical method facilitates decisions about whether points along a line are clustered, random, or dispersed. One of its possible archaeological applications is illustrated using a set of probable housemounds along the Cabeza de la Vaca Arroyo in Veracruz, Mexico. The mounds are in a dispersed pattern. Ecological and subsistence factors offer one promising explanation for the pattern.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , April 1981 , pp. 284 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1981

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