AES_707 Statistics seminar for archaeologists

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2024
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 3 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: k (colloquium). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Petr Pajdla (lecturer)
Mgr. Peter Tkáč (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Klára Šabatová, Ph.D.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Šibíčková
Supplier department: Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Wed 12:00–13:40 L11, except Wed 17. 4.
Prerequisites
Bachelor and Master students of Archaeology are strongly recommended to complete the course AEM_02 Evaluation of archaeological data prior to enrolling in this seminar.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 12 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 7/12, only registered: 0/12
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 11 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The purpose of the course is to familiarize the students with modern statistical methods applied in archaeology. Basic statistical concepts including types of variables, descriptive statistics, various types of plots characterizing one variable and relationship of two variables will be introduced. The main focus is on analyzing multidimensional data, methods of dimensionality reduction, clustering etc. The methods will be introduced using archaeological case studies. The goal of the employed statistical analysis will be to illuminate various topics in archaeological research including dating, comparison of various artefacts and artefact assemblages as a whole, their variablity etc. The course is taught using R programming language.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this course, the student will be able to:
- understand basic statistical terminology;
- create and interpret basic statistical plots;
- calculate and interpret correlation between variables;
- prepare data for various types of analyses;
- apply multidimensional statistical methods and interpret the results;
- work in the R programming language and environment.
Syllabus
  • Quantitative methods in Archaeology: Introduction
  • Basic statistical terminology.
  • Types of variables.
  • Data preparation, missing values, tidy data.
  • Available software: scripted languages and reproducibility. Introduction to R.
  • Descriptive and inferential statistics.
  • Numerical and graphical characteristics of central tendency and variability, data distributions.
  • Relating variables, correlation.
  • Multidimensional data, reducing dimensions.
  • Cluster analysis (k-means, hierarchical).
Literature
    required literature
  • CARLSON, David L. Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Using R. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. info
    recommended literature
  • BARCELO, Juan A. and Igor BOGDANOVIC. Mathematics and Archaeology. 1st ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015. info
  • DRENNAN, Robert D. Statistics for archaeologists : a common sense approach. Second edition. New York: Springer, 2010, xv, 333. ISBN 9781441960719. info
  • SHENNAN, Stephen. Quantifying archaeology. 1st ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1988. info
    not specified
  • MELOUN, Milan, Jiří MILITKÝ and Martin HILL. Počítačová analýza vícerozměrných dat v příkladech. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 2005, 449 s. ISBN 8020013350. info
Teaching methods
Seminars will consist of theoretical introductions by the lecturer followed by individual or group work on analysing example data and eventually on data supplied by the students of the course.
Assessment methods
Active participation during the seminars and completing homework assignments is necessary to complete the course.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2022.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2024/AES_707