Statistics for Archaeologists

Numerical Exploration: 1. Batches of Numbers (Stemandleaf Plots, Histograms). 2. The Level, or Center, of a Batch (Mean and Median). 3. The Spread or Dispersion of a Batch (Range, Midspread, and Standard Deviation). 4. Comparing Batches (The BoxandDot Plot). 5. The Shape or Distribution of a Batch (Symmetry and Transformations). 6. Categories (Column and Row Proportions) Random Sampling: 7. Samples and Populations (Randomness and Sampling Bias). 8. Different Samples from the Same Population (Variation, the `Special Batch', and Standard Error). 9. Confidence and Population Means (Precision and Error Ranges, Student's t, Determining How Large of a Sample Is Needed). 10. Categories and Population Proportions (Percentages Instead of Means) Relationships between Two Variables: 11. Comparing Two Sample Means (The t Test, Results and Interpretations). 12. Comparing Means of More than Two Samples (Relating a Categorical Variable to a Measurement Variable, Analysis of Variance). 13. Comparing Proportions of Different Samples (Relating a Categorical Variable to Another Categorical Variable, Chisquare). 14. Relating a Measurement Variable to Another Measurement Variable. 15. Relating Ranks. 16. Sampling a Population with Subgroups. 17. Sampling a Site or Region with Spatial Units. 18. Sampling without Finding Anything. 19. Sampling and Reality Suggested Reading. Index.

Praise for the 2nd Edition:

"Statistics is often perceived as something mysterious and hostile, and this holds particularly true for archaeologists... The merit of Drennan's work is that he takes readers by the hand and gently guides them through that minefield, etting them discover that statistics can be a matter easily approached and understood from a commonsense perspective...Fourteen years after the first edition, a number of important new topics are added. They provide the reader with useful tools to explore archaeological data as the data becomes progressively multivariate...Each section uses the same case study and data set, thus enhancing the comparability of this technique...Drennan successfully conveys complex concepts in smple ways...both students and scholars will surely welcome this gentle introduction to statistics, wherein simplicity does not detract from scientific precision". (Gianmarco Alberti, American Journal of Archaeology, 114.4, 2010).

"this is a superb book, setting the use of basic statistics in a format that makes sense of the formulas rather than just saying "compute this". Mathematically fluent students who scorn a specific context will complain that there is too much "talky talky" surrounding the formulas. That talk, missing from many applied elementary statistics, is especially what the audience for this book needs and deserves, and rarely gets in class, in my experience...Robert Drennan [has]...succeeded where others have failed, namely to explain, in an understandable way, the advantages of simple statistical techniques in a specific applied context. I heartily recommend this title." (Norman R. Draper, International Statistical Review, 79.1, 2011).





Praise for the first edition:

"Robert Drennan has done the field a great service." (Larry R. Kimball, American Antiquity, Vol 62 (1997)

"There is a great deal to recommend this book.... It is written in an engaging