The quantification of spatio-temporal distributions of archaeological data: from counts to frequencies

Traces of past social actions, detectable in the archaeological record, are the material evidence through which we can infer social and economic patterns of ancient societies. These categories can be investigated in both time and space using a probabilistic statistical approach. In an attempt to quantify the results of archaeological processes we distinguish the terms of count and frequency, which is not common in archaeology, focusing particularly on the latter. In this framework we are able to calculate the number of times a certain event took place in relation to the length of the time interval during which the event is repeated. In addition, the statistical tools allow us to understand if the observable material evidence is the result of a particular archaeological phenomenon (accumulation) that can fit a statistical distribution or process (Poisson process and multivariate normal distribution).