ABSTRACT
The use of statistical methods in archaeological analyses has a long and checkered history. Beginning with the Spaulding-Ford debate of the 1950s, archaeologists have argued over the types, methodologies, and utility of various statistical methods and techniques (e.g., see reviews of this era in Thomas 1978; Cowgill 1975). Oftentimes the haphazard application of littleunderstood statistical methods to poorly sampled data sets creates problems. This chapter discusses a particular subset of statistical issues in archaeology, namely the use of statistics in spatial analysis.
