ABSTRACT
Purely typological and qualitative studies of ceramic material from the Sasanian period have been restrained in their chronological assessment, partly due to the lack of overt changes in ceramic technology and basic vessel forms throughout the immediately adjacent periods, partly because the analytical methods were not suitable to respond to the problems posed by multi-period sites. Much research on statistical applications has been devoted to these problems, and we hope to overcome some of the uncertainties by using appropriate techniques. In this sense statistical analysis should be understood as a supplementary tool that facilitates the handling of large and complex data sets and should not be mistaken as a replacement of conventional archaeological methods. The statistical analysis is based on two different methods: a conventional approach to assemblage comparison and the more advanced applications used in the computer package 'Pie-slice'.
