Approaches to the investigation of intrasite spatial patterning in three dimensions

Until very recently virtually all spatial analyses in archaeology have been restricted to sites or levels that are amenable to the consideration of spatial patterning in the two horizontal dimensions. This was accomplished either through pre-screening of sites, or investigating vertical variation and defining limits to what would be considered appropriate for two dimensional research. The utility of the K-means technique and the necessary modifications to it for the study of three dimensional spatial structures is examined here through analysis of simulated archaeological levels. Results from these experiments were abstracted and applied to the analysis of two different sites from the Southwestern French Paleolithic: the Magdalenian site of Le Flageolet II and the Grotte XVI, a multicomponent site. Results of these analyses contribute to our understanding of the range of variation inherent in spatial patterning with archaeological sites, indicate that the techniques are useful, and suggest that similar sites not usually deemed amenable to the more limited two dimensional methods can no longer be ignored.