Collaborative Research: Methodological Challenges and Interpretations in Network Analysis of Artifact Data

协作研究：文物数据网络分析中的方法论挑战和解释

• 批准号: 1758690
• 负责人: Matthew Peeples
• 金额: $ 0.68万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-08-15 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1758690&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Methodological; Challenges; Interpretations

Across many fields, scientists increasingly conceive of diverse research problems as involving networks of some kind, and tackle these problems via methods for network analysis. Archaeology is no exception. One particularly fruitful application of the network perspective in archaeology has involved the construction of networks representing ties between inhabited sites in a region, with the presence or strength of a network link between two sites inferred from the observed similarity between the sites' artifact assemblages. For instance, research on the pre-Hispanic American Southwest has examined the similarity between distributions of ceramic wares collected at the sites, with micro- and macro-regional networks of sites derived from these ceramic similarities. Investigations of these networks, and their change over time, via network analytic methods provide important insights into social processes that are of intense interest in archaeology, such as migration, population and depopulation, and diffusion of ideology. However, this approach also carries with it grave risks of inappropriate application of network analytic tools. These tools were developed in other disciplines and may sometimes be ill-suited to the archaeological context, and the archaeological setting can pose particular challenges for interpretation of results from these methods. The current research project undertaken by PI John M. Roberts, Jr. (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and co-PI Matthew A. Peeples (Arizona State University) will involve an interdisciplinary team working to develop in-depth assessments of the validity of network analytic tools in the archaeological context, the implication of methodological choices for resulting archaeological interpretations, and the investigation of new approaches to analyzing archaeological network data. This work will be carried out in collaboration with a graduate research assistant at UW-Milwaukee, for whom the project will provide in-depth training in network analysis and its application to substantive research questions. Additional colleagues from the University of Arizona will participate as consultants, and online tools will be developed to help spread the project's benefits to other researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and the public.This research will address a number of specific technical issues that are at present inadequately understood in the archaeological literature, such as measurement of uncertainty in network measures due to sampling variability in collected artifact data, methods for creating graphs representing archaeological networks that distill complex information into accessible visual displays, and comparisons between results of network-based analyses with those of other analytic approaches to artifact similarity data. The project will also explore more directly archaeological questions, including the relationship between the spatial arrangement of sites and the similarity of their artifact assemblages, and how network change corresponds to other dimensions of regional chronology. Some data for the project are derived from the team's previous work on the American Southwest, but the project will also examine other network data from a wide variety of archaeological contexts, times, and places. In sum, the project will greatly improve understanding of the technical and substantive issues surrounding the current practice of archaeological network analysis, while also creating a roadmap for new approaches that will yield deeper archaeological insights.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在许多领域，科学家们越来越多地把不同的研究问题设想为涉及某种网络，并通过网络分析的方法来解决这些问题。考古学也不例外。网络观点在考古学中的一个特别富有成效的应用涉及到网络的构建，它代表了一个地区中有人居住的遗址之间的联系，从观察到的遗址的人工制品组合之间的相似性推断出两个遗址之间网络联系的存在或强度。例如，对前西班牙裔美国西南部的研究已经检查了在这些地点收集的陶器分布之间的相似性，以及从这些陶瓷相似性中衍生出的微观和宏观区域网络。通过网络分析方法对这些网络及其随时间变化的调查提供了对考古学感兴趣的社会过程的重要见解，例如迁移，人口和人口减少，以及意识形态的传播。然而，这种方法也带来了不适当应用网络分析工具的严重风险。这些工具是在其他学科中开发的，有时可能不适合考古背景，考古背景可能对这些方法的结果的解释构成特别的挑战。目前由PI John M. Roberts, Jr.（威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校）和Matthew A. Peeples（亚利桑那州立大学）共同承担的研究项目将涉及一个跨学科团队，致力于深入评估网络分析工具在考古背景下的有效性，由此产生的考古解释的方法选择的含义，以及研究分析考古网络数据的新方法。这项工作将与威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校的一名研究生研究助理合作进行，该项目将为他提供网络分析及其应用于实质性研究问题的深入培训。来自亚利桑那大学的其他同事将作为顾问参与，并将开发在线工具，以帮助将项目的好处传播给其他研究人员、研究生和本科生以及公众。这项研究将解决一些具体的技术问题，这些问题目前在考古文献中没有得到充分的理解，例如由于收集的人工数据的采样可变性而导致的网络测量中的不确定性的测量，创建表示考古网络的图形的方法，将复杂的信息提炼成可访问的视觉显示，并将基于网络的分析结果与其他人工制品相似度数据分析方法的结果进行了比较。该项目还将探索更直接的考古问题，包括遗址的空间安排与其人工制品组合的相似性之间的关系，以及网络变化如何对应于区域年代学的其他维度。该项目的一些数据来自该团队之前在美国西南部的工作，但该项目还将检查来自各种考古背景、时间和地点的其他网络数据。总而言之，该项目将大大提高对当前考古网络分析实践的技术和实质性问题的理解，同时也为新方法创造了一个路线图，将产生更深入的考古见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Assessing the performance of the bootstrap in simulated assemblage networks

评估模拟组合网络中引导程序的性能

• DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2020.11.005
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Social Networks
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: Roberts, John M.;Yin, Yi;Dorshorst, Emily;Peeples, Matthew A.;Mills, Barbara J.
• 通讯作者: Mills, Barbara J.

Sampling variability and centrality score comparisons in archaeological network analysis: A case study of the San Pedro Valley, Arizona

考古网络分析中的抽样变异性和中心性得分比较：亚利桑那州圣佩德罗谷的案例研究

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104100
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
• 作者: Roberts, John M.;Dorshorst, Emily;Yin, Yi;Peeples, Matthew A.;Breiger, Ronald L.;Mills, Barbara J.
• 通讯作者: Mills, Barbara J.

Archaeological networks, community detection, and critical scales of interaction in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest

美国西南部/墨西哥西北部的考古网络、社区发现和关键互动规模

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2023.101511
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
• 影响因子: 1.8
• 作者: Peeples, Matthew A.;J. Bischoff, Robert
• 通讯作者: J. Bischoff, Robert