TFQA: Tools for Quantitative Archaeology
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Overview of Programs

Tools for Quantitative Archaeology is a commercial package of Windows programs developed to satisfy the unusual analytical needs of archaeologists. The focus of the package is on methods developed for archaeology and not included in general-purpose statistical packages. While this package can perform many important analyses, it is not a complete substitute for a general purpose statistical package. This page provides an overview of the available programs  Complete documentation is available though the website here.

While this web site describes each of the programs in the package, at the moment, the graphics display poorly over the web. However they are, in fact, publishable quality vector graphics that can be printed directly on a printer or plotter that supports HPGL or may be manipulated and printed by most programs that process graphics, including word processors. A few programs highlighted in purple, are available, without obligation, as freeware and can be downloaded from this web site.  In most cases these Windows executables of these programs are accompanied by documentation, sample input files, and Delphi (Pascal) source code.

Full references for works cited below are provided in the TFQA Bibliography.

Spatial Analysis

FISHER - Calculates Fisher's Exact test, useful for mean- or median-split grid count analyses such as those described by Spurling and Hayden (1984).

GRID - Aggregates point-provenience data into counts by type for each grid unit. The grid can have any origin and grid units can be of an arbitrary rectangular size. A weighting option permits use of GRID on data sets in which multiple objects at the same location are recorded on a single input record. The program can be used in performing a grid-based variant of Whallon's unconstrained clustering with a point- provenienced data set.

HOA - Computes Hodder and Okell's A and dispersion ratios (Hodder and Okell 1978). An extension permits Monte Carlo analysis of significance.

KMEANS - Performs k-means cluster analysis with extensive output designed to facilitate interpretation. The program can be used to cluster analyze any data set, but has special features developed for use in archaeological spatial analysis. In particular, Kintigh and Ammerman's (1982) k-means pure locational clustering method can be performed. The program also executes the clustering for Whallon's (1984) unconstrained clustering method on data smoothed using the GRID or LDEN programs. Results can be plotted with the KMPLT utility.  Also available in a version accepting CSV input.

KMPLT - Plots the SSE and (2 dimensional) cluster configuration results of KMEANS on screen and creates hard-copy publishable quality plots (Figure 1). Although KMEANS will run much larger problems, KMPLT will only handle datasets with up to 2000 observations, 50 variables, and 30 clusters.

KOETJE - Performs the Monte Carlo analysis of homogeneity of cluster configurations as suggested by Koetje (1987). Uses the output file from KMEANS or reads separate data sets consisting of counts of artifact class by cluster. An extension permits evaluation of individual cluster probabilities.

LDEN - Performs Johnson's (1984) Local Density Analysis on point-provenienced or grid data. The program also outputs counts or percentages of points of different types that occur within a circular neighborhood around each data point. These can be used with KMEANS to perform a variant of unconstrained clustering (Whallon 1984). In a single run, it computes inter-type local density coefficients for any number of radii that can be plotted with LDPLT.
Also available in a version accepting CSV input.

LDPLT - Plots selected local density coefficients computed by LDEN against radius, so behavior of coefficients for different pairs of classes can be easily observed over a range of radii (Figure 2).

NEIG - An efficient, general-purpose nearest-neighbor (Whallon 1984) and gravity model program useful for intrasite spatial analysis or regional analysis. It allows categorization of items by class (e.g. site type or tool type) and permits the calculation of within or between class neighbors. Output includes nearest-neighbor statistics, summary data about the classification of nearest neighbors for points of each class and lists of the first n nearest-neighbors for each point. Monte Carlo analyses of significance can be performed.

RANDPT - Generates random sets of coordinates, including for clumped distributions with different parameters. Also random walks any number of points in an existing distribution with arbitrary number of steps and step length. Available as freeware in randpt.zip.

Diversity

BOONE - Calculates, for a set of proveniences with counts by artifact class, Boone's (1987) assemblage heterogeneity measure and related values.
Also available in a version accepting CSV input.

DIVERS - Calculates richness and evenness (H/Hmax) dimensions of diversity for a given data set and uses Monte-Carlo methods to derive expected diversity for a model distribution over a range of sample sizes (Kintigh 1984, 1989). It is capable of handling large problems efficiently. Results can be plotted with the utility DIVPLT.

DIVMEAS - Calculates several diversity measures including Richness, Simpson's, Shannon's, Brillouin's, and the Renyi and Delta families of generalized diversity measures for any given distribution of counts.

DIVPLT - Plots the results of DIVERS on screen and creates publishable quality plots (Figure 3).

EVALC - Performs a Monte Carlo evaluation of the significance of an observed value of Simpson's C measure of diversity relative to a given assumption about the population.

RAREFY - Performs rarefaction analysis for sets of sample counts in a CSV file as described by Baxter (2001). Provides expected richness, standard deviation of the expected, Z score, and probability for each larger sample to every smaller sample size. Also outputs expected richness for each sample up to its sample size for graphing.

Distance

BAYES - This program implements Bayesian methods for proportions as described by Iversen (1984). Intervals are calculated and graphed for Bayesian estimates of proportions based on both flat and informative priors.

BINOMIAL - Computes binomial probabilities and population proportion intervals for a sample.

BRSAMPLE - Provides a Monte Carlo estimate of the sampling error of differences of the Brainerd Robinson coefficient calculated between a sample and a known population or between two samples drawn from the same population as described and applied in Deboer et al. (1996).(Now replaced by resampleBRED.

CLCA - Performs a Complete Linkage Cluster Analysis on up to 180 cases. It takes as input an upper triangular distance matrix, as is created by the DIST program. As output, it lists the sequence of item/cluster joins and fusion values but does not create a dendrogram.

DIST - Computes a triangular matrix of distance or similarity measures: Euclidean Distance, Pearson's r, Brainerd-Robinson Coefficient, Jaccard's Coefficient, Simple Matching Coefficient, and Gower Coefficient. It handles up to 180 cases with 16,000 total input values (88 variables for 180 cases). (See Kintigh 2006 for some interesting applications.)

FORD - Plots a publishable quality battleship curve (Ford) diagram on the screen and optionally to a hard copy device. It reads a file of percents of types (columns) by provenience (rows) and optional row and column labels. The program permits interactive elimination or reordering of the rows and columns and replotting of the data.

POISSON - Computes Poisson and negative binomial probabilities, given expected counts.

resampleBRED - Provide Monte Carlo estimates of the sampling error of differences of the Brainerd-Robinson and Euclidean Distance coefficients calculated between a sample and a known population or between two samples drawn from the same population, as described and applied in Deboer et al. (1996). (Replaces BRSAMPLE.)

TWOWAY - provides tests of independence and measures of association and prints tables that have been standardized with a number of techniques. Standard Chi² and G tests of independence are provided. Using Monte Carlo methods, Chi² and G tests can be performed on tables with very small expected counts. A Chi² goodness of fit test (with externally determined expected values) can also be calculated. Measures of association include Yule's Q, Phi, Cramer's V and proportional reduction of error measures Tau and Lambda. Table standardization methods include median polish (Lewis 1986) and Mosteller (multiplicative) standardization as well as Haberman's z-score standardization for independent variables used by Grayson (1984) and Allison's binomial probability-based z-score standardization. It will also print row, column, and cell percents, Chi² cell contributions, and Chi² expected values. Also available in a version accepting CSV input.

Dating and Demography

ARRANGE - creates a probabilistic estimate of the range of site dates based on the proportions of dated ceramic types in the assemblage. Output includes a density plot against time. The program also calculates mean ceramic dates. This method is described in Steponaitis and Kintigh (1993). The program is available as freeware at arrange.zip.

C14 - provides a graphical way to analyze sets of radiocarbon dates. Each radiocarbon date is treated not as a single point in time but as a normally distributed probability with a mean and standard deviation given by the lab. In evaluating several dates, for each interval the probability distributions associated with the dates are summed. For each temporal interval, an expected number of dates is calculated and plotted in a histogram.