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Methods for the Descriptive Analysis of Archaeological Material

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

J. C. Gardin
J. C. Gardin*
Affiliation:
Centre d'Analyse Documentaire, Pour L'Archeologie (C.N.R.S.), Marseille, France
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Abstract

Most studies on the use of punched cards and computers in archaeology seem to take for granted that scientific standards exist to express the data upon which algorithms are to be performed, for retrieval or classification purposes. The author's view is different; examples are given of descriptive codes which have been designed under his direction since 1955 for the storage of archaeological data (artifacts, abstract or figured representations, buildings, etc.) on punched cards of various kinds (marginal, peek-a-boo, IBM, etc.). In order to obviate the shortcomings of natural language, three categories of rules are required: orientation, segmentation, differentiation. The concluding remarks concern the relation of the descriptive languages which are thus obtained to scientific language in general; differences are stressed, as well as reasons for postulating a continuum from the former to the latter.

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Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 1967, pp. 13 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1967

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