The use of space in Late Chalcolithic Northern Mesopotamia: Assessment of activity patterns at Tepe Gawra XII through statistical analysis

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103077
• Publication Date: 2021-07-13T22:44:39Z
• Authors: Giacomo Bilotti; Michael Campeggi
• Keywords: Mesopotamia; Settlement (finance); Chalcolithic; Point pattern analysis; Exploratory analysis

Abstract This paper is a pilot methodological study on the potential of spatial statistics for the analysis of the organization of socio-economic activities within the structures at the Northern Mesopotamian site of Tepe Gawra XII. We aim at investigating the correlation between material culture and rooms by exploring the distribution patterns of artifacts within different types of areas. The results obtained from Point Pattern Analysis for the spatial association among artifacts and the Kendall test on the correlation between spaces provide some general clues on the internal organization of activities at Gawra XII, supporting the established theory of an overall lack of a visible standardized functional differentiation within rooms in the buildings at the settlement. These patterns are then compared to some Ubaid and LC1 buildings from the Hamrin, Khabur, Balikh, Middle Euphrates and Malatya Plain. This paper, intended as an exploratory study, also considers the limits and possibilities of applying these methods to archaeological datasets.