Lithics Variables Used in Multivariate Analysis

The data files LITHVARS.TXT and LITHVARS.XLS contain the data on Hongshan lithics aggregated by household unit. LITHVARS.TXT is a comma-delimited ASCII text file, which should be easy to import into spreadsheet, database, and statistical programs for manipulation and analysis. LITHVARS.XLS contains the same data in the form of an Excel spreadsheet which is easier to browse, and can also be imported into many programs. The 50 household units from Dongshanzui, Sanjia, and Erbuchi are all included, as are the 19 household units from Fushanzhuang, which were eventually included among the published multivariate analyses. As described in the Introduction the exploratory analyses were performed only on the Upper Daling household units (Dongshanzui, Sanjia, and Erbuchi). Once the final form of the analysis had been arrived at, this final analysis was also performed on the Fushanzhuang households for comparison. For this reason, data for all the variables in the exploration are included for the Upper Daling household units. Data for Fushanzhuang are present only for the variables used in the final analyses; 999 is used as a missing data code for the variables omitted for Fushanzhuang households. The percentages and ratios in LITHVARS.TXT and LITHVARS.XLS are derived from the lithics data counts presented elsewhere in this dataset for the Upper Daling household units and in the Fushanzhuang Community Dataset for the Fushanzhuang household units. Each line in LITHVARS.TXT and LITHVARS.XLS represents one household unit. There are 69 lines, each containing 20 variables in the following order:

The first line of the ASCII text file LITHVARS.TXT, for example, looks like this:

001,0.020,0.036,1.000,1.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,1.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.964,0.333,0.593,0.556,0.148,0.111,0.185,0.593,2.8

This means that the line contains data from Household Unit 001 (at Sanjia). The ratio of lithics to sherds is 0.020. Flaked and ground stone tools represent 3.6% of the total lithics. Of the total flaked and ground stone tools, 100.0% were of good material, 100.0% were flaked, 0.0% were ground, and 0.0% were pecked. Of the total flaked and ground stone tools, 0.0% were abraders, 0.0% were awls or drills, 0.0% were axes or adzes, 0.0% were unretouched blades, 0.0% were retouched blades, 0.0% were retouched flakes, 0.0% were unifacial scrapers, 0.0% were bifacial scrapers, 0.0% were chopping tools, 100.0% were blade cores, 0.0% were unidirectional flake cores, 0.0% were multidirectional flake cores, 0.0% were projectile points, and 0.0% were blanks. Of the total flaked and ground stone tools, 0.0% had very acute edge angles, 0.0% had acute edge angles, 0.0% had obtuse edge angles, and 0.0% had very obtuse edge angles. Of the total lithic artifacts 96.4% was debitage. Of the total debitage, 33.3% was made of good material, 59.3% was of "tool" manufacturing type, 55.6% was complete flakes, 14.8% was broken flakes, 11.1% was flake fragments, 18.5% was shatter, and 59.3% had cortex. The average weight of debitage fragments was 2.8 g.

The last, or 69th line of the ASCII text file LITHVARS.TXT is:

F16A-B,0.199,0.753,999,999,0.036,999,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.018,999,0.000,0.000,999,0.018,0.000,0.000,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,0.453,0.189,0.245,0.113,999,3.1

This means that the line contains data from Household Unit F16A-B (at Fushanzhuang). The ratio of lithics to sherds is 0.199. Flaked and ground stone tools represent 75.3% of the total lithics. The proportion of good material is missing because this variable was not recorded for Fushanzhuang. Of the total flaked and ground stone tools, the proportion that were flaked was not calculated because this variable was not used in the final analyses, 3.6% were ground, and the proportion that were pecked was not calculated. Of the total flaked and ground stone tools, 0.0% were abraders, 0.0% were awls or drills, 0.0% were axes or adzes, 0.0% were unretouched blades, 0.0% were retouched blades, 0.0% were retouched flakes, 1.8% were unifacial scrapers, the proportion that were bifacial scrapers was not calculated, 0.0% were chopping tools, 0.0% were blade cores, the proportion that were unidirectional flake cores was not calculated, 1.8% were multidirectional flake cores, 0.0% were projectile points, and 0.0% were blanks. The proportions for edge angles are missing because this information was not recorded for Fushanzhuang. The proportions of debitage, debitage of good material, and debitage of "tool" manufacturing type were not calculated. Of the debitage, 45.3% was complete flakes, 18.9% was broken flakes, 24.5% was flake fragments, and 11.3% was shatter. The proportion with cortex was not calculated. The average weight of debitage fragments was 3.1 g.

Download the file LITHVARS.TXT (27 KB) or the file LITHVARS.XLS (43 KB).

Return to the Table of Contents