抄録
The purpose of this study is to develop a quantitative site grouping method as a supportive measure for prehistoric settlement researches. One of the basic procedures in settlement archaeological studies is to group individual sites. Grouping scale must be determined in relation to hierarchical level of the social units (e.g. micro level, semi-micro level, macro level). Conventional methods (i.e. Voronoi, Buffer) for site grouping had a difficulty in taking hierarchical structure into account. In this study, hierarchical grouping is attempted by utilizing the scale flexibility of cluster analysis. Spatial extents of the units were also measured through 'time-distance', which simulates the Jomon people's sense of distance. Sites were clustered into groups by suitable threshold values, which were estimated by spatial statistical scores calculated by K-function. Effectiveness of the method was verified by observing its correspondence to the site distribution with specific hierarchical structures. The verification confirmed the developed method to be relevant for quantitative and hierarchical grouping of Jomon-sites.
