The interpretation of noisy data from archaeological field survey: Phosphate analysis

High soil phosphate concentrations are commonly related to intense past human activity although full understanding of this relationship requires further research. At present, practical constraints in the field, the need for extensive sampling and for rapid results, leads to the archaeologist frequently using crude but portable techniques of chemical analysis. The problems associated with the collection and interpretation of archaeological soil phosphate data are discussed. The use of Bayesian change-point analysis is proposed as a suitable statistical aid to the interpretation of such data.