<i>K</i>-Means and Temporal Variability in Kansas City Hopewell Ceramics

Abstract

A temporal framework for the Kansas City Hopewell complex has been created by seriating rim sherds from four sites, within a 20-mile radius, in the Missouri River Valley to the north of Kansas City. Data used in the sedation are formal and decorative attributes of the rims. The k-means clustering technique, and an option which allows sherd locations in n-dimensional space to be plotted two-dimensionally, was used to generate the seriation. Tests of the seriation, as an essentially temporal ordering, are by means of stratigraphy, radiocarbon dates, and comparison with the ceramic sequence of the Illinois River Valley.