Using Monte Carlo simulation for the environmental analysis of small archaeologic datasets, with the mesolithic in northeast Belgium as a case study

Vanacker, Veerle [UCL] Govers, G Van Peer, P Verbeek, C Desmet, J Reyniers, J

In Europe often only small archaeological databases are available due to a lack of extensively prospected area and the disturbance of the soils. Traditional statistical techniques do not allow location analyses on small archaeological databases, composed of dependent site data. Several authors have therefore developed alternative techniques, in which observed weight factors for the sample of the sites were compared with a distribution of weight factors obtained by simulating a randomly distributed site population of the same size. However, the Monte Carlo simulation does not require a prior defined weight factors. With this simplified technique, it becomes possible to use small archaeological datasets for demonstrating significant relations between environmental data and location behaviour in the past. An application of the technique to the Mesolithic in the northest of Belgium has demonstrated that the proximity to water played a major role in the location behaviour. Small evolutions in the location choice could be linked with climate fluctuations in the Early Holocene.