Bayesian Archaeology

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Bayesian Archaeology" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists and other scientists typically use statistical techniques to evaluate how well empirical evidence supports their hypotheses. Historically, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) has been a frequently used framework to achieve this goal. Today's NHST methods underlie popular statistical concepts such as confidence intervals and probability statements (p-values). NHST employs those statistical concepts to make probabilistic statements about one's data in relation to a hypothesis. Although this approach is very useful, the fundamental concepts in NHST can often seem arbitrary and confusing. Archaeologists and other scientists have begun to incorporate Bayesian methods into their analyses. Leveraging the weight of prior and new evidence, Bayesian inference empowers scientists to assign probabilities to competing hypotheses for comparison and enables their revision in light of new information (NHST does not). The Bayesian approach offers an alternative and, in some respects, improved statistical framework over NHST that is now practically approachable thanks to modern computing methods. This symposium aims to highlight the creative and diverse employment of Bayesian inference by archaeologists and illuminate its structure, procedures, and accessibility, featuring the benefits of its implementation and replicability to archaeological research.