Evaluating the effectiveness of three spatial cluster analysis methods on Palaeolithic site location distributions in Galicia, NW Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

The present paper aims to offer an evaluation of the cluster method analysis to settlement distribution of archaeological sites (k-means, DBSCAN, percolation analysis) and to show the potentiality of such methods on a regional scale. We analyse the distribution of Palaeolithic sites in Galician territory (NW Iberia) in order to identify the clustering areas and verify if these areas correspond with the traditional research zones. The results showed that the percolation analysis and, to a lesser extent, DBSCAN, worked best. We observe that the traditionally researched areas on the Galician Palaeolithic actually fit with the cluster pattern of points employing a 6–8 km threshold.