Creating Order or Revealing Disorder? Some Preliminary Results Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) in Studying Archaeological Boat Finds from Norway (AD 1050–1700)

Abstract

This article discusses the use of statistical methods for systematising 96 archaeological ship finds, mainly from the southern and south-eastern coast of Norway. It draws on an article published in 2009 by Jan Bill, where he did a similar investigation of material from the Danish area. The method of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) provides a way to summarise categorical data in a reduced number of dimensions. The results are presented in a geographical space, a plot, that can be used for making interpretations and assumptions of cohesions and divergences in the material. It is a way of analysing continuity and change in boatbuilding techniques that avoids using arbitrary and ambiguous concepts of historical (ship) types. Instead, the building techniques, the ways of ‘doing things’, make the premises for classification. The results in this article can be considered preliminary, its primary function being a discussion on methodology.