Preface

Reproducibility—the ability to recompute results—and replicability—the chances other experimenters will achieve a consistent result—are two foundational characteristics of successful scientific research (Leek and Peng 2015).

This volume is written in Markdown, and includes all analysis code employed in the study, providing a means for others to reproduce (exactly) those results discussed and expounded upon in the following chapters. The replicable nature of this undertaking provides a means for others to critically assess and evaluate the various analytical components of this study (Gray and Marwick 2019; Peng 2011; Gandrud 2014), which is a necessary requirement for the production of reliable knowledge. Diagnostic types—whether functional, decorative, morphological, or chronological (O’Brien and Lyman 1999)—are of considerable import in formulating archaeological interpretations.

The goal of this endeavour was (1) to assess whether Perdiz arrow points differ in shape north and south of the shape boundary posited in a recent exploratory network analysis (Selden Jr. 2021), and–if so–(1a) whether, and how, Perdiz arrow point shapes differ through time in the northern and southern Caddo communities of practice.

knitr::include_graphics('./images/hist.caddo.net.jpg')
Historic Caddo network generated using ceramic and lithic types, which include Perdiz arrow points ([DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/WD2ZT](https://osf.io/bt2q9/) and Selden, Jr. [-@RN8031]), illustrating two larger north (blue) and south (red) Caddo communities of practice. The communities were identified using a modularity statistic to identify nodes more densely connected to one another than to the rest of the network [@RN8051;@RN8024].

(#fig:fig.net)Historic Caddo network generated using ceramic and lithic types, which include Perdiz arrow points (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/WD2ZT and Selden, Jr. (2021)), illustrating two larger north (blue) and south (red) Caddo communities of practice. The communities were identified using a modularity statistic to identify nodes more densely connected to one another than to the rest of the network (Blondel et al. 2008; Lambiotte, Delvenne, and Barahona 2014).

0.1 Primary findings

  • Perdiz arrow point shape differs significantly by Caddo community of practice
  • Perdiz arrow point shapes in the northern Caddo community of practice differ significantly through time
  • Perdiz arrow point shapes in the southern Caddo community of practice do not differ significantly through time

0.2 Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Anthropology and Archaeology Laboratory at Stephen F. Austin State University for the requisite permissions and access to the NAGPRA items from the Washington Square Mound site and Turner collection. Thanks to …, as well as the editor and reviewers for their comments and constructive criticisms, which further improved the manuscript.

0.3 Funding

Components of the analytical workflow were developed and funded by a Preservation Technology and Training grant (P14AP00138) to RZS from the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, as well as grants to RZS from the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, National Forests and Grasslands in Texas (15-PA-11081300-033) and the United States Forest Service (20-PA-11081300-074).

0.4 Data management

The analysis code associated with this project can be accessed through this document or the GitHub repository, which is digitally curated on the Open Science Framework (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/8AVSU).

References

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