Quantifying Patterns in Mortuary Practices: An Application of Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis to Data From the Taosi Site, China

Abstract

Abstract In Chinese mortuary research, too much reliance on traditional qualitative typological analysis renders quantitative attributes of mortuary practice data ignored. Examining the Taosi cemetery one of the famous cemeteries of Neolithic China (2300–1900 BC), this study discusses the advantages and disadvantages of typology and digital methods. Extant qualitative research has classified the Taosi burials into six vertical categories, representing a pyramidal social hierarchy. However, this approach solely relied on the labor expenditure principle, whose outcome was highly subjective and difficult to verify. This study applies a multivariant analysis. Factor analysis is used to investigate the correlations within the mortuary data. The statistical factor scores quantify the differences between the combination of burial objects in different tombs and allow clarification by cluster analysis to investigate their different social meanings. The results reveal two-axial divisions in the Taosi cemetery: vertical stratification based on hierarchy and horizontal differentiation based on social categories/identities. Compared with the simplistic typological description, such a quantitative method reveals the characteristics of each category more clearly, clarifies the classification criteria, and extracts more detailed information about the society and its mortuary practices.