Abstract

BERNAL, Valeria; GONZALEZ, Paula N.; IVAN PEREZ, S.  and  DEL PAPA, Mariano C.. Evaluación del error intraobservador en bioarqueología. Intersecciones antropol. [online]. 2004, n.5, pp.129-140. ISSN 1850-373X.

The bioarchaeological investigations used to solve microevolutive, functional-adaptive and palaeodemographic issues are based on metric and non-metric variables analyses of human skeletal remains. These variables contain different sources of variation, including the intrinsic variability of the object of study and those introduced by the subject through the definition of traits and the tools employed. In bioarchaeological analysis not all of the variability is relevant. Focusing on variability related to the study object, it is necessary to increase the accuracy and consistency of the recording of variables through experimental designs. In this paper, a design of random complete blocks, oriented to test the intra-observed error, and an assessment set of parametric and non-parametric statistical tests is introduced. The results show that there is not a single statistical test that allows us to analyze the consistency between observation series. Finally, we indicate that it is necessary to evaluate how measurement errors affect archaeological investigations in general.

Keywords : Experimental design; interobserver error; archaeology.