Module 7: Why are there giant stone heads on Easter Island?

Module 7: Why are there giant stone heads on Easter Island?

Overview

We will use archaeological data to investigate the spatial patterns of the Easter Island statues, and explore the relevance of these results for understanding inter-community competition in contemporary society. 

Objectives

  • Understand how archaeologists use spatial data to answer questions about past human behaviours and relationships
  • Perform hypothesis tests by simulation, and compare observed data with simulated data to accept or reject a hypothesis
  • Work with common types of spatial data in R
  • Analyse and report on spatial data to test hypotheses about the purpose of Easter Island statues

Readings

Go to Perusall to access the readings and video to prepare for class (FAQ on Perusall)

Lectures

Lecture slides will be available here after class.

Discussions

Discuss this module and ask questions on Discord (contact us for an invite). When asking for help with code, please share a screenshot (FAQ: how to take a screenshot) 

Assignments

  • Assignments for this module are:

      • Before Thursday's class complete 7.1 and 7.2 on Perusall
      • Before Tuesday's class complete 7.3 and 7.4 on Perusall
      • Poll Everywhere responses during scheduled class time
      • Complete the Module 7 Lab report, you can work on this online in RStudio on JupyterHub. We will demonstrate how to do the lab in class on Tuesday, then you will submit your completed lab before the following Tuesday's class. You have one week to complete the lab after seeing the demonstration in class.