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Pottery and p-values: ‘Seafaring merchants of Ur?’ re-examined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Michael Roaf  and
Jane Galbraith
Michael Roaf
Affiliation:
Michael Roaf, Wolfson College, Oxford OX2 6UD, England
Jane Galbraith
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, London School of Economics & Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, England
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Extract

A 1977 ANTIQUITY paper included a study of Neutron Activation Analyses of Ubaid pottery from Mesopotamia and the Arabian Gulf (Oates et al. 1977). A re-examination finds that the interpretation of the statistical analysis was mistaken and shows that the data do not prove the existence of ‘seafaring merchants of Ur’ in the Ubaid period.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 68 , Issue 261 , December 1994 , pp. 770 - 783
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1994

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