DAACS Seriation Method
DAACS has developed an uniform set of methods to infer intra-site chronologies for all of the sites included in the Archive. These methods, which include frequency-seriation and correspondence analysis, were developed by DAACS (see Neiman, Galle, and Wheeler 2003 for technical details). The use of common methods for all sites in the Archive is designed to increase comparability among temporal phases at different sites. The methods and the phase assignments they produced are summarized below. For some sites, the original excavators developed intra-site chronologies and where these exist, they are included on the Background page for the site. Archive users may also use the Mean Ceramic Date queries provided on the on the DAACS query page (http://www.daacs.org/queryDatabase/MCDQueries.html) to calculate MCDs for individual contexts or features.

Stewart Castle Main House Chronology
This section summarizes the frequency-seriation based chronology for the Main House at Stewart Castle. DAACS seriated ceramic assemblages from the Main House that contained more than 5 sherds from individual excavated contexts. Please note that at the Main House, ware types, not mean-ceramic-date types, were used in the frequency seriation, correspondence analysis, and in developing the dates for each occupational phase. Please go to http://www.daacs.org/aboutDatabase/MCDTypes.html for more information on the differences between ware types and mean-ceramic-date types.

DAACS computed the frequency of ceramic ware types in each individual context. The seriation chronology is derived from a correspondence analysis of the ware-type frequencies. Seriated contexts were assigned to four phases. Phases are groups of assemblages that have similar correspondence-analysis scores and are therefore inferred to be broadly contemporary. Phases assigned by DAACS have a P-prefix that precedes the phase number (e.g. P01 equals Phase 1).

The stratigraphic relationships among contexts are summarized in the Harris Matrix for the Stewart Castle Main House. Phase assignments from the seriation are shown on the Harris Matrix in color, facilitating comparison of the seriation chronology and the stratigraphic chronology of the site.

Stewart Castle Main House Phases
Based on the correspondence analysis, DAACS divided the Main House occupation into two phases. Ware-type mean ceramic dates with start dates of 1700 were used to compute MCDs for each phase. The MCDs for the two phases are given in the table below.

The table also includes three estimates of the ceramic TPQ for each phase. The first TPQ estimate is the usual one – the maximum beginning manufacturing date among all the ware-types in the assemblage. The second estimate -- TPQp90 -- is the 90th percentile of the beginning manufacturing dates among all the sherds in the assemblage, based on their ware-types. The TPQp95 provides a robust estimate of the site's TPQ based on the 95th percentile of the beginning manufacturing dates for all the artifacts comprising it. These last two TPQ estimates are more robust against excavation errors and taphonomic processes that might have introduced a few anomalously late sherds into an assemblage.

Phase MCD TPQ TPQp90 TPQp95 Total Count P01 1790 1775 1762 1762 62 P02 1810 1820 1820 1820 19