Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Table 3. Statistical Categories for Middens.
80 / Chapter 6.
Table 4. Middens: Mean Elevation and Distance from the Sea.
representation. It is clear that all these measurements are strongly skewed, and
would benefit from transformation into logarithms if any sophisticated statistical
analysis were to be undertaken. In that case, it would be possible to choose
equal category sizes, but our concern here does not go beyond a basic analysis
of the data.
The results for the 280 sites in terms of elevation and distance from the sea
are set out in Table 4 as mean values. They are subdivided into cultural category
(Redware sites vs. all others) and by nature of site (middens vs. caves) before
the overall figures are given (all types of site together).
The elevations and distances from the sea for all the sites are also shown as
histograms, according to the predetermined categories, in Figure 18. In both
cases, allowing for the artificial categories, a degree of bimodality can be observed.
The sites with the lowest elevations and nearest to the sea are predominant,
but there is a minor peak for sites at an elevation of 200–399 m and at
a distance of 5–9.9 km from the sea. The fact that the Redware sites are low
down and near the sea is strongly borne out by these figures. All the means have
very large standard deviations, and it is clear that the usual rule for positively