The rationale for this approach is made clear in an article by Buck et al 1992
(https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(92)90025-X), and it runs as follows: "if we do not make any
assumption about the relationship between the phases, can we test how likely they are to be in
any given order"?
Data can be fed into the function in two ways:
-the function takes as input the table provided
by the 'OxCal' program as result of the 'Order' query. Once the table as been saved from 'OxCal'
in .csv format, you have to feed it in R. A .csv file can be imported into R using (for
instance): \(mydata <- read.table(file.choose(), header=TRUE, sep=",", dec=".", as.is=T)\);
be sure to insert the phases' parameters (i.e., the starting and ending boundaries of the two
phases) in the OxCal's Order query in the following order: StartA, EndA, StartB, EndB; that is,
first the start and end of your first phase, then the start and end of the second one; you can
give any name to your phases, as long as the order is like the one described.
-alternatively, 8 relevant parameters (which can be read off from the Oxcal's Order query output)
can be manually fed into the function (see the Arguments section above).
Given two phases A and B, the function allows to calculate the posterior probability for:
-A
being within B -B being within A -A starting earlier but overlapping with B -B starting
earlier but overlapping with A -A being entirely before B -B being entirely before A -sA
being within B -eA being within B -sB being within A -eB being within A where 's' and
'e' refer to the starting and ending boundaries of a phase.
The function will return a table and
a dot plot.
Thanks are due to Dr. Andrew Millard (Durham University) for the help provided in
working out the operations on probabilities.