A selection of papers presented at the Special Session 8 ‘Using multivariate analyses to interpret lithic variability: Contributions and limitations’ held during the 2018 MetroArchaeo conference (22-24 October 2018, Cassino, Italy) is published in the Journal of Lithic Studies. Multivariate statistical analyses are increasingly used to discern patterns of variability in archaeological materials and help with their interpretation. Commonly used ones include Principal Component Analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Discriminant Analysis, Multiple Regression, General Linear Model, or Cluster Analysis, applied in various contexts of study: geometric morphometrics, spatial analysis or inter-assemblage comparisons.

中文翻译：

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事件回顾：使用多变量分析来解释岩石变异性：贡献和局限性

在 2018 年 MetroArchaeo 会议（2018 年 10 月 22 日至 24 日，意大利卡西诺）期间举行的第 8 次特别会议“使用多元分析来解释岩石变异性：贡献和限制”上发表的论文选集发表在《岩石研究杂志》上。多变量统计分析越来越多地用于辨别考古材料的变异模式并帮助对其进行解释。常用的包括主成分分析、多重对应分析、判别分析、多重回归、一般线性模型或聚类分析，应用于各种研究环境：几何形态计量学、空间分析或组合间比较。