Spatial statistical analysis is almost absent from research on underwater archaeological contexts. However, the information obtained using this approach would allow the reconstruction of depositional dynamics and the exploration of distribution patterns related to the ships’ on-board organization. This paper proposes a six-step methodology that will contribute to reducing the current gap in the use of spatial statistical analysis of shipwreck sites. This methodology will be tested in two distinct case studies, the Uluburun and the Tortugas wrecks, showing that the same protocol can be useful in the interpretation of different shipwrecks, in sites with a coherent distribution during their formation process. Using statistical tools, this methodology will strengthen context awareness, confirming, refuting, or adding new perspectives to previous interpretations. Finally, the way the framework was built will allow its replication in other sites.

The Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula has been closely associated with urban centres since the 8th century. Using an approach based on Network Theory, the purpose of this article is to understand and debate the influence that various cities exerted on each other through communication routes during the Islamic presence in the Gharb Al-Andalus – now in modern-day Portugal - and how this influence affected the growth of those cities. This study intends to use statistical analysis based on Network Theory and on its centrality measures in order to build a network of geographical relationships between the cities of the Gharb Al-Andalus. The study of these centrality measures indicates that mutation in the importance of such cities might result from their geographic location, but also by the influence that each city had over the nearest ones. The theory is by measuring the centrality value of a city at a certain moment, it would be possible to indicate the probability that the city would either grow or decline in the subsequent period. This influence on growth was surely due to political, military, religious or commercial contacts but, likewise, by the different ways cities were connected (terrestrial, fluvial and maritime).

Wealth differentials in archaeological sites are a frequently studied topic, but social differentiation approaches are rarely applied to different contexts within a wider territory, especially in Portugal. In this article, the authors discuss the differences in wealth and inequality through the consumption of tablewares from fifteen sites across Portugal dated from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries ad. The archaeological evidence derives from two types of contexts: secular (houses and dumps) and religious (female and male religious institutions). Using a statistical similarity method to compare different consumption patterns in each context, the authors discuss how this can help us understand wealth differences in distinct social environments.

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