Archeologia Quantitativa: nascita, sviluppo e "crisi"

The author describes the different phases, which have characterised "Quantitative Archaeology" from its origin in the Sixties to the present. An examination of the present situation emphasises the reduction in the number of projects in which statistical and mathematical techniques are applied in comparison with those devoted to data recording, computer graphics and image processing. A limitation in the fields of studies, generally restricted to the more traditional application sectors, such as archaeometric analyses and typological and morphological studies of artefacts, was also observed. This situation is related to two principal aspects. The first concerns the present tendency to assimilate theory and practice, which involves the connection between the opinion on Quantitative Archaeology and the debate on processual and post-processual - or anti-processual - archaeology. The second concerns the re-appraisal of the epistemological aspect of archaeology, which implies the necessity on the behalf of archaeologist to formalise their own reasoning: a step, which is often considered absent in quantitative studies. As an example, the author presents a case study, which concerns the computer-based classification of Etruscan cinerary stone urns, produced in Volterra, in order to show how the formalisation process is implied in the application of the quantitative approach.