Several applications for Excel (or Quatro Pro, Lotus, As Easy As, etc...) are readily apparent: statistical calculations, graphing, even simple enumeration.  As I've been working through Thomas C. Patterson's The Theory and Practice of Archaeology: A Workbook, 2nd Edition, I have found some other uses for Excel that I thought I would share with other students and others looking for new things to spark their archaeological analysis.  I'm sure many others are already using these and even better techniques, and I would love to exchange ideas!

The first file was generated while I was working on Patterson's morphological seriation material.  I started out jotting notes on paper, then started making a simple characteristic check sheet.  As I started to try and pull everything together, though, I found myself struggling to visualize the different ways in which all the vessels related to another.  Then I realized that by creating a simple spreadsheet in Excel I could (a) use color-coding to help make sure I didn't lose track of what I was working with and (b) use the ability to cut and paste entire columns -- in this case, each a distinct characteristic -- to rearrange the material.  Combining the color-coding with the ability to  arrange material, I was able to, in a strikingly visual way, piece together attritbute patterns and therefore to lay the foundation for seriation.

The second file is working with Patterson's stratigraphy data.  There are two sheets within the file -- first a simple matrix of strata and characteristics.  The second, based on what that matrix showed as key distinguishing attribues of each strata, is a visual representation of of the stratrigraphy, using color coding and blocking to make an easy to read presentation.  It's not suppoed to be a drawing or a scale representation, of course, only a guide to understanding the sequences.

The third file is really another version of the same principle as the first file.  Drawing upon Excel's ability to colod-code and rearrange colums, I was able to manipulate Patterson's site chronology data into visually obvious patterns of development.