Effects of Picture References on Reproducibility of Entheseal Change Recordation

Abstract

Reproducibility and observer agreement are critical to the production of standardized and comparable data sets. The reproducibility of recording methodology is a current issue in entheseal change studies. The effects of a picture reference guide on current entheseal change methodology are explored in the hope of increasing observer agreement and thus overall applicability of the picture reference guide method in a variety of archaeological contexts. The picture guide seems marginally effective; however, it requires a few modifications and subsequent testing before full-scale implementation.