In the field of material culture, seriality refers to the serial production of nearly the same object in terms of shape and size, yielding visually identical artefacts. Subtle variations may nevertheless occur, depending on the technologies used, or the number and reliability of moulds, for example. Geometric morphometrics based on landmark analysis, along with accompanying statistical techniques, provides methods well-suited for identifying small but archaeologically significant variations in shape and size within such datasets. In this study, we exemplify the efficiency of geometric morphometrics in a context of seriality, using a large series of centimetric-sized gold wild boars decorating a case for bow and arrows, discovered in the Arzhan-2 barrow of the early Scythian time. A total of twenty-seven 2D landmarks was collected for each specimen to assess the level of similarity between individuals with high precision, and to investigate the presence of subgroups, possibly indicating the use of several models. However, due to the homogeneous nature of the dataset, notable measurement errors may obscure the sought-after archaeological signal. To mitigate this, each specimen was measured twice by three different operators. Boas coordinates of the six replicates were then averaged, resulting in a reduction of the effect of measurement errors. Two distinct shape groups are identified, consisting of an approximately equal number of individuals. These findings suggest that the entire set of wild boars could have been produced two separate manufacturing chains, possibly running in parallel, where two distinct, albeit very similar, solid models were involved. Within each group, discreet variations in size were observed. They are probably due to variable shrinkage during casting. These observations would have been difficult for the naked eye, even for an expert in the field, because the striking similarity within the series and the post-processing by the goldsmith obscure the shape signal originating from the moulds. Besides the original information provided here about the gold wild boars of Arzhan-2, it is worth emphasizing that the use of these techniques should be encouraged, particularly when applied to the study of seriality. The workflow described can easily be reproduced and adapted for almost any serially produced archaeological assemblage.

中文翻译：

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通过几何形态计量学研究物质文化的连续性——来自图瓦 Arzhan-2 古坟的金野猪


在物质文化领域，序列性是指形状和大小几乎相同的物体的连续生产，产生视觉上相同的人工制品。然而，根据所使用的技术或模具的数量和可靠性等，可能会发生细微的变化。基于地标分析的几何形态计量学以及随附的统计技术提供了非常适合识别此类数据集中形状和大小的微小但具有考古学意义的变化的方法。在这项研究中，我们使用大量厘米大小的金色野猪来装饰弓箭盒（在早期斯基泰时代的 Arzhan-2 古墓中发现），举例说明了在连续性背景下几何形态测量的效率。每个样本总共收集了 27 个 2D 地标，以高精度评估个体之间的相似性水平，并调查亚组的存在，这可能表明使用了多个模型。然而，由于数据集的同质性，显着的测量误差可能会掩盖备受追捧的考古信号。为了缓解这种情况，每个样本由三名不同的操作员测量两次。然后对六个重复的博阿斯坐标进行平均，从而减少测量误差的影响。确定了两个不同形状的群体，由大致相等数量的个体组成。这些发现表明，整套野猪可能是由两个独立的制造链生产的，可能并行运行，其中涉及两个不同但非常相似的实体模型。在每组中，观察到大小的细微变化。 它们可能是由于铸造过程中收缩率变化造成的。这些观察对于肉眼来说是困难的，即使对于该领域的专家来说也是如此，因为该系列中惊人的相似性以及金匠的后处理掩盖了源自模具的形状信号。除了此处提供的有关 Arzhan-2 黄金野猪的原始信息外，值得强调的是，应鼓励使用这些技术，特别是在应用于序列性研究时。所描述的工作流程可以轻松复制并适应几乎任何连续生产的考古组合。