Relations
Relations are restrictions on seriations. Users can specify that one artifact or assemblage must precede (be earlier than) another. This can be done in two different ways. The relations table (below) allows direct specification of a precedence relation (which will appear red if the precedence relation is violated in the current seriation). Alternatively, a precedence relation may be the result of Earliest and Latest dates set for individual items. If artifact A is assigned an Earliest date of 1200 while artifact B is assigned a Latest date of 900, then artifact B must precede artifact A. This sort of implied precedence relation will show up automatically in the Relations table and will be distinguished by its brown color (purple if the precedence relation is violated in the current seriation).
Relations Menu
Show/Hide Table allows you to open/close the relations table and and create, delete, exclude and edit the relations.
Check initiates a check to see if the current seriation satisfies all of the precedence relations.
Satisfy initiates the creation of a new seriation that satisfies all of the precedence relations.
Include All allows you to include all of the relations. Exluded relations are ignored.
Exclude All allows you to exclude all of the relations. Exluded relations are ignored.
Help will bring up this documentation.
Relations Table
In the Relations table you may add, delete, exclude and edit relations. The rows of the Relations table may be sorted by the values of any column by clicking on the header for that column. Clicking a second time will reverse the order.
Relations in brown (purple for violated relations) are the result of Earliest and Latest dates set for individual items. These relations cannot be edited in this table. Instead, the Earliest and Late dates must be edited for the individual items. To exclude a date related relation, one must exclude one of the items in the relation.
Right clicking on the table will bring up a pop up menu of available actions.
Exclude allows you to exclude a relation temporarily from constraining your seriation. The alternative is to delete the relation. In contrast, using Exclude allows you to resurrect the relation by clearing the Exclude field. All Exclude fields can be cleared simultaneously by selecting Include All from the Relations menu or the pop up menu. Excluded items are greyed out and cannot be edited. (Excluded relations that result from Earliest and Late dates are light brown.)
Earlier Artifact/Assemblage is the name of the artifact or assemblage that must precede Later Artifact/Assemblage.
Later Artifact/Assemblage is the name of the artifact or assemblage that must succeed Earlier Artifact/Assemblage.