  We present a new statistical approach to analyzing an extremely common
archaeological data type -- potsherds -- that infers the structure of cultural
relationships across a set of excavations. This method, applied to data from a
set of complex, culturally heterogeneous sites around the Mandara mountains in
the Lake Chad Basin, articulates currently understood cultural succession into
the Iron Age. We show how the approach can be integrated with radiocarbon dates
to provide detailed portraits of cultural dynamics and deposition patterns
within single excavations that, in this context, indicate historical
ethnolinguistic segregation patterns. We conclude with a discussion of the many
possible model extensions using other archaeological data types.
