Land-constrained Monte Carlo baselines for corridor enrichment analysis in archaeology: correcting coastal jitter bias and testing a proposed transcontinental great circle alignment
Land-constrained Monte Carlo baselines for corridor enrichment analysis in archaeology: correcting coastal jitter bias and testing a proposed transcontinental great circle alignment
Preprint (v8) of "Land-constrained Monte Carlo baselines for corridor enrichment analysis in archaeology: correcting coastal jitter bias and testing a proposed transcontinental great circle alignment" by Elliot Allan, Deep Time Research Institute.This version (v8, April 2026) incorporates: method-first reframing for broader interdisciplinary audience; land-constrained Monte Carlo correction (reduces monument enrichment from 5× to 2.52×, Z = 11.83 → 6.74); Vancouver-style numbered references; all qualitative conclusions (monument-settlement divergence, deep-time enrichment, tectonic mechanism) survive correction. Citation audit: all references verified against CrossRef metadata, 0 fabricated authors.Changes from v7: Ghoneim et al. [28] author list corrected to match CrossRef metadata (11 verified authors). No statistical changes.Under review at PLOS ONE. Code and data: https://github.com/thegreatcircledata/great-circle-analysis