Fortunately, the high-speed computer has made feasible the analysis of multi-dimensional data in ways that were completely impracticable a dozen years ago. It is uncertain at the moment which procedures will ultimately prove to be of most use to archaeologists but, in very general terms, we are looking for methods that will simplify complex data and will reveal structure latent in it (F.R. Hodson 1969, Searching for structure within multivariate archaeological data, p. 90)