Spatial analysis studies in Palaeolithic archaeology arise as indispensable research tools for understanding archaeopalaeontological sites. In general terms, spatial studies have been specialised in the description of the distribution of materials and in the definition of accumulation areas, with the aim of distinguishing intentional activities or studying postdepositional processes. In recent decades, the development of GIS tools has enabled huge strides forward in the field of spatial archaeology research, such as spatial inferential statistics. These tools are particularly useful in the identification and location of clustering from statistical criteria, facilitating the subsequent analysis of accumulations through other archaeological, taphonomic and spatial techniques, such as fabric analysis or directional distribution. The cluster analysis, and its contextualisation considering all the archaeological and stratigraphical variables, allows the inference of some of the processes and factors that could have taken part in the accumulation of materials, as well as assessing how this affected the composition and preservation of the archaeological assemblage. The present article reviews the more traditional and innovative methods for studying horizontal distribution patterns and the objective definition of clusters, highlighting the parameters, uses and limitations of these techniques. We present an application of these methods to different Palaeolithic sites, going through different scenarios, such as location (open-air vs. cave), context, scale (large vs. small area), excavation methodology and spatial record methods.

旧石器时代考古学中的空间分析研究是理解考古古生物学遗址必不可少的研究工具。一般而言，空间研究专门用于描述材料的分布和定义堆积区域，目的是区分有意的活动或研究沉积后的过程。在最近的几十年中，GIS工具的开发使空间考古研究（例如空间推断统计）领域取得了长足的进步。这些工具在根据统计标准识别和定位聚类中特别有用，有助于通过其他考古，Thonomic和空间技术（例如织物分析或方向分布）对堆积物进行后续分析。聚类分析 结合所有考古学和地层学变量对其进行情境化，可以推断出可能参与物质积累的某些过程和因素，并评估其如何影响考古组合物的组成和保存。本文回顾了研究水平分布模式和集群的客观定义的更为传统和创新的方法，重点介绍了这些技术的参数，用途和局限性。我们将这些方法应用于不同的旧石器时代遗址，并经历不同的场景，例如位置（露天与洞穴），背景，规模（大与小区域），挖掘方法和空间记录方法。