Revisiting the Nowosi\'o{\l}ka skull with RMaCzek

TL;DR

This paper revisits Jan Czekanowski's early 20th-century distance matrix visualization method using the RMaCzek software, demonstrating how to reanalyze original data and customize distance functions in R.

Contribution

It provides a modern reanalysis of Czekanowski's original data and illustrates customization of distance functions within the RMaCzek package.

Findings

Reanalysis of original data confirms the method's effectiveness.

Demonstration of customizing distance functions enhances flexibility.

The RMaCzek package facilitates accessible visualization of distance matrices.

Abstract

One of the first fully quantitative distance matrix visualization methods was proposed by Jan Czekanowski at the beginning of the previous century. Recently, a software package, RMaCzek, was made available that allows for producing such diagrams in R. Here we reanalyze the original data that Czekanowski used for introducing his method, and in the accompanying code show how the user can specify their own custom distance functions in the package.