The value for archaeology of some available methods of numerical classification was investigated. Brooches from an Iron Age site in Switzerland (Münsingen) were chosen for analysis for two reasons: they show variation over a typically wide range of attributes, and their archaeological context, in rich associations in a horizontally stratified cemetery, provides independent evidence to check the significance of any proposed classifications. A further control on results was provided by an ‘intuitive’ classification of the brooches by professional archaeologists. The brooches were described numerically by quantitative and qualitative characters, and a similarity coefficient was computed between each pair. These coefficients were then submitted to two forms of cluster analysis (single- and average-link) and to a multi-dimensional scaling procedure. The average-link, but not the single-link, cluster analysis and the multi-dimemional scaling procedure were found to produce classifications of demonstrable archaeological significance.