Chapter 7

Question 1

What are the principles of archaeological typology?

Answer 1

We create groups (based on one or more attributes of form) that minimizes the differences within each group and maximize the difference between groups.
We construct these groups through an objective, explicit, and replicable process. We recognize that there is no single “correct” typology. A typology’s usefulness is judged relative to the question it is used to answer.

Question 2

What is the strength of archaeology?

Answer 2

Although surrendering (υποταγή) some of the detail available to ethnographers, archaeologists can focus on mega-patterns spanning (εκτείνονται) vast reaches of space and time - across continents and millennia.

Question 3

What role does typology play in archaeology’s strength?

Answer 3

Seeking changes across space and time - so-called space time systematics - archaeologists can find important patterns in the form of material culture. Because this can’t be done by focusing on artifacts individually, archaeologists address “types” of material culture - projectile points, pottery, architecture, and so on - across spans of space and time.
By testing morphological types against solidly dated contexts, archaeologists define temporal types, the backbone for building cultural chronologies.

Question 4

What are archaeological cultures, site components and phases?

Answer 4

Spatial patterning in material culture defines archaeological cultures but these are not the same as ethnographic cultures.
By seeking out clusters of temporal types, we construct site components, which are culturally homogenous units within a single site that can be synthesized into phases - archaeological units of cultural homogeneity that are limited in both time and space.
Phases are the basic archaeological building blocks for regional synthesis, capturing temporal and spatial similarity in material culture.