In archaeology a typology is the result of the classification of things according to their characteristics. The products of the classification, i.e. the classes are also called types. Most archaeological typologies organize artifacts into types, but typologies of houses or roads belonging to a certain culture may be set up as well. A typology helps to manage a large mass of archaeological data. According to Doran and Hodson (1975, p. 158)[1], "this superficially straightforward task has proved one of the most time consuming and contentious aspects of archaeological research".
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Philosophical background
Typology is based on a view of the world familiar from Plato's metaphysics called essentialism. Essentialism is the idea that world is divided into real, discontinuous and immutable ‘kinds’. This idea is the basis for most typological constructions, particularly of stone artefacts where essential forms are often thought of as ‘mental templates’, or combinations of traits that are favoured by the maker. Variation in artifact form and attributes is seen as a consequence of the imperfect realization of the template, and is usually attributed to differences in raw material properties or individuals' technical competences.
History
In the 19th and early 20th centuries archaeological typologies were usually constructed using a combination of empirical observation and intuition. According to Eggers[2], most archaeologists give Oscar Montelius the credit for the first application of the typological method, but in Eggers' view, his contemporary colleague from Stockholm, Hans Hildebrand made important contributions to the development of the methodology as well. Hildebrand published a fundamental paper on the development of fibulae in the 1870s using the typological method, whereas Montelius at the same time went to international congresses and published smaller papers on this method. Another early example is the typology published in 1899 by Flinders Petrie for the objects (mainly pottery) found in 900 prehistoric Egyptian graves[3]. This typology formed the basis for his manual seriation of the graves.
Statistical methods for creating a typology
With the development of statistical techniques and numerical taxonomy in the 1960s, mathematical methods (including Cluster analysis, Principal components analysis, correspondence analysis and Factor analysis) have been used to build typologies. During the 1990s archaeologists began to use phylogenetic methods borrowed from Cladistics.
Ceramic Typology
For cultures that produced pottery, archaeologists invariably spend a great deal of time defining ceramic "types." Each type is a series of attributes which distinguishes one group of pottery (whether whole vessels or potsherds) from all other groups of pottery, such that each type was produced in a single time and place. Ideally, the attributes used to identify types are ones that are identifiable with the naked eye, and are found on small fragments of pottery, so that the sorting of potsherds into types is quick and straightforward. By sorting potsherds in terms of types, archaeologists can examine a series of potsherds (including those lying on a site surface) and quickly suggest when and where the pottery was made. By extension, they can estimate when a prehistoric site was used, whether there are any traded pieces, and so on.
The names assigned to the ceramic types are arbitrary. In the New World, the common practice is a two-part name, the first part being an arbitrary geographic reference and the second part providing a brief description of the pottery's most obvious design attributes. Thus, for example, the type "Flagstaff Black-on-white" was first defined using a collection from the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona, and its primary design attribute is the use of black paint on a white background.
Non-archaeologists should be aware of the limitations of ceramic typology. All such typologies are abstractions, and fail to describe all of the variability in an artistic tradition. Professional disagreement over specifics is common. Changes in ceramic design did not happen overnight, and archaeological typologies tend to break continua of design evolution into arbitrary (but highly useful) units. Most archaeological dates are approximate.
Non-archaeological typology as an art form
In the middle of the twentieth century, German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher[4] raised typology to an art form by photographing countless similar architectural features including water towers, workers' houses and industrial landscapes. They documented their work in books.
Notes
- ^ Doran, J.E. and Hodson, F.R. (1975). Mathematics and Computers in Archaeology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-85224-250-6.
- ^ Eggers, Hans-Jürgen (1986). Einführung in die Vorgeschichte. München: Piper Verlag, pp.88-95. ISBN 3-492-00393-1
- ^ Kendall, D.G. (1971). "Seriation from abundance matrices". In Mathematics in the Archaeological and Historical Sciences. Edited by F. R. Hodson, D. G. Kendall, and P. Tautu, pp. 215-252. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-85224-213-1.
- ^ Bernd and Hilla Becher, Water Towers, The MIT Press, 1988
References
- Dunnell, R.C. (1986) Methodological issues in Americanist artifact classification. In M.B. Schiffer (ed.) Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory. Pp.35-99. New York: Academic Press.
- Hill, J.N. and R.K. Evans (1972) A model for classification and typology. In D.L. Clarke (ed.) Models in Archaeology. Pp.231-274. London: Methuen.
- Whallon, R. and J.A.Brown (eds) (1982) Essays on Archaeological Typology. Evanston: Center for American Archaeology Press.
See also
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