Ch. 6 - The Dimensions Of Archaeology: Time, Space, & Form Flashcards
Typology
The systematic arrangement of material culture into types
Space-time systematics
The delineation of patterns in material culture through time and across space. These patterns are what the archaeologist will eventually try to explain or account for.
Type
A class of archaeological artifacts defined by a consistent clustering of attributes.
Morphological type
A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than function or chronological significance.
Temporal type
A morphological type that has temporal significance; also known as a time marker or index fossil.
Functional type
A class of artifacts that performed the same function; may or may not be temporal and/or morphological types.
Attribute
An individual characteristic that distinguishes one artifact from another on the basis of its size, surface texture, form, material, method of manufacture, or design pattern.
Mousterian
A culture from the Middle Paleolithic (“Middle Old Stone Age”) period that appeared throughout Europe after 250,000 and before 30,000 years ago. Mousterian artifacts are frequently associated with Neanderthal human remains.
Period
A length of time distinguished by particular items of material culture, such as a house form, pottery, or subsistence.
Phase
An archaeological construct possessing traits sufficiently characteristic to distinguish it from other units similarly conceived; spatially limited to roughly a locality or region and chronologically limite to the briefest interval of time possible.
Assemblage
A collection of artifacts of one or several classes of materials that comes from a defined context, such as a site, feature, or stratum.
Component
An archaeological construct consisting of a stratum or set of strata that are presumed to be culturally homogenous. A set of components from various sites in a region will make up a phase.
