Seriation, Stratigraphy and Index Fossils

by O'Brien, Michael J.; Lyman, R. Lee

• ISBN13: 9780306461521
• ISBN10: 0306461528
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Plenum Pub Corp

Summary

It is difficult for today's students of archaeology to imagine an era when chronometric dating methods were unavailable. However, even a casual perusal of the large body of literature that arose during the first half of the twentieth century reveals a battery of clever methods used to determine the relative ages of archaeological phenomena, often with considerable precision. Stratigraphic excavation is perhaps the best known of the various relative-dating methods used by prehistorians. Although there are several techniques of using artifacts from superposed strata to measure time, these are rarely if ever differentiated. Rather, common practice is to categorize them under the heading 'stratigraphic excavation'. This text distinguishes among the several techniques and argues that stratigraphic excavation tends to result in discontinuous measures of time - a point little appreciated by modern archaeologists. Although not as well known as stratigraphic excavation, two other methods of relative dating have figured important in Americanist archaeology: seriation and the use of index fossils. The latter (like stratigraphic excavation) measures time discontinuously, while the former - in various guises - measures time continuously. Perhaps no other method used in archaeology is as misunderstood as seriation, and the authors provide detailed descriptions and examples of each of its three different techniques. Each method and technique of relative dating is placed in historical perspective, with particular focus on developments in North America, an approach that allows a more complete understanding of the methods described, both in terms of analytical technique and disciplinary history. This text will appeal to all archaeologists, from graduate students to seasoned professionals, who want to learn more about the backbone of archaeological dating.

Table of Contents

An Introduction to Time and Dating	1	(23)
Preliminary Considerations	5	(8)
Relative and Absolute Time	8	(1)
Continuous and Discontinuous Time	9	(2)
Direct and Indirect Dating	11	(1)
Scientific Dating	12	(1)
Time and Its Measurement	13	(8)
Nominal Scale Measurement	17	(1)
Ordinal Scale Measurement	17	(1)
Interval Scale Measurement	18	(1)
Ratio Scale Measurement	19	(2)
Beyond Measurement Scale: Ideational and Empirical Units	21	(2)
The Creation of Archaeological Types	23	(36)
Initial Considerations	24	(2)
Constructing Chronological Types	26	(6)
Chronological Types in Americanist Archaeology	32	(25)
Typological Issues Begin to Take Shape	33	(24)
Typology in Retrospect	57	(2)
Seriation I: Historical Continuity, Heritable Continuity, and Phyletic Seriation	59	(50)
What Is Seriation?	60	(2)
Seriation in Americanist Archaeology	62	(3)
The Key Assumptions: Historical and Heritable Continuity	65	(2)
Continuity and the Study of Organisms	67	(13)
Tracing Lineage's	72	(2)
Detecting Heritable Continuity	74	(6)
Historical Continuity, Heritable Continuity, and the Study of Artifacts	80	(21)
Culture Traits	82	(2)
W. M. Flinders Pert and Artifacts from Egyptian Tombs	84	(7)
John Evans and Gold Coins from Britain	91	(3)
A. V. Kidder and Pottery from Pecos Pueblo	94	(2)
The Gladwin--Colton--Hargrave System	96	(5)
Projectile Point Evolution	101	(8)
Seriation II: Frequency Seriation and Occurrence Seriation	109	(30)
The First Frequency Seriation	111	(3)
How Do Occurrence and Frequency Seriation Work?	114	(5)
The Seriation Model	116	(1)
Requirements and Conditions of Seriation	117	(2)
Occurrence Seriation	119	(2)
Frequency Seriation	121	(4)
Meeting the Conditions of the Seriation Model	125	(5)
Temporal Resolution and Rates of Change	130	(6)
Absolute Seriation	132	(4)
A Final Note	136	(3)
Superposition and Stratigraphy: Measuring Time Discontinuously	139	(46)
Strata, Stratigraphy, and Superposition	144	(5)
Stratigraphic Excavation	147	(2)
Stratigraphic Excavation in Historical Context	149	(26)
Early Stratigraphic Excavation	151	(6)
On the Eve of the ``Revolution''	157	(1)
The Real Revolution	158	(13)
What Was the Revolution?	171	(1)
After the Revolution: Measuring Time with Strata	172	(3)
Measuring Time at Gatecliff Shelter, Nevada	175	(5)
The Final Proof Is in the Spade, But	180	(5)
Cross Dating: The Use of Index Fossils	185	(32)
Folsom and Clovis Points	188	(3)
Geogre C. Vaillant and the Mexican Formative	191	(8)
James A. Ford and the Lower Mississippi Valley	199	(13)
Measuring Time Discontinuously	212	(5)
Final Thoughts on Archaeological Time: A Clash of Two Metaphysics	217	(10)
Measuring Time Continuously	219	(2)
Measuring Time Discontinuously	221	(4)
Concluding Remarks	225	(2)
References	227	(20)
Index	247