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.

Seriation, stratigraphy, and index fossils: the backbone of archaeological dating PDF

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