CLCV 1008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Pleistocene, Harappa, Hohokam
18 Oct 2014
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Harappa (indus valley, pakistan) drawing by sir mortimer wheeler. Association: different artifacts found within the same, undisturbed (sealed) layer were deposited at the same time. Stratigraphy shows both natural and cultural evolution of a site. Artifacts are broadly grouped together and the groups are classified according to their attributes. For example, pottery is classified according to material, colour, size, shape, decoration, etc. The evolution in the design of artifacts is analogous to darwinian evolution of species. Oscar montelius was an advocate of this strategy of typology. Nearly every area of the world has its own ceramic sequence. Hohokam bowls of the pueblo indians can be arranged this way. For pottery, surface decoration changes the most rapidly, so it is the best criteria by which to classify it. Seriation: contextual: the duration of a particular style of artifact, frequency: the frequency of a particular style of artifact.
