The first step in dating material evidence is to put it in a relative chronological sequence. For instance, you could list events in your life in a relative chronological sequence. Birth, school, university, job, marriage, children, is one example of a relative sequence. Relative sequences apply both to the dating of layers in an excavation, and of individual artefacts. Relative dating (i.e. dating which does not attempt fixed or absolute dates) is intuitively plausible in relation to excavated strata: material is laid down in horizontal layers, one on top of the next; the dating runs from the earliest at the bottom to the latest at the top, unless other factors have intervened. This principle of uniformitarianism was established in the 1830s by Charles Lyell, the founder of modern geology, for both geological and archaeological strata.
However, relative dating of individual artefacts might seem rather arbitrary. How is it possible to tell whether one potsherd is earlier than another just by looking at it? In fact, because people make objects in accordance with slowly evolving cultural conventions, it is perfectly possible to place objects in the correct relative sequence, that is to construct a typology. It is what we do all the time in our everyday lives when we look at clothes or cars and place them in the right sequence.
Typological sequences of archaeological artefacts can be given further (though still relative) dating when items in the sequence are tied to excavated stratigraphic sequences.
We have an instinctive grasp of typological sequences in our own culture. Without being experts, we know, or can figure out, the right sequences for familiar objects. Look at the items pictured below. Can you put them in the correct chronological sequence? Select the item with your mouse and drag it into a box. It will stay there if you have got it right.
Three pairs of shoes: Pointed mules; Gold decorated; Velvet mules. © Bata Shoe Museum |
You might want to make some comments about your experience of typological sequences in the Discussion Forum.
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