Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T02:18:11.269Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Archaeological classification: theory versus practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

William Y. Adams
William Y. Adams*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506–0024, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Classification is fundamental to all artefactual archaeology, and no one who works with artefacts can be unaware of the doubts that surround many classifications. How similar are the similar things that belong together? How different are the different things that belong apart? What do the classes of similar things actually amount to? This paper looks at some fundamental questions of classification, believing that classification is too important a practical matter to be left to the theoreticians.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 234 , March 1988 , pp. 40 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, E.W. & Adams, W.Y.. 1987. Purpose and scientific concept formation, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1962. An introductory classification of Christian Nubian pottery, Kush 10: 245–88.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1963. Shonto: a study of the role of the trader in a modern Navaho community. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 188.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1964a. An introductory classification of Meroitic pottery, Kush 12: 126–73.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1964b. Sudan Antiquities Service excavations in Nubia: fourth season, 1962–63, Kush 12: 216–50.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1965. Architectural evolution of the Nubian church, 500–1400 AD, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 4: 87–140.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1968. Settlement pattern in microcosm: the changing aspect of a Nubian village during twelve centuries, in Chang, K.-C. (ed.), Settlement archaeology: 174–207. Palo Alto: National Press Books.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1970. The University of Kentucky excavations at Kulubnarti, 1969, in Erich, Dinkler (ed.), Kunst und Geschichte Nubiens in Christlicher Zeit: 141–54. Recklinghausen: Aurel Bongers Verlag.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1973. Progess report on Nubian pottery, I: the native wares, Kush 15: 1–50.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1977. Nubia, corridor to Africa. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1984. Ceramics and archaeological dating at Qasr Ibrim, Egypt. Paper read at the 86th General Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, Toronto, December 29, 1984.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1986a. Archaeology: natural and/or social science? Paper read at the Third American-Soviet Archaeological Symposium, Washington (DC), May 7, 1986.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1986b. Ceramic industries of medieval Nubia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Memoirs of the UNESCO Archaeological Survey of Sudanese Nubia 1.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. 1986c. From pottery to history: the dating of archaeological deposits by ceramic statistics, in Hintze, F. (ed.), Die Anwendung numerischer Methoden in der Sudanarchäologie: 27–45. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geisteswissenschaftliche Reihe 35 Jg., Heft 1.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. MS-1. Field manual of Christian Nubian pottery wares. MS distributed by the Sudan Antiquities Service.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. MS-2. Pottery wares of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods at Qasr Ibrim: preliminary ware descriptions. MS distributed by the Qasr Ibrim Expedition and the University of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. & Adams, E.W.. In preparation. Archaeological typology and practical reality.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y. & Adams, N.K.. 1959. An inventory of prehistoric sites on the lower San Juan River, Utah. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Bulletin 31.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y., Alexander, J.A. & Allen, R.. 1983. Qasr Ibrim 1980 and 1982, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 69: 43–60.Google Scholar
Adams, W.Y., Lindsay, A.J. Jr & Turner II, C.G.. 1961. Survey and excavations in lower Glen Canyon 1952–1958. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Bulletin 36.Google Scholar
Beckner, M. 1959. The biological way of thought. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1965. Archaeological systematics and the study of culture process, American Antiquity 31: 203–10.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1972. An archaeological perspective. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Brainerd, G.W. 1951. The use of mathematical formulations in archaeological analysis, in Griffin, J.B. (ed.), Essays on archaeological methods: 117–27. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. Anthropological Papers 8.Google Scholar
Brew, J.O. 1946. Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, southeastern Utah. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 21.Google Scholar
Brown, J.A. 1982. On the structure of artefact typologies, in Whallon, & Brown, 1982: 176–90.Google Scholar
Chang, K.-C. 1967. Rethinking archaeology. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Chapman, W.R. 1985. Arranging ethnology: A.H.L.F. Pitt Rivers and the typological tradition, in Stocking, G.W. Jr (ed.), Objects and others: 15–48. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. History of Anthropology 3.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1956. Piecing together the past. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Clarke, D.L. 1968. Analytical archaeology. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Colton, H.S. 1953. Potsherds. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Bulletin 25.Google Scholar
Colton, H.S. 1955. Pottery types of the Southwest: Wares 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Ceramic Series 3a.Google Scholar
Colton, H.S. 1956. Pottery types of the Southwest: Wares 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 7B, 7C. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Ceramic Series 3c.Google Scholar
Colton, H.S. 1958. Pottery types of the Southwest: Wares 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Ceramic Series 3d.Google Scholar
Colton, H.S. & Hargrave, L.L.. 1937. Handbook of northern Arizona pottery wares. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Bulletin 11.Google Scholar
Cormack, R.M. 1971. A review of classification. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 134: 321–53.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G.L. 1972. Models, methods and techniques for seriation, in Clarke, D.L. (ed.), Models in archaeology: 381–424. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Deetz, J.F. 1967. Invitation to archaeology. Garden City: Natural History Press.Google Scholar
Doran, J.E. & Hudson, F.R.. 1975. Mathematics and computers in archaeology. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. (ed.). 1973. Rules and meanings. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. (ed.). 1975. Implicit meanings. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Dunnell, R.C. 1971a. Sabloff & Smith’s ‘The importance of both analytic and taxonomic classification in the type-variety system’, American Antiquity 36: 115–18.Google Scholar
Dunnell, R.C. 1971b. Systematics in prehistory. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Dunnell, R.C. 1986. Methodological issues in Americanist artifact classification, Advances in archaeological method and theory 9: 149–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durkheim, É. 1893. De la division du travail social. Paris: Alcan.Google Scholar
Ellen, R.F. & Reason, D. (ed.). 1979. Classifications in their social context. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Emery, W.B. 1938. The royal tombs of Ballana and Qustul. Cairo: Government Press.Google Scholar
Everitt, B. 1974. Cluster analysis. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Fish, P.R. 1978. Consistency in archaeological measurement and classification: a pilot study, American Antiquity 43: 86–9.Google Scholar
Ford, J.A. 1954. The type concept revisited, American Anthropologist 56: 42–54.Google Scholar
Ford, J.A. 1962. A quantitative method for deriving cultural chronology. Washington: Pan American Union. Technical manual 1.Google Scholar
Fougault, M. 1973. The order of things. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Friedman, J. 1987. An interview with Eric Wolf, Current Anthropology 28: 107–18.Google Scholar
Fritz, J.M. & Plog, F.T.. 1970. The nature of archaeological explanation, American Antiquity 35: 405–12.Google Scholar
Gardin, J.-C. 1980. Archaeological constructs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Griffin, J.B. 1943. The Fort Ancient Aspect; its cultural and chronological position in Mississippi Valley archaeology. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Heider, K.G. 1967. Archaeological assumptions and ethnological facts: a cautionary tale from New Guinea, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 23: 52–64.Google Scholar
Hill, J.N. & Evans, R.K.. 1972. A model for classification and typology, in Clarke, D.L. (ed.), Models in archaeology: 231–73. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Jevons, W.S. 1874. The principles of science. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Judd, N.M. 1940. Progress in the Southwest, in Essays in historical anthropology: 417–44. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Miscellaneous Collections 100.Google Scholar
Kendall, D.G. 1969. Some problems and methods in statistical archaeology, World Archaeology 1: 68–76.Google Scholar
Kidder, A.V. 1927. Southwestern archaeological conference, Science 66: 489–91.Google Scholar
Kidder, A.V. & Shepard, A.O.. The Pottery of Pecos 2. Andover (MA]: Phillips Academy. Papers of the Southwestern Expedition 7.Google Scholar
King, D.S. 1949. Nalakihu. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona. Bulletin 23.Google Scholar
Klejn, L.S. 1982. Archaeological typology; trans. Dole, P.. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 153.Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, C. 1939. The place of theory in anthropological studies. Philosophy of Science 6: 328–44.Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, C. 1940. The conceptual structure in Middle American studies, in Hay, C.L. et al. (ed.), The Maya and their neighbors: 41–51. New York: Appleton-Century.Google Scholar
Kolata, G. 1986. What does it mean to be random?, Science 231: 1068–70.Google Scholar
Krieger, A.D. 1944. The typological concept, American Antiquity 9: 271–88.Google Scholar
Krieger, A.D. 1960. Archaeological typology in theory and practice, in Wallace, A.F.C. (ed.), Men and cultures; selected papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences: 141–51. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A.L. 1964. Anthropology: culture patterns and processes. New York: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Leach, E. 1972. The structure of symbolism, in LaFontaine, J.S. (ed.), The interpretation of ritual: 239–75. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Leach, E. 1976. Culture and communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, G. 1953. Social structure, in Kroeber, A.L. (ed.), Anthropology today: 524–53. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Marks, E.A. & Robertson, R.. 1986. Shaqadud Cave: the organization of the 3rd mil. BC ceramics seen through seriation, in Hintze, F. (ed.), Die Anwendung numerischer Methoden in der Sudanarchäologie: 70–76. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geisteswissenschaftliche Reihe 35 Jg., Heft 1.Google Scholar
Marquardt, W. 1978. Advances in archaeological seriation, Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 1: 257–314.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. 1942. Systematics and the origin of species. New York: Columbia University. Columbia Biological Series 13.Google Scholar
Rathje, W.L. & Schiffer, M.B.. 1982. Archaeology. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch.Google Scholar
Read, D.W. 1974. Some comments on typologies in archaeology and an outline of a methodology, American Antiquity 39: 216–42.Google Scholar
Read, D.W. 1982. Toward a theory of archaeological classification, in Whallon, & Brown, 1982: 56–92.Google Scholar
Reisner, G.A. 1909. The Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Bulletin of the Archaeological Survey of Nubia 3: 5–20. Cairo: Survey Department of Egypt.Google Scholar
Reisner, G.A. 1923. Excavations at Kerma, IV-V. Boston: Harvard African Studies 6.Google Scholar
Rouse, I. 1939. Prehistory in Haiti, a study in method. New Haven: Yale University. Publications in Anthropology 21.Google Scholar
Rouse, I. 1960. The classification of artifacts in archaeology, American Antiquity 25: 313–23.Google Scholar
Sackett, J.R. 1966. Quantitative analysis of Upper Paleolithic stone tools, in Clark, J.D. & Howell, F.C. (ed.), Recent studies in paleoanthropology: 356–94. American Anthropologist 68, no. 2, part 2.Google Scholar
Shepard, A.O. 1965. Ceramics for the archaeologist. 5th printing. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. Publication 609.Google Scholar
Simpson, G.G. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. New York: American Museum of Natural History. Bulletin 85.Google Scholar
Spaulding, A.C. 1953. Statistical techniques for the discovery of artifact types, American Antiquity 18: 305–13.Google Scholar
Steindorff, G. 1935. Aniba. Glückstadt and Hamburg: J.J. Augustin.Google Scholar
Taylor, W.W. 1948. A study of archeology. Menasha (WI): American Anthropological Association. Memoir 69.Google Scholar
Thomas, D.H. 1978. The awful truth about statistics in archaeology, American Antiquity 43: 231–44.Google Scholar
Thomas, D.H. 1986. Refiguring anthropology. Prospect Heights (IL): Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Voorrips, A. 1982. Mambrino’s helmet; a framework for structuring archaeological data, in Whallon, & Brown, 1982: 93–126.Google Scholar
Watson, P.J., Leblanc, S.A. & Redman, C.L.. 1971. Explanation in archaeology; an explicitly scientific approach. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, P.J., Leblanc, S.A. & Redman, C.L.. 1984. Archaeological explanation. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Whallon, R. 1972. A new approach to pottery typology, American Antiquity 37: 13–34.Google Scholar
Whallon, R. & Brown, J.A. (ed.). 1982. Essays on archaeological typology. Evanston: Center for American Archaeology Press.Google Scholar
Willey, G.R. & Sabloff, J.. 1974. A history of American archaeology. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar