Archaeological Typology and Practical Reality
A Dialectical Approach to Artifact Classification and Sorting

A study of the various ways in which field archaeologists set about making and using classifications to meet a variety of practical needs.

William Y. Adams (Author), Ernest W. Adams (Author)

9780521048675, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 November 2007

452 pages, 11 b/w illus. 10 tables
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.7 cm, 0.687 kg

'… an excellent book … Because it contains an excellent overview of past archaeological classifactory approaches and critiques of typology as well as a clear discussion of what typology is, this book should be required reading for all graduate students.' Antiquity

Classifications are central to archaeology. Yet the theoretical literature on the subject, both in archaeology and the philosophy of science, bears very little relationship to what actually occurs in practice. This problem has long interested William Adams, a field archaeologist, and Ernest Adams, a philosopher of science, who describe their book as an ethnography of archaeological classification. It is a study of the various ways in which field archaeologists set about making and using classifications to meet a variety of practical needs. The authors first discuss how humans form concepts. They then describe and analyse in detail a specific example of an archaeological classification, and go on to consider what theoretical generalizations can be derived from the study of actual in-use classifications. Throughout the book, they stress the importance of having a clearly defined purpose and practical procedures when developing and applying classifications.

List of figures
List of tables
The archaeologist's preface
The philosopher's preface
Part I. Introductory: 1. Beginning points
2. Introductory theses
Part II. The Nature of Types and Typologies: 3. Dimensions and elements of 'typehood'
4. Perceptual and conceptual foundations
5. The dialectics of type formulation
6. The nature of types
7. The structure of typologies
8. A synthetic definition of typology and type
Part III. Typology in Action: The Medieval Nubian Pottery Typology: 9. Origin and development of the Nubian typology
10. Basic features of the Nubian typology
11. The uses of the Nubian Typology
12. Philosophical implications
Part IV. Pragmatics of Archaeological Typology: 13. The starting point: purpose
14. The determinants of types: variables and attributes
15. The making of types: formulation, designation and description
16. The uses of type: typing and sorting
17. The ordering of types: taxonomy and seriation
18. Variation and variability in archaeological classifications
19. The bottom line: practicality
20. Principles of practical typology
21. Information-theoretic formulations
Part V. Classification, Explanation and Theory: 22. The Typological Debate
23. Issues and non-issues in the Typological Debate
24. Conceptual problems
25. The use and abuse of theory
26. Paradigms and progress
Appendices
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Archaeological theory [HDA]