Ceramic Typology Limitations

I classification and typology william y.

Ceramic typology limitations.

Adams encyclopedia of life support systems eolss krieger a d. The morphological and typological study of pottery has traditionally been crucial for organizing excavation records. Professional disagreement over specifics is common. Ceramic typology for cultures that produced pottery archaeologists invariably spend a great deal of time defining ceramic types each type is a series of attributes which distinguishes one group of pottery whether whole vessels or potsherds from all other groups of pottery such that each type was produced in a single time and place.

Extremely high melting point. Obsidian hydration is regularly used in mesoamerican sites such as copan. The products of the classification i e. It takes several centuries for a detectable rind to be created and rinds over 50 microns tend to crumble.

Dating limitations are physical ones. For example brew 1946 discussed in detail problems in using the kinds of conventions and strategies originally. The obsidian hydration laboratory at the university of auckland new zealand describes the method in some detail. The classes are also called types.

Issues and limitations in ceramic typology. In archaeology a typology is the result of the classification of things according to their physical characteristics. Non archaeologists should be aware of the limitations of ceramic typology. Low coefficient of friction.

All such typologies are abstractions and fail to describe all of the variability in an artistic tradition. Changes in ceramic design did not happen overnight and archaeological typologies tend to break continua of. Hence a substantial methodological development has encouraged more standardized descriptive and grouping protocols based on mathematical and statistical parameters. What are the advantages and disadvantages of ceramic.

However when compared with the significant growth of related methodology in the last decades theoretical. Most archaeological typologies organize portable artifacts into types but typologies of larger structures including buildings field monuments fortifications or roads are equally possible. American antiquity 9 271 288 krieger an early exemplar of functional classification believed that artifacts should be classified in such a way as to. Harder than conventional structure metals.

Ceramic types refer to the most basic classification group defined for a particular ceramic item. Ceramics placed into different wares assigned to specific traditions are than assigned to types based on surface including surface texture or painted styles indicative of pottery know to have been produced within particular geographic and during. The subject of classification of ceramic types is not without controversy.