The archaeological data analysis technique called Seriation was first used, and probably invented, by the Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie in the late 19th century.
Seriated Junkyards. Image by Kris Hirst
The early (pre-computer) form of the seriation technique used slips of colored paper to identify patterns of change in artifacts over time to put separate sites in chronological order. And it was a darned neat trick for Petrie, arguably one of the first of the scientific archaeologists.
The photo essay An Introduction to Seriation describes the method, illustrates in step-by-step fashion how the method works, and discusses why seriation is an important step forward in archaeological science.
Comments
Thanks Krris for your essay on seriation. To be quite honest i had never heard of it being just your average working joe and amateur collector. Although a minor analytical tool now as you say, seriation I am sure played a large part in the earliest identification processes involving stone age lithics, many of which were being found long before the “absolute” dating techniques of today, which are only absolute to those who do not question the accuracy of such techniques which results can be influenced by countless variables such as contamination,etc. that many have argued on nearly every significant site such as those who have purported to be pre-clovis in this country. One reason being that there have been no clearly identifiable “coherent set of artifacts” to accompany the dateable material such as stone tools that all agree are actually artifacts and not geofacts.
Seriation has been used abroad for many years when identifying lower and middle paleolithic tool industries. As you say it applies to virtually all artifacts and stone-age technology identification is built on a foundation of seriation from the Oldowan right on thru to the historical periods including the Acheulean, Mousterian,aurignacian, on into the upper paleo until now. In fact, the well known clovis culture and later are easily identified by the knowledgeable lithics scholar as much by seriation as any dating method used. Archaic artifacts, woodland, and mississippian are all routinely identified by seriation on a daily basis in this country. Same is true abroad in regard to the lower, middle and upper paleolithic because those seriated artifacts are as common there as the clovis and later are here. When alleged pre-clovis artifacts are found here by the well known archaeologists of our day, similarities to solutrian technology for example, are given much credibility because of seriation and who the finder is. An example of how “absolute dating” without seriation is often challenged is the Topper site lithics. Even with some fairly solid dateable context(which has also been disputed for the reasons previously mentioned) the “bend break” technology Dr. Goodyear has proposed has no real seriation base from any previously recognizable established tool industry.
Like you say seriation applies to nearly all artifacts, even if it is lower, middle, or upper paleolithics found right here in the USA. Seriation is a solid archaeological foundation on which to build. Thanks again Kris for the essay……rick doninger