Combining historical research with a lucid explication of
archaeological methodology and reasoning, "Measuring Time with
Artifacts" examines the origins and changing use of fundamental
chronometric techniques and procedures and analyzes the different
ways American archaeologists have studied changes in artifacts,
sites, and peoples over time.
In highlighting the underpinning ontology and epistemology of
artifact-based chronometers--cultural transmission and how to
measure it archaeologically--this volume covers issues such as why
archaeologists used the cultural evolutionism of L. H. Morgan, E.
B. Tylor, L. A. White, and others instead of biological
evolutionism; why artifact classification played a critical role in
the adoption of stratigraphic excavation; how the direct historical
approach accomplished three analytical tasks at once; why cultural
traits were important analytical units; why paleontological and
archaeological methods sometimes mirror one another; how artifact
classification influences chronometric method; and how graphs
illustrate change in artifacts over time.
An understanding of the history of artifact-based chronometers
enables us to understand how we know what we think we know about
the past, ensures against modern misapplication of the methods, and
sheds light on the reasoning behind archaeologists' actions during
the first half of the twentieth century.
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