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For more information:

Kristine Bovy

Assisstant Professor

507 Chafee Building URI

Kingston, RI 02881

874-4143

kbovy@uri.edu

Typology - Making a Typology

Below you will find a number of photos of actual artifacts from the Poverty Point site. Your job is to create a typology with these artifacts.  Remember that classifications are always created with a specific purpose in mind.  In this case, your purpose is to sort the objects into morphological types.  This is the first step in any analysis, and is often included in descriptive site reports.

 

Keep in mind the two criteria for a good typology as defined by Thomas and Kelly (2006:212):

  1. A typology must minimize the differences within each created type and maximize the differences between each type.

 

  1. The typology must be objective and explicit. Therefore, the result should be replicable by any trained observer.

Instructions: Sort the objects below into morphological types, and provide a brief description/ name for each type. Then answer the questions below. You do not need to use all six trays. Please note that the artifacts are not to scale.

 

Time: 5-10 min.

 

 

Answer the Following Questions:

  1. Briefly describe the number of types and the criteria you used.
  2. How much variability is there within in your types? Between your types?
  3. How do you think the typology be different if you were interested in the function or temporal significance of the artifacts? Explain.

 

 

Now we will look at one artifact type in more detail.

 

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