ANTH 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Flinders Petrie, Relative Dating, Absolute Dating
Document Summary
All ends up comparing to other things. Ex: comparing to bones of animal found in ground: relative dating. Time information for an object is based on its context and association with other objects: time information is determined by the chemical and physical properties of an object. Mechanical or chemical technique: relative dating involves. Guesswork can end up pretty accurate, though. Depends on what is deposited with artifacts: seriatoin. Order artifact types based on changes in the relative frequency of specific attributes. Stylistic attributes increase and decrease n frequency over time. First developed by sir flinders petrie: battleship curve. As popularity increases, peaks and then falls into disuse. Put on side and put it with another looks like a battleship. Down in bottom is older in time. Studies of tombstones in new england colonies. And late (urns and willow trees greek revival) Making battleship curves is called frequency seriation: frequency seriation. Brand new styles are used only by a few people.
