In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it.[1][2] For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age into the La Tène culture and Hallstatt culture, named after their respective type sites.[3]
The concept is similar to type localities in geology and type specimens in biology.
Notable type sites
Europe
- a river terrace of the River Somme (Abbeville, France), of the Abbevillian culture
- Aurignac (Haute Garonne, France), of the Aurignacian culture
- Hallstatt (Salzkammergut, Austria), of the Hallstatt culture
- La Tène, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, of the La Tène culture
- Vinča, Belgrade, Serbia, of the Vinča culture
- Abri de la Madeleine (Dordogne, France), of the Magdalenian culture
- Le Moustier (Dordogne, France), of the Mousterian culture
- Saint Acheul (near Amiens, France), of the Acheulean culture
- Butmir (near Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina), of the Butmir culture
Near East
- Tell Halaf, Syria, for the Halaf culture
- Tell Hassuna, Iraq, for the Hassuna culture
- Jemdet Nasr, Iraq, for the Jemdet Nasr period
- Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, for the Ubaid period
- Uruk, Iraq, for the Uruk period
Mesoamerica
- Uaxactun (Maya civilization, Dept.of Peten, Guatemala)
- Dzibilchaltun (Maya civilization, northern Yucatan, Mexico)
- Monte Alban (Zapotec civilization, Oaxaca, Mexico)
North America
- Folsom, New Mexico (Folsom Tradition), United States
- Clovis, New Mexico (Clovis culture), United States: generally accepted as the type site for one of the earliest human cultures in the North America
- La Plata County, Colorado (Basketmaker II period of the Anasazi culture), United States
- Barton Gulch of the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian culture
- Adena Mound (Adena culture), United States
- Borax Lake Site, for two of the earliest cultural traditions in California: the Post Pattern and Borax Lake Pattern.
Oceania
- New Caledonia, of the Lapita culture.
Southern Asia
- Kot Diji (pre-Harappanian civilization, Pakistan)
- Harappa (Indus civilization, Punjab, northeast Pakistan)
East Asia
- Banpo (Yangshao culture, Neolithic Yangshao culture, China)
- Liangzhu Town, near Hangzhou (Liangzhu culture, Neolithic, China)
- Songguk-ri (Middle Mumun culture, southern Korea)
- Suemura cluster of kilns--Kilns of Sue warew:ja:須恵器(Middle and Late Kofun period, Osaka, Japan)
- Sanage cluster of kilns—Kilns of Green Glazed Warew:ja:緑釉陶器 and Ash Glazed Warew:ja:灰釉陶器 (Nara and Heian period, Aichi Prefecture, Japan)
References
- ^ Darvill, Timothy (2009). "type-site". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001. ISBN 9780191727139.
- ^ Kipfer, Barbara Ann (2000). "type site". Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. p. 580. ISBN 978-0-306-46158-3.
- ^ Kaeser, Marc-Antoine (2019). La Tène, ou la construction d'un site éponyme (in French). Drémil-Lafage: Editions Mergoil. ISBN 9782355180927.