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Typologies, Databases, and Historic Ethnography

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Abstract

Robert L. Schuyler’s 1978 edited volume Historical Archaeology: A Guide to Substantive and Theoretical Contributions was a compendium of most of the field’s foundational theoretical works, discussions of “substantive contributions” for practicing historical archaeology, and speculations about future trends in the field. The contents of this volume are briefly summarized here as an introduction to how some of the suggestions for research proposed therein might be developed through the use of electronic artifact inventories, based on explicit typologies. Examples of such inventories and sources for typologies are provided.

Resumen

El volumen editado de Robert L Schuyler en el año 1978, titulado Historical Archaeology: A Guide to Substantive and Theoretical Contributions (Arqueología histórica: Una guía a las contribuciones sustantivas y teóricas), fue un compendio de la mayoría de los trabajos teóricos fundamentales del campo, discusiones de "contribuciones sustantivas" para la práctica de la arqueología histórica y especulaciones sobre las tendencias futuras en el campo. El contenido de este volumen se resume brevemente aquí como una introducción a cómo algunas de sus sugerencias para la investigación del podrían desarrollarse mediante el uso de inventarios electrónicos de artefactos, basados en tipologías explícitas. Se proporcionan ejemplos de dichos inventarios y fuentes de tipologías.

Résumé

Le volume édité de 1978 de Robert L. Schuyler, Historical Archaeology: A Guide to Substantive and Theoretical Contributions (Archéologie historique : Un guide des contributions substantielles et théoriques) était un recueil de la plupart des travaux théoriques fondateurs de ce domaine, des discussions sur les « contributions substantielles » pour la pratique de l'archéologique historique et des spéculations sur les tendances futures dans ce domaine. Le contenu de ce volume est brièvement résumé ici en tant qu'introduction sur la manière dont certaines des suggestions de recherche dans cet ouvrage peuvent être développées au moyen de l'utilisation d'inventaires d'artéfacts électroniques, sur la base de typologies explicites. Des exemples de ces inventaires et de ces sources pour les typologies sont proposés.

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Acknowledgments:

Many thanks go to my colleagues at the AECOM, formerly URS, office in Burlington, New Jersey. The inventory system described in this article has been a collaborative process involving many people over the years, in particular Brian Seidel and George L. Miller, with the encouragement first of Terry Klein and then Steve Tull.

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  1. Meta F. Janowitz, School of Visual Arts, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, 209 East 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10010, U.S.A.

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Appendix

Appendix

The information in this appendix (Tables 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) was compiled by archaeologists working for the CRM division of AECOM, an international engineering company (most of the database and inventory methods were developed while the archaeologists were working for URS, another engineering company that was acquired by AECOM in 2014). People who have worked on this project include Brian Seidel, George L. Miller, Meta Janowitz, Thomas Kutys, Rebecca White, Amy King, Mary C. Mills, Carolyn Horlacher, John Stanzeski, Mara Kaktins, Jennifer Rankin, and Jeremy Koch. To date, the URS/AECOM archaeology lab has processed over two million artifacts using this system or its precursors.

Table 2 Functional groups and some objects within them
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Table 3 Categories within the “Material” field (for both historical- and prehistoric-period artifacts)
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Table 4 Household ceramic-vessel functions
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Table 5 Ceramic ware types
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Table 6 Examples of entries in the “Prime Decoration” field for ceramic artifacts
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Table 7 A few examples of entries in the “Secondary Decoration” field for ceramics
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Table 8 Examples of entries in the “Pattern/Motif” field for ceramics
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Table 9 Examples of ceramic dates with sources
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The categories in Table 2 are not without controversy, for example, the argument over whether coins should be under the “Commercial” or “Personal” groups is still a topic for conversation, nor are they intended to be universally adopted, although it is hoped that other historical archaeologists will find them reasonable. They are used by the artifact analysts at AECOM in order to make sure that data from all the sites and components that come into the lab are comparable and that other researchers know the bases for our inventories and interpretations.

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Janowitz, M.F. Typologies, Databases, and Historic Ethnography. Hist Arch 56, 524–542 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-022-00348-1

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