Comparisons

In order to discover the typological similarities of the Wendover collections to artifacts from other sites, and the cultural and chronological inferences such similarities give rise to, a series of collections will be reviewed for comparable data. It is again pointed out that the archeologist's universal assumption — that typological identity between specimens implies either direct or indirect cultural contact or chronological equivalence — is only an assumption. Although much archeological reconstruction of history is rooted in this concept, there are no fixed points of certainty which guide the reconstruction. How much of the values of a culture cling to an artifact? Will a new artifact style or a new class of artifacts have marked influence on the total configuration of a lifeway when the object or complex of objects is introduced into a new culture? If so, how long does the process take? Or do new artifacts reflect some culture change already achieved? Further, the form and stylistic detail of stone and textile objects, for example, appear to be very stable and to change slowly. Hence, artifacts other than pottery must be regarded as not particularly sensitive to change (in contrast to pottery); inferences based on similarities between textiles or stone work, for example, are likely less apt to carry sharp cultural and chronological implications than are those based on pottery styles

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Artifact (error) · Certainty · Contrast (vision) · Cultural artifact · Cultural identity · Epistemology · Equivalence (formal languages) · Identity (music) · Linguistics · Negotiation · Object (grammar) · Pottery · Social science · Sociology · Style (visual arts) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Philosophy