Type site

This article is about an archaeological type site. For a geological type site, see type locality (geology).

In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) 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.

  1. ^ Darvill, Timothy (2009). "type-site". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001. ISBN 9780191727139.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Kaeser, Marc-Antoine (2019). La Tène, ou la construction d'un site éponyme (in French). Drémil-Lafage: Editions Mergoil. ISBN 9782355180927.