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4. The Archaeological Description

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Extract

This presentation of the material percepta is intended to be no more than the starting point for an exercise in inferential method. It is therefore somewhat different from the description found in the usual archaeological report. Ordinarily the archaeologist can enrich his presentation of the descriptive data or material percepta by including some of the inferential findings which these data make possible. Assigning the name of “cooking pot” to a vessel type is a common example. But the present study is an analysis of these very inferences. The resemblance between it and the usual archaeological description must stop just short of these inferential increments. In describing the modes and types which follow I try to avoid the use of words and phrases which might prejudice the outcome of the experiment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1958

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