Understanding the epistemological nature of archaeological units, or types, is critical to archaeological research. Two aspects of units underpin the issue. First, ideational units must not be conflated with empirical units. Ideational units are units of measurement; empirical units are the things being measured. Ideational units can be either theoretical or descriptional. Theoretical units, as their name implies, are derived from a theoretical basis, and their utility for a specific analytical purpose must be tested. Descriptional units are not derived from theory and are not attached to an analytical purpose, although they may serve the purpose of communication. Second, theoretical units must be defined intensionally, through explicit listing of their diagnostic attributes. Most extant archaeological units have been extensionally derived from the specimens included in a unit, and often comprise descriptive as well as definitive attributes, without distinction between the two. The conflation of theoretical and empirical units remains a serious problem in archaeology.
Beck, C. and G.T. Jones (1989) `Bias and Archaeological Classification', American Antiquity54: 244-63.
2.
Binford, L.R. (1962) `Archaeology as Anthropology', American Antiquity28: 217-25.
3.
Brainerd, G.W. (1951a) `The Place of Chronological Ordering in Archaeological Analysis', American Antiquity16: 301-13.
4.
Brainerd, G.W. (1951b) `The Use of Mathematical Formulations in Archaeological Analysis', in J.B. Griffin (ed.) Essays on Archaeological Methods. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers No. 8.
5.
Cowgill, G.L. (1963) `Review of "A Quantitative Method for Deriving Cultural Chronology" byJ.A. Ford', American Anthropologist65: 696-9.
6.
Cowgill, G.L. (1982) `Clusters of Objects and Associations between Variables: Two Approaches to Archaeological Classification', in R. Whallon and J.A. Brown (eds) Essays on Archeological Typology. Evanston, IL: Center for American Archeology Press.
7.
Deetz, J. (1965) The Dynamics of Stylistic Change in Arikara Ceramics . Urbana: Illinois Studies in Anthropology No. 4.
8.
Doran, J.E. and F.R. Hodson (1975) Mathematics and Computers in Archaeology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
9.
Driver, H.E. and A.L. Kroeber (1932) `Quantitative Expression of Cultural Relationships', University of California, Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology31: 211-56.
10.
Dunnell, R.C. (1971) Systematics in Prehistory. New York: Free Press.
11.
Dunnell, R.C. (1978) `Style and Function: A Fundamental Dichotomy', American Antiquity43: 192-202.
12.
Dunnell, R.C. (1986) `Methodological Issues in Americanist Artifact Classification', Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory9: 149-207.
13.
Ereshefsky, M. (1991) `Species, Higher Taxa, and the Units of Evolution' , Philosophy of Science58: 84-101.
14.
Ereshefsky, M. (1994) `Some Problems with the Linnaean Hierarchy', Philosophy of Science61: 186-205.
15.
Ford, J.A. (1935) Ceramic Decoration Sequence at an Old Indian Village Site near Sicily Island, Louisiana. New Orleans: Louisiana Department of Conservation, Anthropological Study No. 1.
16.
Ford, J.A. (1936) Analysis of Indian Village Site Collections from Louisiana and Mississippi. New Orleans: Louisiana Department of Conservation, Anthropological Study No. 2.
17.
Ford, J.A. (1952) `Measurements of Some Prehistoric Design Developments in the Southeastern States', American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers44(3): 313-84.
18.
Ford, J.A. (1954a) `Comment on A.C. Spaulding's "Statistical Techniques for the Discovery of Artifact Types" ', American Antiquity19: 390-1.
19.
Ford, J.A. (1954b) `Spaulding's Review of Ford', American Anthropologist56: 109-12.
20.
Ford, J.A. (1954c) `On the Concept of Types: The Type Concept Revisited' , American Anthropologist56: 42-53.
21.
Ford, J.A. and J.B. Griffin (1960[1938]) `Report of the Conference on Southeastern Pottery Typology. Mimeographed'. Reprinted in Newsletter of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference7(1): 10-22.
22.
Fox, G.L. (1998) `An Examination of Mississippian-Period Phases in Southeastern Missouri', in M.J. O'Brien and R.C. Dunnell (eds) Changing Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley . Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
23.
Gifford, J.C. (1960) `The Type-Variety Method of Ceramic Classification as an Indicator of Cultural Phenomena', American Antiquity25: 341-7.
24.
Hill, J.N. (1970) Broken K Pueblo: Prehistoric Social Organization in the American Southwest. Tucson: University of Arizona, Anthropological Papers No. 18.
25.
Hull, D.L. (1970) `Contemporary Systematic Philosophies', Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics1: 19-54.
26.
Kidder, A.V. (1916) `Archeological Explorations at Pecos, New Mexico' , National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings2: 119-23.
27.
Kidder, A.V. (1917) `A Design-Sequence from New Mexico', National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings3: 369-70.
28.
Kidder, M.A. and A.V. Kidder (1917) `Notes on the Pottery of Pecos', American Anthropologist19: 325-60.
29.
Krieger, A.D. (1944) `The Typological Concept', American Antiquity9: 271-88.
30.
Kroeber, A.L. (1909) `The Archaeology of California', in F. Boas (ed.) Putnam Anniversary Volume. New York: Stechert.
31.
Kroeber, A.L. (1916) `Zuñi Potsherds', American Museum of Natural History , Anthropological Papers18(1): 1-37.
32.
Kroeber, A.L. (1931) `The Culture-Area and Age-Area Concepts of Clark Wissler', in S.A. Rice (ed.) Methods in Social Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
33.
Longacre, W.A. (1966) `Changing Patterns of Social Integration: A Prehistoric Example from theAmerican Southwest', American Anthropologist68: 94-102.
34.
Lyman, R.L. (2001) `Culture Historical and Biological Approaches to Identifying Homologous Traits', in T.D. Hurt and G.F.M. Rakita (eds) Style and Function in Archaeology. Westport, CT : Bergin & Garvey.
35.
Lyman, R.L. and M.J. O'Brien (1998) `The Goals of Evolutionary Archaeology: History and Explanation', Current Anthropology39: 615-52.
36.
Lyman, R.L. and M.J. O'Brien (1999) `Americanist Stratigraphic Excavation and the Measurement of Culture Change', Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory6: 55-108.
37.
Lyman, R.L. and M.J. O'Brien (2000) `Chronometers and Units in Early Archaeology and Paleontology', American Antiquity65: 691-707.
38.
Lyman, R.L., M.J. O'Brien and R.C. Dunnell (1997) The Rise and Fall of Culture History. New York: Plenum.
39.
Mayr, E. (1981) `Biological Classification: Toward a Synthesis of Opposing Methodologies', Science214: 510-6.
40.
Mayr, E. (1995) `Systems of Ordering Data', Biology and Philosophy10: 419-34.
41.
McKern, W.C. (1939) `The Midwestern Taxonomic Method as an Aid to Archaeological Culture Study', American Antiquity4: 301-13.
42.
Morgan, L.H. (1877) Ancient Society. New York: Holt.
43.
Nelson, N.C. (1916) `Chronology of the Tano Ruins, New Mexico', American Anthropologist18: 159-80.
44.
Nelson, N.C. (1919) `The Archaeology of the Southwest: A Preliminary Report', National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings5: 114-20.
45.
O'Brien, M.J. (2000) `The Legacy of Culture History in the Southeastern United States', Reviews in Anthropology29: 111-39.
46.
O'Brien, M.J., J. Darwent and R.L. Lyman (2001) `Cladistics Is Useful for Reconstructing Archaeological Phylogenies: Paleoindian Points from the Southeastern United States', Journal of Archaeological Science28: 1115-36.
47.
O'Brien, M.J. and T.D. Holland (1990) `Variation, Selection, and the Archaeological Record' , Archaeological Method and Theory2: 31-79.
48.
O'Brien, M.J. and T.D. Holland (1992) `The Role of Adaptation in Archaeological Explanation' , American Antiquity57: 36-59.
49.
O'Brien, M.J. and R.L. Lyman (1998) James A. Ford and the Growth of Americanist Archaeology . Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
50.
O'Brien, M.J. and R.L. Lyman (1999a) Seriation, Stratigraphy, and Index Fossils: The Backbone of Archaeological Dating. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
51.
O'Brien, M.J. and R.L. Lyman (1999b) `The Bureau of American Ethnology and Its Legacy to Southeastern Archaeology', Journal of the Southwest41: 407-40.
52.
O'Brien, M.J. and R.L. Lyman (2000) Applying Evolutionary Archaeology: A Systematic Approach. New York: Kluwer Academic /Plenum.
53.
O'Brien, M.J. and R.L. Lyman (2001) Setting the Agenda for American Archaeology: The National Research Council Archaeological Meetings of 1929, 1932, and 1935 . Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
54.
O'Brien, M.J., R.L. Lyman and J. Darwent (2000) `Time, Space, and Marker Types: Ford's 1936 Chronology for the Lower Mississippi Valley', Southeastern Archaeology19: 46-62.
55.
Phillips, P. (1955) `American Archaeology and General Anthropological Theory', Southwestern Journal of Anthropology11: 246-50.
56.
Phillips, P. (1958) `Application of the Wheat-Gifford-Wasley Taxonomy to Eastern Ceramics', American Antiquity24: 117-25.
57.
Phillips, P. (1970) Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basin, 1949-1955. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Papers 60.
58.
Phillips, P., J.A. Ford and J.B. Griffin (1951) Archaeological Survey in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1940-1947. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Papers 25.
59.
Phillips, P. and G.R. Willey (1953) `Method and Theory in American Archaeology: An Operational Basis for Culture-Historical Integration', American Anthropologist55: 615-33.
60.
Rouse, I.B. (1939) Prehistory in Haiti: A Study in Method. New Haven, CT: Yale University, Publications in Anthropology No. 21.
61.
Rouse, I.B. (1960) `The Classification of Artifacts in Archaeology' , American Antiquity25: 313-23.
62.
Sabloff, J.A. and R.E. Smith (1969) `The Importance of Both Analytic and Taxonomic Classification in the Type-Variety System', American Antiquity34: 278-85.
63.
Smith, R.E., G.R. Willey and J.C. Gifford (1960) `The Type-Variety Concept as a Basis for the Analysis of Maya Pottery', American Antiquity25: 330-40.
64.
Sokal, R.R. and P.H.A. Sneath (1963) Principles of Numerical Taxonomy. San Francisco, CA: Freeman.
65.
Spaulding, A.C. (1949) `Cultural and Chronological Classification in the Plains Area', Plains Archaeological Conference Newsletter2(2): 3-5.
66.
Spaulding, A.C. (1953) `Statistical Techniques for the Discovery of Artifact Types', American Antiquity18: 305-13.
67.
Spaulding, A.C. (1954) `Reply to Ford', American Antiquity19: 391-3.
68.
Spier, L. (1917) `An Outline for a Chronology of Zuñi Ruins', American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers18(3): 207-331.
69.
Steward, J.H. (1942) `The Direct Historical Approach to Archaeology' , American Antiquity7: 337-43.
70.
Steward, J.H. (1954) `Types of Types', American Anthropologist56: 54-7.
71.
Strong, W.D. (1935) An Introduction to Nebraska Archaeology. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 93(10).
72.
Strong, W.D. (1940) `From History to Prehistory in the Northern Great Plains', in Essays in Historical Anthropology of North America in Honor of John R. Swanton, pp. 353-94. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections100.
73.
Taylor, W.W. (1948) A Study of Archaeology. Washington, DC: American Anthropological Association, Memoir 69.
74.
Wedel, W.R. (1938) The Direct-Historical Approach in Pawnee Archaeology . Washington, DC: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 97(7).
75.
Wedel, W.R. (1940) `Culture Sequence in the Central Great Plains' , in Essays in Historical Anthropology of North America in Honor of John R. Swanton, pp. 291-352. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections100.
76.
West, F.H. (1996) `The Archaeological Evidence', in F.H. West (ed.) American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of Beringia. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
77.
Wheat, J.B., J.C. Gifford and W.W. Wasley (1958) `Ceramic Variety, Type Cluster, and Ceramic System in Southwestern Pottery Analysis', American Antiquity24: 34-47.
78.
Willey, G.R. and P. Phillips (1958). Method and Theory in American Archaeology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
79.
Wissler, C. (1916) `The Application of Statistical Methods to the Data on the Trenton Argillite Culture', American Anthropologist18: 190-7.
80.
Wissler, C. (1919) `General Introduction', American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers 18: iii-ix.
81.
Zink, R.M. (1996) `Species Concepts, Speciation, and Sexual Selection' , Journal of Avian Biology27: 1-6.
