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There are lots of methods that archaeologists use to determine when the site they are excavating was in use. Some of these methods are absolute and allow scientists to determine the approximate date of an artifact. Other methods are relative, meaning that they can help us order artifacts and sites in time relative to each other. No actual dates are found using relative dating methods, but we can say that one site is older or younger than another. Seriation is a technique that is based on the idea that style changes over time. Like popular music, artifact styles change as time passes, first becoming fashionable, then fading in popularity. In this activity, you can explore seriation to discover how it works.
Click here to explore seriation (multimedia version) |
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