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The use of ceramics in the construction of chronologies has a long history in archaeological studies, extending back to the works of the late nineteenth century. Using seriation, archaeologists can examine changes in ceramic form over time using only the vessels themselves, largely independent of their context of recovery. Seriation has been defined as the procedure of working out a chronology by arranging local remains of the same cultural tradition in the order that produces the most consistent patterning of their cultural traits.

The critical underlying factor in seriation concerns the nature of artifact change. It assumes that classes of objects are slowly introduced into a social system, gradually increases in popularity, and eventually declines in use, then disappears.

Constructing a seriation involves calculating the relative frequencies of the different ceramics classes from a set of sites or locations and ordering the sets on the basis of the assumption of a pattern of lenticular change. An example of a seriation chart and the data used to construct it is given above.

Author: Joel P. Erikson