Artifact Classification

Reviews / Votes

"This important contribution summarises a lifetime involvement with teaching, developing and debating approaches to artifact classifi cation. Dwight Read brings to this task his own varied contributions and highly-developed logical and mathematical skills.it is a valuable study of some key issues in and approaches to archaeological practice." -David Frankel, Australian Archaeology "Eleven carefully crafted, thoughtful chapters span the history, method, and theory of the classification of material culture. Among other topics, Read considers intuitive and objective classifications, paradigms, patterning, numerical taxonomy, modality, and variable redundancy. Read\'s research on stone tools and ceramics and his pedagogical skills help fine tune the narrative and make a difficult, complex subject informative, instructive, and readable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. " - C. C. Kolb, National Endowment for the Humanities in CHOICE "By the end of the book, Read has succeeded in moving towards this more subtle approach, accounting for changes in the way artefacts are perceived at various points in their lives and creating typologies which arguably correspond to a greater extent with classifications utilised in the past.This book teaches an important lesson: there is no one way to produce typologies, which must be sensitive to context." -Ben Jervis, Archaeological Review from Cambridge