Glossary Archaeological method and dating
Assemblage
A group of objects found together in one context, such as a tomb, pit or floor, and studied as a set.
An assemblage can be the contents of a single tomb, all the pottery from one layer or all the animal bones from a site. Studying objects as a group shows what was used or deposited together, which single pieces cannot show. The word is often qualified: a ceramic assemblage, a faunal assemblage, a funerary assemblage.
Much Cypriot dating and interpretation works through assemblages. Gjerstad's Iron Age sequence was built by seriating tomb assemblages, and a use-wear study of Bronze Age pottery found no significant difference between tomb and settlement assemblages, so the pots placed in graves were household pots (Bronze Age Chamber Tombs).
Related terms
- Archaeological context
The exact place and circumstances in which an object was found, including its layer and associated finds, which give it most of its value as evidence.
- Seriation
A relative dating method that arranges groups of finds in sequence according to how the popularity of their types rises and falls.
- Use-wear analysis
The microscopic study of scratches, polish, chipping and abrasion on tools and vessels to work out how they were used.
Where it appears
- Drab Polished Ware
- Early Bronze Age Cyprus
- Society, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Cypriot Mortuary Practice
- Egypt
- Red Polished Philia Ware
- Red-on-White Ware
- The Philistines
- Bowls
- White Slip Ware
- Base Ring Ware
- Bichrome Ware
- Birds in Ancient Cyprus
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