Type site
From ArchaeoWiki
A type site (also spelled type-site and typesite) in archaeology refers to an archaeological site that is widely considered the 'model' for a particular material culture or developmental period. A type site will contain artifacts in assemblages that are characteristic and / or diagnostic of that culture or period.
Type sites are very frequently the initial site that, upon excavation or investigation, revealed the particular culture or period to scholarship—they are therefore highly representative of the same, and frequently bequeath an element of their name (or sometimes an association) to the culture or period. (The use of the term within archaeology is analogous to 'specimen type' in biology or locus typicus (type locality) in geology).
A type site can also be employed to designate a widely-accepted name of a ceramic technology, typology or decoration by reference to its initial find location (though the trend is now for renaming these in a more descriptive or functional manner, given the increasing amount of data recovered).
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Cultural Type Sites in the Ancient Near East and Egypt
Egypt
The Aegean
- Knossos - type site for the Minoan civilisation, referring to Minos, the legendary ruler of Crete and builder of the labyrinth associated by the excavator Arthur Evans with the Palace of Knossos
- Mycenae - type site for the Mycenaean civilisation
The Levant
- Beersheba
- Teleilat Ghassul - type site for the Ghassulian culture and period
- Jericho - type site for the PPNA and PPNB Neolithic cultures
Mesopotamia
- Tell Halaf - type site for the Halafian culture
- Ubaid - type site for Ubaid culture
