When types matter (and when they don’t)
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-05-15

Artefacts from some times and places cohere into clear types, even if other contemporary things or places did not. In this paper I will consider when, and in what ways, types mattered in the Early Bronze Age of the British Isles. I will focus on the recent discovery of a bone pommel from a bronze dagger along with an assemblage of other bone objects among a deposit of cremated bone in a museum collection. Belonging to a clear type, the pommel opens the door to new comparisons between different and distant burials. What does the discovery of the pommel add to our understanding of the burial excavated almost 70 years ago? What can be gained by further setting this burial alongside others which share the same type of feature (a cist) and vessel (Collared Urn)?
It is hard to find a parallel for one newly-discovered set of four bone objects from the same deposit. These are each the same type of thing, but have to be approached differently due to their lack of comparators. What are the limits and risks of giving typology a leading role in interpreting this burial?
The paper will start with a discussion of what concepts I do and do not think that are required to explain the existence of types. It will conclude that, if used appropriately, typology can both play a vital role in understanding Early Bronze Age objects and mortuary practices and also form a crucial component of a wider relational interpretive approach.

Chris Fowler, Newcastle University