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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archaeological culture | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_culture | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:06:31.700262+00:00 | kb-cron |
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings, and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between these types is an empirical observation. Their interpretation in terms of ethnic or political groups is based on archaeologists' understanding. However, this is often subject to long-unresolved debates. The concept of the archaeological culture is fundamental to culture-historical archaeology.
== Concept == Different cultural groups have material culture items that differ both functionally and aesthetically due to varying cultural and social practices. This notion is observably true on the broadest scales. For example, the equipment associated with the brewing of tea varies greatly across the world. Social relations to material culture often include notions of identity and status. Advocates of culture-historical archaeology use the notion to argue that sets of material culture can be used to trace ancient groups of people that were either self-identifying societies or ethnic groups. Archaeological culture is a classifying device to order archaeological data, focused on artifacts as an expression of culture rather than people. The classic definition of this idea comes from Gordon Childe:
We find certain types of remains – pots, implements, ornaments, burial rites and house forms – constantly recurring together. Such a complex of associated traits we shall call a "cultural group" or just a "culture". We assume that such a complex is the material expression of what today we would call "a people". The concept of an archaeological culture was crucial to linking the typological analysis of archaeological evidence to mechanisms that attempted to explain why they change through time. The key explanations favoured by culture-historians were the diffusion of forms from one group to another or the migration of the peoples themselves. A simplistic example of the process might be that if one pottery-type had handles similar to those of a neighbouring type but decoration similar to a different neighbour, the idea for the two features might have diffused from the neighbours. Conversely, if one pottery type suddenly replaces a great diversity of pottery types in an entire region, that might be interpreted as a new group migrating in with this new style. This idea of culture is known as normative culture. It relies on the assumption found in the view of archaeological culture that artifacts found are "an expression of cultural norms," and that these norms define culture. This view is also required to be polythetic; multiple artifacts must be found for a site to be classified under a specific archaeological culture. One trait alone does not result in a culture, a combination of traits is required. This view culture gives life to the artifacts themselves. "Once 'cultures' are regarded as things, it is possible to attribute behavior to them, and to talk about them as if they were living organisms." Archaeological cultures were equated with separate 'peoples' (ethnic groups or races), leading in some cases to distinct nationalist archaeologies. Most archaeological cultures are named after either the type of artifact or the type site that defines the culture. For example, cultures may be named after pottery types such as Linear Pottery culture or Funnelbeaker culture. More frequently, they are named after the site at which the culture was first defined, such as the Hallstatt culture or Clovis culture. Since the term "culture" has multiple different meanings, scholars have also coined a more specific term, paleoculture, as a specific designation for prehistoric cultures. Critics argue that cultural taxonomies lack a strong consensus on the epistemological aims of cultural taxonomy,