What is archaeological dating?
The first step in dating material evidence is to put it in a relative chronological sequence. For instance, you could list events in your life in a relative chronological sequence. Birth, school, university, job, marriage, children, is one example of a relative sequence. Relative sequences apply both to the dating of layers in an excavation, and of individual artefacts. Relative dating (i.e. dating which does not attempt fixed or absolute dates) is intuitively plausible in relation to excavated strata: material is laid down in horizontal layers, one on top of the next; the dating runs from the earliest at the bottom to the latest at the top, unless other factors have intervened. This principle of uniformitarianism was established in the 1830s by Charles Lyell, the founder of modern geology, for both geological and archaeological strata. However, relative dating of individual artefacts might seem rather arbitrary. How is it possible to tell whether one potsherd is earlier than another j
