The Classificatory-American Archaeology Report

The classificatory-descriptive period was broadly focused on the description of archaeological materials and the classification of those objects (Willey and Sabloff 1980:34). That aim was the result of intellectual developments throughout Europe, including “the discovery of…man in the Old World…and the rise of…geology” (34), and the emergence of C. Darwin’s evolutionary theory (34). Additionally, archaeologists were influenced by the classificatory scheme of cultural evolution established by L.H. Morgan (Morgan 1988[1877]). American archaeology remained concerned with earlier debates regarding the origin and development of the earthen mounds located in eastern North America (Willey and Sabloff 1980:35-40), the problematic of early man

Specifically, archaeologists attempted to formulate cultural areas and construct broad cultural stages, which echoed the emergent evolutionary tends in other disciplines (79-80). In turn, archaeologists worked to establish distinguishable categories into which artifacts could be sorted based upon morphological features (76-77, 79). Thus, “speculative thought about the antiquities of the past” (76) was exchanged with techniques that relied upon the systematic categorization and description of

Over the course of the period, archaeologists attempted to establish archaeology as a discipline that was concerned with historical progress and chronological developments. That aim was the result of the continued connection between archaeology and anthropology, as well as the gradual awareness and acceptance of basic dating techniques, which had previously been impeded by the focal debates that had defined the classificatory-descriptive period (84). In turn, archaeological work in the early twentieth century was concerned with the arrangement of artifacts for the purpose of conceptualizing historical