In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular

archaeological culture 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 thes ...

or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age into the La Tène culture and

Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European Archaeological culture, culture of Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe ...

, named after their respective type sites. The concept is similar to type localities in geology and type specimens in biology.

Notable type sites

East Asia

* Banpo (

Yangshao culture The Yangshao culture (仰韶文化, pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangsh ...

, Neolithic

, China) *

Liangzhu Town Liangzhu or Liang Zhu may refer to: ;Written as 良渚 * Liangzhu culture, Neolithic culture in the Yangtze River Delta of China ;Written as 梁祝 * Butterfly Lovers or Liangzhu, a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers * ''Th ...

, near Hangzhou ( Liangzhu culture, Neolithic, China) * Songguk-ri (Middle Mumun culture, southern Korea) * Suemura cluster of kilns – Kilns of Sue pottery (Middle and Late

Kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century CE.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞典』� ...

period, Osaka,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

) * Sanage cluster of kilns — Kilns of and ( Nara and Heian period,

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

, Japan)

Europe

*a river terrace of the

River Somme The Somme ( , , ) is a river in Picardy, northern France. The river is in length, from its source in the high ground of the former at Fonsomme near Saint-Quentin, to the Bay of the Somme, in the English Channel. It lies in the geological ...

( Abbeville, France), of the Abbevillian culture * Aurignac ( Haute Garonne, France), of the

Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with European early modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where t ...

culture * Hallstatt ( Salzkammergut, Austria), of the

La Tène, Neuchâtel La Tène (; frp, La Tena) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Marin-Epagnier and Thielle-Wavre merged to form the new municipality of La Tène.La Tène culture * Vinča, Belgrade, Serbia, of the Vinča culture * Abri de la Madeleine ( Dordogne, France), of the

Magdalenian The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; French: ''Magdalénien'') are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madele ...

culture * Le Moustier (Dordogne, France), of the Mousterian culture *

Saint Acheul Saint-Acheul is a Communes of France, commune in the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. It is not to be confused with Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens after which the Acheulean archa ...

(near Amiens, France), of the Acheulean culture * Butmir (near Sarajevo,

Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

), of the Butmir culture

Mesoamerica

Uaxactun Uaxactun (pronounced ) is an ancient sacred place of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some north of the major center of Tikal. The ...

( Maya civilization, Dept.of Peten,

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

) *

Dzibilchaltun Dzibilchaltún ( Yucatec: Ts'íibil Cháaltun, ) is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, approximately north of state capital of Mérida. Location In the view of modern researchers, the ancient builders of Dzibilcha ...

( Maya civilization, northern Yucatan, Mexico) * Monte Albán ( Zapotec civilization, Oaxaca, Mexico)

Near East

* Tell Halaf,

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, for the Halaf culture *

Tell Hassuna Tell Hassuna is a tell, or settlement mound, in the Nineveh Province (Iraq), about 35km south-west of Nineveh. It is the type site for the Hassuna culture (early sixth millennium BCE). History of archaeological research Tell Hassuna was found i ...

, Iraq, for the

Hassuna culture The Hassuna culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture in northern Mesopotamia dating to the early sixth millennium BC. It is named after the type site of Tell Hassuna in Iraq. Other sites where Hassuna material has been found include Tell Sh ...

Jemdet Nasr Jemdet Nasr ( ar, جمدة نصر) is a tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate (Iraq) that is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period (3100–2900 BC), and was one of the oldest Sumerian cities. The site was first ...

, Iraq, for the Jemdet Nasr period *

Tell al-'Ubaid Tell al-'Ubaid ( ar, العبيد) is a low, relatively small tell (settlement mound) west of nearby Ur in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate. The majority of the remains are from the Chalcolithic Ubaid period, for which Tell al-'Ubaid is the ...

, Iraq, for the Ubaid period * Uruk, Iraq, for the Uruk period

Northern America

Folsom, New Mexico Folsom is a village in Union County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 56 at the 2010 census, down from 75 in 2000. The town was named after Frances Folsom, the fiancée of President Grover Cleveland. History Folsom gives its nam ...

( Folsom Tradition), United States * Clovis, New Mexico ( Clovis culture), United States: generally accepted as the type site for one of the earliest human cultures in the North America * La Plata County, Colorado ( Basketmaker II period of the Anasazi culture), United States *

Barton Gulch Barton Gulch is an archaeological site in southwest Montana that has provided very important information concerning some of the earliest residents of the Paleo-Indian period in the northwest United States. Geography The Barton Gulch site is loc ...

of the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian culture * Adena Mound ( Adena culture), United States *

Borax Lake Site The Borax Lake Site, also known as the Borax Lake—Hodges Archaeological Site and designated by the Smithsonian trinomial CA-LAK-36, is a prehistoric archaeological site near Clearlake, California. The site, a deeply stratified former lakesho ...

, for two of the earliest cultural traditions in California: the Post Pattern and Borax Lake Pattern.

Oceania

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

, of the

Lapita The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Philipp ...

culture.

South Asia

* Kot Diji (pre-Harappanian civilization, Pakistan) *

Harappa Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...

(

Indus civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...

, Punjab, northeast Pakistan)

References

{{Reflist Methods in archaeology Bronze Age Iron Age Stone Age