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27-564: The Formative is the third of five stages defined by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in their 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology . Cultures of the Formative Stage are supposed to possess the technologies of pottery , weaving , and developed food production ; normally they are very largely reliant on agriculture . Social organization is supposed to involve permanent towns and villages, as well as

54-444: A cemetery, which in turn could be grouped with a building, such as a church, to produce a " phase ". Phase implies a nearly contemporaneous Archaeological horizon , representing "what you would see if you went back to time X". The production of phase interpretations is the first goal of stratigraphic interpretation and excavation. Archaeologists investigating a site may wish to date the activity rather than artifacts on site by dating

81-598: A concept new to Georgian archaeological sites. Willey also worked at the historic site of Kasita, on the Georgia Piedmont near Fort Benning . In 1938, Willey published an article entitled "Time Studies: Pottery and Trees in Georgia." In the early part of 1939, Willey worked at the Lamar Mounds and Village Site (inhabited from c. 1350 to 1600 CE) near Macon and identified relationships between Lamar and

108-414: A huge amount of cross referencing with other recorded sequences is required to produce dating series from stratigraphic relationships such as the work in seriation . One issue in using stratigraphic relationships is that the date of artifacts in a context does not represent the date of the context, but just the earliest date the context could be. If one looks at the sequence in figure A , one may find that

135-405: A relationship that is earlier, "lower", though this does not refer necessarily to the physical location of the context. It is more useful to think of "higher" as it relates to the context's position in a Harris matrix , a two-dimensional representation of a site's formation in space and time. Archaeological stratigraphy is based on a series of axiomatic principles or "laws". They are derived from

162-1079: The Archaeological Institute of America . He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1952, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1960, and the American Philosophical Society in 1984. He was also awarded the Kidder Award for Eminence in the Field of American Archaeology from the American Anthropological Association and the Huxley Medal from the Royal Anthropological Institute . He

189-671: The Swift Creek (around 100–800 CE) and Late Woodland period Napier Phase (900–1000 CE) sites. In the fall of 1939, Willey entered Columbia University for doctoral studies. After receiving his Ph.D., Willey worked as an anthropologist for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In 1941, together with Marshall T. Newman, Willey conducted research at Ancon (archaeological site) in Peru , including in

216-672: The periodization of pre-Columbian Peru the Formative Period divides into 1) the Initial Period, from 1800 BC – 900 BC (sites & cultures: Early Chiripa , Kotosh culture , Cupisnique , Las Haldas , Sechin Alto ), and 2) the Early Horizon or Formative Period, 900 BC – 200 BC, ( Chavín , Late Chiripa , Paracas , Chankillo ). Gordon Willey Gordon Randolph Willey (7 March 1913 – 28 April 2002)

243-636: The Post-archaic period, which runs from 1000 BC to the present. Sites and cultures include: Adena , Old Copper , Oasisamerica , Woodland , Fort Ancient , Hopewell tradition and Mississippian cultures . In Mesoamerican chronology the Preclassic or Formative runs from about 2000 BC to 250 AD, covering all the Olmec culture , and the early stages of the Maya culture and Zapotec civilization . In

270-408: The age of 89. Stratigraphy (archaeology) Stratigraphy is a key concept to modern archaeological theory and practice. Modern excavation techniques are based on stratigraphic principles. The concept derives from the geological use of the idea that sedimentation takes place according to uniform principles. When archaeological finds are below the surface of the ground (as is most commonly

297-436: The archaeological sequence or stratigraphy. They can be deposits (such as the back-fill of a ditch), structures (such as walls), or "zero thickness surfaces", better known as " cuts ". Cuts represent actions that remove other solid contexts such as fills, deposits, and walls. An example would be a ditch "cut" through earlier deposits. Stratigraphic relationships are the relationships created between contexts in time, representing

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324-582: The area of Las Colinas. In 1950, he accepted the Bowditch Professorship of Mexican and Central American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University . Willey headed archaeological expeditions in Peru, Panama , Nicaragua , Belize and Honduras . He discovered Monagrillo ceramics , the earliest known pottery in Panama. He became widely cited for his study and development of theories about

351-402: The backfilling of pit 8, occurred sometime after the date for 9 but before the date for 1, and if we recover an assemblage of artifacts from context 7 that occur nowhere else in the sequence, we have isolated them with a reasonable degree of certainty to a discrete range of time. In this instance we can now use the date we have for finds in context 7 to date other sites and sequences. In practice

378-490: The case), the identification of the context of each find is vital in enabling the archaeologist to draw conclusions about the site and about the nature and date of its occupation. It is the archaeologist's role to attempt to discover what contexts exist and how they came to be created. Archaeological stratification or sequence is the dynamic superimposition of single units of stratigraphy, or contexts. Contexts are single events or actions that leave discrete, detectable traces in

405-400: The chronological order in which they were created. One example would be a ditch and the back-fill of said ditch. The temporal relationship of "the fill" context to the ditch "cut" context is such that "the fill" occurred later in the sequence; you have to dig a ditch before you can back-fill it. A relationship that is later in the sequence is sometimes referred to as "higher" in the sequence, and

432-402: The cut for the construction of wall 2, context 5, has cut through layers 9 and 10, and in doing so has introduced the possibility that artifacts from layers 9 and 10 may be redeposited higher up the sequence in the context representing the backfill of the construction cut, context 3. These artifacts are referred to as "residual" or "residual finds". It is crucial that dating a context is based on

459-493: The dates of the two layers sealing it. However the date of contexts often fall in a range of possibilities so using them to date others is not a straightforward process. Take the hypothetical section figure A . Here we can see 12 contexts, each numbered with a unique context number and whose sequence is represented in the Harris matrix in figure B . If we know the date of context 1 and context 9 we can deduce that context 7,

486-570: The first ceremonial centers. Ideologically, an early priestly class or theocracy is often present or in development. Sometimes also referred to as the "Pre-Classic stage", it followed the Archaic stage and was superseded by the Classic stage . The dates, and the characteristics of the period called "Formative" vary considerably between different parts of the Americas. The typical broad use of

513-460: The individual contexts which represents events. Some degree of dating objects by their position in the sequence can be made with known datable elements of the archaeological record or other assumed datable contexts deduced by a regressive form of relative dating which in turn can fix events represented by contexts to some range in time. For example, the date of formation of a context which is totally sealed between two datable layers will fall between

540-451: The latest dating evidence drawn from the context. We can also see that if the fill of cut 5 – the wall 2, backfill 3 and trample 12 — are not removed entirely during excavation because of " undercutting ", non-residual artifacts from these later "higher" contexts 2, 3 and 12 could contaminate the excavation of earlier contexts such as 9 and 10 and give false dating information. These artifacts may be termed intrusive finds . Stratigraphic data

567-528: The pattern of settlements of native societies. In particular, his study of settlement patterns in the Viru Valley of Peru exemplified Processual archaeology because it focused on the function of small satellite settlements and ceramic scattered across a landscape rather than pottery chronologies. In 1973, Willey received the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement from

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594-448: The practitioner, but the terms interface, sub-group, and group are common. An example of a sub-group could be the three contexts that make up a burial; the grave cut, the body, and the back-filled earth on top of the body. Sub-groups can then be clustered together with other sub-groups by virtue of their stratigraphic relationship to form groups, which in turn form "phases." A sub-group burial could cluster with other sub-group burials to form

621-480: The principles of stratigraphy in geology but have been adapted to reflect the different nature of archaeological deposits. E.C. Harris notes two principles that were widely recognised by archaeologists by the 1970s: He also proposed three additional principles: Understanding a site in modern archaeology is a process of grouping single contexts together in ever larger groups by virtue of their relationships. The terminology of these larger clusters varies depending on

648-509: The terms is as follows below. In the classification of North American chronology , the Formative Stage or "Neo-Indian period" is a term applied to theoretical North American cultures that existed between 1000 BC and 500 AD. There are alternative classification systems, and this ranking would overlap what others classify as the Woodland period cultures. The Formative, Classic and post-Classic stages are sometimes incorporated together as

675-580: Was an American archaeologist who was described by colleagues as the "dean" of New World archaeology. Willey performed fieldwork at excavations in South America , Central America and the Southeastern United States ; and pioneered the development and methodology for settlement patterns theories. He worked as an anthropologist for the Smithsonian Institution and as a professor at Harvard University . Gordon Randolph Willey

702-640: Was born in Chariton, Iowa . His family moved to California when he was twelve-years-old, and he completed his secondary education at Long Beach . Willey attended the University of Arizona where he earned Bachelors (1935) and Masters (1936) degrees in anthropology . He earned a PhD from Columbia University . After completing his studies at Arizona, Willey moved to Macon, Georgia to perform field work for Arthur R. Kelly . Along with James A. Ford , Willey helped implement and refine ceramic stratigraphy ,

729-856: Was given honorary doctorates by the University of Arizona and the University of Cambridge . In 1987, Willey received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . Add in: He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London from 1956, and its first Honorary Vice-President. He was awarded the Society's gold medal in 2000. (See obituary in The Times, London, May 1, 2002) Willey married Katharine W. Whaley in 1939. They were married for 63 years and had two daughters. Willey died of heart failure in Cambridge, Massachusetts at

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