Application of the Wheat-Gifford-Wasley Taxonomy to Eastern Ceramics

Abstract

In a recent issue of this Journal a trio of Southwestern archaeologists proposed a new scheme of ceramic taxonomy that might, if widely followed, restore the possibility of intercommunication between specialists in North American archaeology (Wheat, Gifford, and Wasley 1958). I became interested in this scheme some time before its publication as a possible solution to certain typological difficulties in the Lower Mississippi Valley. One of the authors, James Gifford, encouraged my efforts to apply it to pottery so different from that for which it was devised, and, as an unforeseen result of numerous consultations with him, and with Stephen Williams, Gordon R. Willey, and Watson Smith, the present paper emerged.

Cultural Resources Evaluation of the Lower Atchafalaya Backwater Area South Louisiana.

“…Wheat et al (1958) first developed the system for the southwestern United States. Phillips (1958) modified the system for use in the Southeast, and later (1970) employed it as the backbone of his lower Yazoo Basin research. It has since been used on a regular basis by archeologists working in the Lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent areas.…”

Considering Colonoware from the Barnes Plantation: A Proposed Colonoware Typology for Northern Virginia Colonial Sites

“…The methodological approach adapted for the Barnes Plantation colonoware typology largely draws from the type-variety system, a means of pottery classification long employed by archaeologists in the American Southeast (e.g., Phillips 1958Phillips , 1970Williams and Brain 1983). The type-variety system is a ranked classificatory scheme that subdivides potsherd collections into progressively smaller groupings.…”

In Favor of Simple Typology

“…Wheat, Gifford, and Wasley (1958) expound the methodology clearly, and illustrate with Southwestern ceramics. Phillips (1958) has applied it to Eastern ceramics, while Smith, Willey, and Gifford (1960) have done the job for the Maya region. The discussion ends (for the present) with a theoretical exposition of the method by Gifford (1960).…”