Question #86212. Asked by sm_2014.
Last updated Oct 05 2016.
neelie_447
Answer has 16 votes
Currently Best Answer
neelie_447 18 year member
338 replies
Answer has 16 votes.
Currently voted the best answer.
"cultural dating: estimating the period from which an object came by comparing it to what you already know about various time periods."
So it's a big part of what a lot of field archaeologists do. They find, say, an old bit of pottery, and based on what they know about that type of pottery from previous digs and previous conclusions they can make guesses about what time period this new piece fits in.
http://members.tripod.com/~terrie_lynn/archaeology.html