To achieve these objectives, archae

To achieve these objectives, archaeology analyzes
how artifacts and features fall into changing patterns over space and time; this chapter shows
how archaeologists identify those patterns. We first
consider classification—the ways that archaeologists
divide the many kinds of objects found into
reasonable and useful artifact types. We then discuss
the concepts of archaeological cultures, periods,
phases, assemblages, and components—all of
which are used to organize archaeological data into
what is called space-time systematics.