Philip Phillips

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

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.

From Archaeological Survey in the Lower Mississippi Valley , 1940–1947

SINCE practically everything in this report depends on the mass of potsherds collected at the expense of so much bending of backs, it becomes necessary to describe with candor the methods employed in their classification. Archaeology has not reached that stage of development in which there is only one correct way to do things, and, it is hoped, never will. What follows, therefore, is in no way intended as a treatise on the proper way to classify pottery, but merely a description of what was done by us and why — especially why. To say that the choice of methods of classification is governed by the nature of the material to be classified is a truism. But it is no less governed by the predilections and general attitudes of the classifier, and particularly by the ends which the classifier has in view. The extent to which classification may be a creative activity is perhaps not sufficiently recognized. Before embarking on a description of the actual methods of classification employed in the present study, we must therefore furnish a brief statement of our position in regard to the subject of cultural typology in general and pottery typology in particular.