Type site
{{short description|Archaeological site that defines a culture}}
{{about|an archaeological type site|a geological type site|type locality (geology)}}
In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001/acref-9780199534043-e-4397|title=type-site|encyclopedia=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology|last=Darvill|first=Timothy|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=9780191727139|location=Oxford|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199534043.001.0001|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite encyclopedia|title=type site|encyclopedia=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology|page=580|last=Kipfer|first=Barbara Ann|publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers|year=2000|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-306-46158-3}} For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age into the La Tène culture and Hallstatt culture, named after their respective type sites.{{Cite book|last=Kaeser|first=Marc-Antoine|url=https://www.academia.edu/39018189|title=La Tène, ou la construction d'un site éponyme|publisher=Drémil-Lafage: Editions Mergoil|year=2019|isbn=9782355180927|language=fr}}
The concept is similar to type localities in geology and type specimens in biology.
Notable type sites
= Africa =
- Nok (Kaduna, Nigeria), of the Nok culture
=East Asia=
- Banpo (Yangshao culture, Neolithic Yangshao culture, China)
- Liangzhu Town, near Hangzhou (Liangzhu culture, Neolithic, China)
- Songguk-ri (Middle Mumun culture, southern Korea)
- Suemura cluster of kilns – Kilns of Sue pottery (Middle and Late Kofun period, Osaka, Japan)
- Sanage cluster of kilns — Kilns of {{ill|Green Glazed Ware|ja|緑釉陶器}} and {{ill|Ash Glazed Ware|ja|灰釉陶器}} (Nara and Heian period, Aichi Prefecture, Japan)
=Europe=
- a river terrace of the River Somme (Abbeville, France), of the Abbevillian culture
- Aurignac (Haute Garonne, France), of the Aurignacian culture
- Hallstatt (Salzkammergut, Austria), of the Hallstatt culture
- La Tène, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, of the La Tène culture
- Vinča, Belgrade, Serbia, of the Vinča culture
- Abri de la Madeleine (Dordogne, France), of the Magdalenian culture
- Le Moustier (Dordogne, France), of the Mousterian culture
- Saint Acheul (near Amiens, France), of the Acheulean culture
- Butmir (near Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina), of the Butmir culture
- Cucuteni (Romania) and Trypillia (Ukraine), of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
=Mesoamerica=
- Uaxactun (Maya civilization, Dept.of Peten, Guatemala)
- Dzibilchaltun (Maya civilization, northern Yucatan, Mexico)
- Monte Albán (Zapotec civilization, Oaxaca, Mexico)
=Near East=
- Tell Halaf, Syria, for the Halaf culture
- Tell Hassuna, Iraq, for the Hassuna culture
- Jemdet Nasr, Iraq, for the Jemdet Nasr period
- Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, for the Ubaid period
- Uruk, Iraq, for the Uruk period
=Northern America=
- Folsom, New Mexico (Folsom Tradition), United States
- Clovis, New Mexico (Clovis culture), United States: generally accepted as the type site for one of the earliest human cultures in the North America
- La Plata County, Colorado (Basketmaker II period of the Anasazi culture), United States
- Barton Gulch of the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian culture
- Adena mound (Adena culture), United States
- Borax Lake Site, for two of the earliest cultural traditions in California: the Post Pattern and Borax Lake Pattern.
=Oceania=
- New Caledonia, of the Lapita culture.
=South Asia=
- Kot Diji (Pre-Indus civilization, Pakistan)
- Harappa (Indus civilization, Punjab, northeast Pakistan)