Type site
In archaeology, a type site or type-site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. 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.
The concept is similar to type localities in geology and type specimens in biology.
Notable type sites
Africa
- Nok, of the Nok culture
East Asia
- Banpo
- Liangzhu Town, near Hangzhou
- Songguk-ri
- Suemura cluster of kilns – Kilns of Sue pottery
- Sanage cluster of kilns — Kilns of and
Europe
- a river terrace of the River Somme, of the Abbevillian culture
- Aurignac, of the Aurignacian culture
- Hallstatt, of the Hallstatt culture
- La Tène, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, of the La Tène culture
- Vinča, Belgrade, Serbia, of the Vinča culture
- Abri de la Madeleine, of the Magdalenian culture
- Le Moustier, of the Mousterian culture
- Saint Acheul, of the Acheulean culture
- Butmir, of the Butmir culture
- Cucuteni and Trypillia, of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
Mesoamerica
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, United States
- Clovis, New Mexico, United States: generally accepted as the type site for one of the earliest human cultures in the North America
- La Plata County, Colorado, United States
- Barton Gulch of the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian culture
- Adena Mound, 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.