The Meaning of Style in Archaeology: A General Model

Abstract

To frame a model of style valid for archaeology in the general case it is necessary to begin by stripping away all the specialized connotations the word has assumed until there only remain the fundamental tenets without which the essence of the matter would itself dissolve and escape. It is never easy to feel that one has reached the bottom of things. Nevertheless, the pursuit of this exercise over a considerable period of time has gradually led me to three conclusions which I regard as the basic tenets upon which a general model can be constructed. The first is that all theories of style ultimately rest upon two primitive givens: that, whatever else it may entail, style (a) concerns a highly specific and characteristic manner of doing something, and (b) that this manner is always peculiar to a specific time and place. The second conclusion is that, when projected into the realm of archaeology, style in this general sense is the perfect complement of function regarded in an equally general sense.