Glossary Archaeological method and dating
Facies
A distinctive set of material culture found together in one region or period, a more neutral label than 'culture' or 'people'.
Borrowed from geology, facies describes an assemblage with a recognisable character, such as a particular pottery, metalwork and burial custom, without deciding who made it or whether it represents a distinct population. Archaeologists use it for transitional or regionally limited material whose status is disputed.
In Cyprus the term is attached above all to the Philia facies, around 2500/2400–2250 BCE, which brought Red Polished pottery, new metal types, new textile tools and new building and burial customs at the start of the Early Bronze Age. Whether it reflects settlers from Anatolia or change among the islanders is still argued, and the neutral word leaves the question open. It is also called the Philia phase.
Related terms
- Type-site
The site that gives its name to a culture, ware or phase, or whose finds serve as the standard reference for it.
- Horizon
A level or span of time marked by the same event or type of material across many sites, such as a destruction horizon or a pottery horizon.
- Assemblage
A group of objects found together in one context, such as a tomb, pit or floor, and studied as a set.
Where it appears
- The Chronology of Ancient Cyprus
- Chalcolithic Cyprus
- Gold, Silver, Tin, Arsenic and Iron in Ancient Cyprus
- Red Polished Philia Ware
- Neighboring Cultures
- Village Life in Early Bronze Age Cyprus
- Weapons of Bronze Age Cyprus
- Bowls
- Copper Metallurgy in Ancient Cyprus
- Early Bronze Age Cyprus
- Spindle Whorls and Textile Tools in Ancient Cyprus