description Nels C. Nelson Overview
Nels C. Nelson was a Danish-born American archaeologist whose work helped establish systematic stratigraphic methods in North American archaeology. Through excavations in the American Southwest, he examined how changes in artifact types across successive soil layers could be used to construct cultural chronologies. His approach strengthened the use of controlled excavation and ceramic sequence analysis, influencing archaeologists concerned with dating sites before radiocarbon methods became available.
help Nels C. Nelson FAQ
Who was Nels C. Nelson?
Nels C. Nelson was a Danish-born American archaeologist. He is known for using soil-layer sequences to study changes in artifact types in North American archaeology.
Why is Nels C. Nelson important to stratigraphic archaeology?
His excavations helped establish a systematic way to compare artifacts from successive soil layers. The basic idea is that deeper, undisturbed layers can represent earlier deposits than layers above them.
What region did Nels C. Nelson investigate?
His work included archaeological excavations in the American Southwest. He used the artifacts and soil sequences from those excavations to study cultural change over time.
What does stratigraphy mean in the context of Nels C. Nelson's work?
Stratigraphy is the study of layered deposits, including the order in which archaeological materials were buried. Nelson used differences between layers to build a relative chronology when exact dates were unavailable.
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