seriation

[ seer-ee-ey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the arrangement of a collection of artifacts into a chronological sequence.

Word History and Origins

Origin of seriation¹

1650–60; < Latin seri ( ēs ) series + -ation

Example Sentences

The man who told me about pottery seriation has spent his life studying broken crockery, after all.

From Salon

At one point, he kindly provided me with a lengthy explanation of pottery seriation, the means by which archaeologists track the history of a particular site.

From Salon

This peculiarity may be compared with that which we have drawn attention to regarding the development of the ulna; but here the seriation is less distinct.

From Project Gutenberg

Norton found that most of her young subjects scored lower than average on seriation tests, which measured their abilities to understand sequences of events.

From Time Magazine Archive

There are noted, however, by Bonnier certain improvements made by Albertus on Aristotle's view of the seriation of living things.

From Project Gutenberg