Oscar MonteliusBorn 9 Sep 1843; died 4 Nov 1921 at age 78.Swedish archaeologist who sought to establish foundations for prehistoric chronology, especially that of the Bronze Age in the British Isles and Europe northward to Scandinavia. He developed a relative chronological dating method, known as Swedish seriation. During the early ages of archaeology, accurate records were sometimes kept, sometimes not. His technique dated artifacts based on geography and comparisons from artifacts within a certain geographical area. Montelius' method looked at individual artifacts and placed them using contemporary written records on a timeline specific to the location. Based on the absolute date of that artifact, other artifacts of that geographical region are compared and dated. |
