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Style: Its Role in the Archaeology of Art

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction

The Relevance of the Concept of Style in the Archaeology of Art

Style has been and still is a core concept in the field of the archaeology of art for several reasons, including the fact that it is a twofold term: on the one hand, it refers to a quality of past human actions which is perceptible in material culture, and on the other hand, it is also an analytical tool that allows archaeologists to find continuities and discontinuities in the archaeological record which are relevant to answering questions about the spatial and temporal distribution and qualities of cultural practices.

The concept of style is particularly relevant to the archaeology of art because, among other material culture products, the creation of artworks (be them artifacts or structures) entails the manipulation of form, color, size, texture, volume, etc. in the creation process, which often show recurrent patterns that evidence the underlying operation of stylistic rules and habits. Thus, style...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i Arqueologia, ICREA/Universitat de Barcelona/SERP, Barcelona, Spain

    Inés Domingo Sanz

  2. CONICET-AIA-UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Dánae Fiore

Authors
  1. Inés Domingo Sanz
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  2. Dánae Fiore
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Inés Domingo Sanz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Sanz, I.D., Fiore, D. (2014). Style: Its Role in the Archaeology of Art. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1276

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1276

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