Relative dating geology practice

In the field of Egyptology, William Flinders Petrie pioneered sequence dating to penetrate pre-dynastic Neolithic times, using groups of contemporary artefacts deposited together at a single time in graves and working backwards methodically from the earliest historical phases of Egypt. Known wares discovered at strata in sometimes quite distant sites, the product of trade, helped extend the network of chronologies.Some cultures have retained the name applied to them in reference to characteristic forms, for lack of an idea of what they called themselves: "The Beaker People" in northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BCE, for example.

Ideally, archaeological materials used for dating a site should complement each other and provide a means of cross-checking.The second part is a long table synchronizing the events from each of the nine kingdoms in parallel columns.The image to the right shows two pages from the second section.It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is the science of locating historical events in time.