Classifying & Dating Artifacts
Artifacts can be dated using different types of methods.
"Radiocarbon dating" is a well known method that determines the age of an artifact by using its carbon 14 content. Anything that was once alive, has carbon 14. A scientist measures how much carbon 14 there is in a specimen and compares that to the same specimen but to one that is alive. The time taken for the carbon 14 to reduce by half is called "half life". The half life of carbon 14 is 5730 years, so if a specimen has half the amount of carbon 14 it should have, means that the specimen is about 5730 years old.
Typology in archaeology is the result of classification based on physical characteristics such as the material, colour and size.