ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the ways by which people try to explain prehistory. The culture history describes human cultures in the past and is based on the chronological and spatial ordering of archaeological data. Most archaeological interpretation begins with the culture-historical approach, for this provides the basic framework in time and space for studying cultural change and explaining the past. The basis of all culture-historical reconstruction is a precise and carefully described site chronology. Artifacts and structures are the objects of primary interest to a culture historian, for they provide often sensitive barometers for correlating cultural sequences from many sites. Controlled experiments with precise replicas of prehistoric artifacts and with ancient technologies offer fruitful sources of data for studying cultural dynamics. Archaeology by experiment covers a wide range of activities, everything from controlled experiments on forest clearance with stone axes to burning down replicas of ancient dwellings to duplicate foundations for comparison with ancient remains.
