Horizon (archaeological)

In archaeology, the general meaning of horizon is a distinctive type of sediment, artefact, style or other cultural trait that is found across a large geographical area, from a limited time period. The term derives from similar ones in geology, horizon or marker horizon, but where these have natural causes, archaeological horizons are caused by man. Most typically there is a change in the type of pottery found, and in the style of less frequent major artefacts. Across a horizon the same type of artefact or style is found very widely over a large area, and it can be assumed that these traces are approximately contemporary.

In the archaeology of the Americas "Horizon" terminology, used as proper names, has become used for schemes of periodization of major periods. "Horizons" are periods of cultural stability and political unity, with "Intermediate periods" covering the politically fragmented transition between them. In the periodization of pre-Columbian Peru and the Central Andes there are three Horizon periods, with two Intermediate periods between them. The Horizons, and their dominant cultures are: Early Horizon, Chavin; Middle Horizon, Tiwanaku and Wari culture; Late Horizon, Inca.

The same terms (Early, Middle and Late Horizons) are sometimes used for the Mesoamerican chronology, though there the five stages defined by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in 1958 remain dominant, and the Formative stage, Classic stage and Post-Classic stage cover approximately similar periods. More commonly lower-case horizons such as an "Olmec horizon" are referred to for the region.

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