In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it.^[1][2] For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age into the La Tène culture and Hallstatt culture, named after their respective type sites.^[3]

The concept is similar to type localities in geology and type specimens in biology.

Notable type sites

East Asia

• Banpo (Yangshao culture, Neolithic Yangshao culture, China)
• Liangzhu Town, near Hangzhou (Liangzhu culture, Neolithic, China)
• Songguk-ri (Middle Mumun culture, southern Korea)
• Suemura cluster of kilns – Kilns of Sue pottery (Middle and Late Kofun period, Osaka, Japan)
• Sanage cluster of kilns — Kilns of Green Glazed Ware [ja] and Ash Glazed Ware [ja] (Nara and Heian period, Aichi Prefecture, Japan)

Europe

• a river terrace of the River Somme (Abbeville, France), of the Abbevillian culture
• Aurignac (Haute Garonne, France), of the Aurignacian culture
• Hallstatt (Salzkammergut, Austria), of the Hallstatt culture
• La Tène, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, of the La Tène culture
• Vinča, Belgrade, Serbia, of the Vinča culture
• Abri de la Madeleine (Dordogne, France), of the Magdalenian culture
• Le Moustier (Dordogne, France), of the Mousterian culture
• Saint Acheul (near Amiens, France), of the Acheulean culture
• Butmir (near Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina), of the Butmir culture

Mesoamerica

• Uaxactun (Maya civilization, Dept.of Peten, Guatemala)
• Dzibilchaltun (Maya civilization, northern Yucatan, Mexico)
• Monte Albán (Zapotec civilization, Oaxaca, Mexico)

Near East

• Tell Halaf, Syria, for the Halaf culture
• Tell Hassuna, Iraq, for the Hassuna culture
• Jemdet Nasr, Iraq, for the Jemdet Nasr period
• Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, for the Ubaid period
• Uruk, Iraq, for the Uruk period

Northern America

• Folsom, New Mexico (Folsom Tradition), United States
• Clovis, New Mexico (Clovis culture), United States: generally accepted as the type site for one of the earliest human cultures in the North America
• La Plata County, Colorado (Basketmaker II period of the Anasazi culture), United States
• Barton Gulch of the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian culture
• Adena Mound (Adena culture), United States
• Borax Lake Site, for two of the earliest cultural traditions in California: the Post Pattern and Borax Lake Pattern.

Oceania

• New Caledonia, of the Lapita culture.

South Asia

• Kot Diji (pre-Harappanian civilization, Pakistan)
• Harappa (Indus civilization, Punjab, northeast Pakistan)