Archaeological types have been derogatorily characterized as descriptive, but they must be descriptive in terms of pertinent attributes to be analytically useful. Classifying artifacts has long been (and still is) referred to as “pigeon holing” because some formal variation is masked by the categorization process. Recent discussions of the “tyranny of typologies” echo such concerns. Such caricatures may be the result of inadequate discussion of the hows and whys of archaeological systematics first in the classroom, and second in the professional literature. Seventy-four introductory university-level fundamentals of archaeology textbooks published between 1949 and 2017 devote an average of 2.7% of their pages to archaeological systematics; several recent advanced texts on archaeological method and theory include no discussion of archaeological systematics; over the last 100 years 51 programmatic books on zoological systematics have been published in contrast to eight programmatic volumes on archaeological systematics. After continuous growth since 1900 and a peak in the 1970s, the number of journal articles and book chapters on the programmatics of archaeological systematics published per decade has decreased over the past 40 years; the substantive literature seems to display the same trend. These data suggest reduced consideration by the discipline of the whys (ontologies) and hows (epistemologies) of archaeological systematics. Additional study of the substantive research literature—applications of typologies to particular sets of artifacts—may find discussion has shifted to this sort of venue. Hopefully the future will witness more extended discussions of systematics in new introductory textbooks, and discussions of the relevance of particular mechanics and specific theories of systematics with respect to archaeologists’ favored explanatory theories.

考古学类型已被贬义地描述为特征，但必须在相关属性方面具有描述性，才能进行分析。对伪影进行分类很久以来（现在仍被称为“鸽子洞”），因为分类过程掩盖了某些形式上的变化。最近关于“类型学暴政”的讨论也反映了这样的担忧。这样的讽刺漫画可能是由于首先在课堂上，然后在专业文献中，对考古系统的方式和原因没有进行充分讨论的结果。1949年至2017年间出版的74篇大学级基础考古学基础教科书平均将其页面的2.7％用于考古系统学; 关于考古学方法和理论的一些最新的高级著作没有讨论考古学系统论。在过去的100年中，已出版了51本有关生态系统学的程序性书籍，而与之相比，有关考古学系统学的8种程序性书籍则相形见volumes。在自1900年以来持续增长并在1970年代达到顶峰之后，过去40年中，每十年出版的有关考古系统程序设计的期刊文章和书籍章节的数量有所减少。实质性文献似乎显示出相同的趋势。这些数据表明，对考古系统学的原因（本体论）和方法（病因学）学科的考虑有所减少。对实质性研究文献的其他研究（将类型学应用于特定的人工制品）可能会发现讨论已转移到此类场所。希望未来会在新的入门级教科书中看到更多有关系统学的讨论，以及有关考古学家偏爱的解释性理论的特定力学和系统学特定理论的相关性的讨论。