How something looks hides clues to how old it is!

Working out what these visual clues are and tracing how they change through time can put a group of objects into date order. However this does not give an exact date for an object. This sort of dating, known as Seriation, is used to order all sorts of things - pottery, tools, weapons, adverts, shoes, furniture and even humans.

Seriation is something that we do all the time – mostly without even realising it. Looking at a group of people and working out who is the oldest from the colour of their hair, the wrinkles on their faces and the clothes they are wearing is seriation.

The shape of an object, the materials from which it is made and how it is used can change through time. Recording these changes means we can put them in order, so a newly found object could be matched up with this sequence. Not only can this help us to date things, but it can tell us a lot about why changes have happened. The availability of new materials, new uses or even purely changes in fashion can all influence the look of things.

Visual clues can be sometimes misleading and even faked. This can cause problems in working out how old something is.