Terminus Post Quem (TPQ) from Artefacts
Definition
The date of the youngest datable artefact in a sealed context, which sets the earliest possible date for the sealing event. A shoe made from 1998 onwards cannot be buried before 1998.
- Meaning
- Earliest possible sealing date from an artefact
- Source
- Youngest datable artefact in a sealed context
- Example item type
- Manufactured goods with a known production start date
- Discipline
- Finds and artefact processing
Common questions
What makes an artefact usable for this purpose?+
It needs a reliably documented date when its manufacture or design began, such as a shoe sole pattern, a packaging logo, or a coin issue year, so its presence rules out any sealing date before that point.
What happens if two artefacts give conflicting earliest dates?+
The later of the two dates governs, since the context cannot have been sealed before the more recently introduced item was made, and the earlier artefact is treated as residual material already present in the soil.
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