Classification of Stone Walls are Related Objects

This stone object is a wall (rather than a pile or row) because it meets four criteria. It's made of stone (natural or artificial), is much longer than wide, is continuous, and meets both height requirements. (Photo by Greg Swift).The wall above is a CLOSED variant of the PANEL subtype, of the SINGLE type, or the FREESTANDING family, of the WALL class, of the STONE domain.

As an example of stone wall investigation, this page presents a working taxonomy for stone objects, part of which was published in the field guide, Exploring Stone Walls. Refer to that book for a description of the terms and criteria used. Alternatively, link t o TaxLineConcNot for for a description of the criteria used to distinguish stone rows, stone concentrations, and notable stones.

CAUTION: This taxonmy is a work in progress and has not yet been peer-reviewed by experts. The SWI coordinator is preparing a manuscript for publication in the international journal Geoarchaeology.

NOTES:

• Though helpful, all taxonomies are incomplete and difficult to use. If you have suggestions for how to improve this in future editions of the book please contact the SWI.
• The taxonomy is a work in progress. Several changes have been made since Exploring Stone Walls was published. This was last updated in September, 2007.
• The first printing of Exploring Stone Walls contained an error, in which the same class is given two different names: stone rows and stone lines. They are both the same thing. For consistency use the term stone row wherever you encounter the term stone line in this first printing.

Link to Descriptive Text for Taxonomy

Link to Nested Hierarchy of Taxa