How did W.F. Albright use pottery to date archaeological sites?

W.F. Albright was instrumental in establishing pottery identification as a reliable scientific tool for dating archaeological sites. He recognized that different styles and types of pottery were characteristic of specific historical periods. By excavating and analyzing pottery fragments (potsherds) found at a site, Albright could correlate these findings with known pottery chronologies from other dated excavations. This allowed him to establish a relative dating sequence for the layers of an archaeological site, thereby dating the site itself. This method is crucial in archaeology because pottery is durable and often found in abundance, providing a consistent marker for understanding the timeline of human settlement and activity.123