[1] Oscar Montelius refined the concept of typology, a relative chronological dating method.

[1] Typologies are the basis for seriation, a technique developed by English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) based on his excavations in Egypt.

He divided the Neolithic in Scandinavia into four numbered periods, I-IV, and the Nordic Bronze Age into six I-VI.

[3][4] By taking calendrical dates from the recently deciphered hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt, Montelius employed a complex system of cross-dating through typologies and associated finds to apply absolute dates to archaeological finds and features all over Europe.

His diffusionist theories were eventually displaced by more complex views of cultural interaction but following refinement his system of sub-divisions is still effectively in use.