Sequence dating is a method of seriation developed by the Egyptologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie.
By linking styles of pottery with different time periods, he was able to establish the relative chronology of the site.
Sir Flinders Petrie, the younger contemporary of archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers, was meticulous in his excavations and recorded every artifact and detail on site.
From his work, Petrie was able to bring chronological order to 2,200 pit graves of the Naqada cemetery in Upper Egypt.
Contextual seriation, which was developed by Flinders Petrie, created sequences of assemblages and arranged them in what he thought was their chronological order based on the inventory of grave contents, his work in Egypt proved this to be a generally true reflection of their chronological sequences.