The dateRange field captures the temporal span of a Site — for example "Late Archaic, ca. 2000–1000 BC" or "1840s–1890s historic farmstead". It is intentionally free text rather than two fixed dates, because archaeological dating is often expressed as cultural periods, ranges, or approximations rather than precise calendar years. Recording it gives a quick sense of how old a site is and how it fits into the regional chronology. It complements culturalAffiliation, which says who was there, and siteType, which classifies the site as PREHISTORIC, HISTORIC, MULTI_COMPONENT, or UNKNOWN. Together these three fields summarize the interpretive identity of the site.
Technical section
Data model, API, and internals — visible to developers.