Final answer:
The concept that styles change through time is primarily essential for understanding the term b. seriation, which is a relative dating method using changes in styles to establish a chronological order for artifacts.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept that styles change through time is essential for understanding the term seriation. Seriation is a relative dating method where artifacts, like pottery, are placed in chronological order based on style changes through time. This concept was introduced by the English Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie, in the 19th century. He arranged pottery artifacts into similar groups based on stylistic features and established a relative timeline for them. On the other hand, stratigraphy is the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is concerned with the order and relative position of strata and their relationship to the geological time scale.
The concept that styles change through time also plays a minor role in the study of uniformitarianism, the idea that Earth's surface was shaped by slow-moving geological processes. While this principle is more broadly about geological processes, understanding that change occurs over time is part of recognizing patterns in both biology and geology, so it is slightly relevant but not the core concept for which the idea of changing styles is critical.
Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is b) Seriation, as it is the term directly associated with understanding styles changing over time in the context of archaeological artifact analysis.