Azilian

A Mesolithic (or Epi-Palaeolithic) culture of southwest France and northern Spain, which seems to follow the Late Magdalenian of the area. It falls within the Late Glacial Period and may be correlated with the Allerod oscillation of the 10th millennium BC (c 9000 to 8000 BC). The culture was char...

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Azilian

African Food Production

Research into the beginnings of food production in Africa has shown that the intensive use of cereals and experimentation with crops began at a rather early date, maybe as far back as the 16th millennium BC in Upper Egypt and Nubia. The best-documented example is a Wadi Kubbaniya where there is e...

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African Food Production

Charaman

A stone industry of Zimbabwe and parts of southern and central Zambia where it was the local successor of the Sangoan. Many Charaman assemblages come from surface or river-gravel occurrences, as at Victoria Falls. There are many scrapers, sub-triangular points, and other flake tools. Charaman dep...

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Charaman

Florence

Florence is a city in central Italy that was founded as a Roman military colony about the 1st century BC and achieved preeminence in commerce and finance, learning, and the arts during the 14th-16th centuries. Discovery of Villanovan material suggests earlier occupation, perhaps from the 8th-9th ...

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Florence

Nuraghe

A type of tower built of cyclopean masonry and peculiar to Sardinia from c 1500 BC until the Roman conquest of the island c 800 BC. They are circular stone defensive towers with corbel-vaulted internal chambers of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The walls of the tower slope inwards towards the t...

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Nuraghe

Repton

The church of St. Wystan at Repton in Derbyshire, England with parts of the upstanding masonry belong to the pre-Conquest period. There is an 8th-9th century crypt, the only English example of that date supported on four central columns. Repton is known to be the burial place of the Mercian kings...

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Repton

Cylinder Seal

A cylinder engraved with a design, scene, and/or inscription which was impressed onto the plastic clay when the cylinder seal was rolled over a clay tablet. This was the standard seal form of the Mesopotamian civilization, starting in the Uruk period. The incised stone cylinder was rolled over a ...

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Cylinder Seal

Abdul Hosein, Tepe

An aceramic Neolithic site of Iran's Zagros mountains with mud-brick structures, chipped and ground stone tools, clay figurines, and evidence of barley and emmer cultivation.

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Abdul Hosein, Tepe

Zoomorphic Brooch

A fastener for clothes which includes the representation of animal forms in its design or decoration

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Zoomorphic Brooch

Timor

An island of the Malay Archipelago, eastern Indonesia, possibly a staging point for early migrations to Australia. Timor and neighboring Flores had possible Pleistocene industries. There is some evidence of early Pleistocene land-bridges reaching the island from Java. The earliest archaeological ...

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Timor

Error Factor

The measurement error inherent in every chronometric dating technique, indicating the range of accuracy of the estimated date; usually expressed as plus or minus a certain number of years.

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Error Factor

Prefecture

An administrative division of a Chinese or Japanese province; Japan has urban and metropolitan prefectures.

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Prefecture

Human Ecology

The systematic study of the dynamic interrelationships between humans and their environments.

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Human Ecology

Creamware

Earthenware having a cream-colored glaze.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Creamware

Earlier Stone Age

The first stage of the Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa, dating from more than 2.5 million years ago to c 150,000 years ago. The earliest artifacts are representative of the Oldowan Industrial Complex, which was succeeded by the Acheulian Industrial Complex between c 1.5 million-150,000 years ago.

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Earlier Stone Age

Ideological System

A component of culture based on the use of ideas or beliefs as part of their cultural adaptation; the knowledge or beliefs used by human societies to understand and cope with their existence.

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Ideological System

Barrel

A cylindrical container, often of wood, that holds liquids

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Barrel

Mosaic

A technique of decoration used mainly on floors or walls involving the setting of small colored fragments of stone, tile, mineral, shell, or glass, each called a tessera (plural tesserae), in a cement or adhesive matrix. Mosaic also refers to a tesselated area, often of complex designs and, possi...

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Mosaic

Acoustic Vase

Large earthenware or bronze vases which were used to strengthen actors' voices and were placed in bell towers to help boost the sound of church bells. A church in Westphalia contains fine 9th-century Badorf Wares and larger Relief-Band Amphorae were used in 10th- and 11th-century churches.

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Acoustic Vase

Kansai

A region of ancient cities to the west (sai) of the mountain barrier (kan) near Mount Fuji, the birthplace of the earliest Japanese state and one of Japan's traditional cultural areas. It is an area of historically dense population that until well into the 20th century was the most industrialized...

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Kansai

Lake Mangakaware Pa

A Maori lake-edge fortification (pa) in the Waikato District, North Island, New Zealand. The site has produced on the of the most complete Classic Maori settlement plans known, dated 1500-1800 AD, with remains of palisades, a central open space (marae), and many wooden objects.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Lake Mangakaware Pa

Tuber

A fleshy underground stem or root serving for reproductive and food storage.

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Tuber

Trait

Any element of human culture - material or non-material - or technology. This term can be used for any individual artifact or aspect of man's culture, ranging from monument or artifact types to social or ritual practices.

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Trait

Culture

In a general sense, the whole way of life of man as a species. In a more specific usage, it is the learned behavior, social customs, ideas, and technology characteristic of a certain people or civilization at a particular time or over a period of time (such as Eskimo culture). In this sense, a cu...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Culture

Merida

A Roman colony in Spain, founded by the Romans in 25 BC as Augusta Emerita. As the capital of Lusitania (roughly equivalent to modern Portugal), it became one of the most important towns in Iberia and was large enough to contain a garrison of 90,000 men. It prospered anew in the 7th century under...

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Merida