Yadin, Yigael

Israeli archaeologist noted for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and his excavations at Hazor and Masada. He wrote "The Message of the Scrolls" (1957; new ed. 1962) "Hazor" 3 vol. (1958-62) "The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands in the Light of Archaeological Discovery" 2 vol. (1963) and "Masada: ...

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Yadin, Yigael

Ax-Hammer

A tool consisting of an ax and a hammer combined, i.e. a shaft-hole ax having a hammer knob in addition. It was primarily a weapon of war, combining the functions of battle-ax and mace.

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Ax-Hammer

Quanzhou

Late 13th century AD Song dynasty shipwreck at Houzhou, China. It was a 24-meter-long keeled ship with 13 compartments. The acquisition and preservation of this massive artifact was spectacular; it is on display in a Chinese museum.

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Quanzhou

Mutationes

Roman horse-changing stations between rest houses. A supply of post horses were kept to replace tired animals. There was also a taberna to refresh the tired traveler.

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Mutationes

Banana

A giant edible fruit-bearing herb of the genus Musa that has hundreds of varieties in cultivation. Consumption of the banana is mentioned in early Greek, Latin, and Arab writings and Alexander the Great saw bananas on an expedition to India. Just after the discovery of America, the banana was bro...

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Banana

Feldspar

A crystalline mineral consisting of aluminum silicates and potassium, sodium, calcium, or barium.

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Feldspar

Musingen

A cemetery of the Early and Middle La Tène Iron Age in Berne, Switzerland. The 200+ graves were commonly lined with stone and contained coffins. The typology of the grave goods, especially the brooches, has provided the basis for the detailed subdivision of the La Tène period in this area.

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Musingen

Biblical Anthropology

The study of the anthropology of the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament to learn more about the nature, diversity, and similarity of biblical peoples.

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Biblical Anthropology

Climap

One of two projects (including COHMAP) which are aimed at producing paleoclimatic maps showing sea-surface temperatures in different parts of the globe at various periods: CLIMAP stands for Climate: Long-range Interpretation, Mapping, and Prediction and COHMAP is the Cooperative Holocene Mapping ...

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Climap

Blank

A partly finished stone artifact that has been worked roughly into a shape but which must be further chip to a suitable size and form to become a tool. This is an intermediate manufacturing stage in the production of stone tools, where the tools are given the rough shape at a quarry or workshop a...

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Blank

Bone Age

A loosely defined prehistoric period of human culture characterized by the use of implements made of bone and antler; not part of the Three Age System.

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Bone Age

Alaka Culture

A preceramic shell midden culture on the northwest coast of Guyana which may date to c 2000 BC. Located in the mangrove swamps, the middens have been grouped into the Alaka Phase. The culture relied on shellfish gathering, with some grinding stones, choppers, manos, and metates. There are some cr...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Alaka Culture

Tarquinia

Great Etruscan city in Tuscany, Italy, famous for tombs with a series of grave painting from the 6th-1st centuries BC and the remains of a wall and base of the great central temple of the 4th-3rd century BC. Traditionally the earliest of the cities of Etruria, there was an earlier Villanovan sett...

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Tarquinia

Serrated

Possessing a notched or saw-tooth edge

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Serrated

Lake George

Lake of southeast New South Wales, Australia, with a pollen sequence for the Pleistocene. A date of 120,000 BP is used to postulate the arrival of humans in Australia, however, it is controversial.

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Lake George

Rim Edge Treatment

Angular flattening, horizontal flattening, horizontal and vertical flattening, pushed, squeezed, pinched

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Rim Edge Treatment

Umm Dabaghiyah

Early 6th-millennium BC type site of the Umm Dabaghiyah culture, the earliest-known culture of the northern Iraq plain, a pre-Hassuna occupation of Mesopotamia. The small site has long buildings with rows of small cell-like rooms arranged around a central space. Some wall paintings have been reco...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Umm Dabaghiyah

Sondage

A deep trench, often of restricted area, to investigate the stratigraphy of a site; an exploratory excavation made to determine whether a thorough excavation is warranted; a genteel term for test pit. A number of sondages may be dug so that the maximum of preliminary information may be gained wit...

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Sondage

Short Count

The 52-year cycle in the Maya system, based on a sequence of 13 katuns.

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Short Count

Kili Ghul Mohammed

A prehistoric site just north of Quetta in western Pakistan, with four phases of occupation. The first has 4th millennium BC dates, farming, and cultivation of cereal crop but no pottery. In the second level, crude hand-made pottery was introduced and mud-brick was used for building. In the third...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kili Ghul Mohammed

Finial

An ornament at the top of a gable, canopy, pinnacle, or similar on a building or structure. Usually made of stone or ceramic.

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Finial

Manioc

A starchy root plant native to the tropical lowland zone of South America, where it was cultivated along with other root crops. Its origin may have been in Venezuela before 2500 BC and it became established in the Andes and reached the Peruvian coast before 2000 BC. Manioc can grow under various ...

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Manioc

Composite Mold

A kind of mold for making metal objects which can have three or more pieces. It may be a simple bivalve mold with the addition of a third part - a plug which will form a socket in the artifact when it is removed.

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Composite Mold

Mamóm

Style of pottery made in Lowland Maya villages in late Formative (late Pre-Classic) times, characteristically monochrome with a waxy feel to the surface, made in a limited range of styles, but most commonly as flat-bottomed bowls.

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Mamóm

Pikimachay Cave

Preceramic cave site in Ayacucho basin of central highland Peru. At one time, it was believed to have the longest stratigraphy in the New World with remains 25,000 years old. These pre-Clovis phases have been largely discounted as having human occupation. A long preceramic occupation did begin c ...

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Pikimachay Cave