Attribute Pointer

In relational databases, a field in a "many" file that makes a relation with the key attribute of a "one" file. "Site number" could be an attribute pointer in an artifact cataloguing file and refer to the key attribute "Site number" in another file "Sites" with a unique record for each site.

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Attribute Pointer

Tin

A malleable, comparatively scarce metallic element which is used as a constituent in alloys, notably bronze. In the Old World, ancient sources are known in England, Spain, and Bohemia - with others probably in central Italy and eastern Turkey. Though the New World had no Bronze Age, some tin was ...

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Tin

Cathedral Cave

A site rich in rock art in Carnarvon Gorge, Australia, with evidence of occupation from about 3500 bp and stone and bone artifacts.

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Cathedral Cave

Culture Center

The center of a culture area, so designated because it best represents the essential qualities of the culture.

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Culture Center

Floodplain

A landform created by deposits in a river valley that floods. As the flood waters recede, the suspended sediment is deposited as alluvium and causes slow vertical accretion. Floodplains are often made up of secondary features such as individual flood basins, abandoned channels, secondary flood ch...

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Floodplain

Haftavan Tepe

A tell site in northwest Iran occupied off and on from the Early Bronze Age to the Sassanian period. The earliest occupation is dated to the 6th millennium BC, but its most important material comes from the Elamite period of the 15th-13th centuries BC. A royal tomb of c 1500 BC containing 21 skel...

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Haftavan Tepe

Ahrensburgian

An Epipalaeolithic culture of the Late Glacial Period in northern Germany and the Low Countries, c. 8850-8300 BC. The small tanged points, pine arrow shafts, abundant reindeer bones, barbed harpoons, and antler adzes of Stellmoor characterize the culture.

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Ahrensburgian

Beth-Shemesh

A Palestinian site of the Middle Bronze Age that was possibly a Hyksos fortified settlement and later a Late Bronze Age and Philistine town.

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Beth-Shemesh

Horizontal Stratigraphy

Chronological sequences based on successive horizontal displacements, such as sequential beach terraces. Stratigraphy is by definition obtained from superposed deposits, but other circumstances can be treated in the same way. For example, the oldest burials are likely to be those nearest the sett...

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Horizontal Stratigraphy

Breadfruit

The fruit of a tree in the South Sea islands that is about the size of a melon and whose whitish pulp (with the consistency of new bread) requires cooking before it can be eaten. The tree was probably first cultivated from the Philippines to New Guinea, and attained great economic importance in t...

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Breadfruit

Aqab, Tell

A prehistoric site of Syria with an unbroken sequence from the Early Halaf to the 'Ubaid period.

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Aqab, Tell

Secondary Flake

A stone flake removed from a larger flake, as in the process of refining for a new use; a flake possessing some cortex on its dorsal aspect. The flakes are removed from an existing stone tool in order to thin, sharpen, blunt, or otherwise modify it for a specific use. Secondary flaking is the tri...

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Secondary Flake

Chateau Gaillard

A 12th-century castle built by Richard the Lion-Heart on his return from the Third Crusade in 1196. Sitting on the Andelys cliff overlooking the Seine River in France, substantial portions of it still stand. Château Gaillard, the strongest castle of its age, guarded the Seine River valley approac...

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Chateau Gaillard

Surveying

A means of examining the surface of an archaeological site for the purpose of recording before and during excavation and for creating a preliminary analysis. This method does not destroy remains but enables study through observation and analysis. Surveying often uses geophysical methods, includin...

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Surveying

Gatecliff Shelter

A prehistoric archaeological site in Monitor Valley of central Nevada with deposits spanning the last 7000 years.

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Gatecliff Shelter

Soil Horizon

A layer in a soil developed through the natural weathering of geological and archaeological surfaces. It differs from related layers chemically, physically, or biologically. Sequences of related soil horizons make up the soil profile.

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Soil Horizon

Portable Art

Artifacts or pieces of art that can easily be moved.

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Portable Art

Lengyel

A late Danubian culture with the type site in western Hungary and many regional variants in Hungary, parts of Austria, and much of Czechoslovakia and Poland. It is closely linked to the Tisza culture of the Hungarian plain, and it may have been from this area that the Lengyel people adopted paint...

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Lengyel

Isturitz

A cave system in the Pyrenees-Anlantiques of southwest France with one of the longest sequences of Palaeolithic strata yet known. Several Mousterian levels were overlain by a long sequence of Upper Palaeolithic levels. Human remains were found and numerous portable art objects and wall-engravings...

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Isturitz

Zeliezovce Style

Regional variant of the Linear Pottery culture in Slovakia, Moravia and southern Poland. The pottery has angular incised lines and lozenge-shaped incisions and is dated c 4000 BC.

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Zeliezovce Style

Photography

The recording of archaeological data on photographic film, especially during data acquisition, processing, and analysis.

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Photography

Stave Bow

A simple bow made from a single piece of wood, such as yew.

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Stave Bow

Situla Art

Examples of bronze situlae from the north Italian Iron Age which were particularly elaborately decorated. The embossed or incised decoration of Early Iron Age date in south-central Europe, the medium for which was usually a bronze shouldered bucket-shaped vessel (situla).

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Situla Art

Escarpment

A natural steep landmark or massive fault block. This landform consists of a steep slope which marks an abrupt change in altitude between two adjacent land surfaces. This long cliff or steep slope separates two comparatively level or more gently sloping surfaces and is a result of erosion or faul...

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Escarpment

Scissors

An instrument used for cutting cloth and paper, consisting of two crossing blades pivoted in the middle and operated by thumb and fingers inserted in rings at each end

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Scissors