Amarna, Tell El-

The site of the ruins and tombs of the city of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Akhetaton in Upper Egypt, 44 mi (71 km) north of modern Asyut and 280 km south of Cairo. Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) built the city in about 1348 BC as his capital and the center of his reformed religion and worship of Aten. The...

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Amarna, Tell El-

Timur

Turkic/Mongol conqueror who made Samarkand the capital of a vast nomad empire extending from Mongolia to the Mediterranean, but centered on Iran, Afghanistan, and Soviet central Asia. Many Timurid monuments, built by Timur himself and his grandson, Ulugbek, still survive in Samarkand. The monumen...

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Timur

Ongbah Cave

Cave site in west-central Thailand near Three Pagodas Pass with a Hoabinhian period occupation c 9000 BC. There are some 3rd-2nd century BC burials, iron implements, bronze bangles, stone beads, and parts of Dong-Son cast bronze drums.

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Ongbah Cave

Bali

An island of Indonesia east of Java. The earliest inscriptions date from the end of the 9th and the 10th centuries, where Buddhism and Shaivite Hinduism have been practiced since the 7th century.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Bali

Middleburg

A town on the island of Walcharan in the southwestern Netherlands, probably founded as a refuge for the Flemish population in the times of Viking raids. Many of this type of refuge were probably planned by Baldwin of Flanders in the 890s. Middleburg consisted of a simple circular fortress with a ...

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Middleburg

Ansa Lunata

A handle or handles on a vessel or vase going in two opposite directions or in two diverging projects. The term describes Terramara pottery of the Apennine culture and vessels of central Europe of the Middle to Late Bronze Age.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery, Tools

Ansa Lunata

Slave

People who 'belonged' to someone else, who had few rights and were used to perform duties for the 'owner'. The existence of slaves is known from many civilizations, including ancient Egypt. There, it was a 'hereditary profession', included among possessions of kings, high-ranking officials, or te...

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Slave

Hacha

A thin-bladed axe thought to have had a ceremonial function for the Maya with a possible connection to the ball game tlachtli.

archaeologsEnglishTools

Hacha

Lian

Chinese term for lacquered wooden box in which toilet necessities or food such as cooked cereals are kept.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Lian

Star Carr

Important Earlier Maglemosian lakeside site in Yorkshire, England - a postglacial hunting stand dating to c 8200 BC. Excavation revealed a small summer habitation site and because of the fine preservation by organic mud, Star Carr has produced the best collection of flint, bone, antler (barbed po...

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Star Carr

Piquant-Triedre

A bladelet that has been notched and then had a microburin twisted off at the notch; the microburin scar forms a thin extended point

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Piquant-Triedre

Nomarch

Governor of the ancient Egyptian administrative division called the nome. The district governor was appointed as a delegate by the Pharaoh and tended to be an autonomous chieftain in troubled periods. Nomarchs often built lavish tombs for themselves.

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Nomarch

Rössen Culture

The successor of western branch of the Neolithic Linear Pottery Culture, with which is has many features in common. Its main distribution was in Rhineland and central and southern Germany, parallel to Lengyel culture in Czechoslovakia and mid-Danube. It is characterized by pottery with complex in...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Rössen Culture

Old Cordilleran Culture

A late Pleistocene cultural tradition based on the hunting of small game and the collection of wild foods in the mountain and plateau region of western North America, especially Oregon and Washington, between c 9000-5000 BC (or later). The diagnostic tool is the leaf-shaped Cascade point, a disti...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Old Cordilleran Culture

Stratigraphic Level

Strata removed according to its human or geologic disposition.

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Stratigraphic Level

Net Sinker

A term applied loosely to any perforated stone or terra-cotta object which may have been used to keep a fishing net vertical in the water. They are found all over the world.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Net Sinker

Teyjat

Two Palaeolithic caves occupied in the Magdalenian period in the northern Dordogne, southwest France. One has fine line engravings of animals on blocks of limestone.

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Teyjat

Jastorf Culture

Iron Age culture of the southern Baltic during the late Hallstatt (600-300 BC), with some of the earliest iron metallurgy of the area. It extended from Lower Saxony through Pomerania.

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Jastorf Culture

Valid Time

A data type for describing a date or time relevant to the item described in a record, rather than for recording a date or time when the record was created or edited (transaction time).

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Valid Time

Inevitable Variation

The premise that all cultures vary and change through time without specific cause and in a cumulative manner; a general and unsatisfactory descriptive model sometimes implied in the culture historical approach.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Inevitable Variation

Els Tudons

A stone-built tomb of Naveta ('little boat') type on the island of Minorca (Menorca), Spain. It contains a two-storied chamber originally housing the remains of many individuals and is built in Cyclopean masonry. Like the other navetas on the island, Els Tudons belongs to the Talayotic culture of...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Els Tudons

Ceramique Oncteuse

A type of medieval pottery of western Brittany, made from the 10th-18th centuries. It is typically very soft and uses talc as the tempering material. This unusual pottery was a distinctive product of the Breton culture.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Ceramique Oncteuse

Feudalism

A hierarchical political and economic system of the Middle Ages in which land was granted in return for military or labor services and the peasantry was ruled by a class of landowners. Several of the great civilizations of the world have passed through a feudal period in the course of their histo...

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Feudalism

Brass

The general name for alloys of copper with zinc or tin, with the proportions about 70-90% copper and 10-30% of the other base metal. It is possible that due to difficulties in introducing the zinc ore calamine into the melt, brass appeared later in use than bronze (copper and tin) and other coppe...

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Brass

Alphanumeric

A field type that allows entry of characters and/or numerals but will not allow any arithmetic operations on them.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Alphanumeric