Underglaze

A type of colored decoration applied to raw or biscuit ware before the glaze coating is applied

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Underglaze

Nephrite

The more common form of jade, an iron calcium magnesium silicate of the amphibole mineral group. It is whitish to dark green in color, though it can be blue and black, prized as an ornamental stone for carving and jewelry. Jadeite is tougher and more compact. Sources of the material are known in ...

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Nephrite

Curaca

A rank in the Inca empire. Different grades of curaca were the chiefs of provinces or villages, in charge of between 100 and 10,000 people.

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Curaca

Bipolar Percussion

A type of percussion that involves the placement of raw material (usually small rounded or oval cobbles) on an anvil stone and striking it from the top.

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Bipolar Percussion

Lock Ring

Small penannular (almost complete ring) ornament of gold or bronze popular in the Early to Middle Bronze Age in northern Europe. They are thought to have been used as hair ornaments.

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Lock Ring

Quéroy

Cave site in Charente, France, with deposits from the early Middle Neolithic to the La Téne Iron Age. Late Bronze Age sherds of c 800 BC had incised symbols and similar sings are on potsherds in other parts of France. They are a form of proto-writing.

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Quéroy

Accumulation Model

The theory that cultural changes occur gradually as a society accumulates behavioral traits.

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Accumulation Model

Hala Sultan Tekke

A Late Cypriot settlement supporting copper trade in the Aegean, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. It was abandoned in the 11th century BC, possibly because an earthquake destroyed its harbor.

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Hala Sultan Tekke

Pedoturbation

Any of the various processes by which soils are disturbed, mixed, sorted, etc., such as by the burrowing of animals.

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Pedoturbation

Alidade

An instrument used in topographic and planimetric surveying, mapping, and planning with the plane-table method. It consists of a telescopic sight with stadia hairs mounted on a graduated metal ruler. This term is also used for any sighting device used for angular measurement. The device has a pri...

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Alidade

Secondary Altriciality

A unique human phenomenon of brain growth, during which the brain doubles its size in the first year of life. It may have been a feature of our ancestor Homo erectus.

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Secondary Altriciality

Archaeomagnetic Dating

A chronometric method used to date objects containing magnetic materials - especially for buried undisturbed features such as pottery kilns, earthen fireplaces, and brick walls - which can be compared to known schedules of past magnetic alignments within a region and fluctuations in the earth's m...

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Archaeomagnetic Dating

Malwa

A plateau of northwestern Madhya Pradesh in India which is also the name of a Chalcolithic culture of the early 2nd millennium BC. Important sites include Navdatoli, Nagda, and Kayatha (Ujjain). The characteristic pottery (Malwa ware) is a red-slipped, black painted ware on a red or cream ground ...

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Malwa

Ring

A small circular band, typically of precious metal and often set with one or more gemstones, worn on a finger as an ornament or a token of marriage, engagement, or authority

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Ring

Strop

A leather strap for sharpening a razor.

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Strop

Anuradhapura

Sinhalese kingdom centered at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka and its capital from the time of the introduction of Buddhism in the 3rd century BC until the site was abandoned in the 10th century AD after many incursions by the Tamils of South India. The South Indians gained control of the kingdom sever...

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Anuradhapura

Cook Islands

An extensive island group in the central Pacific whose traditions and linguistic patterns indicate that they were initially settled by Polynesians from Tonga and Samoa, some of whom later colonized New Zealand. Remains show a highly organized society by about 1100 AD, though the area was probably...

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Cook Islands

Praenomen

An Egyptian king's first cartouche name, which he adopted on his accession. It is also the term for the given name or forename of a Roman personal name; the family name was the nomen.

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Praenomen

Portchester

The site of extensive Saxon occupation, a shore fort in Hampshire, southern England. There was some use of the site from the 1st century AD, though the Roman stone, flint, and tile walls are from a late 3rd century AD occupation. That lasted until 370 AD when the troops were shifted to nearby Bit...

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Portchester

Cerro De Las Mesas

A site in southern Veracruz, Mexico, in the plains of the Papaloápan River that is a hybrid site of Pre-Classic and Classic periods. Dozens of earthen mounds are scattered over the surface in a seemingly haphazard manner, and the archaeological sequence is long and complex. The site reached its a...

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Cerro De Las Mesas

Cheddar

A site in Somerset county, England, where a gorge and caverns have offered up human remains and artifacts (stone and bone tools) dating back to the Stone Age. The Gough's Cave finds probably date from 8-10,000 BC. Cheddar cheese was first made there at or before the beginning of the 12th century ...

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Cheddar

Isaac, Glynn Llywelyn

Palaeoanthropologist who studied the early Pleistocene of East Africa. He is credited with developing new approaches to the interpretation of very early archaeological remains.

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Isaac, Glynn Llywelyn

La Micoque

A rock shelter near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne, southwest France, with a series of the Lower-Middle Palaeolithic levels. The uppermost contained hand axes in the type assemblage of the Micoquian industry, while the five lower levels are the type series of the Tayacian.

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La Micoque

Gua Kechil

A limestone rock shelter in central Malaysia, with remains related to the Ban Kao Neolithic, just as other sites such as Gua Cha. This site also had a late phase of the Hoabinhian with cord-marked pottery. The Neolithic assemblage dates to c 2800 BC.

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Gua Kechil

K2

Late Iron Age site in northern Transvaal, South Africa occupied in the 11th-12th centuries AD. It is the name of the initial phase of the Leopard's Kopje Complex of the Limpopo Valley, characterized by bone and ivory working.

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K2