Bipolar Reduction

Producing lithic flakes and debris by placing a core on an anvil and striking it from above with a large hammer to shatter it

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Bipolar Reduction

Winchester Ware

Late Saxon (Saxo-Norman) style of earthenware pottery typical of the period AD 850 to 1150 and found widely in southern England and occasionally beyond. The ware is wheel-thrown in a hard sandy fabric usually with a yellowish-red or green-colored glaze. The range of vessel types includes spouted ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Winchester Ware

Bewcastle Cross

A runic standing cross monument in the churchyard of Bewcastle, Northumberland, northern England, dating from the late 7th or early 8th century. Although the top of the cross has been lost, the 15-foot (4.5-meter) shaft remains, with distinct panels of the figures of Christ in Majesty, St. John t...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Bewcastle Cross

Random Sampling

A sample drawn at random from a population, each member of it having an equal or other specified chance of inclusion. This sampling technique is based on a totally random selection of sample units to be investigated, which each unit having an equal chance of being selected.

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Random Sampling

Acisculus

A small pick used stone-cutters and masons in early Roman times.

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Acisculus

Continental Plate

A giant slab of the Earth's crust which is believed to move slowly in relation to other slabs. An example of a continental plate is the North American Plate, which includes North America as well as the oceanic crust between it and a portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The other type of plate is oc...

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Continental Plate

La Cotte De Saint-Brelade

Cave site on Jersey of the Channel Islands with prehistoric remains of Paleolithic man and there is abundant evidence of the Neolithic and Bronze ages. There are Acheulian bifaces, Mousterian artifacts, and Neanderthal teeth. Jersey was linked to the continent in times of low sea level.

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La Cotte De Saint-Brelade

Talatat

Typical small sandstone building blocks used in Egypt for the temples of Amenophis IV (Akhenaten) at Aten at el-Amarna and Karnak and other temples of the Amarna Period (c 1352-1336 BC). It is the Arabic word for three handbreadths, describing the length of these stones which were used for rapid ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Talatat

Charsada

A site in Pakistan which was the capital of the Achaemenid satrapy of Gandhara. There is a series of mounds, up to 20 meters high, concealing the caravan city of Pushkalavati with occupation from the 6th century BC to the 2nd or 1st century BC. Excavations near the largest mound, Bala Hisar, iden...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Charsada

Pounding Stone

A hard stone used to pound stone, similar to hammerstone

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Pounding Stone

Lund, Peter W.

Danish naturalist who excavated more than 800 caves in Brazil. His finds of fossilized animals were used by Darwin in his evolution research. The discovery of human bones in association with animal remains from the Pleistocene led him to suggest in 1844 that these animals might have been contempo...

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Lund, Peter W.

Ax Factory

An often isolated outcrop of high-quality rock in Europe during the Neolithic period. These sources were exploited for the production of polished stone axes and this became an important industry of the time. The tools were roughly flaked at the factory sites and traded, either as blanks or as fin...

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Ax Factory

Occupation Layer

A layer in which an original deposit is preserved as it existed when the site was abandoned. The term describes any layer of in situ accumulation of domestic refuse and other debris resulting from occupation of an area of a site by man.

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Occupation Layer

Marae

A stone temple of Eastern Polynesia, comprised of courtyards and stone platform or ahu, where ceremonies took place. The court was walled, paved, or terraced. Marae are among the important remains on Easter Island, the Hawaiian Islands (especially Heiau), and the Tuamoto, Society, Cook, Austral, ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Marae

Bolas Stone

Weighted balls of stone, bone, ivory, or ceramic that are either grooved or pierced for fastening to rawhide thongs and used to hunt prey. The bolas, still found today among some of the peoples of South America and among the Eskimo, usually consists of two or more globular or pear-shaped stones a...

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Bolas Stone

Pei Wenzhong

Chinese archaeologist who studied Palaeolithic sites and was a pioneer of taphonomic studies of bone breakage.

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Pei Wenzhong

Corrugated

Shaped into alternate ridges and grooves

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Corrugated

Prehistory

Any period for which there is no documentary evidence and the study of cultures before written history or of more recent cultures lacking formal historical records. In the strict sense, 'history' is an account of the past recovered from written records, but such an account can be prepared from ot...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Prehistory

El Riego Phase

The occupation phase of c 7000-5500 BC in Tehuacán Valley, Mexico, with a hunter-gatherer society. Squash, chili peppers, and avocados may have been domesticated by the very small population.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

El Riego Phase

Kutama

Early to Late Iron Age tradition of southern Africa during the late 1st millennium AD. It includes the Gumanye, Harare, K2, Leopard's Kopje, Mambo, Mapungubwe, and Woolandale pottery Groups.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Kutama

Musengezi

Late Iron Age group of the Luangwa Tradition, 13th century AD, known from burial caves in northern Zimbabwe.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Musengezi

Thomas, Cyrus

American scholar who worked on the mounds of the U.S. Midwest and who demonstrated that they were built by ancestors of Native Americans.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Thomas, Cyrus

Urnfield

A type of cremation grave or cemetery in which the ashes of individuals were placed in pottery vessels or funerary urns. Sometimes unurned cremations may also be present.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Urnfield

Triangle

A geometric microlith that has one side with a sharp cutting edge and two other sides shaped by backing

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Triangle

Slash And Burn

A primitive and widespread form of agriculture in which forest was cleared by chopping and burning small trees. It is one of the earliest forms of cultivation. The clearance would be followed by planting of crops in the clearance - seeds planted in holes poked into the ashes - and their harvestin...

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Slash And Burn