Medinet Maadi

A site in the southwestern Fayyum region where a temple of the cobra-goddess Renenutet (harvest deity) was founded during the reigns of Amenemhat III and IV, c1855-1799 BC.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Medinet Maadi

Oculus

The central opening at the top of a dome, such as in the Pantheon at Roman. The term is also used for a small window that is circular or oval in shape, such as an oeil-de-boeuf window. A third meaning is a decorative and religious motif symbolizing an eye, consisting of paired circles or spirals,...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery, Architectural

Oculus

Standing Section

A section on the face of a balk which is left standing during the course of an excavation.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Standing Section

Bombylos

Titterington Culture

A non-ceramic Late Archaic culture of the Midwest, c 2500-1900 BC, with small hunting and processing camps, base settlements, and mortuary sites. The artifacts include bifaces and were not heat-treated.

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Titterington Culture

Proto-Three Kingdoms

The protohistoric period of the Korean peninsula, c 1-300 AD, which preceded the Three Kingdoms period of Koguryo, Silla, and the Paekche. Archaeological finds of the period are mainly from Lelang and Koguryo in the north and Samhan in the south. Bronze and iron were used and iron made at shell m...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Proto-Three Kingdoms

Fresco

A method of painting on the plastered surface of a wall or ceiling before the plaster has dried so that the colors become incorporated in it. The term refers to any painting done on freshly laid wet plaster and left to dry with the plaster; the painting is part of the wall. It was usually execute...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Fresco

Mapungubwe

Late Iron Age hilltop site in northern Transvaal, that was South Africa's first urban center. It has given its name to the southern facies of phase B of the Leopard's Kopje complex and it was occupied between 1220-1270 AD. The material from the earliest levels is very similar to that from the nea...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Mapungubwe

Inti

In Inca religion, the sun god, believed to be the ancestor of the Incas. Inti was the head of the cult and his worship was imposed throughout the empire. He was represented in human form with his face being a gold disk from which rays and flames extended. The temple of the Sun was called Inti-hua...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Inti

Bonneville

A time in the late Pleistocene Epoch about 30,000 years ago when a prehistoric lake formed covering an estimated 20,000 square miles (52,000 sq km), over much of western Utah and parts of Nevada and Idaho in the US. These conditions existed during the interval of the last major Pleistocene glacia...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Bonneville

Epistemology

The study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially by using scientific reasoning to evaluate its validity.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Epistemology

Cerveteri

One of the most important cities in Italy, north of Roman, whose earliest occupation was the Iron Age Villanovan of the 9th-8th centuries BC. It flourished from the 7th-5th centuries as one of the 12 major cities of the Etruscan federation. Two necropoleis from this period have been identified, w...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Cerveteri

Propylaeum

The entrance gate to a classical temenos, temple, or other sacred enclosure; the gateway that stands in front of a pylon. At the Acropolis in Athens, the monumental Propylaia (Propylaeum) was built in 437 BC on the same orientation as the Parthenon. This monumental entrance had various forms gene...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Propylaeum

Moraine

Generally, a bank or layer of mud, gravel, and stones deposited by an advancing or retreating glacier. The term described a family of depositional landforms created by glacier ice. There are five common types: end or terminal moraine, recessional moraine, ground moraine, hummocky/ablation/medial ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Moraine

Pomongwe

A cave in Matopo Hills near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, with fine rock paintings, especially of giraffe. The cave has a long sequence of stone industries and the name Pomongwe also refers to a Later Stone Age industry of southwestern Zimbabwe dated between 10,800-9400 bp. At the very bottom of the deep a...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Pomongwe

Mu

A mythical, sunken continent supposed to have been in the Pacific Ocean.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Mu

Nelson, Nels

American archaeologist born in Denmark who had a profound effect on 20th-century North American archaeology. Working primarily in the Southwest, Nelson is best known for his contributions to the stratigraphic method of excavation, especially in his work in the Galisteo Basin of New Mexico.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Nelson, Nels

Humus

Decomposed organic matter which becomes incorporated into soil. Litter from plants (organic matter) on or near the surface of the earth is slowly broken down by soil organisms (decomposed and oxidized) into fine particles, which may then by incorporated into the soil by earthworms and other soil ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Humus

Down-The-Line Trade

An exchange system in which goods are traded from a source area and then from group to group, resulting in a steady decline in the item's abundance in sites farther from the source

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Down-The-Line Trade

Snettisham

Site in Norfolk, England, of a hoard of fine late Iron Age metalwork, dated to the 1st century BC. The hoard consisted of around 200 gold, silver, and bronze torcs (neck -rings), gold bracelets, and coins. The finest torc was made of eight twisted strands of electrum wire, each strand made of eig...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Snettisham

Sterile Layer

An excavation layer or deposit in which there are no cultural materials or evidence of human occupation or activity.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Sterile Layer

Shu

In Egyptian religion, the god of air and sunlight, created solely by Atum. Shu and his sister and companion, Tefnut (goddess of moisture), were the first couple of the group of nine gods called the Ennead of Heliopolis; Nut and Geb were their children. In some Middle Kingdom texts, Shu was given ...

archaeologsEnglishGod Names

Shu

Iron Pyrites

A nodule of iron pyrites used to create fire in combination with tinder and flint or another nodule of iron pyrites.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Iron Pyrites

Pushkari I

Upper Palaeolithic site above the Desna River in the Ukraine with a radiocarbon date of 16,775 bp. There is a small longhouse, three hearths, pits, and debris and woolly mammoth in the fauna.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Pushkari I

El Guettar

Aterian site in southern Tunisia associated with a Mousterian-type industry of scrapers and other stone tools. Its climate has preserved many animal fossils.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

El Guettar

Median Historic Date

The intermediate age of occupation for a known-age site.

archaeologsEnglishOthers