Strike-A-Light

Greenstone

A loosely applied term for a variety of metamorphosed basic igneous rocks of a green color: serpentine, olivine, jade, jadeite, nephrite, chloromelanite, etc. The general term is useful, though, since ancient man used these materials interchangeably, mainly for high quality or ceremonial polished...

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Greenstone

Indirect Measurement

Measurement that does not involve direct comparison of a phenomenon with a standard scale but it mediated by other measures thought to be correlated with the measure.

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Indirect Measurement

Arsenical Bronze

Bronze (copper and tin alloy) which contains arsenic as a third constituent in a small proportion of 2-3%. Arsenic was deliberately added for its hardening effect on the alloy.

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Arsenical Bronze

Erosion

The wearing away or loosening and transportation of soil or rock by water, wind, and ice. A group of processes are involved in the physical breakdown or chemical solution, removal, and transportation of the materials. Erosion can be accelerated by activities on the landscape. Three forms that can...

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Erosion

Pile Dwelling

Platforms raised on posts above open water or on damp ground at water's edge; a type of Neolithic settlement found common in prehistoric Europe in areas with many lakes, such as Switzerland, Germany, and north Italy. Such a settlement was formerly on the edge of a lake but is now buried by lakesh...

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Pile Dwelling

Karli

A village in west-central India with a rock-cut Buddhist temple (chaitya) of the 2nd century AD. The chaitya, the largest and most elaborate of the cave temples of Hinayana Buddhism, is about 45 feet to the crown of its teak-ribbed vault.

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Karli

Stela

An upright, freestanding stone monument, often inscribed or carved in relief, and sometimes painted. These pillars or tablets of stone were often used to mark a grave or erected as a monument. Inscriptions may commemorate a victory or a major event, or proclaim a formal decree. Stelae are frequen...

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Stela

Sun Temple

Religious building constructed by kings of the 5th Dynasty of Egypt for worshipping the sun god Re. They resemble the pyramid complexes of the same period, with valley temple and causeway leading to the Upper Temple. Six sun temples are known, but on those at Abusir and Abu Gurab have been found....

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Sun Temple

Trewhiddle

Site in Cornwall, England, with a hoard of metal objects deposited in the latter part of the 9th century AD. Included were some bronze plaques decorated with Niello-inlaid animal ornament, Anglo-Saxon coins, and a silver chalice ornamented with beaded wire.

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Trewhiddle

Recovery Unit

A defined area from which archaeological materials are recovered, such as an excavation pit.

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Recovery Unit

Life Assemblage

The living community of animals from which fossils are derived.

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Life Assemblage

Chamber Tomb

A prehistoric tomb, often megalithic in construction, that contained a large burial chamber. Such a vault was usually used for successive burials over a long period of time. The term is also used for a rock-cut tomb, especially the shaft-and-chamber tomb, with a similar burial rite. Chamber tombs...

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Chamber Tomb

Taberna

Roman term for a room opening on to a street or on to a portico or stoa, used as a workshop or shop.

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Taberna

Elster

A North European Middle Pleistocene cold stage with at least one glacial advance. It began c 450,000-400,000 BP and ended c 300,000 BP with the Holsteinian Interglacial. The British equivalent is the Anglian cold stage; the Alpine is the Mindel and the North American equivalent is the Kansas.

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Elster

Fyrkat

A great circular fortress in northern Jutland dating to the mid-10th century AD. Fyrkat, close to the open sea, is now generally believed to have been a royal center rather than an encampment for warriors. Like the other Trelleborg-type fortresses, the site was probably abandoned early in the 11t...

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Fyrkat

Geochronology

The study of earth history by correlating archaeological events to the timing and sequencing of geological events. Specifically, it is the dating of archaeological data in association with a geological deposit or formation, such as the dating of Pleistocene human remains in the context of glacial...

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Geochronology

Aretine Ware

A type of terra sigillata, fine Ancient Roman pottery coated in a red slip, dating from the first centuries AD and originating in Arretium in Tuscany, Italy

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Aretine Ware

Teti

First king of the 6th Dynasty (c 2325-2150 BC) whose reign does not represent a marked break with the preceding reign of Unas. Around Teti's pyramid in northern Saqqarah was a cemetery of large tombs, including those of several viziers. Together with tombs near the pyramid of Unas, this is the la...

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Teti

Operational Definition

Indirect measurement of a phenomenon that cannot be observed directly.

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Operational Definition

Omari, El-

A site south of Cairo, Egypt, on the east of the Nile Delta, showing primitive Neolithic material closely comparable to that from Merimde. This phase of the Lower Egyptian Predynastic period, consisting of several Predynastic settlements and cemeteries clustered around the Wadi Hof, was transitio...

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Omari, El-

Unguent Flask

A small narrow-necked vessel, usually in a rough fabric, used as a container for ointment or perfume. Because of what they contained, such vessels are often found long distances from source as evidence of trade and exchange.

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Unguent Flask

Dawenkou

A Middle Neolithic site in Shandong Province, China, which gave its name to a culture of c 4500-2700 BC. There is elaborately shaped pottery and increasingly rich burials.

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Dawenkou

Amvrosievka

An Upper Palaeolithic site in southern Ukraine with and large number of bison bones and artifacts of microblades and laterally-grooved bone points. The site is dated to 15,250 bp.

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Amvrosievka

Parpalló Cave

A cave in the province of Valencia, Spain, with a sequence of Solutrean and other Upper Palaeolithic deposits. There is a Gravettian layer with backed blades, burins, and endscrapers; followed by a sequence of Solutrean levels with barbed and tanged points. Four Magdalenian levels had stone, bone...

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Parpalló Cave

Reduction Sequence

The various stages that a stone tool goes through from the point at which it is first struck to the point at which it is worked for the last time.

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