Paraskenia

Hembury

A Neolithic causewayed camp in Devon, England, with radiocarbon dates showing occupation from 4200-3900 BC. It has given its name to the plain pottery (also called Windmill Hill pottery) of the earliest Neolithic in southern England, round-bottomed bowls frequently with lug handles. An Iron Age h...

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Hembury

Metallography

Study of the composition and structure of metals.

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Metallography

Carbon-14 Dating

The occurrence of natural radioactive carbon in the atmosphere allows archaeologists the ability to date organic materials as old as 50,000 years. Carbon-14 is continuously produced in the atmosphere and decays with a half-life of 5,730-year (+/- 40 years). Unlike most isotopic dating methods, th...

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Carbon-14 Dating

Stonehenge

Ancient monument on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, the remains of four massive trilithons surrounded by concentric circles of megaliths, probably constructed since c 3200 BC. It was a major Neolithic and Early Bronze Age ritual monument, architecturally unique, surrounded by a whole complex...

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Stonehenge

Excarnation

Defleshing a corpse as part of a mortuary ritual.

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Excarnation

Tenoned

Joined by a knob (tenon) fitting into a socket or mortise. Specifically said of the end of a piece of wood shaped to fit into another piece.

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Tenoned

Protemnodon

An extinct species of giant kangaroo. It has been found in several Australian and New Guinean sites. It lived during the Pleistocene.

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Protemnodon

Shirataki

Palaeolithic sites in Hokkaido, Japan, with a large number of obsidian artifacts dating from about 18,000-13,000 BC, and including large blades, burins, scrapers, and some bifacial points. There are more bifacial points and microblades in a younger group, which dates c13,000-10,000 BC. The microb...

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Shirataki

Absolute Pollen Counting

Absolute pollen counting is the determination of the number of grains of each pollen type per unit weight (grains/gram) or unit volume (grains/cm3) of sample. Variation in the rate of sedimentation sometimes makes the number of years represented uncertain; absolute counts for different samples ma...

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Absolute Pollen Counting

Systematic Sampling

A probabilistic sampling technique which uses a grid of equally spaced sample units, for example, selecting every other square. It is a refinement of random sampling in which one unit is chosen, then others at regular intervals from the first. The sample incorporates randomness and determinacy by...

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Systematic Sampling

Jennings, Jesse D.

American anthropologist and archaeologist who has researched the archaic civilizations, or desert cultures of the semiarid western areas of North America of the past 10 000 years. Work at Danger Cave Utah dating to c 9000 BC confirmed survival of earliest ways of life in American West until histo...

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Jennings, Jesse D.

Last Glacial Maximum

The geological period dating between 25,000-14,000 bp, during which global temperatures reached the lowest levels of the Upper Pleistocene (127,000-10,000 bp). Massive continental ice sheets formed in the northern hemisphere and sea levels fell worldwide. The people were anatomically modern and c...

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Last Glacial Maximum

Corner Notch

A major projectile form which is described as a point that has had notches for hafting struck into the corners of the base. Also, a flaking technique applied to accommodate hafting which involved the flaking of notches into the basal corners of a preform base

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Corner Notch

Gravisca

A port of Tarquinia in Etruria where excavations have yielded large quantities of Greek pottery and a Greek stone anchor.

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Gravisca

Geochemical Analysis

An investigatory technique which involves taking soil samples at regular intervals from the surface of a site, and measuring their phosphate content and other chemical properties to determine the natural separation and concentration of elements by Earth processes.

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Geochemical Analysis

Antioch

An ancient city of Phrygia near the Orontes River and modern Yalvaç in Turkey. It was founded in 300 BC by Seleucus I (c 358-281 BC) after the death of Alexander the Great and was one of the two capitals of the Parthian Empire. It became a Roman city in 64 BC at the hands of Pompey and served as ...

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Antioch

Bifacial Retouch

Retouch flaking that occurs on both ventral and dorsal sides of an edge.

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Bifacial Retouch

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own ethnic group is superior to all others. Observational bias in which other societies are evaluated by standards relevant to the observer's culture.

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Ethnocentrism

Computer Simulation

Reconstruction of the past based on the production of computerized models. The computer model describes ancient conditions and variables and those are used to generate a sequence of events that are compared against the known archaeological record. The computer imitates the dynamic behavior of an ...

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Computer Simulation

Sargon

The founder of the Akkadian empire in the late 24th century BC, the first successful ruler of Mesopotamia. Sargon founded a new capital at Agade, conquering all of southern Mesopotamia as well as parts of Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (western Iran). He established the region's first Semitic dynasty ...

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Sargon

Glastonbury

A lake village in Somerset, England, which has yielded more data than any other site about life in the British Iron Age. The village was built on a wooden platform keyed to the underlying peat and was enclosed by a timber palisade. Inside were more than 90 round huts with clay and plank floors. T...

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Glastonbury

Eastern Chin Dynasty

A phase of the Chin dynasty; the ruling house of Chinese origin controlling southeastern China from 317-420 AD when northern China was under rule of Turkic tribes. There are numerous tombs and Yueh Ware. It was one of the Six Dynasties of China.

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Eastern Chin Dynasty

Maturity

The range of temperature and time (maturing range) at which a clay body fires to desired qualities of hardness, porosity, and serviceability; the temperature and time at which a glaze develops qualities of bonding (to the body), stability, strength, and texture

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Maturity

Meganthropus

The name given to a large-toothed hominid of the Djetis deposits of central Java, Indonesia, that have been related to the Astralopithecines or to Homo erectus or Homo habilis. They are known only by mandible fragments.

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Meganthropus

Retort

A glass vessel with a long tapering neck that is bent down. Used for distillation.

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