Retort

Trumpet

A brass wind musical instrument sounded by lip vibration against a cup mouthpiece. It has been made of horn, conch, reed, or wood, with a horn or gourd bell, as well as the modern brass instrument. The metal trumpet dates from the 2nd millennium BC in Egypt, when it was a small ritual or military...

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Trumpet

Archaeological Sequence

A method of placing a group of similar objects into a chronological sequence, taking into account stylistic changes that occurred over time.

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Archaeological Sequence

Buhen

An ancient Egyptian fort site of Lower Nubia, near Wadi Halfa, where the ruins of an Egyptian colony of the Middle Kingdom are located. Pharaoh Snefru (c 2575 BC) raided Nubia and established an Egyptian outpost at Buhen on the west bank of the Nile at the north end of the Second Cataract, and it...

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Buhen

Breuil, Abbé Henri

A French archaeologist who was regarded as an authority on prehistoric cave paintings of Europe and Africa. He devoted much of his life to studying examples of prehistoric art in southern France, northern Spain, and southern Africa. Breuil was a fine draftsman, and his greatest contributions were...

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Breuil, Abbé Henri

Slub

Soft lump or unevenness in a yarn; either an imperfection or created by design

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Slub

Luangwa Tradition

A Late Iron Age complex of central, eastern, and northern Zambia in the 2nd millennium AD with a distinctive pottery style. It appeared as a break from the Chifumbaze complex in the 11th century, originated in Zaire, and has continued into Recent times. The term (also Luangwa variant) is also use...

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Luangwa Tradition

Wheeler-Kenyon Method

An excavation strategy in which archaeologists open large areas of a site at a single time but leave balk walls between units to preserve stratigraphy.

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Wheeler-Kenyon Method

Coin Balance

Small lightweight scales used by merchants for checking the weight of coins offered in exchange. This was important because the value of a coin was in part determined by its metal content. Because precious metals such as gold and silver were used in making coins in order to retain their value, a ...

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Coin Balance

Monumental

A term describing the more prestigious or public form of a script as distinct from its cursive form.

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Monumental

Fikellura Ware

An Archaic East Greek black-figure pottery style. It has been found in the Fikellura cemetery on Rhodes; the source of the clay was Miletus.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Fikellura Ware

Danebury

An Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire, England, dating to the 6th century BC. The defenses were built with a timber-laced rampart, remodeled twice, and the main gateway is just as old. Within the ramparts, there was a permanent settlement. By the 4th century, rows of 4- and 6-post structures, flanked...

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Danebury

Tiefstichkeramik

A style of pottery decoration used by the Funnel Beaker culture of Germany and Holland c 3000-2700 BC. The decoration is short, deeply incised bands and zigzags. The style is associated with the hunebed tombs.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Tiefstichkeramik

Rajagrha

Indian city of the Ganges Civilization and capital of the kingdom of Magadha. The earliest surviving remains are ramparts of rubble masonry, probably of the 6th century BC. The city was often visited by the Buddha and a series of elliptical structures may be the remains of his monastery. One of t...

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Rajagrha

Killke

A culture and ceramic pottery style of the Cuzco basin of Peru, from the Late Intermediate Period, c 1000-1438 AD. It immediately preceded the Inca style ceramics. Killke pots have globular bodies, white or buff slip, and simple black (or black and red) geometric patterns.

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Killke

Grinding

A method of stoneworking employed in the smoothing of an edge or surface by rubbing it with a hammerstone or other abrader prior to use. Performed on projectiles or blades so that hafting materials (lashings) would not be cut by sharp edges of the base. Also commonly referred to as Basal Grinding...

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Grinding

Uan Muhuggiag

Cave site in the Acacus Mountains, Libya, with rock paintings. Occupations were c 7500 bp and 4800 bp.

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Uan Muhuggiag

Wilburton

Late Bronze Age village in Cambridgeshire, England, with a metal hoard that gives its name to the Wilburton bronze industry of southern England c 10th-8th centuries BC. It is distinguished by the replacement of tin bronze by a copper-lead-tin alloy, by the increased use of metal (founders' hoards...

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Wilburton

Hypocaust

A Roman heating system in which a floor of tile and concrete, sometimes with mosaic, was supported on low tiled pillars to allow the hot air from a furnace to circulate beneath it. Warm air, heated in an outside stokehole, circulated under the raised floor and also often entered room through vent...

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Hypocaust

Chichén Itzá

The site of a ruined ancient Mayan city in south-central Yucatán state, Mexico. Chichén Itzá was founded in about the 6th century AD, presumably by Mayan peoples of the Yucatán Peninsula who had occupied the region since Pre-Classic, or Formative, Period times (1500 BC-AD 300). The only source of...

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Chichén Itzá

Mural

A work of art on a wall or ceiling surface.

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Mural

Blow-Out

An area in the earth that has become concave or depressed by wind-removal or erosion of sandy or soft, light soils. The topsoil and, perhaps, some of the lower soils, are so removed, especially in arid regions. A blowout resembles the crater of a volcano. Sometimes when earth is removed in this w...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Blow-Out

Mitanni

A kingdom in northern Mesopotamia and Syria which arose in the foothills between the Tigris and Euphrates c 1500 BC, the most important of the 2nd millennium BC Hurrian kingdoms with Indo-European elements in its elite society and rulers. Its capital of Wassukkanni has not been identified. At its...

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Mitanni

Jankovich

Prehistoric cave site near the River Danube, north-central Hungary, with a Middle Palaeolithic assemblage of bifacial foliates and sidescrapers. An Upper Palaeolithic assemblage, Neolithic, and Bronze Age artifacts, were also found.

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Jankovich

Denisova Cave

A Palaeolithic site in the Altai region of Siberia with at least 16 cultural layers. It is an important site for the study of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in northern Asia.

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Denisova Cave

Chihua

Phase of 4300-3000 BC, in the Ayacucho basin of Peru, where transhumance and agriculture may have been introduced. The beginning of agriculture in the highlands preceded settled village life, in contrast to Peruvian coastal lifeways.

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