Backed Bladelet

Champa

An ancient kingdom formed in 192 AD, during the breakup of the Han dynasty of China, corresponding roughly to present central Vietnam. Although the territory was at first inhabited mainly by wild tribes which struggled with the Chinese colonies in Tonkin, it gradually came under Indian cultural i...

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Champa

Oasis

A fertile patch in a desert. There are five major oases in western Egypt: Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla, and Kharga. Except for some Old Kingdom and First Intermediate settlements in Dakhla, most of the oases were probably not occupied until the 1st millennium BC. Two-thirds of the total popula...

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Oasis

Pluvial

A wet climatic episode or rainy season in a normally arid area. It is marked by changes in lake levels which produce fossil beaches, among other evidence, and by changes in flora and fauna. In lowland and subtropical regions which were never covered by Pleistocene ice sheets, alternations in clim...

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Pluvial

Circle

A series of stones set up in a ring, the commonest prehistoric monuments of England, such as those at Avebury and Stonehenge. Most were of stone, though some were of wood or a combination of the two. They vary greatly in size, from a few feet in diameter, to those which are a 1/4-mile in diameter...

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Circle

Spatial Archaeology

The study of the interrelationship of archaeological sites with each other and with their environments, or the distribution patterns of artifacts, using analytical methods derived from geography.

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Spatial Archaeology

Nintoku

The 17th emperor of Japan (5th century AD) and the name of the keyhole-shaped mounded tomb, the largest in Japan, used as his mausoleum in Osaka Prefecture. It is the largest tomb of the Tumulus period, a 5th-century structure is surrounded by three moats and occupying some 80 acres (32 hectares).

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Nintoku

Cozumel

An island located less than 20 miles off the east coast of the northern Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico that was a trading port and pilgrimage spot for the Maya. Its earliest artifacts date to c 1000 BC, but its rise began from 300 BC (Late Pre-Classic or Formative period) and its major period of occ...

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Cozumel

Sulawesi

Largest island of eastern Indonesia, with a possible late Pleistocene industry from Cabenge and with many rock shelters having Toalian assemblages. The Paso shell midden in Minahasa and the Kalumpang Neolithic site are of archaeological interest.

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Sulawesi

Ceramic Artifact

Any artifact made of fired clay, belonging to pottery, figurine, or other ceramic industries.

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Ceramic Artifact

Extraction Locus

Any place where large amounts of material are extracted or processed, such as a quarry, clay pit, or kill site.

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Extraction Locus

Naville, Henri Edouard

Swiss Egyptologist who worked at Abydos, Deir el-Bahri, and in the Delta at Bubastis.

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Naville, Henri Edouard

Ax Trimming Flake

Characteristic waste flakes struck off in the production of axes.

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Ax Trimming Flake

Spearhead

Bifacially flaked points - or a thrusting blade mounted on a long shaft (spear) as a weapon for war or hunting. Early examples in flint were usually leaf-shaped, and hafted simply in a cleft in the spear shaft. In the Early Bronze Age, bronze dagger blades were made and ferrules added. The socket...

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Spearhead

Roman Period

The period of Roman political and military control, generally between 200 BC and 400 AD, but varying for different regions, depending on the date of conquest.

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Roman Period

Bivalve

An aquatic mollusk which has a compressed body enclosed within two hinged shells, such as an oyster, mussel, or scallop. A mollusk having two shells hinged together, as the oyster, clam, or mussel; or any animal with two halves to its shell such as an ostracode or brachiopod.

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Bivalve

Part-Time Specialist

A food producer who also specializes in nonfood goods or services.

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Part-Time Specialist

Bulbar Depression

A depression left from the bulb of percussion when a blade or flake is struck from a core.

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Bulbar Depression

Mollusk

Any of a large phylum (Mollusca) of invertebrate animals (as snails, clams, or squids) with a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a calcareous shell. Often occurring in calcareous deposits, they may give useful information if associated with archaeological remains. A group may give an indic...

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Mollusk

Paleoanthropology

The study of human origins and evolution as revealed by fossil remains; the study of the archaeology of the earliest human beings. Fossils are assessed by the techniques of physical anthropology, comparative anatomy, and the theory of evolution. It is a branch of anthropology.

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Paleoanthropology

Mount William

A greenstone ax quarry and workshop in Victoria, Australia. It was the center of an exchange network in Victoria, South Australia, and southern New South Wales. Mount William is the highest peak in western Australia (3829 feet).

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Mount William

Tolbaga

Upper Palaeolithic site on the Khilok River in south-central Siberia with faunal remains dated c 34,860 and c 27,210 bp. Artifacts include retouched blades, sidescrapers, endscrapers, points, and burins.

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Tolbaga

Nagyrév

The type site for a regional group of the Hungarian Early Bronze Age; the initial culture in the tripartite sequence distributed in the lowlands of northern Hungary, dated to c 2300-1500 BC. This first phase shows connections with the Beaker and Vucedol cultures, while the later phase is contempo...

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Nagyrév

Correlation

The use of various methods, often multiple methods, to demonstrate the equivalency of stratigraphic units. This term refers to the relation of one stratigraphical unit to another, by petrological, osteological, lithographic, cultural, chronological, or palaeontological means. For example, stratig...

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Correlation

Punctating

Decorations made using a pointed implement to press designs into ceramics, sometimes making holes in an object.

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Punctating

Pefkakia

Late Neolithic-Bronze Age settlement mound in Thessaly, Greece. It has been important in reconstructing the Thessalian cultural sequence.

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