Pefkakia

Puabi

A queen of Ur buried in Grave 800 of the Royal Cemetery (Sumeria) around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, whose tomb contained the bodies of more than 60 attendants. In the grave was the skeleton of Puabi, adorned with ornaments of gold, silver and lapis lazuli, and an attendant. In the entra...

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Puabi

Valdivia

Early Formative period site on Ecuador's coast, and the name of a Formative period culture c 3200 BC. The type-site flourished beginning sometime before 3800 BC and lasting until c 1400 BC. Its pottery is among the oldest in the New World. Radiocarbon dates, stratification of midden deposits, and...

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Valdivia

Kostrzewski, Józef

Polish archaeologist who excavated at Biskupin and other important sites. He founded the department of archaeology at the University of Poznan.

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Kostrzewski, Józef

Balance

An apparatus for weighing, usually consists of a beam on a pivot with a means of supporting the object to be weighed on one side and weights on the other

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Balance

Epoch

A subdivision of geological time, millions of years in length, representing units of eras; a division of geologic time less than a period and greater than an age

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Epoch

Strettweg

Hallstatt burial in eastern Austria of the 7th century BC, famous for a miniature bronze wagon which is possibly a cult object. The wagon frame has a group of mounted warriors flanking a much larger naked woman, interpreted as a goddess, holding a bowl above her head.

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Strettweg

Askelon

A city of the Philistines on the coast of Palestine near Gaza. Under Roman levels are Philistine deposits and there is a destruction level, the work of the Peoples of the Sea c 1200 BC, separating these levels from the underlying Late Bronze Age of the Canaanites.

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Askelon

Sand Glass

A reversible device for measuring time by the transfer of sand from upper to lower glass bulb.

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Sand Glass

Palaeoeconomy

A school of archaeological thought concerned with long-term determinants of human behavior. E.S. Higgs wrote "Palaeoeconomy" in 1975.

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Palaeoeconomy

Notching

The practice of chipping small, semicircular notches out of the base or side of a projectile point in order to aid in hafting.

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Notching

Aterian

A stone tool culture of the Middle and Late Palaeolithic, widespread in the late Pleistocene in northern Africa. Centered on the Atlas Mountains, but with extensions into Libya and deep into the Sahara, the Aterian people were among the first to use the bow and arrow. It appears to have developed...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Aterian

Tracer

A tool for marking out or engraving designs, used to outline the raised areas on a surface. In metalworking, a tracer was frequently used to outline the raised areas on the surface of repoussé metalwork. A tracer is worked by hammering.

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Tracer

Riparo Tagliente

Rock shelter in Italy's Verona region with Mousterian, early Aurignacian, and final Epigravettian (13,300-12,000 bp) material. The Epigravettian had animal and abstract engravings on stone.

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Riparo Tagliente

Archaeoastronomy

The study of the relationship between prehistoric knowledge of astronomical events through calendars, observatory sites, and astronomical images in art and past cultural behavior. The field includes the study of mathematical correlations between archaeological features and the movements of celest...

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Archaeoastronomy

Calcite

A white or colorless mineral consisting of calcium carbonate.

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Calcite

Trigonolith

In the West Indies, a triangular or breast-shaped stone object, with or without decoration, usually representing a zemi. Small pottery or shell examples can also be found.

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Trigonolith

Relict Soil

Soil formed on a pre-existing landscape but which was not subsequently buried under younger sediments. It must be taken into account that relict soils may represent a wide range of time periods.

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Relict Soil

Bismarck Archipelago

A series of islands off Papua New Guinea with sites of the Lapita cultural complex and Pleistocene rock shelters. Occupation goes back more than 30,000 years and obsidian was brought there 20,000 years ago. There was new fauna brought by humans in the Late Pleistocene and mid-Holocene.

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Bismarck Archipelago

Aquileia

A former city founded as a Roman colony in 181 BC, now a village in northeastern Italy near the Adriatic coast northwest of Trieste. Founded to prevent barbarian invasions, Aquileia became a trade and commercial center along the route north and east into the Black Sea areas. By the 4th century, i...

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Aquileia

Percussion Flaking

A flaking technique which involved the striking of a preform with a billet, a hammerstone or other flaking tool. This flaking technique usually left a hinge or step fracture.

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Percussion Flaking

Brommian

An Allerod and Dryas culture of Denmark, southern Sweden, and northern Germany and Poland of c 10,000 BC. It resembles the Hamburgian and is characterized by the Lyngby point and Lyngby reindeer-antler ax/club.

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Brommian

Gallery Hill

A site in Western Australia with petroglyphs of tracks, circles, animals, and some human figures. Later pecked engravings show a wide range of subjects, including anthropomorphs.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Gallery Hill

Northern Zone

Steppe region south of the Gobi desert along the northern edge of agricultural China, comprising Inner Mongolia, the Ordos, and southern Dongbei regions. This zone had several nomadic Bronze Age cultures during the 1st millennium BC.

archaeologsEnglishRegions

Northern Zone

Topographic Map

Map that can be used to relate archaeological sites to basic features of the natural landscape. Topographic maps are cartographic representation of the Earth's surface at a level of detail or scale between that of a plan (small area) and a chorographic (large regional) map. Topographic maps show ...

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Topographic Map

Wet Sieving

A method used to separate organic material (seeds, snails, insects, etc.) from soil before drying, identification, and analysis. It is a more time-consuming method of extraction than flotation by machine, but has the advantage of being more accurate in its results since there is more control over...

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