Kastri

Iroquois

North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family - the Cayuga, Cherokee, Huron, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, or Tuscarora. The Iroquois occupied territory around Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Erie, in present-day New York state and Pennsylvania and southern Ontario and Qu...

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Iroquois

Ge

A dagger-ax, the characteristic weapon of the Chinese Bronze Age during the Shang Dynasty and then made from iron from the Zhou Dynasty onwards. The dagger-shaped bronze blade, usually with a flat tang but occasionally with a shaft hole, was mounted perpendicular to the wooden shaft. The blade ha...

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Ge

Saqqara

The site of the principal necropolis of the ancient city of Memphis, near Cairo, Egypt, used from the 2nd Dynasty to the Christian period. There are 15 royal pyramids, mainly of the Old Kingdom (c 2575-2130 BC), the most being the Step Pyramid erected by Imhotep for Djoser, pharaoh of the 3rd dyn...

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Saqqara

Chlorite

A soft gray, green, or black silicate mineral used for seals and vessels, also called steatite. Chlorite is a common rock-forming mineral in clastic sediments and in hydrothermally altered igneous rocks; chlorites are widespread and important constituents of such metamorphic rocks as green schist...

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Chlorite

Minoan

The Bronze Age civilization of Crete, a name coined by Sir Arthur Evans derived from the legendary ruler of Knossos, Minos. The civilization is divided into three phases: Early (c 3000-2000 BC), Middle (c 2000-1550 BC), and Late (c 1550-1050 BC). Each had three subdivisions marked with Roman nume...

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Minoan

Ivory

Material from enlarged teeth (or tusk) of certain mammals and used for various tools and artifacts from the Upper Palaeolithic. The tusks of elephants, mammoths, and walruses have been prized throughout prehistory and history.

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Ivory

Tutankhamun

A minor Egyptian pharaoh of the late 18th Dynasty who came into great prominence when his tomb in the Valley of Kings at Thebes was found with minimal disturbance by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922. A son of Amenhotep III, he succeeded the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten. During an undistingui...

archaeologsEnglishPublic Figures

Tutankhamun

Caldron

A large metal pot, used for cooking over an open fire

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery, Tools

Caldron

Batter

The slope of a wall, pier, terrace, or bank, from the perpendicular; a receding slope, etc. The term also refers to the slope of a structure built specifically to increase the stability of a wall; usually subterranean. This functional and decorative technique was regularly employed for the walls ...

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Batter

Cave Tomb

A burial in a cave, a place of habitation and ritualistic practices such as cave art. The talus is the area just outside the cave.

archaeologsEnglishTombs

Cave Tomb

Tripolye

The type site, in the Balkans near Kiev, of a Neolithic-Copper Age culture which formed in the Western Ukraine and east Romania (Cucuteni culture) in the 4th millennium BC. It is best known for its villages of up to 100 timber longhouses, and for fine polychrome vessels painted with curvilinear a...

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Tripolye

Cajamarca

An ancient Inca city, the site of the capture, ransom, and execution of the Inca chief Atahuallpa by conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532. In the north Peruvian highlands, Cajamarca developed a strong regional civilization and was a provincial capital, flourishing between 200-1476 AD. Cajamarca...

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Cajamarca

Koobi Fora

The site of important hominid finds and stone artifacts on the northeastern shore of Lake Turkana (formerly Lake Rudolf), in northern Kenya, dating between 2.5 and 1 million years ago. Fragmentary remains of more than 150 hominids, including Australopithecus boisei, A. africanus, and Homo habilis...

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Koobi Fora

Yenisei

River of Asia, one of the longest rivers on the continent, flowing from south to north across central Russia. The Yenisei valley has yielded much evidence of prehistoric occupation, including more than 50 Palaeolithic sites with radiocarbon dates ranging from c19,000-11,000 BC. Sites include Afon...

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Yenisei

Course

A continuous and usually horizontal range of brick or stone.

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Course

Intercalation

The act or instance of inserting extra time such as days, months, and the like, into the calendar.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Intercalation

Jaywa

A preceramic phase, 7100-5800 BC, in Ayacucho basin of central Andes, Peru. Nomadic groups of hunters and gatherers used a distinctive toolkit of stemmed and pentagonal projectile points.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Jaywa

Coil Pot

A type of ceramic vessel made using a technique whereby the pot is formed gradually by adding to a spiral of thin, sausage-like coils of clay, which are smoothed out afterwards to form the walls of the pot.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Coil Pot

Upper Egypt

A term for that part of the Nile Valley in southern Egypt, generally referring to places between Luxor and Aswan. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake Nasser (formed by the Aswan High Dam). This division also includes what some scholars term Middle Egypt (from...

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Upper Egypt

Burin Facet

The scar formed by the detachment of a burin spall

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Burin Facet

Mocronate Tip

A type of distal end or tip treatment in which a small sharp nipple has been left on the very tip of the blade.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Mocronate Tip

Rhône Culture

After the melting of the glaciers, Neolithic cultures established themselves in parts of the Rhône and Rhine valleys. The Rhône culture is the Swiss and east French counterpart of the Early Bronze Age cultures of central Europe. The metalwork and pottery are similar to those of the Straubing grou...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Rhône Culture

Proto-Mayan

Early American Indians from the mountain regions of the Pacific, dating to the preclassic Mayan era c 1000 BC.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Proto-Mayan

Lithofacies

A part of sediment or rock that is different in composition or character, such as grain size. Characteristics of sediment are closely related to their depositional environment. Lithofacies is a lateral, mappable subdivision of a designated stratigraphic unit, distinguished from adjacent subdivisi...

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Lithofacies

Maa-Palaekastro

Site of a fortified settlement on the west coast of Cyprus, first occupied in the 13th century BC, possibly by the Sea Peoples. An ashlar structure may have been their sanctuary. In the 12th century BC, the settlement was destroyed by fire, then taken over for a period by the Mycenaean Greeks.

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