Categories - Archaeologs

Uinal

In the Classic Maya Long Count, a period of time equaling 20 days.

Uinal

Silver

A white, lustrous metal valued for its decorative beauty and electrical conductivity. It is found nearly as early as copper and gold, in the form of beads, trinkets, and display vessels. The main source of this metal in antiquity was the lead ore galena, in which silver sulfide occurs as an impur...

Silver

Umiak

A large, open boat used in Greenland and other Arctic peoples, made of seal or other animal skins stretched on a wooden (driftwood) or whalebone frame. It was called the woman's boat, as opposed to the kayak, the men's hunting and fishing boat. It was paddled and either round or elongated, like t...

Umiak

Purron Phase

In the Tehuacán Valley, Mexico, a phase, c 2300-1500 BC, with food collecting and plant cultivation. The dates fall between the end of the Abejas and start of the Ajalpan phases. In the Purron phase, the first pottery was produced in vessel forms that duplicate earlier stone vessels.

Purron Phase

Iol

An ancient seaport of Mauretania, located west of what is now Algiers in Algeria on the North African coast. Iol was originally founded as a Carthaginian trading station, but it was later renamed Caesarea and became the capital of Mauretania in 25 BC. The city was famous as a center of Hellenisti...

Iol

Belt

A strip of leather or other material worn round the waist to support or hold in clothes or to carry weapons

Belt

Furrowing

Decoration made by drawing the fingers or a tool across the body of a vessel, resulting in either a series of horizontal grooves or random groups of striations.

Furrowing

Sety

Birth name of two pharaohs of the 19th Dynasty, Seti I (reigned 1290-1279 BC) and Seti II (reigned 1204-1198 BC). Seti I strengthened Egypt's defenses by successful campaigns in Palestine and Syria. Seti did much to promote the prosperity of Egypt: fortified the frontier, opened mines and quarrie...

Sety

Taharqo

The fourth king (reigned 690-664 BC) of the 25th dynasty of Egypt, who inherited the throne of Egypt and Nubia from cousin Shabitqo (or Shebitku, 702-690 BC). He undertook considerable construction at Karnak, Kawa, Medinet Habu, and Sanam; he was buried in a large pyramid at Nuri.

Taharqo

Hassi Mouilah

An Algerian Capsian Neolithic site of c 5300 BP with point-based pots with impressed decoration, projectile points, geometric microliths, ostrich eggshell and amazonite beads.

Hassi Mouilah

Minusinsk Basin

A steppe region on the upper Yenisei River in southern Siberia, surrounded by forested mountains. Very large numbers of burial mounds of different periods exist in the area and some 40,000 bronze objects survive in collections - presumably only a fraction of the number originally present. There w...

Minusinsk Basin

Tefnut

Egyptian goddess associated with moisture or damp air. She was one of first gods created by Atum along with brother/husband Shu. Her children were Geb (earth god) and Nut (sky goddess). Shu and Tefnut were the first couple of the group of nine gods called the Ennead of Heliopolis.

EnglishGoddess Names

Tefnut

archaeologsGoddess Names

Lathrap, Donald Ward

American archaeologist who studied South and Central America and who proposed that the lowland Amazon regions supported complex societies and civilizations prior to those elsewhere on the continent. He published "The Upper Amazon" in 1970.

Lathrap, Donald Ward

Hsia

The name of the first Chinese dynasty of the 1st millennium BC. Seventeen Hsia kings are listed in the Shih-chi, a comprehensive history written during the 1st century BC.

Hsia

Meadowood Point

A triangular side-notched point - with notches chipped into each side of the base to form a stem below the main part of the point, generally 2 1/2 inches long.

Meadowood Point

Hydrology

The scientific study of water, its properties and laws, and its distribution over the earth's surface.

Hydrology

Guardapua

Pointed wooden implement, possibly used in ritual blood-letting

Guardapua

Zooarchaeology

The study of animal remains, especially bones, from archaeological contexts, including the identification and analysis of faunal species as an aid to reconstructing human diets, determining the impact of animals on past economies, and in understanding the environment at the time of deposition. An...

Zooarchaeology

Impressed Decoration

A type of pottery decoration produced by pressing something into the surface of the clay when still soft. Stamped decoration is a special form of this, in which a stick or bone is previously carved to give the impression its design. Intermediate in form are the impressions of natural objects like...

archaeologsAncient Pottery

EnglishAncient Pottery

Impressed Decoration

Ball-Court

The structure upon which the ball game was played in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. It was shaped like a capital I with exaggerated end pieces, and in the Post-Classic period stone rings or macaw heads were fixed to the side walls. Aztec records say that the team which passed the ball through one of ...

Ball-Court

Thinis

A site in Upper Egypt where the 1st and 2nd Dynasties originated, according to the 3rd-century-BC historian Manetho. Thinis is located north of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic cemeteries of Abydos (modern al-Barba).

EnglishPlace Names

Thinis

archaeologsPlace Names

Pito

Mexican name for the pipe of the Aztecs, which resembled a flageolet. It was made of red clay, and had four fingerholes.

Pito

Tutishcainyo

One of the oldest sites in Upper Amazon, South America, with evidence of human occupation on Lake Yarinacocha in eastern Peru. The distinctive sand or shell-tempered pottery was decorated with incision the Early Tutishcainyo is dated to c 2500-1300 BC. There is also wattle-and-daub construction.

EnglishPlace Names

Tutishcainyo

archaeologsPlace Names

Kumbi

A site in Ghana whose extensive ruins have been identified as the capital of the 11th century. Excavations have revealed the presence of a stone-built mosque and two-story houses with storerooms. Pottery and glass indicate trans-Saharan trade with North Africa. It was the last of the capitals of ...

EnglishPlace Names

Kumbi

archaeologsPlace Names

Ayutthaya

A town in south-central Thailand founded c 1350 by Ramathibodi I in his attempt to unify the countries of Siam and Lopburi. It became the capital of the powerful Thai kingdom of the same name for more than 400 years until its destruction by invading Myanmar in 1767. Much architecture, art, and li...