Downdraft Kiln

Abu Salabikh, Tell

A site of southern Mesopotamia with evidence of the Early Dynastic III and Uurk times. Many texts, including the earliest-known literary works of Sumerian literature. I.J. Gelb proposed the name 'Kish civilization' to identify this culture of the mid-3rd millennium.

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Abu Salabikh, Tell

Ethnography

The description and analysis of contemporary cultures, which is based almost entirely on in-depth fieldwork. The formulating of generalizations about culture and the drawing of comparisons are components of ethnography. It is part of the subdiscipline of cultural anthropology. An important techni...

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Ethnography

Lute

To join together two leather-hard pieces of a vessel by using slip as a glue

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Lute

Karnak

A huge complex of religious buildings in the northern part of Thebes, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt (modern Luxor), with a great temple to Amen (Amon) and a series of subsidiary structures. Recent excavations indicate that occupation began in the Gerzean period (c 3200 BC), when a small sett...

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Karnak

Catastrophe Theory

A mathematical theory and branch of geometry which demonstrates ways in which a system can undergo sudden large changes as one or more of the variables that control it are continuously changed. I.e., the theory explains change through a succession of sudden catastrophes. A small change in one var...

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Catastrophe Theory

Chinampa

A system of cultivation on small, stationary, artificial islands made of vegetation and mud in shallow freshwater lakes, created in the Valley of Mexico (Xochimilco). These very fertile fields were created by massive Aztec reclamation projects and consisted of little islands, each averaging 6 to ...

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Chinampa

Magadha

Ancient kingdom of India, situated in what is now west-central Bihar state, in northeastern India, in a strategic position in the Ganges River valley. It was the nucleus of several larger kingdoms or empires between the 6th century BC and the 8th century AD. It first flourished under Chandragupta...

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Magadha

Secondary Beams

Roof construction beams that rest on the primary beams and span the distances between the primary beams or between the primary beams and the walls of the structure.

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Secondary Beams

Chandoli

A site in southern India occupied in the 2nd millennium BC. Ground stone axes, copper flat axes and antenna swords/daggers, and pottery of Malwa type have been found as well as urn burials.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Chandoli

Machang

Late Neolithic culture of northwestern China belonging to the western or Gansu branch of the Yangshao Neolithic. It was contemporaneous with Longshan cultures of the east dating to 2800-1800 BC and seems to be a late stage or outgrowth of the Banshan culture and precedes Qijia. Machang pottery is...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Machang

Citadel

A stronghold; any strongly fortified structure, especially within a city.

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Citadel

Charcoal Identification

A method of studying charcoal, frequently found in archaeological contexts, to identify the type of tree from which it came. Charcoal is partly burned ('charred') wood, consisting mostly of carbon, sometimes found in situ as burned timbers of buildings and other structures or in hearths, but more...

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Charcoal Identification

Hittite

A people of obscure origin who infiltrated Anatolia and the Levant from the north during the later 3rd millennium BC. In the Old Kingdom (c 1750-1450) they established a state in central Turkey with its capital first at Kussara, then at Boghazköy. They overran north Syria c 1600 and pushed on as ...

archaeologsEnglishNations

Hittite

Petrography

The description and systematic classification of rocks.

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Petrography

Surface Archaeology

The recovery and analysis of unburied artifacts.

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Surface Archaeology

Academy

In ancient Greece, the academy or college of philosophy developed by Socrates and Plato, located just northwest of Athens. Plato acquired property there about 387 BC and used it as a training ground and to teach. At the site had been a park and gymnasium sacred to the legendary Attic hero Academu...

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Academy

Anachronistic

Pertaining to the representation of something as existing or occurring at other than in its proper time, particularly earlier, and involving or containing anything out of its proper time.

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Anachronistic

Puna

The highest ecozone of the Andes, where camelids are herded and wild camelids are hunted. There is little agriculture and few permanent settlements. Remains of Preceramic hunter-gatherer groups have been found widely.

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Puna

Prepalatial

In Minoan Crete, the period before the construction of the palaces, a part of the chronological system for the area devised by Platon. It is the same as Early Minoan I-III, c 3000-2000 BC, in traditional chronology.

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Prepalatial

Lyon Ware

Fine color-coated cups and beakers with rough-cast appliqué or rusticated decoration. Made at Lyon in France, and imported to other parts of the Roman empire (mainly for military markets) from c. AD 43 through to c. AD 70.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Lyon Ware

Attritional Bone Profile

The plotting of the age and sex of animal bones, which suggests that younger and old members of herds were killed, as well as scavenging or selective hunting by humans or other predators.

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Attritional Bone Profile

Bored Stone

A rounded stone of various sizes with a bored hole in the middle, found in central and southern Africa and dating back 40,000 years. Some were used as weights on digging sticks.

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Bored Stone

Kom Ombo

The site of a unique double temple of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, which is dedicated to Sebek (Suchos), the crocodile god, and to Horus, the falcon-headed god. Ombos was important for its strategic location, commanding both the Nile River and the routes from Nubia northward to the Nile River...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Kom Ombo

Candi

Late 1st millennium-early 2nd millennium AD funerary temples in Java in which Hindu and Buddhist religions were combined with local cults.

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Candi

Closed Find

A group of artifacts which is in its original depositional context, e.g. the artifacts recovered from a ceremonial offering.

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