Dissociation

Peking Man

An obsolete name for a variety of Homo erectus found at Zhoukoudian cave (Choukoutien), southwest of Beijing (Peking). The braincase was thick, with a massive basal and occipital torus structure and heavy browridges. The remains of over 40 fossil humans were found there. These Chou-k'ou-tien foss...

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Peking Man

Floodwater Farming

A method of farming that recovers floodwater and diverts it to selected fields to supplement the water supply.

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Floodwater Farming

Nuzi

A provincial center with Old Akkadian, Old Assyrian, and Middle Assyrian/Hurrian levels ('Ubaid to Sassanian times), near Kirkuk (ancient Arrapha) in northern Mesopotamia (Iraq). A palace and private houses of the 15th-14th centuries BC were excavated and finds include some 20,000 Old Akkadian cl...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Nuzi

Denticulate

An artifact (flake or blade tool) with several small tooth-like (dentate or serrated) notches on the working edge.

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Denticulate

Iron

A ductile, malleable, magnetic metallic element, used to make artifacts of both practical and decorative function. Its oxide form, hematite, is found naturally and the technique of ironworking was mastered around 1500 BC by the Hittites. Iron began to spread and replace bronze for man's basic too...

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Iron

Andrae, Walter

A German scholar and archaeologist who excavated the major Mesopotamian city of Assur, capital of Assyria, between 1903-1914. His high-quality excavations exposed major buildings, including a series of temples of the Early Dynastic Period that pre-dated the Temple of Ishtar.

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Andrae, Walter

Conchoidal Flake

A type of spall resulting from the fracture of fine-grained, or glassy rocks. Characterized by a bulb of percussion, striking platform remnant, and extremely sharp edges. A predictable fracture pattern that allows the manufacture of Pre-determined tools from these materials.

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Conchoidal Flake

Cosmology

Any world view of a group or society that encompasses their understanding of their origins and existence, nature, and the universe

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Cosmology

Spouted Strainer

A type of bowl, usually biconical, having a projecting tubular spout with an internal strainer, probably used for wine.

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Spouted Strainer

Limes

The Latin word for "path" in ancient Rome the strip of open land along which troops advanced into unfriendly territory. The word therefore came to mean a Roman military road fortified with watchtowers and forts. Finally limes acquired the sense of frontier either natural or artificial; towers and...

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Limes

Imbrication

Covering with a design in which one element covers a part of another (as with tiles or shingles)

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Imbrication

De Vries Effects

Any fluctuation in the calibration curve produced by variations in the atmosphere's carbon-14 content, the result being calibration to more than one calendar age

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De Vries Effects

Casting Jet

A plug of metal which is knocked out after an artifact is cast and which fits exactly into the opening (aperture or gate) of a mold. When casting metal into a bivalve or composite mold, the aperture through which the metal is poured into the mold becomes filled up with molten metal, and this plug...

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Casting Jet

Mootwingee

A rich rock-art site near Broken Hill, western New South Wales, Australia. Human and animal figures in the Panaramitee style were engraved on rock surfaces. Other motifs include emus and eggs, kangaroos, sets of animal and human tracks, and radiating lines. Other finds include body part stencils ...

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Mootwingee

Nosed Scraper

Narrow blade tool with a convex working edge at one or both ends.

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Nosed Scraper

Khryashchi

Palaeolithic site on the Northern Donets River in Russia dating to the late Middle Pleistocene. The artifacts include flake and core tools.

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Khryashchi

Open Mold

An early and simple mold developed for casting metal tools and weapons and, later, glass and brick. It consisted of a single block of stone, or occasionally clay, with the shape of the required artifact cut into it. Only very simple objects can be cast in this way, especially when one surface mus...

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Open Mold

Sculpture

An art form including all carved work in wood, ivory, stone, marble, metal, or other material and those works formed in a softer material not requiring carving, such as wax or clay. It includes statuary, carved ornament, glyptics, incised gems, and cameos. The most ancient specimens are carved of...

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Sculpture

Tlapacoya

Site in central Mexico on ancient Lake Chalco with human remains dated to 21,000 BC. The site has produced important archaeological information from several different periods, and environmental data from the Pleistocene onwards. There are chipped stone tools with radiocarbon dates of c 22-20,000 ...

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Tlapacoya

Oblazowa

Upper Palaeolithic cave site in southern Poland on the Bialka River. Artifacts include an endscraper, blades, and polished woolly mammoth tusk.

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Oblazowa

Scratched Decoration

Pottery decoration in which lines are drawn with a hard point, probably of flint, on a burnished surface after the pot has been baked. A thin but characteristically ragged line results, providing for the inlay of ochre or plaster. The technique was used widely, notably in the Neolithic of Italy (...

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Scratched Decoration

Brazing

A method of joining one piece of metal to another by making both red-hot so that the metal fuses

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Brazing

Pollen Diagram

A diagram produced after the analysis of the pollen from a column of peat or other soil. Pollen diagrams consist of a number of graphs, showing the fluctuations of different pollen types through a sediment or soil. The vertical axis of the diagram represents depth through the deposit and is there...

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Pollen Diagram

Ziggurat

A rectangular stepped temple tower in which each story is smaller than the one below, leaving a terrace around each floor - characteristic of Sumerian, Assyrian, Elamite, and Babylonian architecture. It is thought to symbolize a mountain; the tower was the high place of the god, the link between ...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Ziggurat

Mokkan

In Japan, wooden tablets from the Han dynasty Chinese sites. There were used for keeping track of taxes, work, etc. and have there are thousands in the Heijo Palace and other administrative offices. The United Silla of Korea and Ritsuryo state in Japan, c 8th century AD, adopted their use.

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