Marbled Ware

Pottery patterned with veins or streaks or color resembling marble

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Marbled Ware

Acute

In lithics, severe short angles coming to a sharp point.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Acute

Bann Flake

A term variously used by different authorities, but at its minimum it is simply a kind of leaf-shaped flake found widely amongst the later Mesolithic assemblages of Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, one component of the BANN CULTURE. More strictly, Peter Woodman defines them as large flakes h...

archaeologsEnglishArtifacts

Bann Flake

Relic

Any object surviving from an earlier culture, especially a valuable or symbolic object. In religion, a relic is the mortal remains of a saint and includes any object that has been in contact with the saint. Christianity was governed throughout the Middle Ages by the belief that spiritual virtue c...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Relic

Use

The third stage of behavioral processes, in which artifacts are utilized (the others being acquisition, manufacture, and, later deposition).

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Use

Korucu Tepe

Mound of the Altinova plain of eastern Anatolia where 12 phases of occupation began with the Early Chalcolithic, c 4500 BC. The Korucu sequence, which runs to the Early Iron Age c 800 BC, is used for regional comparative chronology. There is some connection with the Halaf and Kura-Araxes cultures...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Korucu Tepe

Area Excavation

A method of excavation in which the full horizontal extent of a site is cleared and large areas are open while preserving a stratigraphic record in the balks between large squares. A gradual vertical probe may then take place. This method is often used to uncover houses and prehistoric settlement...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Area Excavation

Rongorongo

The ancient script of Easter Island, carved in boustrophedon fashion on wooden boards. The script has about 120 pictographic symbols and has not been deciphered or traced to any specific outside source. It survives on 29 pieces of wood. It may be indigenous to the island and could even be of post...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Rongorongo

Mumba-Höhle

Rock shelter in northern Tanzania, a deeply stratified site spanning much of the last 125,000 years. It contains material from the Middle Stone Age to the Iron Age.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Mumba-Höhle

Neoanthropus

The Greek name for the major group to which Homo sapiens belongs as opposed to Paleoanthropus (paleos = old) to which Homo Neanderthalensis, Pithecanthropus erectus, and Sinanthropus belong. Neoanthropus developed in Africa, later in Asia.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Neoanthropus

Block Approach

An excavation strategy in which archaeologists open a large area of soil at one time, excavating down the whole block at once - either by arbitrary levels or by cultural strata defined by a sounding.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Block Approach

Nodule

A hard mass of mineral, usually rounded, found in various forms in soil created by the deposition of minerals from solution. The way nodules are formed can assist in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and the age of the conditions under which they formed. Nodules are often elongate with a knobby ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Nodule

Epichysis

A Greek or Roman wine pot or vessel with a long neck and handle, used for pouring wine into cups.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Epichysis

Malaysia

A country of Southeast Asia, composed of two noncontiguous regions - peninsular (West) Malaysia and East Malaysia. It has been inhabited for at least 6,000 to 8,000 years. There was a Pleistocene assemblage (Kota Tampan), but the first coherent and widespread industry is the Hoabinhian (Gua Cha, ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Malaysia

Lébous

A Chalcolithic settlement in St.-Mathieu-de-Tréviers, Hérault, France which was a fortified village of the Copper Age Fontbouïsse people. The site is surrounded by a stone wall with towers at intervals, and has a radiocarbon date of 2410 +/- 250 BC.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Lébous

Direct Acquisition

A form of trade in which a person or group procures raw material directly from a source area or trades for it or finished products

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Direct Acquisition

Chichimec

A collective name applied to various barbarian tribes who invaded the valley of central Mexico from the northwest from c 7th-13th century AD in periodic waves and migrations. The Aztec, or Mexica, were one of the competing Chichimec tribes. Some of these groups, who may have been farmers, may hav...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Chichimec

Palisade

A continuous wall or fence of stakes, especially for defense; a series of long strong stakes pointed at the top and set close with others as a defense. They were usually set in a continuous foundation trench or on the tops of vallums, embankments, or ramparts surrounding a fort.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Palisade

Pompeii

A Roman town lying at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, Italy, which was covered with volcanic ash in an eruption in 79 AD. Much of the town has been uncovered since excavations began in the mid-18th century. The uncovering of the city offers much evidence for prosperous provincial urban li...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Pompeii

Gley Horizon

A soil horizon characterized by blue, gray, or olive coloring due to excessive moisture in anaerobic conditions; a waterlogging of soil. Gleying may result from a raised water table or from impeded drainage within the soil profile; the latter condition occurs in some podzols. Gley horizons and gl...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gley Horizon

Xtent Modeling

Technique used to generate a settlement hierarchy which assigns territories to centers based on their scale, assuming that the size of each center is directly proportional to its area of influence. It is said that it overcomes the limitations of both central place theory and Thiessen polygons and...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Xtent Modeling

Casting Seam

The place where a small amount of molten metal will run into the joint between the surfaces of the parts of the casting mold. In a bivalve or composite mold, this seepage results in a visible seam when the object is removed from the mold. It is usually filled and polished off; unfinished objects ...

archaeologsEnglishNumismatics

Casting Seam

Minim

Type of small Roman coin of low value that first appeared in the 3rd century AD and continued to be minted through into the 4th century AD. The word is simply a Latinized equivalent of ?the smallest'; it is not known what the coins were called in Roman times.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Minim

Meroe

A site in Upper Nubia, a city-state in the Sudan which succeeded Napata (original capital of kingdom of Kush/Cush) as the capital of a vigorous state flourishing from 750 BC-350 AD. The 25th, or Ethiopian dynasty of ancient Egypt is believed to have retired to Kush after 656 BC and established it...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Meroe

Protosesklo

A term used for the Greek Early Neolithic period or the Early Neolithic in Thessaly.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Protosesklo