Configuration

The arrangement of decorative motifs on a vessel so as to fill a spatial division and form the design

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Configuration

Lake Mungo

A dry lake with an associated lunette in the Willandra Lakes, a complex of former Pleistocene lakes in western New South Wales, Australia. Excavation of the lunette has produced the best authenticated series of radiocarbon dates for the earliest evidence of man's occupation of Australia, and the ...

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Lake Mungo

Cultural Transformation

A change in the archaeological record resulting from later human behavior, such as digging a rubbish pit into earlier levels.

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Cultural Transformation

Lot System

A method of archaeological recordkeeping in which all artifacts and ecofacts found together in a single horizontally and vertically defined unit are combined into one group (lot) for the purposes of collection and analysis.

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Lot System

Mood

A blank for a knife that has not been hammered out.

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Mood

Bylany

A large village settlement of the Danubian culture in the loess lands of the Bohemian plain of Czechoslovakia. This large site had many phases of occupation, including by people who made stroke-ornamented pottery. There were timber-framed long houses in the three main phases of the Linear Pottery...

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Bylany

Taphonomy

The study of the transformation of organic remains after death to form fossil and archaeological remains. The study includes the processes that disturb and damage bones before, during, and after burial - burial, decay, and preservation. The term combines the Greek word for tomb or burial (taphos)...

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Taphonomy

Chou

The dynasty that ruled ancient China from 1122-256/255 BC), establishing the political and cultural characteristics that would be identified with China for the next 2,000 years. Some date the dynasty to 1027-1050 BC. The Chou coexisted with the Shang for many years, living just west of the Shang ...

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Chou

Basta, Tell

The site of a temple and town in the eastern Nile Delta, about 80 km northeast of Cairo which flourished from the 4th Dynasty to the end of the Roman period (c 2614 BC-AD 395). The main monument at the site is the red granite temple of the cat-goddess Bastet.

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Basta, Tell

Girth Beaker

A vertical-sided beaker, with horizontal bands of corrugations, cordons, or latticing. Of mid 1st century AD date. Some were Gallo-Belgic and others locally made in Britain. BUTT BEAKER.

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Girth Beaker

Mealing Bin

A small adobe- or stone-lined pit in which was placed a metate, used for grinding maize.

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Mealing Bin

Common Nail

General purpose heavy-duty type of nail used in construction and rough work, with large head that will not pull through

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Common Nail

Archaeological Method

Any of a variety of means used by archaeologists to find, recover, analyze, preserve, and describe the artifacts and other remains of past human activities.

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Archaeological Method

Pastoralist

An animal herder, esp. sheep or cattle.

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Pastoralist

Danilo

A Neolithic culture of the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and parts of Bosnia, dating to 4700-3900 BC. The site consists of large numbers of pits and post holes, whose associated material has been subdivided typologically into five phases. There are two associated pottery styles, painted in black and...

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Danilo

Lelang

One of the Han colonies established in the Korean peninsula, a Chinese commandery established in 108 BC. Lelang survived as an outpost of the Chinese empire until 313 AD. Tombs contained Han lacquers, bronze mirrors, and gold filigree work. Some of the lacquers carry dated inscriptions, the dates...

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Lelang

Cave Art

Any paintings, engravings, or designs on cave walls, man's oldest surviving art, especially those by Paleolithic and Pleistocene people that are found in southwest France, northeast Spain, and elsewhere in Europe. Other sites have been discovered in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the Ural mountains...

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Cave Art

Zemi

Religious spirits which were represented by idols of wood, stones, shell, and bones in the West Indies. Zemis are human or animal in form. Ceremonial centers, ball-courts, and caves are associated with the cult, which may have reached the islands from Mesoamerica. The Taino culture is famous for ...

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Zemi

Bead

A small, circular, tubular, or oblong ornament with a perforated center; usually made from shell, stone, bone, or glass.

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Bead

Problematic

Any object that presents a problem that an archaeologist admits they cannot solve.

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Problematic

Authentic

Not counterfeit or copied

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Authentic

Bias

Systematic overestimate or underestimate of a parameter or measurement.

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Bias

Cheekpiece

A plate or rod of bone, bronze, leather, or another metal that is attached to the lower rim of a helmet to protect the wearer's cheeks. It is also the name of an attachment from a horse bit to the reins, comprising a crescentic section of brow tine from a red deer's antler, perforated with a cent...

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Cheekpiece

Coil-Building

A method of pottery-making in which a rope of clay is coiled around a flat base and continued up to form the walls of a pot. The layers of clay are pressed together, and the inside and outside smoothed off to remove the lines between the coils. Frequently this is not done completely, and the coil...

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Coil-Building

Yiewsley

Site of a number of gravel pits in West Middlesex, England, with Lower Palaeolithic artifacts - from Clactonian tools to Acheulian bifaces and Levallois flakes and cores. It is dated to c 250,000-200,000 years ago. There are also Middle Palaeolithic / Mousterian levels with bout coupé-like biface...

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Yiewsley