Tambo Viejo

Tasian

Possibly the oldest-known cultural phase in Upper Egypt, c 4500 BC, known from evidence on the east bank of the Nile River at al-Badari and at Deir Tasa. A settlement of primitive farmers, it is now regarded as at best a local variant of the Badarian culture.

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Tasian

Chimú

South American Indians who created the largest and most important political system in Peru before the Inca, and who developed large-scale irrigation systems. The distinctive pottery of the Chimú aids in dating Andean civilization in the late periods along the north coast of Peru. The black potter...

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Chimú

Dogu

A type of clay figurine, most often depicting a pregnant female, made in Japan during the Jomon period, c 5th-4th millennium to c 250 BC. The function of these figurines is unknown, but it is generally believed that they were some kind of fertility symbol and they are reminiscent of the rigidly f...

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Dogu

Al Mina

A site on the coast of Syria near the mouth of the Orontes River that was a Greek settlement before the end of the 9th century BC and may have been Poseideion. Material from the 8th-4th centuries BC has been found, indicating further links between Greece and the Near East. Al Mina was sacked and ...

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Al Mina

Ganj Dareh, Tepe

A small mound in the Kermanshah region of western Iran, which has yielded five occupation levels with radiocarbon dates ranging from 8400-6800 BC. The lowest level had no permanent architecture, only shallow pits and hollows. The next level had mud-brick structures, mostly very small adjoining cu...

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Ganj Dareh, Tepe

Poznan

A city in west-central, one of the centers of the early Polish kingdom established under Mieszko I during the second half of the 10th century. Beginning as a small stronghold in the 9th century, Poznan became the capital of Poland (with Gniezno) and the residence of Poland's first two sovereigns....

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Poznan

Macneish, Richard Scotty

American archaeologist who pioneered research on the evolution of agriculture and who studied the study of the earliest human migrations into the New World. He suggested a human presence as early as 15,000 BC in the Ayacucho Basin, which would correspond to the traditional first wave of immigrant...

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Macneish, Richard Scotty

Spaulding, Albert Clinton

American archaeologist who contributed to the development of modern theory, especially processual archaeology. He advocated the adoption of scientific and quantitative methods.

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Spaulding, Albert Clinton

Canario

The name of a site, culture, and people in the Canary Islands. The population is thought to have been of Cro-Magnon origin and may possibly have come from central and southern Europe via northern Africa. . They left alphabet-like engravings and characters whose meanings are obscure This aborigina...

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Canario

Trizonoporate

A grain of pollen having three pores equidistant around the circumference (axis) of the grain, as in birch.

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Trizonoporate

Kansyore Ware

A comb-stamped pottery found at several pre-Iron Age sites around Lake Victoria in East Africa in the first millennium BC. The makers of Kansyore ware appear to have been hunter-gatherers, makers of a backed microlith industry.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Kansyore Ware

Howiesonspoort

A Middle Stone Age industry of southern Africa's Cape Province. It is characterized by the appearance of small blades, standardized backed tools (e.g. segments), and some unifacial and bifacial points at a time when most stone industries were still based upon the production of flakes struck from ...

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Howiesonspoort

Shechem

Palestinian site and biblical city with its most important period of occupation in the Middle Bronze Age c 17th century BC, when it was given a great insloping wall of Cyclopean masonry. To the same period belongs a stone plaque bearing one of the earliest known alphabetic inscriptions. The town ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Shechem

Chondwe

Early Iron Age site in Zambia, dating to the 4th-5th centuries AD. There is evidence linking it with the Lusaka area and other areas to the west, for small-scale exploitation of the region's copper deposits, and some regional trade.

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Chondwe

Developed Oldowan

A series of Early Stone Age industries of the Oldowan Industrial Complex seen at Olduvai Gorge and other African sites, dating c 1.6-0.6 million years ago. They differ from the classic Oldowan industry in the types of stone artifacts.

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Developed Oldowan

Gladkaia I

A Neolithic occupation site in eastern Siberia, dating to c 2nd millennium BC. The population of Gladkaia I lived by hunting and fishing and used pottery and tools made of obsidian.

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Gladkaia I

Beringian Tradition

A culture in existence approximately 12,000 years ago between Siberia and temperate Alaska. The term was used by H. West to cover various Alaskan and Siberian archaeological formations which had developed from the Siberian Upper Paleolithic period, an area now largely submerged under the Bering S...

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Beringian Tradition

Longhouse

In Neolithic times, an elongated (oblong) wooden post house that appeared in central Europe with the first farming communities within the Early Neolithic Bandkeramik cultures, about 4500-3000 BC, as well as the later Iron Age, about 100 BC-500 AD, of north-central Europe. It also applies to the L...

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Longhouse

Astronomy

Most ancient civilizations studied the skies for astronomical knowledge. Ancient astronomy has been studied by archaeologists in prehistoric Europe through monuments and in Central America through inscriptions and documents. Studies of prehistoric astronomy in Europe have concentrated on the mega...

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Astronomy

Thessalonica

Macedonian and Roman city and port in north of Greece. In Roman times, it was the capital of the province of Macedonia and it was very important in Byzantine times. Churches and monuments are among its ruins.

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Thessalonica

Matenbek

Limestone shelter near Matenkupkum, Bismarck Archipelago, Melanesia, with occupation from c 19,000 bp. A later occupation began c 8000 bp. Obsidian from Talasea appears as well as phalanger (possum) introduced during the Pleistocene.

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Matenbek

Dabar Kot

A large tell site in the Loralai Valley in north Baluchistan, Pakistan. It was a trading post of the Indus civilization, probably occupied first from the 5th millennium BC; later occupied by other cultures. The later levels have produced material of Harappan type associated with local artifacts s...

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Dabar Kot

Elko Point

Large, roughly triangular-shaped chipped stone points with concave, straight, or slightly concave bases. Two main forms are known: those with corner notches on the base and those with ?ears' on the base. Dated to the period 1300 BC to AD 700 among Desert Archaic Stage communities of the Great Bas...

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Elko Point

Birefringence

The difference between the indices of refraction of the fast ray and slow ray as light passes through an anisotropic mineral, causing the velocities of the two light components, oscillating at right angles to one another, to differ.

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Birefringence

Grinder

A tool, machine, etc. used for grinding something

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