Circumscription

Fossil Ice Wedge

A soil feature caused when the ground freezes and contracts, opening up fissures in the permafrost that fill with wedges of ice. The fossil wedges are proof of past cooling of climate and of the depth of permafrost. Foliated ground ice, or wedge ice, is the term for large masses of ice growing in...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Fossil Ice Wedge

Partially Cortical Flake

A flake possessing some cortex on its dorsal aspect.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Partially Cortical Flake

Heuristic

Pertaining to, involving, or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Heuristic

Fusible Clay

Clay capable of being melted and fused

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Fusible Clay

Opus Quadratum

A Roman construction technique using squared blocks, the equivalent of ashlar masonry. It was ordinary stone walling and was used as a facing especially for important public buildings under the earlier empire - for example, the exterior of the Colosseum. They were fairly large squared blocks laid...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Opus Quadratum

Lisht, El-

Royal necropolis of Egypt's earliest 12th Dynasty rulers, Amenemhat I and Senwosret (Senusret/Sesostris) I (c 1985-1920 BC), located on the west bank of the Nile, about 50 km south of Cairo. It was close to the now unknown capital of the time, Iti-Tawy (Itj-towy). Found in Senwosret's pyramid com...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Lisht, El-

Vernacular Architecture

Buildings belonging to the middle and lower end of the social scale which fall into three main categories - domestic, agricultural and industrial - and which are characteristic of a period, place, or group. Building styles that remain common over a period of time to a particular place.

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Vernacular Architecture

Flagon

A vessel with a narrow neck, globular body, one or more handles and often a footring, used for holding liquids. Its production was usually confined to specialist manufacturers.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Flagon

Late Period

A phase of Egyptian history, c 664-332 BC comprising the 26th-31st Dynasties, stretching from the end of the Third Intermediate Period to the arrival of Alexander the Great. Shabaqo (716-702 BC), the second ruler of the Kushite 25th Dynasty, exerted Nubian influence by moving the administrative c...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Late Period

Les Eyzies

Village near the center of the Dordogne, southwest France, the site of many Palaeolithic cave and rock shelter sites left by prehistoric man in the limestone zone called the Perigord. The chateau and National Museum contain many important finds and underneath it there is a small Magdalenian and A...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Les Eyzies

Ibex

A sturdy wild goat of the mountains of Europe, Asia, and northeast Africa with large, recurved horns and a beard. They were often depicted by Upper Paleolithic artists.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Ibex

Bellarmine

A capacious round-bellied jug or pitcher bearing a grotesque human mask. Originally created in the Netherlands as a burlesque likeness of Cardinal Bellarmine, the idea spread widely and the term later became applied to any jug bearing a human mask.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Bellarmine

Translucent

Chipped material that transmits a certain amount of light, usually indicating high quality

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Translucent

La Marche

Palaeolithic cave site in the Vienne region of France with more than 1500 engraved stone slabs with figures of humans and animals. It has been dated to 14,280 bp, early mid-Magdalenian.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

La Marche

Proximal

The part of a long bone (arm or leg) which is nearest the body; the opposite end is the distal. The term also means close to the center or to the point of attachment and can refer to geological features as well as anatomical features.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Proximal

Huacaloma

An Initial Period and Early Horizon site in the Cajamarca region of Peru. The ceremonial architecture reached its climax in the late Early Horizon and Early Intermediate periods.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Huacaloma

Descent Reckoning

The rules by which people in a particular culture determine membership in defined kin groups.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Descent Reckoning

Pyramidion

The capstone of a pyramid or top of an obelisk. The pyramidion was decorated and became a symbolic object in its own right, being used also on the small brick pyramids of private tombs of the New Kingdom.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Pyramidion

Natural Selection

The mechanism that leads to differential survival and reproduction of those individuals suited to a given environment in contrast to other less well adapted. It is the process that results in the adaptation of an organism to its environment by means of selectively reproducing changes in its genot...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Natural Selection

Technofact

An artifact that was used for a practical function, such as providing food, shelter, or defense, rather than connected to social or ideological activity. The term is also more generally applied to archaeological data resulting from past technological activities.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Technofact

Seibal

A Lowland Maya center located in south-central Petén, Guatemala. The site was occupied as early as 800 BC, expanded in size and importance in Preclassic period, and was at its height in the Late Classic, 770-900 AD, while rest of Maya civilization was declining. Archaeologists think that influx o...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Seibal

Previous Scar

A blade or flake scar seen on the face of a blade or flake resulting form the initial removal of a blade or a flake from a core or nodule.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Previous Scar

Kemet

A name used by the ancient Egyptians in referring to Egypt itself. The literal meaning of Kemet is 'black land', a reference to the fertile Nile silt which was annually spread across the land by the inundation.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Kemet

Hagia Triada

DEFINITION: A Minoan palace in southern Crete, built c 2200 BC and inhabited until its destruction c 1450 BC. Connected by road to the palace at Phaestus, one room contained numerous clay tablets with Linear A inscriptions. The small town around it continued later, and it is to Late Minoan III th...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Hagia Triada

Parallel

A second, and presumed significant, occurrence of a trait under consideration, implying derivation or contact; a secondary occurrence similar enough to show resemblance.

archaeologsEnglishOthers