Kwale

Site in southeast Kenya which has given its name to the Early Iron Age industry of that area and northern Tanzania. It was a branch of the Eastern Stream or Urewe tradition of the Chifumbaze Early Iron Age complex, starting in the 2nd century AD. The highly characteristic pottery, Kwale ware, occ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kwale

Lancet

A pointed two-edged surgical knife.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Lancet

Spiral Fracture

Type of bone fracture where the breakage curves along and around the shaft. It is seen by some specialists as diagnostic of human use of bones for tools.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Spiral Fracture

Susuya

Site in southern Sakhalin, eastern Russia, an island off the coast of Siberia, dating to the last few centuries BC-first few centuries AD. It was the first appearance in that area of a true maritime economy of sea-mammal hunters using efficient harpoons. It is probably a settlement of a group com...

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Susuya

Apamea

A city in Hellenistic Phrygia on the Orontes River, partly covered by modern Dinar. Originally a Macedonian colony founded by Antiochus I Soter in the 3rd century BC, it became a Seleucid city superseding Celaenae and commanding the east-west trade route of the Empire. In the 2nd century BC, Apam...

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Apamea

Castle

A medieval European structure, generally the residence of a king or a lord of the territory. The word 'castle' is derived from Latin 'castellum', a fortified camp, and there are various linguistic forms, including chateau, castello, castrum, and burg. These medieval strongholds developed rapidly ...

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Castle

Quimbaya

A late prehistoric culture of western Colombia, South America, dated 300-1600 AD. It is known for its fine goldwork - flasks, helmets, jewelry, pins, etc. It represents some of the most advanced metallurgical techniques in the prehistoric New World. Pottery with negative painting and incision, an...

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Quimbaya

Daga

A puddled clay used to plaster the walls and floors of houses in the Iron Age settlements of sub-Saharan Africa.

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Daga

Thunderbird

Palaeoindian and Archaic campsites at Flint Run, Virginia, with a long-exploited jasper quarry. Core fragments, flakes, and broken or preformed tools show a large flint knapping industry. Occupations began in Clovis times through the Archaic. Postholes in association with living floors dated to c...

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Thunderbird

Barnenez

A Neolithic site in Brittany with radiocarbon dates in the 5th millennium BC. It consists of two long cairns, one with 11 passage graves placed side by side. They display a range of architectural techniques, using both large megalithic slabs and drystone walling; some chambers had corbelled vault...

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Barnenez

Childe, Vere Gordon

Australian-born British historian whose study of European prehistory in the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC brought his development of the diffusionist theory which was to explain the relationship between Europe and the Middle East. Childe introduced the concept of the archaeological culture. The Diffus...

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Childe, Vere Gordon

Phimai

Moated settlement in the Mun Valley, Khorat, Thailand, occupied before 600 BC. It became a major ironworking and trading center between c 200 BC-300 AD. Phimai Black Pottery is found in large quantities. A temple made of sandstone was built by the Khmer kings Jayavarman VI (1080-1107) and Dharani...

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Phimai

Trench

A long test pit.

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Trench

Categorization

An aspect of the classification process that consists of creating groupings within a previously unclassified set of objects

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Categorization

Cerny

An Early Neolithic culture of the Paris and Loire regions of France, c 4400-4000 BC. Cerny followed Villeneuve-St.-Germain and preceded the Chasséen. It was characterized by round-based vessels with impressed decoration or applied cordons.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Cerny

Caatinga

A type of forest consisting of dry, thorny shrubs and stunted deciduous trees found in Brazil, especially in the northeast.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Caatinga

Rinaldone

A cemetery in Lazio, Italy, the type site of a Copper Age culture lying between those of Remedello and Gaudo, and showing some connections with both. There are collective burials in rock-cut tombs or single or collective burials in trench graves - with crouched skeletons, pottery; flat copper axe...

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Rinaldone

Quinquereme

A Roman and Hellenistic warship which was larger and more powerful than its predecessor, the trireme. Quinqueremis is a galley with five banks of oars

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Quinquereme

Technofunction

The use of an artifact for practical purposes; e.g., garments offering warmth or protection.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Technofunction

Khor Musa

A site of Middle Palaeolithic occupation in the southern Nile Valley of Egypt in the Second Cataract. It has given its name to the final phase of the Nubian 'Middle Stone Age' for other sites close to the River Nile and contemporary with, or following, the Aterian. The site had Levallois flakes, ...

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Khor Musa

Kinai

Core region of Honshu island, Japan, consisting of Yamato, Kawachi, Izumi, Settsu, and Yamashiro - which now make up parts of Nara, Osaka, and Kyoto prefectures.

archaeologsEnglishRegions

Kinai

Lusterware

Pottery decorated by applying to the glaze metallic compounds which become iridescent metallic films during firing.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Lusterware

Kalomo

A Late Iron Age industry in southern Zambia, dating from the end of the 9th till the 13th century AD. The industry probably developed from an Early Iron Age ancestor in the valley and spread to the plateau. The people were subsistence farmers, herding cattle and small stock, cultivating a variety...

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Kalomo

Basket

A container that is usually woven and may have handles

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Basket

Collateral Flaking

When flakes on a chipped stone artifact extend to the middle from both edges forming a medial ridge. The flakes are at right angles to the longitudinal axis, and regular and uniform in size.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Collateral Flaking