A circular, prehistoric religious enclosure constructed of wood or stones and enclosed by ditches, banks, and walls - and found only in the British Isles. Henge monuments are characteristic of the megalithic period in southern and eastern England in particular. To the west and north, henges often...
A Late Pre-Classic ceremonial site, at the southern end of ancient Lake Texcoco near Mexico City, that has the first stone monument (pyramid) on the Mexican plateau. Cuicuilco was one of the largest and most important centers of the period - possibly an early rival of Teotihuacan. Early large-sca...
The arranging of artifacts in logical classes and in chronological order
Major interval of geologic time extending from 540-245 million years ago. It is the first era of the Phanerozoic Eon. It is a geological era in the earth's history before the Mesozoic and after the Precambrian, marked by the development of fishes, land plants, insects, reptiles, and fernlike tree...
An Australian rock shelter at Cape York, with patinated Panaramitee-style paintings and engravings of humans, animals, tracks, and abstract motifs. Charcoal from occupation deposits covering wall engravings yielded radiocarbon dates between 10,000-13,000 bp. The shelter also contained the oldest ...
The extension of toponymy - place-name research - to the uninhabited places such as fields, small parts of forests. Hodonymy is the study of the names of streets, roads, etc. Hydronymy is the study of the names of bodies of water and oronymy concerns names of mountains.
Protective headgear that goes back almost as far as evidence for warfare. The basic function was to protect the head, face, and sometimes the neck from the cutting blows of swords, spears, arrows, and other weapons. The Assyrians and Persians had helmets of leather and iron, and the Greeks create...
In Egyptian religion, an amulet that conveyed freshness, youth, vigor, and the continuance of life to its wearer. It is also the name of the mighty columns erected at Karnak, 134 total, 12 of which formed the higher central aisle (76 feet /23 meters) of the hypostyle hall.
A basin site of former lakes in western Mali dating to 8000-9000 years ago.
The site of a Mycenaean tholos tomb in Laconia, Greece, dated to the 15th century BC and the style of magnificent gold cup found there. The popular shape was straight or slightly splayed walls widening to the rim, and a single handle. The form occurs in pottery from the Middle Minoan period (late...
A general term applied to collections of worked flint, stone, debitage, and associated raw material gathered up from the surface of ploughed fields or disturbed ground. Such collections range in size from a few dozen through to many thousands of pieces, and may have been collected from areas of a...
A term given to a distinctive type of large polished stone axe of middle Neolithic date made in the Lake District of northwest England. Also known as a ?Cumbrian-type' stone axe. The main features of a Cumbrian club are its large size (150-380mm long), broad-butted form, long, narrow proportions,...
Upper Palaeolithic site in western Slovakia with a Middle Pleistocene layer with some flakes, Middle Palaeolithic artifacts of sidescrapers and a laurel-leaf point, and artifacts of the Eastern Gravettian.
A New World metallurgical technique in which tumbaga (copper and gold alloy) metal artifacts wee treated with chemicals that removed much of the copper from the surface, leaving a finish that looks like pure gold.
The surface upon which the bulb of percussion occurs; another term for the entire ventral surface of an artifact
Any hoofed typically herbivorous quadruped mammal - ruminant, swine, camel, hippopotamus, horse, tapir, rhinoceros, elephant, or hyrax.
The general name for the Late Neolithic and Copper Age peoples who lived on the uplands of Languedoc, southern France, c 2500 BC, and who made pottery of the Ferrières and Fontbouisse styles.
An island in the Persian Gulf that has been identified with the ancient land of Dilmun (Telmun) of about 2000 BC, a prosperous trading center linking Sumeria with the Indus Valley. Written records of the archipelago exist in Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman sources. Burial mounds in the north ...
The way in which a society exploits its environment to procure food, including acquisition, distribution, and production. There are two broad types of subsistence: exploitation of wild plants and animals or of domesticated plants and animals. There are variations and combinations of these two typ...
A site overlooking the Congo River in Kinshasa, where the first stratigraphic succession of stone industries in central Africa was described. The are considered local variants of the Lupemban-Tshitolian sequence of west-central Africa. Although apparently stratified, the succession is now believe...
A bipointed object of bone (or other material) which was tied to a fishing line and caught in the fish's mouth
Falcon-headed god of war, usually represented with a headdress consisting of a sun-disc and two plumes. He was the god of the 4th Upper Egyptian nome, whose original capital of Hermonthis (modern Armant) was replaced by Thebes during the 11th Dynasty (2081-1939 BC). The cult is attested in Theban...
A barbed shoulder that has been fractured off or clipped.
A bell-shaped glass cover used, especially formerly, as a cloche
An attempt to delineate patterns in material culture over time and space
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