Polonnaruwa

A town in north-central Sri Lanka (Ceylon), that was an ancient Ceylonese capital. Polonnaruwa became the residence of Ceylon's kings in 368 AD and succeeded Anuradhapura as the capital in the 8th century when the latter was captured by Tamils. The most impressive surviving monuments belong to th...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Polonnaruwa

Native Copper

Metallic copper found unadulterated in nature, especially in nuggets, which can be worked by hammering, cutting, and annealing.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Native Copper

Cultivation

The raising of plants by man for his use; deliberate propagation of a species primarily for its fruit, seed, leaf, or fiber. Cultivation greatly increased and stabilized man's food supply. The change from food gathering to food production has been called the Neolithic Revolution, and was one of t...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Cultivation

Pithecanthropus

The former genus name assigned to fossil hominids including Java man and Peking man, both now classified as Homo erectus.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Pithecanthropus

Harpoon Head

The arming tip of a harpoon. generally classifiable into 2 main forms - toggling and barbed - each of which may be composite or single-piece, and may or may not carry additional cutting-blades or side-blades. Always have line-guards or other means of line attachment.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Harpoon Head

Archaeology Of Cult

The study of the materials for changes in patterns in response to religious beliefs.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Archaeology Of Cult

Spit

A device to hold and rotate food against a heat source during cooking.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Spit

Crest

A distinctive device representing a family or corporate body, borne above the shield of a coat of arms (originally as worn on a helmet) or separately reproduced, for example on writing paper

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Crest

Motupore

A site on an offshore island near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, with an excavated sequence from 1100-1700 AD, ancestral to the present Austronesian-speaking Motu inhabitants of the region. The sequence documents the development of the specialized ethnographic Motu trading system, in which potte...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Motupore

Paiján

Preceramic tradition of the north and central coast highlands of Peru. The Paiján tradition probably postdates the Palaeoindian Fishtail Point tradition and its characteristic points are triangular with a long narrow stem. The tradition may have been the first to exploit maritime resources on the...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Paiján

Szakalhát-Lebo Group

Middle Neolithic culture of the Tisza River valley in southeast Hungary, succeeding the Alföld Linear Pottery and preceding the Tisza culture, between c 4100-3800 BC. The occupation includes a level with late Alföld Linear pottery and a level with Szakalhát pottery. The two main pottery decorativ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Szakalhát-Lebo Group

Mirgissa

Fortified site of the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC), located in Lower Nubia, at the northern end of the second cataract of the Nile. The site has been submerged beneath Lake Nasser since completion of Aswan High Dam in 1971. It was the major commercial center known in ancient times as Iken.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Mirgissa

Millares, Los

A walled township, with projecting bastions and four outlying forts, near the coast in Almeria, southeast Spain. The cemetery includes 100 megalithic bombs. The pottery, of the Millaran culture, consisted of plain ware, including troncoconic vessels and carinated forms, and also much decorated wa...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Millares, Los

Itazuke

An early agricultural village in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, that is the type site for Early Yayoi pottery. The site had extensive paddy field remains. The pottery was associated with wooden hoes and semilunar stone harvesting-knives. There are also Early Yayoi graves and Middle and Late Yayoi occ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Itazuke

Anvil Stone

A stone on which other stones or materials (such as food) are placed and crushed with a stone tool.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Anvil Stone

Gaza

A Palestinian site under modern Gaza; the southernmost city of the Philistine Pentapolis. Philistines, Egyptians, and 'Peoples of the Sea' occupied the site. The earliest evidence comes from two cemeteries, one to the north and one to the east of the main mound, with shaft graves containing potte...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Gaza

Slab Construction

A method of producing ceramics in which large flat slabs of clay are made and then joined and shaped into the desired item. A primary forming technique for the construction of large or rectilinear pottery vessels from flat pieces of the body that are joined along seams.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Slab Construction

Seriña, Serinya

Cave sites in Girona, Spain, occupied in the Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic, as well as the Magdalenian and Solutrean. Radiocarbon dates for the Upper Mousterian are c 40,400 bp and c 38,500 bp for the Aurignacian.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Seriña, Serinya

Photogrammetry

A technique for mapping of areas using photographs taken directly from above. Though used mainly in map-making, it can also be used for the planning of archaeological sites. For large-scale map-making the photographs are taken from the air, a sequence along each flight path with each exposure ove...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Photogrammetry

Foraging System

The movement of people to search for resources.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Foraging System

Incise

To make a cut or cuts in (a surface); to cut (a mark or decoration) into a surface.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Incise

Boundary Contour

Any of the surviving limits or extent of a unit of stratification, shown on plans and sections by hard lines.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Boundary Contour

Seasonality Of Occupation

The exploitation of different environments at different times of the year by the same group of people; an estimate of when during the year a particular archaeological site was occupied. Transhumance is one instance of this practice, where high pastureland is grazed in the summer. There was also e...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Seasonality Of Occupation

Grog Tempering

The addition of small pieces of crushed ceramic to the paste used in creating a ceramic object.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Grog Tempering

Matacapan

Site on the southern Gulf Coast of Mexico near the Tuxtla Mountains, with a sequence beginning in the Early Preclassic. Its Early Classic settlement was influenced by Teotihuacán and contains a barrio (neighborhood) in the Central Mexico architectural style and was part of the Teotihuacán trade n...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Matacapan