Categories - Archaeologs

Ancient Pottery

Sacred Ceremonies

Ancient Languages

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Lerna

Coastal settlement in the Argolid, eastern Peloponnese (southern Greece) occupied in the Neolithic period and the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The Neolithic settlement was followed by a break in occupation and then the site was reoccupied in the Early Helladic II phase, c3000 bc. At this stage it...

Leptolithic

It is well known that blades and blade tools, especially end scrapers, burins and backed blades, are typical of the Upper Palaeolithic. The term Leptolithic has sometimes been used specifically to refer to this type of stone technology, without any necessary implication of age or evolutionary pos...

Leptis Magna

[also Lepcis (from Punic Lpdy or Lpqy)\. Principal city of Roman North Africa in Libya, particularly well-preserved after its 7th-century decline by the intrusion of the desert sand. It was known to imperial Rome as the birthplace of the Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211) whose Latin was apparent...

EnglishAncient Cities

Lepsius

(1810-84). Outstanding German Egyptologist of the 19th century. He followed up the lead of Champollion with further work on the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. He also worked in the field and between 1842 and 1855 led an expedition to record the monuments of Egypt and Nubia. The re...

Lepsius

archaeologsOthers

Lepenski Vir

A hunter-fisher-gatherer site in the Iron Gates gorge of the River Danube, on the right (Yugoslav) bank. Excavated by D. Srejovic, this site produced a three-level stratigraphy. I-II were Mesolithic levels, dated c5400-4600 be, with trapezoidal houses (often with red plastered floors), stone hear...

Leopards Kopje

(Nthabazingwe]. site near Khami, southwestern Zimbabwe. The name was formerly given to the greater part of the local Iron Age sequence, which was believed to reflect a process of internal development. However, recent research has shown that this sequence, like those in neighbouring areas, include...

Leopards Kopje

archaeologsOthers

Leopards Hill

Cave in south-central Zambia, east of Lusaka. The dated sequence covers the whole timespan of the south-central African microlithic industries, from their appearance <20,000 be, through a Nachi-kufan I phase and successive stages, to the appearance of the local Early Iron Age in about the 5th cen...

Lengyel

The type site for a widespread Late Neolithic culture of the 4th millennium be, distributed from central Hungary to western Austria and from southern Poland to Srem in Yugoslavia. The Lengyel culture is divided into two main phases: the Painted Lengyel, defined by white, red and yellow crusted wa...

Le Moustier

The type locality of the Mous-terian ‘epoch’ or Middle Palaeolithic, situated on the Vezere River in the Dordogne, southwest France. Upper Palaeolithic levels cover the Mousterian levels in both the classic shelter and the lower shelter. From the lower shelter came a Neanderthal skeleton of nearl...

Le Lazaret

Cave on the coast close to Nice in southern France, with a considerable thickness of deposits from before the last interglacial, with Acheulian tools and interspersed beach deposits. A human skull fragment is known, and it has been claimed that a hut was constructed inside the cave.

Lelang

[Lo-lang; Korean: Nangnang]. A Chinese commandery, located at modem P’ydngyang, established after the Han conquest of the Korean state of Choson in 108 bc. Lelang survived as an outpost of the Chinese empire until ad 313. Tombs excavated by Japanese archaeologists on the outskirts of the city con...

Leland

(1506-52). British antiquary. In his official capacity as King’s Antiquary (a post which unfortunately did not outlive its first and only holder) Leland toured England and Wales describing places of antiquarian interest, including prominent prehistoric sites.

Leland

archaeologsOthers

Leiwen

[lei-wen]. A cast background pattern of fine spirals, round or angular, used to set off the motifs in the decoration of Chinese bronze ritual vessels, chiefly those of the Anyang and Western Zhou periods (i.e. cl3th-9th centuries bc). See taotie.

EnglishAncient Pottery, Artifacts

Leiwen

archaeologsAncient Pottery, Artifacts

Lehringen

A site near Bremen in north Germany, where organic muds have revealed In these muds, a yew wood spear 2.4 metres long and broken into several pieces was found. It passed between the ribs of the skeleton of an elephant of Elephas antiquus type. The tip was finely shaved to a point and hardened in ...

EnglishPlace Names

Legion

The principal organizational unit of the Roman army, composed of Roman citizens. The legion changed size and character over the Roman period, ranging from a unit of 3,000 with a property qualification under the early kings, to one of6,000 in the final century of the Republic. Numbers changed agai...

Leczyic

SccOpole.

Leczyic

archaeologsOthers

Lebous

A settlement site of the Copper Age Fontbouisse culture in Herault, southern France, dated to the early 2nd millennium bc (mid-3rd millennium bc). The settlement was enclosed by a dry-stone wall, set with circular towers at regular intervals. It was once interpreted as a colony from the Aegean (a...

EnglishPlace Names

Lebous

archaeologsPlace Names

Leang Tuwo Mane’E

A coral limestone rock shelter on the coast of Karakellang, Talaud Islands, northeastern Indonesia, which has produced a preceramic small blade industry (c3000 bc), followed by the appearance of a Neolithic assemblage by about 2000 bc, probably introduced from the Philippines.

Leang Tuwo Mane’E

archaeologsOthers

Leang Burung

Two rock shelters in the Maros region of southwestern Sulawesi, Indonesia. Shelter 1 has produced a late Toalian assemblage with microliths, Maros points, and pottery, which dates to the 2nd and 1st millennia bc. However, Shelter 2 produced a much older stone tool assemblage, with possible early ...

Leakey

(1903-72). A Kenyan-bom British archaeologist and palaeontologist, who devoted most of his life to unearthing early hominid fossils in east Africa, especially at the site of Olduvai Gorge. Among the important fossils found there were those of Australopithecus boisei (formerly Zinjanthropus) and H...

Leakey

archaeologsOthers

Lead Glaze

The most ubiquitous type of glaze found on medieval European pottery. The process was invented by the Romans, and involves either dusting the unfired vessel with galena (lead ore) or dipping it into a mixture of lead ore and water. Ilie glaze fuses in one firing. Lead glaze reappeared in Europe i...

Lead

A soft metal of very low melting point, which was used in alloys or for pipes, roofing etc. Most lead comes from the ore galena, from which silver may also be extracted. The first evidence for lead-extraction in parts of Europe is the addition of the metal to bronze during the Late Bronze Age. La...

LBK (Linienbandkeramik) Culture

See Linear pottery culture.

EnglishCultures

LBK (Linienbandkeramik) Culture

archaeologsCultures

Layer

A unit of stratigraphy. Sediments and soils on an archaeological site are split up into layers by the excavator. In many cases, the boundaries between them are well marked, where deposition of one layer is separated from the next by a clear interval or change in texture, colour or mineralogy. How...

Layard

(1817-94). One of the earliest explorers and excavators in Mesopotamia. Between 1845 and 1851 he excavated at two major sites — Nimrud and Kuyunjik (Nineveh) — and brought back many art objects and architectural pieces to Britain, where they are still to be seen in the British Museum. His popular...

Layard

archaeologsOthers

Lavo

Former name of the present town of Lopburi in central Thailand, the provincial capital of the Khmer empire of Angkor from the 11th to the 13th century. There are several monuments of Khmer origin in the town, notably the Prang Sam Yot. The period is also known as a distinctive style in the art hi...

La Victoria

An early Pre-Classic village site located on the Pacific coastal region of Ocos in Guatemala. The site consists of 10-12 low mounds built on the swampy substrate as platforms for houses. Its earliest phase (Ocos) dates to cl300 be and contains Olmec (or Olmec-influenced) pottery, some of which ha...

La Venta

Large Olmec ceremonial centre of the Middle Pre-Classic located on an island in the swampy lowlands of the Tabasco Province of Mexico. The site is dominated by a large, conical clay pyramid some 110 metres high. There are numerous other low platform mounds, oriented on a north-south axis, which a...

Laussel

Rock shelter near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne, southwest France. A long sequence of Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic levels was found under the rock shelter, though the investigation was not up to modem standards. The site is best known for its basrelief carvings, especially the female figure hol...

Lausitz

The Lausitz or Lusatian culture represents the northeasterly group of the European Urnfield cultures, occurring in East Germany, Poland and parts of Czechoslovakia. It emerged cl500 bc and survived well into the Iron Age, till c300 bc. Fortified settlements occur, such as the exceptionally well-p...

Laurion

[Roman Laurium]. A hilly area in Attica, Greece, south of Athens and near Cape Sounion (Sunium), which became important when silver-bearing lead ore was discovered there, probably in the 1st millennium bc. The region developed into a principal mining area, especially in the period from about 483 ...

Lauricocha Caves

A series of well-stratified caves of long occupation located in the highlands of central Peru. They are postulated as summer hunting camps, the associated winter locus being the lowlands (see lomas) and are seen as part of the seasonal round typical of the Archaic. A radiocarbon date of c7500 be ...

Lauricocha Caves

archaeologsOthers

Laugerie

On the edge of the village of Les Eyzies in the Dordogne, southwest France and only just above the flood plain of the Vezere River, are a line of rock shelters, of which Laugerie Basse and Laugerie Haute are very important. Laugerie Basse, mainly dug in the 19th century, has a later Magdalenian s...

Laugerie

archaeologsOthers

Laterza

A cemetery of rock-cut tombs near Taranto in southeast Italy which has given its name to a local Copper Age culture of the 3rd millennium be. The tombs were used for collective burial and contained grave goods including a few copper weapons, tools and ornaments, bifacially worked flint arrowheads...

La Tene

Situated on Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland, La Tene is the site of a large votive deposit of bronze, iron and wooden objects found in the shallow water at the edge of the lake and dating to the later Iron Age. It has given its name to the second Iron Age in much of Europe, succeeding the Hallstatt...

La Tene

archaeologsOthers

Late Horizon

Most recent and briefest period of a chronological construction widely used in Peruvian archaeology. Dated 1476-1534, it is the time of Inca power at its height. The early date marks the point at which territorial expansion was virtually complete; the late date marks the passing of control to the...

Lashkari Bazar

Situated on the Helmand Rud, near the site of Bust in Afghanistan, Lashkari Bazar was the winter retreat of the rulers of Ghazni. Bust, which overlooks a river-crossing, has a massive tell, thought to conceal an Achaemenid settlement. It was conquered by the Arabs c661, and the 10th- century writ...

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