Categories - Archaeologs

Bell Barrow

Bel’Kachi I

An important settlement site on the Aldan River in central Siberia, occupied during the Neolithic (defined by the use of pottery, rather than the practice of farming). The lowest level has a radiocarbon date of <4020 bc (c4920 bc), which is the earliest date for pottery in Siberia, for a hand-mou...

Bel’Kachi I

archaeologsPlace Names

Belgae

Basically Celtic tribal group known mostly from Caesar’s account, found in northern France in the last few centuries BC. During the 1st century bc the Belgae expanded into southeast England in advance of the Roman armies (see Aylesford). They introduced the potter’s wheel and coinage to Britain, ...

Beldibi

A rock shelter which has given its name to a Mesolithic or ‘Proto-Neolithic’ culture which succeeds the Belbasi culture in the Antalya region of southern Anatolia. The lower levels belong to the Belbasi culture and rock carvings of a bull and a stag are probably associated with this phase. Later ...

Belbasi

Cave on the southern coast of Anatolia which has given its name to a late Palaeolithic culture. The tool kit includes tanged arrowheads, triangular points and obliquely truncated blades. The most interesting feature of this group is its rock engravings, the only known cave art in western Asia. Th...

Beiyinyangying

[Pei-yin-yang-ying]. Neolithic cemetery site at Nanjing in Jiangsu province, China. The finds probably belong to the latter part of the 4th millennium bc; most notable among them are finely polished jade ornaments and disc-like axes. See also Majiabang.

Beiyinyangying

Beit Mirsim

A three-hectare mound in the low hill country southwest of Hebron, on the west bank of the Jordan. This fortified settlement has been identified as the biblical town of Kiijath-sepher. Successive occupation layers from the 3rd millennium bc to the Babylonian destruction in 588 bc (with a gap from...

Beit Mirsim

Basilica

[Greek: ‘royal building’]. The Romans applied this name to a range of rectangular roofed buildings, with or without apse, subdivided internally by single or double rows of columns, roughly in the manner of the nave and aisles now familiar from church architecture. There was usually a clerestorey ...

EnglishArchitectural

Beishouling

[Pei-shou-lingj.

Beishouling

Beijing

[Pei-ching, Peking], Present-day capital of China, The Shang civilization reached this area in the early part of the dynasty; a grave of about the 14th century bc at Pinggu Liujiahe contained bronze ritual vessels and a bronze axe with a blade of forged meteoritic iron. Many early Zhou finds have...

Beidha

Natufian and Aceramic Neolithic site near Petra in southern Jordan. It was first occupied for a short period as a semipermanent camp in the Early Natufian period. The community of this time lived off ibex and goat; 75 per cent of the goats were immature animals, suggesting that selective hunting ...

Behistun

See Bisitun.

Begram

A site in Afghanistan, confidently identified as Kapisa, the capital of several Indo-Greek rulers in the 3rd — 2nd centuries BC, a summer residence of the Kushan Kings (1st century BC to 3rd century ad) and an important town on the caravan route between India and the West. Excavations in the so-c...

Begho

Located near the northern edge of the forest in the west of the modern Ghana, Begho was a major trading centre around the middle of the 2nd millennium ad, and by the 5th century a pottery style had been established which appears to be ancestral to that practised into historical times by Akan grou...

Begho

Beersheba

A Palestinian site in southern Israel, which formed one of the desert frontier posts. The earliest occupation belongs to the 12th and 11th centuries bc, but the first town belonged to the period of the United Monarchy (10th century). The only phase which has been excavated on any scale is Stratum...

Bedsa

Rock-cut Buddhist temple in western Deccan, India, of the 1st century bc. The interior is elaborately decorated; the pillars have vase-shaped bases and bell-shaped capitals surmounted by sculpted human and animal groups. In front of the temple is a facade and a large entrance with decorated pillars.

Bede

The Venerable Bede was born in 673 and spent most of his life in the monastery founded by Benedict Biscop at Jarrow, Co. Durham. He is known for his prolific writings and his energetic promotion of Christian learning. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written towards the end of hi...

Bede

Bear

Today’s bears can be split into three groups: the brown bears, typified by the European brown bear (Ursus arctos), the black bears and the polar bear (Thalarctos maritimus). Occasional finds of fossil polar bear bones outside the Arctic Circle are presumably related to the presence of pack ice an...

Bean

The general term ‘beans’ includes two genera of plants: Phaseolus and Vicia. Phase-olus comprises a number of species, varieties of which include the haricot bean, french bean, runner bean, butter bean etc. These species all originated in Mexico and South America, only spreading to the Old World ...

Beaker

General term to describe a simple type of drinking vessel without handles. Specifically, the term Beaker or Bell Beaker is applied to a particular type of vessel made of fine red or brown burnished ware, decorated with horizontal panels of comb- or cord-impressed designs, found in the 3rd milleni...

Bc

Be. Years before Christ. The lower case ‘be’ represents uncalibrated radiocarbon years; the capitals BC denote a calibrated radiocarbon date, or a date such as an historically derived one, that does not need calibration (see Table 8, p. 422). There is no year 0: 1 bc is the same year as ad 1.

Bayon

A majestic monument in sandstone in the northwestern part of Angkor, Cambodia, built cl200 by the last great ruler of the Khmer empire, the Buddhist king Jayavar-man VII (1181-C1218) as his temple-mountain and the centre of his restored capital Angkor Thom. It consists of a central circular sanct...

Bayeux Tapestry

This famous tapestry, 70.34 metres long and 50 cm deep, is worked in coloured wools on a background of bleached linen. The work was probably commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux (1036-97) a halfbrother of William the Conquerer, and took about two years to complete. The tapestry depicts the events...

Baulk

A section of unexcavated material left standing between different parts of an excavation. The main purpose of baulks is the retention of a visible record of stratification, but they also serve to facilitate access to different areas of the excavation.

Baulk

Battle-Axe

Type of shaft-hole axe designed for use in warfare, made of either stone or metal. Stone battle-axes were widely used in prehistoric Europe from the Late Neolithic onwards; they were so ubiquitous in the later Neolithic of northern Europe that the term Battle-axe culture is often used as a synony...

archaeologsWeapons, Tools

EnglishWeapons, Tools

Battle-Axe

Battersea Shield

A late Iron Age parade shield found in the River Thames at Battersea. A fine example of insular Celtic art, the shield is elongated with rounded ends and a slight waisting in the middle; it is made of bronze and decorated in relief and with red glass inlay.

Baton De Commandement

A name given to perforated batons made of antler of the Upper Palaeolithic period in western Europe. They are usually some 30 cm long, but are often broken. The perforation is smooth and round, usually a few centimetres in diameter. The antler widens out at the point of branching and this is wher...

Baton De Commandement

Baths

From the 1st century bc onwards the Romans turned bathing into a highly civilized and essentially communal activity. Establishments called balneae or, later, thermae incorporating suites of rooms at different temperatures became a feature both of private and public building. A typical installatio...

Baths

Bath

[Aquae Sulis]. The emergence from the ground of natural hot springs at a temperature of 120°F attracted the bath-loving Romans here after their invasion of Britain. The springs were sacred to the local goddess Sulis (equated by the Romans with Minerva), hence the Roman name Aquae Sulis [Waters of...

Bat Cave

Site in southwestern New Mexico, USA, notable for its evidence of prehistoric plant cultivation. Early levels indicate the use of primitive pod com (dated <3500 bc), but a cultivated form of maize was in use by 2500 bc, the earliest date for cultigens in the American Southwest. Both maize and squ...

Bataiimo

One of the very few later prehistoric settlement sites so far investigated in the Central African Republic, dated to early in the 1st millennium ad. Artefacts of chipped and ground stone were recovered, but although no trace of metal was found, the possibility remains that Bataiimo was in fact an...

Bataiimo

archaeologsPlace Names

Basse Yutz

The find-spot in Lorraine, eastern France, of a pair of bronze wine flagons, regarded as among the finest examples of early Celtic art, dating to the early 4th century bc.

Basse Yutz

Basra

The city of Basra stands near the west bank of the Shatt al-Arab, in modem Iraq, through which the Tigris and Euphrates reach the Gulf. Founded in 637/8 by the caliph Omar as a military base, Basra rapidly became a thriving city. In due course, ships supplying Baghdad with goods from Africa, Indi...

Basketmaker

The earliest of two major chronological periods of the Anasazi tradition, the more recent being Pueblo. The whole period is characterized by transition from Late Archaic life-styles to sedentary agriculture with characteristics such as pottery, pit houses, cist storage and grinding tools becoming...

Basketmaker

Basatanya

See TiszapolgAr.

Basatanya