Axe Factory

During the Neolithic period in Europe certain outcrops of fine-grained rock were exploited for the production of polished axes. Microscopic analysis of the rock allows the sources to be identified, as each type of rock has its own distinctive crystalline structure; this enables the trading networ...

archaeologsEnglishArtifacts, Tools

Axe Factory

Axayacatl

See calendar stone.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Axayacatl

Awdaghast

The site of a major trading centre in southern Mauritania, at the southern end of the main caravan route leading across the Sahara to the ancient Kingdom of Ghana. It was probably through this route that much of the gold of Bambuk was exported northwards from at least the closing centuries of the...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Avebury

[Sir John Lubbock] (18341913). Distinguished British archaeologist, whose book Prehistoric Times, first published in 1865, went into seven editions, the last in 1913, and achieved wide popularity. He was an early convert to Darwin’s theory of evolution and the acceptance of the antiquity of man. ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Avebury

Henge in Wiltshire, one of the most impressive British Neolithic monuments. It consists of a large bank with internal ditch (1.2 km long) with four entrances. Inside the ditch was set a circle of 98 sarsen stones, weighing as much as 40 tonnes each. In the central area were two smaller stone circ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Autun

[Roman Augustodunum]. City in Saóne-et-Loire, Central France. It was a fortified town of Gallia Belgica (see Gaul) built for Augustus sometime in the last decade bc as a replacement capital for the Celtic tribe of the Aedui. (The site of their previous capital is known at nearby Mont Beuvray; see...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Austro-Thai

Hypothetical linguistic family proposed by linguist Paul Benedict to include the present (and now geographically separated) Thai-Kadai and Austronesian families. It is possible that these two major linguistic groups could have shared a common origin area in southern China, probably in excess of 5...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Austro-Thai

Austronesian

The major language family of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific: Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, parts of southern Vietnam, Madagascar, Melanesia (excluding most of New Guinea), Micronesia and Polynesia. Proto-Austronesian was probably located in southern China or Taiwan before 3000 ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Austro-Asiatic

A linguistic family which includes Munda (eastern India), Mon (southwest Burma), Khmer (Kampuchea), Vietnamese and several minor language groups including Nicobarese, and Aslian of peninsular Malaysia. Once the major linguistic family of mainland Southeast Asia, its speakers have become geographi...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Australopithecus

The baby skull found at Taung in 1924 was named Australopithecus africanus (southern ape of Africa) by Dart in 1925. A number of African fossil hominids have subsequently been included in this genus, and since 1962 many authorities have recognized two species: A. africanus, a gracile form best-kn...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Australian Small Tool Tradition

Holocene suite of stone tool types comprising backed blades and flakes, unifacial and bifacial points and small adze flakes. Tools with regional distributions include Bondi points, geometric microliths, Pirri points and tula adzes. All except the Bondi points and geometric microliths were still i...

archaeologsEnglishTools

Australian Small Tool Tradition

Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition

A late Pleistocene and Holocene stone industry characterized by high-domed chunky cores (sometimes termed ‘horsehoof cores’) and steep-edge flake scrapers. Artefacts have been found in all areas of the mainland and Tasmania, dating from 30,000 bc at Lake Mungo until the recent past. This industry...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition

Aurochs

Also known as urus, or wild cattle; classified as Bos primigenius. See cattle.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aurochs

Aurignacian

In the classic French Upper Palaeolithic sequence, the Aurignacian falls before the Solutrian and the Magda-lenian. In modem usage only the old ‘middle Aurignacian’ is still called Aurignacian. In France, radiocarbon dates place it mainly between about 35,000 and 25,000 years ago. However, there ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aunjetitz

Earlier name for the Czechoslovakian site and Early Bronze Age culture of

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aunjetitz

Au-lac

A kingdom in northern Vietnam, founded by the king of Thue (an unidentified country to the north) in 258 bc on the ruins of the kingdom of Vàn-lang. Its capital was at CÓ-Loa, near present-day Hanoi. It was incorporated in 207 bc into the kingdom of Nam-Vièt.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Au-lac

Augst

[Roman Augusta Rauricorum]. A Roman colonia and frontier post of the Upper Rhine valley near Basel, Switzerland. Although founded in 44 bc by Caesar and L. Munatius Plancus in the territory of the tribe of the Raurici, there seems to be no evidence for occupation before 15 bc. In this year, Tiber...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Auger

An implement for obtaining samples of buried soil horizons and deposits. Augers are widely used in soil science, but less so on archaeological sites, due to the disturbance of features, layers and artefacts that may be caused.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aubrey

John (1626-97). British antiquary who worked mainly in southern England and produced detailed accounts of the monuments of Avebury and Stonehenge. The 56 pits inside the bank of the first phase of Stonehenge are known as the Aubrey holes, after their discoverer.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aubrey

Attic

(1) Relating to Athens, or the surrounding area of Attica. (2) The particular dialect of Greek spoken and written in classical Athens, especially in the 5th century bc. This dialect was originally only one of a number of differing regional forms, but, by the accident of Athenian cultural history,...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Atrium

Latin term for the entrance-hall of a Roman house, as seen, for instance, in the many examples at Pompeii. Early versions may have been roofed over, but the pattern soon established was of compluvium (a rectangular opening in the roof) over a central impluvium (shallow pool in the floor, drained ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Atria

Atranjikhera

Settlement site in Uttar Pradesh in northern India with a series of occupation levels. The earliest level had Ochre-coloured pottery; this was succeeded by a level with Black and Red ware, which was itself followed by a series of layers with Painted Grey ware, which also produced iron tools and w...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Principles. A sample is dissolved and then atomized in a flame. A beam of light, of carefully controlled wavelength, is shone through the flame to a detector on the other side. The wavelength is selected so that atoms of the element under study will absorb some of the light. Concentrations of thi...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Atlitian

An Upper Palaeolithic assemblage named after the site of Atlit in the Mount Carmel area of Israel. The sequence of Upper Palaeolithic deposits in the east Mediterranean includes several layers with AuRiGNACiAN-like assemblages. The level which followed these in the Mount Carmel sequence was terme...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Atlatl

An American term for a spear-thrower, or device for increasing thrust when throwing a spear or similar projectile, by extending the length of the thrower’s arm. Usually it consists of a flat board or rod with a means of gripping at one end and a notch or hook to retain the projectile at the other...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Atlantic Bronze Age

Late Bronze Age metal-working tradition found on the west coast of France, spreading to southern England and Iberia; alternatively known as the Carp’s Tongue Sword complex. It is known mainly from a large number of hoards, which include not only the characteristic swords, but also end-winged axes...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Atlantic

A climatic division of the Fland-rian period. Godwin’s pollen zone Vila corresponds to the Atlantic period in Britain. On botanical grounds, the Atlantic period is supposed to have represented a maximum of temperature, the ‘climatic optimum’ of the Flandrian. Evidence from beetles, however, sugge...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Atlantic

Athens

Major classical Greek city-state in Attica with evidence for continous occupation since the Mycenaean period. Most literary sources are decisively pro-Athenian, and Athenian cultural dominance has been such that this bias often still persists in contemporary scholarship. The geographical position...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Ateste

See Este.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Ateste

Aterian

Widely distributed Upper Pleistocene stone industry of northern Africa. It appears to have developed, perhaps initially in the Maghreb of Algeria and Morocco, from the local Mousterian tradition. The date at which the Aterian first appeared is not well attested, but may have been c80,000 bc. The ...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Atchana

Mound on the Amuq plain of northern Syria, identified as the ancient city of Alalakh. Excavations by Woolley in the early part of the century revealed occupation levels running from the 4th to the late 2nd millennium bc. In level VII, dated to the 18th and 17th centuries bc, the palace of Yaram-L...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Atchana

Aszód

An important early Lengyel site on a plateau overlooking the Zagyva Valley, 30 km east of Budapest in Hungary, of the Late Neolithic (4th millennium bc). Aszód comprises both settlement and cemetery. Excavated by N. Kalicz, the settlement has over 40 rectangular houses, with rich domestic assembl...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aswad

Aceramic Neolithic site in the Damascus basin of Syria, occupied c7800-6600 bc, which has produced important evidence on early farming. From the beginning peas, lentils, emmer wheat and probably barley were all cultivated. The presence of both cereals and pulses showing morphological characterist...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aswad

Asukadera

See Asuka.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Asukadera