Categories - Archaeologs

Ancient Pottery

Sacred Ceremonies

Ancient Languages

We try our best to keep the ads from getting in your way. If you'd like to show your support, you can use Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee.

Recently Added

Asuka

The centre of cultural and political development in the southwestern part of the Nara Basin (also known as the Yamato Plain), Japan, during the 7th century. The Asuka culture and Asuka period are variously defined, emphasizing different aspects of the development. In art history, the Asuka cultur...

EnglishCultures, Periods

Astronomy

Most of the ancient civilizations of the world studied the skies and some achieved considerable astronomical knowledge. In the main, ancient astronomy is known from documentary sources rather than material evidence and so falls within the realm of history rather than archaeology. In two cases, ho...

Assyria

The northern part of Mesopotamia, with its capital at Assur. From cl300 bc the Assyrian kings created an empire which at its maximum extent included Egypt, much of the area to the west as far as the Mediterranean, Elam to the east and parts of Anatolia to the north. Assurnasirpal II (883-859 bc) ...

EnglishArchitectural

Assur

(1) The old capital of Assyria lies naturally protected on a rock promontory on the bank of the River Tigris in northern Mesopotamia. The earliest levels excavated belong to the first half of the 3rd millennium bc. The remains of a pre-Sargonid temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar were excavate...

Association

The occurrence of objects together in an archaeological context which indicates that they were deposited at the same time. Good examples of associations are grave goods, foundation deposits, hoards and material in destruction levels.

Assemblage

A group of objects found in association with each other and therefore thought to be the products of one group of people at one period. An assemblage may contain artefacts of one material only (e.g. flint) or may include objects of many different materials and types (e.g. pottery, stone and metal ...

Ass

The wild ass was distributed widely in North Africa and Asia. Three races of the African wild ass, Equus asinus, existed in northwest Africa, the Nile basin and Ethiopia, and Somaliland. All but the Somali race are now more or less extinct. The Asiatic wild ass, Equus hemionus, still survives, bu...

Asprochalico

Large rock shelter in Epirus, northwest Greece. There are Mousterian levels below and a series of Upper Palaeolithic levels above, one radiocarbon-dated to c26,000 bc. Backed blades were common in these levels.

Asprochalico

archaeologsOthers

Asoka

[Asokan]. Head of the Maury an empire of India in the 3rd century bc. According to Buddhist tradition he began his career as a fierce tyrant with much bloodshed, but after a spiritual crisis he became a Buddhist and reformed his administration along Buddhist lines. His kingdom included almost all...

Asoka

archaeologsOthers

Asmar

Modem name of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Eshnunna.

Asmar

archaeologsOthers

Aslian

See Austro-Asiatic.

Aslian

archaeologsOthers

Askos

[Greek: ‘bag’]. An oil-jug. Normally squat in shape, with convex top and arching handle. Examples are sometimes rather unbalanced with eccentric mouth. As with aryeallos, the term perhaps transfers from earlier leather artefacts.

EnglishAncient Pottery

Asiab

Semi-permanent settlement in the Kermanshah valley in the Zagros region of western Iran. Dated between 7100 and 6750 bc, it belongs to the Karim Shahir culture. Semi-subterranean features may have been the bases of tent-like structures, which animal bone evidence suggests would have been occupied...

Asiab

archaeologsOthers

Ashur

See Assur.

Ashur

archaeologsOthers

Ashir

The city of Ashir, 75 km south of Algiers, was founded in 935-6 by Ziri, the ruler of the Sanhaja berbers. Like the Fatimids of Mahdiya, the Sanhaja were Shi’ites and when the Fatimid caliph al-Mu’izz conquered Egypt and established a new capital, Cairo, in 970, he made the Zirid ruler his govern...

Ashir

archaeologsOthers

Ascalon

[Askalon, Askelon]. One of the five Philistine cities on the south coast of Palestine, 50 km southwest of Jerusalem. Excavations by Garstang in the early 1920s found mainly remains of the Roman period, though Philistine levels were reached in small soundings. Egyptian texts indicate that Ascalon ...

Arzawa

See Beycesultan.

Arzawa

archaeologsOthers

Aryballos

[Greek: ‘bag, purse’]. A small pottery jar used for oil or perfume. The form is normally globular, quasi-spherical or pearshaped, with narrowing neck and single handle. As with askos, the term perhaps transfers from earlier leather artefacts. The term is also applied to certain Inca pottery forms...

Aryans

A people who called themselves Arya and spoke an Indo-European language, Sanskrit, known from the Rigveda and other early Indian sources. They are thought to have invaded India from the northwest during the 2nd millennium bc and to have spread east and south in the succeeding centuries. By c500 b...

Aryans

archaeologsNations

Aruans

archaeologsOthers

Arthur

There is little resemblance between the legendary chivalric hero of medieval romance and the 5th-century British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus or Arthur. The problem for historians and archaeologists is that there are no contemporary accounts of King Arthur and his battles, and all the historical r...

Arsenic

Metal, found as an impurity or major constituent in copper ores. Some Early Bronze Age copper contains more than 1 per cent and up to 7 per cent of arsenic, and should be classed as arsenical copper alloys.

Arrow Straightener

Stone with a regular groove on one face, thought to have been used to smooth the wooden shafts of arrows.

Arretium

[modern Arezzo]. An Etruscan and Roman city some 80 km southeast of Florence on the Via Cassia, celebrated in antiquity for the fine workmanship of its city walls and its pottery. Remains of the city walls, closely constructed and variously of stone and lightly fired brick, have been discovered; ...

Arretine Ware

See Arretium; terra

EnglishAncient Pottery

Arras

A site in Yorkshire, northern England, which has given its name to a local group of the La Tène Iron Age. This site is one of several cemeteries of barrows covering burials, some with chariots. The group is regarded as intrusive and has been associated with the migrations of the Parisii from east...

Arpachiyah

Small tell of the Halaf-ian period near Mosul in Iraq excavated by Mallowan in the 1930s. The site appears to have been a specialized artisan village producing exceptionally fine polychrome pottery. The settlement had cobbled streets, rectangular buildings and other circular buildings with domed ...

Aroids

The edible tubers of the family A raceae were of major importance in prehistoric Oceanic subsistence, and of sporadic importance through South and Southeast Asia. The major species, grown from India to Oceania, is Colocasia esculenta (taro), which is irrigated in terraced or bunded fields in many...

Aroids

archaeologsOthers

Arlit

See Tenere Neolithic.

Arles

[Roman Arelate]. City in southern France. A Celto-Greco-Roman town of Gallia Narbonensis (see Gaul) was situated on the left bank of the Rhone, close to the head of the delta. Very little is known of the Celto-Greek settlement, traditionally colonized by the Phocaeans. Significant history probabl...

Arkin

Location near Wadi Haifa in the Nubian Nile Valley, where a number of Stone Age sites have been investigated. Of particular interest are factory sites for the preparation of rough-outs for foliate points of the local Later Mousterian tradition, These factories, the products of which also show aff...

Ariu§d

[Eròsd]. The eponymous site of a small regional painted ware variant of the Cucu-teni-Tripolye culture. The site, one of the few tells found in southeast Transylvania, is in the catchment of the Upper Olt Valley, Rumania. Excavated by F. Làszló, the site has seven occupation horizons. Levels I-VI...

Ariu§d

archaeologsOthers

Ariana

SccAlaca Huyùk.

Ariana

archaeologsOthers

Arimaddanapura

Original name of the city of Pagan in northern Burma, founded in 849.

Arimaddanapura

archaeologsOthers

Ankara

See Middle Missouri tradition.

Ankara

archaeologsOthers

Arikamedu

Site on the Madras coast of southern India, excavated by Mortimer Wheeler. A native Iron Age settlement with Black and Red wares, it yielded evidence of abundant trading contact with the Romans from the mid-1st century bc onwards, attested by finds of Arretine ware, Mediterranean amphorae and Rom...

Previous Next