Capital

In architecture, the decorative topmember of a column, usually made of wood or stone. Portraying a moulded part (echinus) below, and a flat slab (abacus) above, it eases the visual transition from column shaft to the roofing beam (architrave) above. Decoration was normally according to one of the...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Buddhism

The Buddha, who lived in India in the 6th century bc, challenged the religious teachings of the Brahmans, who dominated Indian civilization at the time. An early convert to Buddhism was Bimbisara, king of Magadha, but its most extensive development was under the Mauryan empire of Asoka in the 3rd...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Buddhism

Breccia

Sediment composed of angular fragments of gravel.

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Brak

A tell site of c30 hectares on the Khabur River in northeast Syria overlooking an important river crossing. Material from the Halaf and Ubaid periods indicates a long history, but the site is best known for its sequence of rich temples of the late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods, when it was clearly...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Architectural

Brak

Boat-Shaped Buildings

A variety of long house with bowed sides, known from Scandinavia and Scandinavian colonies in other parts of Europe throughout the Viking period. The finest examples have been excavated at 1 Ith-century Viking camps such as Trelleborg in southern Jutland. A typical example has been reconstructed ...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Boat-Shaped Buildings

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 ...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Ayia Triada

Minoan villa in southern Crete, built around 2200 BC and inhabited until its destruction C1450 bc. It was connected by a road to the palace at Phaestos. One room contained many clay tablets with Linear A inscriptions. Subsequently a megaron was built on the site. Aylesford. A cremation cemetery o...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural, Palaces

Ayia Triada

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) ...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Ardagli Chalice

One of finest examples of early Christian art known from the British Isles. Found in the last century, its association with another chalice and four brooches suggests that it could be part of the buried loot from a monastery following an Irish or Viking raid. The chalice is an 8th-century piece, ...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Ardagli Chalice

Aqueduct

Any channel constructed for the supply of water, but most commonly applied to the massively engineered arched bridges built by the Romans both to carry water supplies over valleys and ravines, and also to maintain correct height and fall across open spaces. The most famous examples are the Pont d...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Anglo-Saxon

Broad term used to describe the majority of the Germanic peoples who settled in England during the 5th and 6th centuries. The name derives from two specific groups — the Angles of Jutland and the Saxons from northern Germany — who were probably among the migrants. Earlier archaeological work conc...

archaeologsEnglishNations, Cultures, Architectural

Anglo-Saxon

Ananda-Temple

[from Pali Anantapannà". ‘infinite wisdom’]. The most famous Buddhist brick monument of Pagan, northern Burma, built under king Kyanzittha and consecrated in 1090. According to legend, it was modelled after the grotto of Nandamùla on Mount Gandamàdana, identified with the Ananta cave-temple of th...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Ananda-Temple

Amino Acid Racemization

After death bones, along with the rest of the body, start to decompose. In bone this involves breakdown and change of the protein component — principally the collagen. Like other proteins, collagen is built up from amino acid units, and it is these that are separated and broken down (this decompo...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Amino Acid Racemization

Amaravati

(1) An area of southern India with a Buddhist stupa dating from the period c200 bc to 200 ad. It is built of limestone and finely decorated with scenes from the life of the Buddha. (2) An archaeologically significant territory of Champa, corresponding roughly to the present central Vietnamese pro...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Amaravati

Almerian

Neolithic culture of southeast Spain of the 5th and 4th millennia bc. number of open settlements are known (seeEl Garcel), usually on hilltops. The houses were constructed of wattle and daub, and were circular in plan, with hearths and storage pits. This culture is known particularly for its tomb...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Almerian

Alitar

Mount southeast of BoghazkOy in northern Anatolia. The lowest stratum comprises eight Chalcolithic levels, beginning late in the 4th millennium bc. The Early Bronze Age levels are characterized by Alitar painted pottery, which was hand-made with a buff or light red burnish, sometimes with geometr...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Alitar

Aichbuhl

A Neolithic settlement on the shores of the Federsee in southern Germany, consisting of about 25 houses along the edge of the lake. The houses were built of timber and were rectangular in shape, usually divided into two rooms; the average size was c5 by 8 metres. Most houses contained an oven. Th...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Aichbuhl

Achaemenid

The Persian dynasty that ruled from its homeland in central and southern Iran from c547 bc, when Cyrus II conquered Lydia, to 331 bc, when the empire fell to Alexander the Great. The Achaemenid Empire reached its height under Darius, who built a splendid new capital at Persepolis and ruled an are...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Achaemenid

Abu Simbel

Great temple on the west bank of the Nile in northern Nubia, 230 km upstream of Aswan, constructed by Rameses II in the 13th century bc as part of the cultural Egyptianization of Nubia under the Eighteenth Dynasty (see Dynastic Egypt). The facade of the temple is dominated by four 20-metre-high s...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural, Tombs, Place Names

Abu Hureyra

Tell site on the Euphrates River in Syria, 120 km east of Aleppo. The site was excavated in 1972-3, as a rescue excavation in advance of flooding by the Tabqua Dam. Two major phases of occupation are documented: the first, labelled either Epi-Palaeolithic or Mesolithic, dates to the 9th millenniu...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Architectural

Abu Hureyra

Propylon

Propylon, propylaea veya propylaia (Grekçe: Προπύλαια) Antik Yunan mimarisinde anıtsal bir geçittir.

archaeologsTurkishArchitectural

Propylon

A propylaea, propylea or propylaia (Greek: προπύλαια) is a monumental gateway.

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Propylon

Tympanum

Alınlık içindeki üçgen boşluk veya bir kapının üstü ile onu çevreleyen kemer arasındaki boşluk. Alınlığın arkasını oluşturan dikey bir yüzdür.

archaeologsTurkishArchitectural

Comitium

The beginnings of the Comitium in the northwest corner of the Forum can be traced back to the earlies period of Roman history. As the location of the Vulcanal, the sanctuary for the fire god Vulcan, this area was an important cultic centre from the beginning of Rome’s urban development. Under the...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Comitium

Roma mimarisinde, forumun yakınında oylama ve diğer siyasi konular için kullanılan bir yapı.

archaeologsTurkishArchitectural

Parthenon

Principal temple on the ACROPOLIS at ATHENS, dedicated to the maiden (Greek parthenos) goddess, Athena. It was built 447-432 BC as the centre piece of Pericles' grand scheme for the Acropolis, by the architects lctinus and Callicrates, under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias, who contribute...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Parthenon

Atina Akropolisi'nde, Athena'ya adanmış dor düzeninde tapınak. Adı Athena Parthenos (Bakire Athena) kültünden gelmektedir. İ.Ö. 5. yüzyılın ortalannda, Atinalı devlet adamı Perikles'in yönetimi sırasında yapılmıştır. Mimarları Iktinos ile Kallikrates'tir. Genel denetimini heykelci Phidias'ın yapt...

archaeologsTurkishArchitectural

Gymnasium

Gymnasium ya da Gymnasion. Yunan ve Roma mimarilerinde, gençlerin bedensel ve zihinsel eğitim gördüğü, spor etkinliklerinin gerçekleştirildiği yapı. Yunan coğrafyacı Pausanias'ın belirttiğine göre, gymnasion da tiyatro ve bouleuterion gibi Yunan kentinin ana öğelerindendir. İlk gymnasionlar, kent...

archaeologsTurkishArchitectural

Peripteros

Having single row of columns all around.

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Peripteros

A temple or other building surrounded by a single peristyle or row of columns; the encompassing peristyle itself.

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Peripteros

Yunan ve Roma mimarilerinde, kapalı kutsal mekanı (cella) tek sütun sırasıyla çevrili tapınak tipi.

archaeologsTurkishArchitectural

Peripteros

Decumanus

Antik Roma kent planlama anlayışıyla düzenlenmiş yerleşmelerde doğu-batı doğrultusunda uzanarak cardo ile merkezde kesişen eksensel ana cadde.

archaeologsTurkishArchitectural

Hadrian's Villa

An Imperial country residence built c 125-134 AD at Tivoli near Rome by the emperor Hadrian. This villa is considered the epitome in architecture and elegance of the Roman world. The imperial garden city included baths and bath buildings, libraries, sculpture gardens, theaters, alfresco dining ha...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Architectural

Multivallate

Mit mehr als einem Wall oder einer Schutzbarriere.

archaeologsGermanArchitectural