Breton Arrowhead

A type of well-made barbed and tinged arrowhead, highly symmetrical in form, with graceful slightly concave or convex sides and flared barbs. The tang is the same length as the barbs. Characteristic of the early Bronze Age in northern France and southern Britain.

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Breton Arrowhead

Lepsius, Karl Richard

German Egyptologist who led the Prussian expedition and survey of Egyptian monuments in 1842-1845. He also worked in Sudan and Palestine, sending some 15,000 antiquities and plaster casts back to Prussia. He published the results of the expedition in a 12-volume work, "Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und...

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Lepsius, Karl Richard

Unfluted

A term referring to projectile or tool which did not have a channel flake removed to form a flute.

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Unfluted

Axhead

The cutting or chopping part of an axe.

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Axhead

Descriptive Type

A type based on the physical or external properties of an artifact

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Descriptive Type

Microcrystal

The individual crystals of certain rocks which can be seen only through a microscope.

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Microcrystal

Athabascan

Native Americans who speak languages of the Athabascan or Dene language family. The Northern variety is in Alaska and the Yukon; the southern variety, including the Apache and Navajo, are in the U.S. Southwest. The groups diverged around 500 AD.

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Athabascan

Fire Hardening

The exposure of a wooden implement to fire in order to dry out the wood but not char it. The tool becomes harder and more useful.

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Fire Hardening

Cape Krusenstern

The site of a national monument on the coast of the Chukchi Sea with a horizontal stratigraphy covering the whole of north Alaskan prehistory. Located on 114 ridges along ancient beach lines, the monument's remarkable archaeological sites illustrate the cultural evolution of the Arctic people, da...

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Cape Krusenstern

Ice Age

A period of intense cold and the expansion of glaciers, resulting in a lower sea level. Such periods of large-scale glaciation may last several million years and drastically reshape surface features of entire continents. In the past, there were many ice ages; the earliest known took place during ...

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Ice Age

Torralba

Lower Palaeolithic lakeside site in the Spanish province of Soria. Torralba and the nearby site of Ambrona have Acheulian tools (cleavers, flake tools, handaxes) and the remains of dismembered elephants and horses. The sites are of the Middle Pleistocene, c 300,000-700,000 BP. Traces of fire are ...

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Torralba

Buccal

Side towards the cheek, used in describing teeth

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Buccal

Nasca Lines

In the Peruvian desert or Nasca region of the southern coast, geometric and geomorphic patterns created by the removal of surface stones to reveal the pale earth beneath. The lines were made by clearing the surface of small red/brown stones and exposing the lighter-colored soil underneath. The st...

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Nasca Lines

Refractory

Referring to ceramic materials, usually high in alumina and silica, that can withstand high temperatures and are slow to melt

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Refractory

Macrofauna

Large animals, cf. microfauna.

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Macrofauna

Probe

A tool consisting of a metal rod or tube pushed into unexcavated deposits to locate as yet unexposed hard features such as walls, floors, or bed rock. It is also used for exploring subsurface stratigraphy and is less expensive than a core but works down only a few meters.

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Probe

Compluvium

In Roman architecture, the central opening in the roof over the middle of the atrium in a house. The impluvium was directly below.

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Compluvium

Sinew

Thread or cord made from uncured animal tendon.

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Sinew

Nail

A metal spike for fixing things to wood (including other pieces of wood). A small metal spike with a broadened flat head, driven into wood to join things together

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Nail

Causewayed Camp

A hilltop entrenchment characteristic of Neolithic times, 4th millennium BC, especially in southern Britain. The hilltop was enclosed by a series of concentric ditches, 1-4 in number, with internal banks and which were not continuous but interrupted by solid causeways (undisturbed lanes of earth)...

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Causewayed Camp

Vatcha

Lapita site on Ile des Pins, New Caledonia, Melanesia, with two occupations starting c 2855 bp.

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Vatcha

Smelt

To separate metal from ore, usually by heating in a hearth or furnace

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Smelt

Karlgren, Bernhard

Swedish archaeologist was the first person to reconstruct the phonology of Chinese characters in use around 600 AD and then in earlier periods. He reconstructed the vowel system of Old Chinese to account for the language in "Classic of Poetry" (800-600 BC). He studied numerous fundamental texts o...

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Karlgren, Bernhard

Direct Age Determination

The determination of the age of archaeological data by analysis of an artifact, ecofact, or feature.

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Direct Age Determination

Quartz

A hard mineral of many varieties that consists primarily of silica or silicon dioxide. Quartz has been important from the earliest times; crystals of it were known to the ancient Greeks as 'krystallos'. It is typically colorless to white, with some minor impurities which make it into many differe...

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Quartz