Molecular Clock

A method of tracing evolutionary lines based on the changes in the protein structure and DNA of living organisms that take place over long periods of time. By establishing the degree of difference between the proteins of two species, it is possible to calculate how long ago they shared a common a...

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Molecular Clock

Late Bronze Age

A period of the Levant, following the expulsion of the Hyksos, during which the Egyptians invaded and Canaanite cities were under Egyptian control. It is divided into LBA I, c 1550-1400 BC; LBA Iia, c 1400-1300 BC; and LBA Iib, c 1300-1200 BC.

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Late Bronze Age

Diversity

A measure of variety in a data set.

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Diversity

Sugu

Site in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan, with many Yayoi settlements, cemeteries, and workshops. The Sugu site proper is a cemetery containing over 200 jar burials. The most famous burial was that of a probable political leader inside two jars, set mouth to mouth, along with at least 33 imported Chines...

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Sugu

Quyn-Van

Shell midden in northern Vietnam which has produced a flaked stone industry together with pottery, grindstones, and contracted burials dated c 3000 BC. It could be a late and specialized coastal variant of the Hoabinhian.

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Quyn-Van

Highland Zone

A settlement and geographic area corresponding to northern England, the Pennines, Wales, Devon, and Cornwall.

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Highland Zone

Ahmose I

The founder of the 18th Dynasty and the prince of Thebes who drove the Hyksos from Egypt, invaded Palestine, and established the New Kingdom. He was the son of the Theban 17th Dynasty ruler Seqenenra Taa II and Queen Ahhotep, and came to the throne of a reunited Egypt after he and his predecessor...

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Ahmose I

Systemic Context

Behavioral system wherein artifacts are part of an ongoing system of manufacture, use, reuse, and discard

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Systemic Context

Thames Pick

A term for a large, coarsely chipped Mesolithic tranchet ax and other long flint tools with tranchet-shaped points found in the River Thames.

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Thames Pick

Sacellum

A term for a small enclosure an altar and consecrated to a divinity. The term also means small monumental chapels within churches.

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Sacellum

Nearest-Neighbor Analysis

A method of analyzing the extent to which two-dimensionally located points are randomly distributed; a measure of the relationship between a cluster of points in a pattern based on the expected value and the observed value. The statistic equals observed value divided by expected value. This metho...

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Nearest-Neighbor Analysis

Dating

The process by which an archaeologist determines dates for objects, deposits, buildings, etc., in an attempt to situate a given phenomenon in time. Relative dating, in which the order of certain events is determined, must be distinguished from absolute dating, in which figures in solar years (oft...

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Dating

Complacent Ring

The tree rings of a particular species of trees (as oak) which show no visible difference in ring patterns.

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Complacent Ring

Strandloper

A term, literally 'beachcomber', for people thought to have created shell middens along the southern Africa coast. It is also the name of a South African coastal Later Stone Age industry characterized by pottery, large flakes, flaked cobbles, and retouched stone artifacts. It has existed for the ...

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Strandloper

Morphological Typology

A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than specific form or function. The shape, size, and superficial characteristics of artifacts, features, structure, sites, etc., provided by measurements (including weight) that permit comparat...

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Morphological Typology

Chronometric Dating

Any technique of dating that relies on chronological measurement such as calendars, radiocarbon dates, etc. and which give the result in calendar years before the present, or B.P. Most of these techniques produce results with a standard deviation, but they have a relationship to the calendar whic...

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Chronometric Dating

Mastodon

Any of the various now-extinct species of large mammals related to elephants. It looked like a stocky, long elephant, had long reddish-brown hair, and shorter, straighter tusks than the mammoth. The American mastodon (Mammut americanum), is classified as a browser from its low-crowned teeth, as o...

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Mastodon

Alamgirpur

The easternmost site of the Harappan civilization, northeast of Delhi in the Ganges Valley. It was a small late Harappan settlement. After a gap of unknown duration, there were later occupations which showed Painted Grey Ware and iron use.

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Alamgirpur

Compensating Error

An instance when errors on a sequence of measurements or measurements subject to arithmetical operations tend to cancel out.

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Compensating Error

El Niño

A periodic climatic phenomenon in which unusually warm ocean conditions occur along the tropical west coast of South America. The tropical water flow south, causing heavy rains and ecological destruction from Ecuador to Chile. The phenomenon can also affect equatorial Pacific and occasionally in ...

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El Niño

Buda Industry

A Lower Palaeolithic industry of Hungary characterized by the production of chopping tools on pebbles and flake tools.

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Buda Industry

Cro-Magnon

A population of anatomically modern Homo sapiens dating from the Upper Paleolithic Period (c 35,000-10,000 years ago), first found in 1868 in a shallow cave at Cro-Magnon in the Dordogne region of southern France. French geologist Louis Lartet uncovered five archaeological layers and the race of ...

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Cro-Magnon

Reclamation

Any of various processes by which artifacts move from an archaeological context to an active status, i.e. are reclaimed as when a later society makes use of objects deposited earlier. It is the transition of cultural materials from the archaeological record back into the systemic context such as ...

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Reclamation

Antimonial Bronze

A bronze containing antimony in combination, as a third constituent. It may have been added to the original copper ore in the alloy since it improves the hardening qualities. It is used this way and in the names of many minerals, such as antimonial arsenic, copper, and nickel.

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Antimonial Bronze

Jewelry

Decorative objects made mainly for the adornment of the body. The art of jewelry-making originated in prehistoric times when primitive people used objects from the animal world - such as horn, shell, and feathers - to adorn themselves. Cave paintings and carvings show figures decorated with brace...

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Jewelry