Others - Archaeologs

Others

Discover other things about archaeology.

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Recently Added: Others

Montespan

The deep central Pyrenean cave of Ganties-Montespan has traces of probably Magdalenian engravings, but it is mainly famous for a modelled clay body of a life-sized bear or bear cub, probably originally covered with a bear pelt and apparently speared in ritual ceremonies.

Montelius

(1843-1921). Swedish archaeologist who wrote many books and articles on European prehistory. He worked first on Scandinavian prehistory, dividing the Neolithic into four periods and the Bronze Age into five (divisions which are still retained by many northern prehistorians). He later applied this...

Montelius

archaeologsOthers

Monte Circeo

The Circeo peninsula in Latium, south of Rome, has several caves with prehistoric remains; Fossellone Cave with several early Upper Palaeolithic levels and Guattari Cave are the most important. In the latter, a Neanderthal skull was found on the Mousterian deposits, and three lower jaws come from...

Montagu Cave

Located in the Cape Province of South Africa, about 150 km east of Cape Town, this site is one of the very few African caves to have preserved traces of Acheulian occupation. The Acheulian material was at one time stated to be associated with evidence for the use of fire, but this is now discount...

Mons Badonicus

[Mount Badon]. See Arthur.

Mons Badonicus

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Monreale Cathedral

This magnificent cathedral, 8 km from Palermo, Sicily, was constructed between 1173 and 1186 by William II, the third Norman king of Sicily, and is a splendid reflection both of Norman achievement and the unique nature of Sicilian Romanesque with its combination of Norman, Arab and Greek influenc...

Mon

A people in mainland Southeast Asia speaking a language akin to Khmer (see Austro-Asiatic). Their origin is unknown, but archaeological evidence indicates that at the beginning of the Christian Era the Mons must have occupied a large territory stretching from Lower Burma through into the southern...

Momil

Located on a large lagoon in the Sinu River in northern Colombia, this site is significant for its evidence of the transition from manioc to maize farming. Two major periods are defined. Momil I (ascribed a mean date of c700 bc) contained stone tools, both percussion and pressure flaked, incised ...

Molokai

See Halawa Valley, Hawaiian Islands.

Molokai

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Molodova

The site of Molodova V on the Dniester River in western Russia has some 12 archaeological levels spanning from c45,000 be to 7000 be according to radiocarbon evidence, but the occupation was not con-tinous. The Upper Palaeolithic levels do not correspond to cultures known from the classic West Eu...

Molluscs

Soft-bodied invertebrate animals often, but not always, living inside (or bearing) a shell. The phylum Mollusca is divided into five classes: Amphineura (the Chitons), Gastropoda (snails and slugs), Scaphopoda (Elephant’s Tusk shells), Lamellibranchiata (bivalve molluscs, such as mussels, clams, ...

Molluscs

archaeologsOthers

Molfetta

The Pulo di Molfetta is a large collapsed limestone cave near the Adriatic coast in southeast Italy. Adjacent to the Pulo was an Early Neolithic village of small round huts and for this reason the south Italian version of Impressed ware is sometimes named Molfetta ware. After the settlement had g...

Mokrin

Type site of an earlier Bronze Age group (Periam in western Rumania, Mokrin in north Yugoslavia, Szoreg in south Hungary) in the lowland Banat, dated to the early 2nd millennium be. The type site, near Kikinda, north Yugoslavia, is, like most other sites in the group, a large cemetery with over 3...

Mojokerto

[Modjokerto]. Find-spot (1936) in eastern Java, Indonesia, of a skull of an archaic Homo child, located 8 metres above a potassium-argon dated pumice of 1.9 ± 0.4 million vears. Believed to be the oldest hominid fossil in Southeast Asia, the Mojokerto child is usually classified as Homo erectus, ...

Mohra Moradu

See Taxila.

Mohra Moradu

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Mogollon

An early American agricultural tradition, with its heartland in the mountainous belt on the northern fringe of the basin and range region of Arizona and New Mexico. Immense regional variability in cultural traits and relatively few absolute dates have meant that a satisfactory chronology covering...

Moershoofd Interstadial

An interstadial of the Weichselian cold stage. It is dated to c 50,000-43,000 bp.

Model

Statistics ‘rules’ by which a process or phenomenon may be guided. This set of rules is a ‘model’ of the way in which the process is thought to work. Models of this kind are tested by applying the rules to a set of information and comparing the outcome with the results known to be obtained by the...

Moche

[Mochica]. A culture having widespread influence, centred on the Chicama, Moche and Viru Valley of north-coast Peru during the Early Intermediate Period. Structures at the ceremonial centre at Moche include a large, terraced, truncated pyramid (Huaca del Sol) and the smaller Huaca de la Luna, on ...

Mobiliary Art

[French: art mobilier]. Term used to cover all the portable decorated objects produced in the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe, as opposed to cave art, which covers the paintings, engravings and reliefs found on the walls of caves and rock shelters of the same period. Typical mobiliary art is in the ...

Moated Sites

Defended homesteads constructed in great numbers throughout England, Ireland and Flanders during the late medieval period. There was already a tradition of building defensive moats around castles and manorial establishments, and during the troubled years at the turn of the 13th century some wealt...

Moated Sites

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M’Lefaat

Open site in northern Iraq of the Karim Shahir phase (undated here, but probably 8th millennium be). The site contained round and oval sunken houses with stone floors. Finds include a chipped stone industry of Karim Shahir type, lightly baked clay figurines and beads, and fragments of stone bowls...

M’Lefaat

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Mixtec

A culture of the Post-Classic Period centred on the high valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. The major source of information on the Mixtec are the surviving genealogies (see codex) which trace their origins back to ad 692. The early period is characterized by a relatively bloodless struggle with the Zapot...

Mithras

Best known as the saviour deity of the Roman mystery cult of Mithraism, which flourished alongside early Christianity and shows many parallels with it. Originally an old Persian and Indian god of light, truth and the contract, Mithras bore such titles as Lord of Light and Saviour from Death. From...

Mithraeum

Small Roman religious building devoted to the celebration of the rites of Mithras. The usual layout is that of central nave flanked by two side-aisles. At the far end of the nave, a type of reredos often depicts Mithras in his act of slaying the bull, and the building itself apparently represents...

Mitanni

A mid-2nd millennium bc kingdom in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates in northern Syria. It formed a buffer zone between the kingdoms of the Hittites and the Assyrians until it fell to the Hittites cl370 bc. The population seems to have been mainly Hurrian, although the rulers may have...

Mi-So’N

An archaeological site in the northern part of Champa, in the present province of Quang-nam, central Vietnam. The site has given its name to the earliest style in Cham art, dating from the 7th century. It is also important for inscriptions of the 5th century, attesting to the oldest known royal l...

Mi-So’N

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Mirrors (Japan)

Many round imported mirrors and their domestic copies are found from Yayoi and Kofun graves. They are flat and shiny on one side, with a raised rim and decorative designs and inscriptions arranged around one or more knobs with holes on the other. Most are of Chinese derivation, but several mirror...

Mirrors (Japan)

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Mirrors (China)

The typical early Chinese mirror is a bronze disc with a faintly convex reflecting surface and cast decoration on the back; it has no handle, being held by a cord tied to a projecting loop in the centre of the back. Such mirrors were not common until about the 5th century bc, but far older exampl...

Mirrors (China)

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Miriwun

A rock shelter in the Ord River valley, east Kimberley region, Western Australia, now inundated by the Argyle Dam. Occupation deposits date from 16,000 be. Artefacts from the early phase include adze flakes, small denticulated flakes, thick notched flakes, pebble tools, irregular blade cores and ...

Minyan

Wheel-thrown fine grey ware of the Middle Helladic period, found throughout the Aegean. Traditionally it has been associated with an apparently violent end to the Early Helladic culture, c2000-1900 bc and the arrival of Greek-speaking peoples in the Aegean. It is now regarded as a Greek product d...

Minyan

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Minusinsk Basin

An island of steppe on the upper Yenisei River in southern Siberia, surrounded by forested mountains. Very large numbers of burial mounds of different periods exist in the area and some 40,000 bronze objects survive in collections — presumably only a fraction of the number originally present. See...

Minoan

[Minoans]. Term for the Bronze Age culture of Crete and the earliest civilization found on European soil, named by Sir Arthur Evans after the legendary king Minos. Minoan civilization, once attributed to immigration or at least influence from elsewhere, is now thought by many scholars to be a loc...

Mindel/Riss

The term for the interglacial erosion interval envisaged by Penck and Bruckner as separating the min del and riss glacials. The Alpine sequence is now known to be much more complex than was originally thought, but ‘Mindel/Riss’ has unfortunately gained wide currency as a general term meaning the"...

Mindel/Riss

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Mindelheim

Hallstatt (7th century bc) cemetery west of Munich in West Germany. The grave goods include distinctive melon-shaped urns and wide open bowls, heavily decorated with incised geometric designs, as well as the long sword type to which the site has given its name. Mindelheim swords are made of bronz...

Mindel

A group of Quaternary deposits in the Alps and the valleys of south German rivers. The Mindel consists of moraine and related river terraces of proglacial deposits. It formed part of the classical scheme of four glacials with intervening interglacials published in 1909 by Penck and Bruckner. In t...

Minaean

Minaeans. One of the kingdoms of southern Arabia in the 1st millennium bc, contemporary with the Sabaeans, Qataba-neans and Hadramis. Its capital city was Qarnâwu.

Mimbres

A late manifestation of the Mogollon cultural tradition of the Southwestern USA, which also evidences a strong Anasazi influence. It is characterized by an extraordinary ceramic art style which flourished from c900-1200. The essentials of the style are complex geometric or fine naturalistic desig...

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