Greenstone

A rather imprecise term, meaning basic igneous rocks that have become slightly metamorphosed. This includes a great many different rocks, some of which have been used as decorative material — including the jades and SERPENTINES.

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Great Zimbabwe

This impressive site, located near Fort Victoria in southeastern Zimbabwe, is by far the largest and most elaborate of many late Iron Age dry-stone constructions to which the Shona name Zimbabwe (meaning ‘stone houses’ or ‘venerated houses’) is applied. After an Early Iron Age phase (see Gokomere...

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Great Langdale

Neolithic axe-factory on the side of Langdale Pikes in Cumbria, northwest England. Axes from this factory were widely traded, with the greatest concentration occurring on Humberside and Clydeside in the east of the country. They also reached southeast England, but none have so far been found in W...

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Gravettian

Named after the site of La Gravette (in the Dordogne, southwest France), the Gravettian was formerly called Upper or later Aurignacian. In France it is equivalent to the later Perigordian cultures, which date from approximately 28,000 to 20,000 years ago. A group of central European sites has bee...

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Graveney Boat

The well-preserved timbers of an Anglo-Saxon boat found in 1970 during the drainage of the Graveney marshes in Kent. It is the only vessel of this period from the British Isles which has left more than an impression in the soil, and radiocarbon and dendrochronology have effectively dated it to la...

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Grave Creek Mound

See Adena.

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Grauballe Man

Danish BOG burial in central Jutland, belonging to the Roman Iron Age, with a radiocarbon date c310 ad. Grauballe Man was naked and had clearly met a violent end, his neck having been cut almost from ear to ear. His skin was particularly well-preserved by the chemicals in the peat. It was possibl...

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Grass-Tempered Pottery

Crude hand-made ware made in various parts of Frisia in the Migration Period and in certain parts of southern England in the Early Saxon period. Examination of the inclusions in these pots shows that ferns and other organic material besides grass was also used as tempering.

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Grass-Tempered Pottery

Grass-Marked Pottery

Most of the pottery of the Dark Age period in western Britain is characteristically covered with ‘grass’ impressions. ‘Grass-marked’ pottery occurs in Ulster, the Hebrides and in Cornwall, and it has often been argued that it owes its widescale use to 5th- or 6th-century migrations between these ...

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Granulation

A technique of decorating gold and silver jewellery. Many small spheres of metal were soldered on to the part to be decorated, giving it a granular texture.

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Grange

A medieval monastic manor house controlling the estates belonging to a monastery. Granges were first created in the 12th century and are, as a rule, a later medieval phenomenon common to several countries in Western Europe. The farms were run by monks with the assistance of lay servants, and thei...

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Grand Pressigny

The source in Indre-et-Loire, central France, of a characteristic honey-coloured flint, which was widely traded throughout Western Europe in the Late Neolithic and Copper Age. It was generally traded in the form of large blocks, measuring c30 by 10 cm, which served as cores for the production of ...

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Granada

The most complete and spectacular Muslim city in Spain. Although its origins go back to the early years of the Moorish occupation in the 8th century, Granada rose to importance after the mid- 13th century when it became the capital of a new state founded by Mohammad Al Ahmar. It was a large city ...

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Graman

A group of sandstone rock shelters in a small, well-watered valley on the western slopes of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. Occupation deposits have been dated between c3500 be and 200 ad. Stone artefacts included some of the earliest Bondi points and geometric microliths f...

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Grain Impressions

Grain, other seeds, other parts of plants, and also small animals, such as insects, may become incorporated in pottery, bricks, daub or other clay materials. On firing, or as a result of decomposition over time, the organic material itself is lost, but the outline remains as an impression within ...

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Grain Impressions

Graig Llwyd

An axe-factory in North Wales, chosen for its fine-grained igneous rock, suitable for polishing. Axes from this factory were in use during the Neolithic and Bronze Age and were widely traded: they have been found as far away as southern England, Yorkshire and east Lothian.

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Gradesnica

Tell site with Karanovo I and Copper Age (cf Karanovo V) layers, situated in the upland Vraca Basin in northwest Bulgaria. Large-scale excavations by B. Nikolov have revealed complete early Neolithic house-plans, succeeded in the Copper Age by a large village of three occupational phases with hou...

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Gradesnica

Grachwil

A group of Hallstatt barrows in the canton of Berne, Switzerland. Rich grave goods were recovered, including a fine imported Greek bronze hydria of the early 6th century BC. It is decorated with scenes showing the ‘mistress of animals’, surrounded by four lions, crowned with eagles and snakes and...

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Gourd

The cucurbit Lagenaria siceraria produces a large fruit with a hard rind which was widely used for containers in Africa, southern Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas. Attested in South America and Thailand (Spirit Cave) prior to 7000 be, the plant is perhaps the most widespread of all the ...

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Goths

[Ostrogoth, Visigoth]. A group of Germanic tribes from the steppes of southeast Europe and southern Russia. In the 4th century food shortages and pressure from the Huns to their east caused the Goths to join other Barbarian tribes in attacks on the outlying Roman and Byzantine provinces. They com...

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Gorods’Ke

The latest phase of the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture development (Tripolye C2) dated to the late 3rd millennium be and centred on Volhynia, northeast of the Carpathians. Most settlements are located on high plateaux above river valleys, with rich household assemblages of bone and stone work. Metal i...

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Gorods’Ke

Gombe Point

[formerly known as Kalina Point]. A site overlooking the Congo River in Kinshasa, which has yielded a long series of stone industries best regarded as local variants of the Lupemban-Tshitolian sequence of west-central Africa. Although apparently stratified, the succession is now believed to have ...

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Goltho

See deserted medieval villages,

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Goltho

Goljamo Delcevo

An important Neolithic and Copper Age site located 30 km inland from the Black Sea in northeast Bulgaria and comprising a tell settlement with adjoining cemetery. The tell, dated pre-4000 to 3600 be, has 16 occupation layers with many complete house-plans. All categories of find, even metal and e...

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Gold

The most common source of ancient gold would have been nuggets or fine particles of native metal, not ore. Gold in this form usually occurs alloyed with other metals. To make pure gold, these impurities have to be removed by a complex refining process. In any case, the remarkable malleability of ...

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Gokstad Ship

Discovered in 1880 under a large tumulus near Oseberg on the Oslo Fjord, Norway, the Gokstad Ship is the most impressing Viking vessel ever found. Much of its original timber was preserved by the clay in which it was set. In the middle of the ship a special platform had been constructed to hold t...

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Gokomere

A site in south-central Zimbabwe where Early Iron Age settlement is attested from the 5th century to the 7th century ad. Through its characteristic pottery, Gokomere ware, the site has given its name to the archae ological industry representing the Early Iron Age occupation of central and eastern...

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Go Bong

1) The earliest phase of the Bronze Age of north Vietnam ( bronze inférieur), with dates estimated at 2000-1500 be. 2) An early site within the Phung-Nguyen culture.

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Go Bong

Gobedra

A small rock shelter near Axum in northern Ethiopia which has yielded a stratified sequence of industries covering the last ten millennia be. The earliest occurrence was of large blades, replaced c8000 be by an industry dominated by backed microliths. Pottery first appeared at a level tentatively...

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Gniezno

Town in Poland formally established during the 960s when Mieszko I united bands of Slavic tribes to form the Polish state. Excavations have been carried out on the earliest timber fortress with its impressive system of double defences. The old town has many interesting buildings including the cat...

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Gnezdovo

Site outside Smolensk on the River Volga, where excavations have revealed one of the largest Viking Age gravefields known from Russia. Most of the grave mounds contained cremations associated with oval brooches and other objects dating from the 9th and 10th centuries. The burial area itself seems...

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Gnezdovo

Gloucester

[Roman Glevum]. A Roman colonia in southwest England founded officially under Nerva (96-98 ad). Some six years after the invasion of 43 ad and as part of their conquest of southern England, the Romans established a legionary fortress in this general area, although its precise location is uncertai...

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Gleying

Waterlogging of soils. Gleying may result from a raised water table, or from drainage impedance within the soil profile; the latter condition occurs in some podzols. (labelled ‘Glastonbury style’), iron objects, including currency bars, and much bonework, mostly connected with the production of w...

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Glaze

A glassy coating for pottery. Glazes are most commonly applied as a mixture of fine particles suspended in water, with which the pottery is coated. On firing, the particles fuse and as the pottery cools the material forms a glassy layer. A large variety of glazes may be used, varying in colour, t...

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Glastonbury

(1) An Iron Age lake village on the Somerset Levels, southwest England, occupied from the 3rd century bc until the Roman period. Excavations between 1892 and 1907 were not of modem standard, but because of the excellent preservation conditions a great deal of information has been gained about the...

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Glass Palace Chronicles

The Burmese Royal Chronicle of the 19th century, based on earlier versions. It relates events from the creation of the world, according to Buddhist cosmogony, to the early and later history of Burma up to the time of its final compilation.

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Glass Palace Chronicles

Glass (China)

Glass appeared in China far later than in the Near East and has played a comparatively minor role in Chinese material culture. High-fired glazes were known in China by about the 14th century BC (see Wucheng), and a few pale green glass beads have reportedly been found in 9th-8th century bc contex...

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Glass (China)

Glasinac

A valley in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, containing an estimated 20,000 graves, spanning the 10th to 1st centuries bc, including 25 groups of tumuli. Inhumation was the dominant rite and some graves were very richly equipped. Local sources of gold, silver, copper and iron were exploited, and the communiti...

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Glanum

A settlement in southern France, some 24 km northeast of Arles, with three phases of occupation — native Ligurian, Hellenistic and Roman. It is likely that the dominant early association is that of religious shrine, dedicated perhaps to a healing deity. The Hellenistic phase still shows religious...

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Gladkaia I

Site in eastern Siberia which has yielded evidence of a Neolithic occupation (defined by the use of pottery rather than the practice of farming), dating probably to the 2nd millennium bc. The population of Gladkaia I lived by hunting and fishing, and used pottery and tools made of obsidian.

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Glacial

[glaciation]. (1) Noun: Strictly, a glacial or glaciation is a period during which ice-sheets, ice-caps and glaciers grow. The term has also commonly been used to describe the periods of generally cold climate which occurred at intervals during the Quaternary period (see Tables 5-7, pages 418-20)...

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