Others

El Molle

Elmenteitan

A Neolithic industry which occurs in a restricted, well-watered highland area on the west side of the central Rift Valley in Kenya. Typical artefact assemblages include large double-edged obsidian blades, plain pottery bowls and shallow stone vessels of unknown function. Domestic cattle and small...

Elm Decline

A permanent fall in elm pollen, seen in pollen diagrams from Britain and Northern Europe. In diagrams plotted from proportional pollen counts, other trees are largely unaffected. Radiocarbon dates for the elm decline in Britain mostly fall between 3300 and 3100 be, some time after the first appea...

Elliot Smith

(1871-1937). An anatomist by training, who became interested in many aspects of archaeology. He was involved, for instance, in the examination of the remains from Piltdown and it has even been suggested that he may have been implicated in the forgery. He is best known, however, for his espousal o...

Elliot Smith

El Khril

Capsian Neolithic site near Tangier in northern Morocco. The pottery is of cardial type, akin to contemporary Iberian wares, and is associated with evidence for the herding of small stock.

El Jobo

One of a series of stone tool complexes found at a group of sitesin northwestern Venezuela. Designated the Joboid series, they appear to span a considerable time period. There are no absolute dates but ancient erosional episodes have defined a series of terraces upon which man-made lithics were d...

El Inga

Paleo-Indian site in highland Ecuador, 24 km south of Quito, at which a large and varied inventory of flint and obsidian tools provides evidence for man’s southward passage through South America. Fishtail points from El Inga level I show technological and morphological similarities to Clovis/Fols...

El Guettar

An Aterian site in southern Tunisia. The relatively moist climate of the Sahara at this time is demonstrated by the presence of rhinoceros remains in these northerly latitudes.

Elgin

(1766-1841). British diplomat best known for transporting the marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens to London. Since 1816 these sculptures, known as the ‘Elgin Marbles’, have been among the prime exhibits of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the British Museum. The removal...

Elgin

Eleusis

Greek city, some 22 km west of Athens, famous in antiquity as the home of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a mystery cult in honour of Demeter and Persephone. Situated on a bay that is virtually an inland lake, the town enjoys good protection from the sea. This advantage, coupled with a naturally defens...

Elephantine

An island in the Nile near Aswan on the ancient boundary between Egypt and Nubia. The area was famed for its quarries, which yielded the granite extensively used throughout ancient Egypt.

Elephant

A group of the order Proboscidea. The living elephants are confined to Africa — Loxondonta africanus (Elephas africanus) — and India — Elephas maximus(indicus). The African elephant is adapted to a savanna environment and formerly occupied a far larger area, as is attested by skeletal evidence an...

Electromagnetic Surveying

A geophysical surveying method. Instruments designed for this technique have two coils. One, through which an alternating electric current passes, produces a magnetic field. This field induces electrical currents in buried objects, which are detected in the second coil of the apparatus. It is pos...

Elandsfontein

A farm southwest of Hopefield in Cape Province, South Africa, and 25 km southeast of Saldanha Bay, which has produced several Palaeolithic cultures and a human skull somewhat like that of Broken Hill. The skull is believed to be associated with late Acheulian tools and may be 100,000 or so years ...

Elam

Important state in southern Iran with its capital at Susa. The development of civilization in this area closely paralleled that in Mesopotamia proper; for instance, writing appeared almost as early (see ProtoElamite), before 3000 bc, though later the Elamites were to take over cuneiform and adapt...

Ehringsdorf

Travertine quarry in central Germany near Weimar. A badly broken skull and other human remains have been found here with stone tools resembling the Mous- terian. The fossil man is, of generalized Neanderthal type, but earlier than the usual Mousterian and classic Neanderthal finds. Often ascribed...

Ehecati

See calendar stone, Quetza-

Ehecati

Egtved

Early Bronze Age burial in east Jutland, Denmark. A round barrow covered the remains of a young woman in an oak coffin. The acid soil had destroyed all bones but, as in other oak coffin burials of this kind, remains such as skin and hair, as well as clothing, survived. She was wearing a woollen j...

Egolzwil

A series of Neolithic sites around the shores of Lake Wauwil in Switzerland. Most of them belong to the Cortaillod culture and, like so many of the lakeside settlements of this culture, have produced very well-preserved organic material. The site of Egolzwil 4 had ten rectangular wooden houses pl...

Eemian

Group of Quarternary interglacial deposits in northern Europe (see Table 5, page 418). They are found right across Europe from the Netherlands to the USSR, containing fossils that indicate warm conditions. Their exact age is unknown, but they are older than the extreme range of radiocarbon dating...

Ecology

The relationship of plants and animals with their environment. The environment in this sense consists not only of climate, but also geology, soils, vegetation, other animals, man-made structures—anything that impinges on the organism being studied. Environmental archaeology is concerned not only ...

Eburran

A recently proposed name for an idiosyncratic obsidian industry of the central Rift Valley, Kenya, previously known as the ‘Kenya Capsian’ and before that as the ‘Kenya Aurignacian’. Both these former names implied a connection with distant industries which is not upheld by recent research. The d...

Ebla

Ancient city excavated at the site of Tell Mardikh on the River Orontes in Syria. Recent excavations have yielded evidence of the previously unknown language and history of a powerful state of the 3rd millennium bc. Although the site was occupied from the 4th millennium bc onwards, the period of ...

Period

The latter part of the Zhou dynasty, from 770 bc to the extinction of the Zhou royal house in 256 bc (or, more loosely, to the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 bc). See Zhou.

Easter Island

4000 km from South America and 2000 km from the closest inhabited islands of Polynesia, Easter Island was settled by Polynesians by about ad 400. The megalithic stone platforms and statues were constructed between 700 and 1700, after which the culture and population declined, virtually to die out...

Earthworms

One of the main agents by which plant litter, humus and minerals are incorporated and mixed in soil. Earthworms are responsible for the maintenance and stability of various types of soil, especially the Brown Forest soils. The character of a soil may change markedly if the plant litter produced b...

Earthworms

Earth

A rather general term, best used to describe mixed material which is cast up from an excavation. Earth is not really the same as soil, which has a more precise definition, although earth may include material from soils in addition to material from other sources.

Early Shang

See Erligang phase.

Early Shang

Early Nomad Period

See Altai.

Early Nomad Period

Early Man Shelter

An Australian rock shelter at Laura, Cape York, containing paintings and engravings of humans, animals, tracks and abstract motifs. Charcoal from occupation deposits covering wall engravings yielded radiocarbon dates between 10,000 and 13,000 be, which are the earliest for rock art in Australia, ...

Early Khartoum

A site within the area of the modem Khartoum conurbation which provided the first clear picture of the so-called ‘aquatic civilization’. The site was evidently a substantial base-camp, and traces of sun-dried daub suggest the presence of structures which would have been occupied on more than a te...

Early Horizon

One of a seven-period chronological construction used in Peruvian archaeology. It runs from 900 to 200 bc and coincides with the duration of the Chavin style and its derivatives, such as Cupisnique. See Table 9, page 552.

Early Dynastic

Period(Mesopotamia). Term describing the earliest historical period in Mesopotamia, dated 2900-2370 bc on the middle chronology, 3100-2450 bc on the high chronology (see Table 3, page 321). The term is derived from the Sumerian ‘king list’ which implies that Sumer was ruled by kings at this stage...

Early Dynastic

Paidotribe

Coaches training pancreatic athletes with the help of a forked stick in ancient Greece.

Paidotribe

Antik Yunanistan'da pankreas sporcularını çatallı bir sopa yardımıyla eğiten antrenörler.

TurkishOthers

Paidotribe

Dyss

Danish name for the earliest type of megalithic chamber tomb found in Scandinavia. Dysser are simple rectangular chambers containing one to six bodies; one or more such chambers may be found under the characteristic rectangular mounds, surrounded by a kerb of stones. Dysser are associated with an...

Dyke

A linear earthwork, consisting of a bank and ditch, running across country. They may be defensive structures or territorial boundaries. See Offa s Dyke.

Dyke

Dvaravati

A Buddhist kingdom in presentday Thailand, first mentioned in Chinese sources as T’o-lo-po-ti in the middle of the 7th century; it is believed that the kingdom came into being as a result of the dismemberment of the far-flung empire of Funan. Its centre was probably in the Suphanburi area of sout...

Durrington Walls

Very large henge monument in southern England, belonging to the Late Neolithic period and dated to the later 3rd millennium bc. The monument has a diameter of nearly 500 metres and encloses an area of clO hectares. Inside, the excavators found remains of two large circular timber structures, each...

Dundo

A town of northeastern Angola, the centre of extensive mines where alluvial deposits of the northwards-flowing Congo tributaries are worked for diamonds. The nature of the deposits and the circumstances of the recovery of the prehistoric artefacts which they contain have ensured that little archa...