Others - Archaeologs

Others

Discover other things about archaeology.

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Recently Added: Others

Champlevé Enamelling

archaeologsOthers

Champa

A now-vanished Indianized kingdom on the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula, corresponding roughly to present central Vietnam. There, to the south of their own province of Chiao-Chih, the Chinese mentioned the foundation of the kingdom of Lin-Yi in 192 ad, later called Champa (unknown ety...

Chaitoon

[choltun, chultun]. A bottle-shaped underground chamber or series of chambers, found in Mesoamerica. Principally for storage, they may also have been used as sweat baths or burial chambers. In the southern Maya Lowlands they were most often used to store dry foods especially ramon (bread) nuts. I...

Chaitoon

archaeologsOthers

Chaldea

The Chaldean (Kaldu) tribes occupied the swamp area of the lower courses of the Tigris and Euphrates in southern Babylonia. They were controlled by sheikhs who assumed the kingship of Babylonia in the 7th century bc. The Chaldean Dynasty was founded in 625 bc by Nabopolassar and continued with hi...

Chalcolithic

A term used, like its alternatives Eneolithic and Copper Age, to refer to a period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age when copper was used for tools, but not bronze (an alloy of copper and tin). The term is much less widely used than other divisions and subdivisions of the Three Age System,...

Chalchuapa

See Barton Ramie.

Chalchuapa

archaeologsOthers

Chalcedony

A very finely crystalline form of the mineral silica, rather similar to Chert. There are many varieties, several of which are prized as semi-precious stone — agate, onyx, cornelian and jasper, for example. These may be used in making beads and other jewellery.

Chalcatzingo

See Las Bocas.

Chalandriani

An Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium bc) settlement and cemetery on Syros in the Cyclades. The settlement was surrounded by dry-stone defences with six semi-circular bastions; inside were a number of small rooms, separated by narrrow paths. The cemetery of c500 tombs, built of drystone walling and...

Chagar Bazar

A tell site in the upper Khabur valley in northeast Syria, occupied from the Halaf period (5th millennium be) to the mid-2nd millennium bc. It gradually grew in size and importance and during the reign of the Assyrian king, Shamsi Adad I (early 2nd millennium bc) it was an administrative centre a...

Chaco Canyon

An alluvium-filled canyon in northwest New Mexico, USA, occupied by the Anasazi during Pueblo I and II times. Between 850 and 1150 it supported at least a dozen pueblo-type towns, such as Pueblo Bonito, as well as hundreds of small villages. Evidence of town planning, water control systems, inter...

Chacmool

A life-sized sculpted stone figure in the standardized form of a reclining human, with flexed legs and head gazing to one side, holding a plate-like receptacle flat on the stomach. A widespread phenomenon in the Post-Classic Period of Mesoamerica, it is particularly associated with the Toltec. Th...

Cerveteri

[Roman Caere vetus, Etruscan Xaire, Greek Agylla]. A town in central Italy, some 48 km north-west of Rome, Caere was one of the 12 great cities of the Etruscan federation. Earliest occupation seems to be Iron Age Villanovan of 9th to 8th centuries BC. Two necropoleis from this period have been id...

Cerro Sechin

A site in the Casma Valley on the north-central coast of Peru and probably dating to the Initial Period (1800-900 be). The primary construction of this ceremonial centre is a rectangular platform mound with an enclosing wall of decorated monoliths. Carvings of warriors, dismembered humans and ind...

Cemavoda

1) An important cemetery site of the Late Neolithic Hamangia culture, dated to the mid-4th millennium be and located near the Black Sea coast of the Rumanian Dobrogea. Over 300 extended inhumations are known, clustered in groups, some with richer grave goods. (2) The eponymous site of a Late Copp...

Cemavoda

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Ceremonial Centre

Complex of monumental buildings which formed the hub of religious and civic activities in the prehistoric New World. Permanent residence was restricted to a very few, usually the elite and their retainers, and a regionally dispersed population visited the site on a periodic (possibly seasonal) ba...

Ceremonial Centre

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Ceramics (China)

The Western world’s awareness of China has, throughout most of history, centred on two export commodities: the Romans knew China as Serica, the place from which silk came, while for Europeans of more recent centuries the country was synonymous with the porcelain it produced. China began to export...

Ceramics (China)

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Ceramic

Material, usually clay, which can be moulded when in a soft, plastic state and is then hardened by heat. See pottery.

Cephalic Index

Combination of two skull measurements, L (maximum cranial length) and B (maximum cranial breadth). The index describes the overall proportions of the cranium (brain box); see brachycephalic, dolichocephalic. In the past, it was used alone to assess genetic differences between groups of human skel...

Centuriation

Term used by the Romans to describe a method of land surveying, used in the area (territorium) surrounding a town, especially a colony. See cardo.

Cenote

The limestone formations of the arid Yucatan peninsula in Mexico are honeycombed with water-filled underground caves. The collapse of the roofs of some of these caves causes a kind of natural well, or cenote. These became the major source of water for Mayan and subsequent groups in the area. Thes...

Celtic Field

Term used for the remains of field systems of pre-Roman times in Britain and northwest Europe. The earliest are certainly Bronze Age in date, and it is misleading to associate them with the Celts. The fields are small and more or less square, and are visible because of the lynchets formed by cros...

Celtic Art

Name given to the art of the European Iron Age, which developed in central and western Europe from the 5th century bc, among presumed Celtic peoples. The term La TEne art is also used. Celtic art developed in the courts of the La Tene chieftains and it seems likely that the craftsmen worked under...

Cella

(Latin; Greek: naos) Architectural term used to describe either the whole of a temple apart from its outer colonnade or, in a more restricted sense, only the main hall, in which the cult statues were placed. celt. An antiquated 19th-century term for an axe or adze.

Cazador

See Cochise, Sulphur Springs.

Cazador

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Cayonii Tepesi

An important early farming site on a tributary of the Tigris River in eastern Turkey, occupied for about a millennium c7500-6500 be. The site had five major levels, all characterized by impressive architectural remains with stone foundations. The economic evidence has shown that the community dep...

Cayonii Tepesi

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Cave Of Hearths

A cave near Pietersburg in the northern Transvaal, South Africa, located close to the Makapansgat australopithecine site. The earliest deposits are Acheulian, followed by a thick sterile horizon representing a long period of abandonment. Next comes a long succession of Pietersburg industries. Des...

Cave Earth

The name given to cave deposits composed of shattered boulders and pebbles, arising from frost action and thermal weathering.

Cave Dwelling

Especially during the colder periods of the ice ages, caves were frequently occupied by Palaeolithic man. The dwelling was usually sited in the mouth of the cave or even outside under a rock overhang. Cave dwelling was rare or unknown before the penultimate glacial period. Caves continued to be u...

Cavdar

[Cevdar]. One of the few tell sites of the west Bulgarian regional group of the First Temperate Neolithic, located in the southern part of the upland Sofia basin and dated c5100-4700 bc. Five Kremikovci occupation levels are stratified below a Karanovo VI level. The mainstays of the mixed farming...

Causewayed Camp

A type of enclosure found in the earlier Neolithic of southern England (4th millennium bc), consisting of a number of concentric ditches with internal banks. The ditches were rarely continuous, but were interrupted by causeways of untouched ground. Their function is unclear, as there is little ev...

Cauldron

Large metal vessel for use in cooking, usually with a round base and handles for suspending over a fire. In Europe, cauldrons first appeared in the Late Bronze Age. In the later Iron Age they were sometimes made of silver, and became objects of great wealth and prestige. One of the most famous co...

Cattle

Members of the genus Bos. Wild and domestic cattle are classified separately as Bos primigenias (wild cattle or aurochs) and Bos taurus (domestic), but they apparently represent only one species. They differ mostly in size — the wild form being very much larger — but there are other, more detaile...

Catfish Cave

See Shamarkian.

Catfish Cave

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Catacomb

A name of obscure origin, perhaps first given to the extensive subterranean Christian cemetery in the vicinity of the church of San Sebastian on the Via Appia Antica, south of Rome, and then generally to a large number of similar complexes around Rome and elsewhere. Characteristically, a labyrint...

Castro

Portuguese term for a defended site, most commonly applied to the local Iron Age

Casting

Metals with a low enough melting point can be melted in a crucible on a simple hearth, and cast in a mould. Copper, bronze, gold and silver were all commonly cast in antiquity. Iron and steel could not be melted by ancient hearths and furnaces. Metal melted over fire absorbs gas resulting from co...

Castelluccio

A settlement and cemetery site in southeast Sicily which has given its name to an Early Bronze Age culture. The cemetery contained several hundred rock-cut tombs used for collective burial; the tombs were sometimes closed with rock slabs and these were occasionally decorated with carved spirals, ...

Castanet

An Upper Palaeolithic rock shelter at Castelmerle, situated at the foot of cliffs overlooking the Vezere River of the Dordogne, southwest France. Two levels of Aurignacian type are present, containing art objects of carved or painted stone. The art from Castanet and the neighbouring Blanchard roc...

Cassibile

A Late Bronze Age settlement and large cemetery of rock-cut chamber tombs in southeast Sicily, of the early 1st millennium bc. It belongs to the Pantalica culture, which is characterized by large urban settlements, of which Cassibile was presumably one, since although the settlement site itself h...

Cashel

A rock in

Cascade Point

See Old Cordilleran culture.

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