Bala Kot

Site of the Harappan civilization on the Makran coast of Baluchistan, Pakistan.

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Bala Kot

Bala Hisar

See Charsada.

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Bala Hisar

Bakun

Tell site near Persepolis in southern Iran, occupied in the Chalcolithic period, probably from the early 5th millen nium be. The site consisted of 12 mud-brick buildings with from one to seven rooms each; it was occupied by a simple agricultural community, that excelled in the production of fine ...

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Bakun

Baktun

See calendar (Americas).

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Bakong

A monument in the southeastern part of Angkor, in Roluos, just east of present Siem Reap, Cambodia. Founded by king Indravannan in 881, it is the first Khmer monument to represent a temple-mountain and the first to be built in sandstone (earlier ones having been built of brick). The central tower...

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Bakers Hole

Chalk pit at Northfleet close to the Swanscombe sites of northwest Kent. Its ‘coombe rock’ deposits are geologically a little later than the Swanscombe high terrace deposits, and contain a large series of Leval-lois flakes and cores.

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Bakers Hole

Bäile Herculane

A large cave site with an important Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age stratigraphy, located in a side valley 10 km north of the Iron Gates gorge of the river Danube in the Rumanian Banat. The long stratigraphy comprises three main occupation horizons: I, Upper Palaeolithic levels...

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Bäile Herculane

Bahrain

The island of Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf has been identified plausibly with the land of Dilmun, mentioned in Mesopotamian documents of the second half of the 3rd millennium bc. A Danish expedition has investigated sites ranging in date from prehistoric to the 16th century ad. Two important sites...

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Bahia

A regional development on the central coast of Ecuador which flourished from c500 bc to ad500. Characterized by large stone-lined platform mounds and unique pottery forms, Bahia represents a well developed socio-political and religious unit. Some continuities with earlier Formative Period ceramic...

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Bahia

Baghdad

The present-day capital of Iraq and the Islamic capital from the 8th century to the 13th century. When the Abbasids overthrew the last Umayyad caliph in 750, they decided to move the Islamic capital from Damascus, which was full of Umayyad sympathizers and too close to the Byzantine frontier. Two...

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Badbury Rings

See Arthur.

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Badbury Rings

Badarian

An early predynastic industry of Upper Egypt, dating from the early 4th millennium bc. Settlement sites have proved elusive, and much of the available information comes from graves. Badarian material culture was essentially Neolithic, the only metal objects being beads made of native, that is not...

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Bactria

The fertile region of Afghan Turkestan, south of the River Oxus. Its earliest significance was as one of the 20 satrapies of the Achaemenid empire. Bactria remained important after its conquest by Alexander in 329 bc and subsequently as part of the Parthian empire. Its wealth and importance depen...

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Bacsonian

An early Holocene (c8000-4000 be) stone tool industry of northern Vietnam, normally regarded as a late variant of the more widespread Southeast Asian Hoabinhian industry. The Bacsonian industry is characterized by a high proportion of edge-ground pebble tools, and some sites have produced cord- o...

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Bacini

Pottery vessels that were placed for decorative purposes high in the walls of churches, over church doorways or in church towers. The best-known group occurs in northern Italy, where several hundred later medieval churches have such vessels, ranging in date from the 11th century to the 15th centu...

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Bacho Kiro

A cave in central Bulgaria with a series of Mousterian levels (14 to 12) and then Upper Palaeolithic levels (11 to 3). The earliest Upper Palaeolithic levels have Aurignacian features. Backed blades appear towards the top. On the basis of radiocarbon and other indications, the earliest Upper Pala...

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Babadag

Tell settlement site of the Late Bronze Age, located on a fortified promontory in the middle of Lake Babadag, in the Rumanian Dobrogea. Six levels of occupation have been identified in a two-metre strati graphy, all of which are associated with rich assemblages of pottery, bones, carbonized cerea...

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Ba And Shu

[Pa-Shu]. Ba and Shu, names often coupled in Chinese texts, were kingdoms ruling the area of modern Sichuan during the Eastern Zhou period, Ba dominating the eastern half of the province and Shu the plain of Chengdu (the word Shu survives today as the literary name for Sichuan). Under pressure fr...

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Aruans

See Marajo Island sites.

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Abejas

See TEHUACAN valley.

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Atria

Port in northeast Italy. A principal 6th-5th century BC port on the Adriatic, and important crossover point for Etruscan and Greek trade, linking the sea routes with Etruria, the Po Valley and northern Europe. Variously described as of Venetie, Greek or Etruscan foundation, the town seems to have...

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Aztec

Centred on the Basin of Mexico, the NAHUATL-speaking Aztec, also known as the Mexica, were the dominant polity of the Late Post-Classic Period. Their origin is obscure, partly because of the deliberate destruction of their own records, but tradition holds that in 1193 ad the last of seven Chichi-...

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Azilian

The culture or stage which follows the Magdalenian in France. It is now known to date from c9000 to 8000 bc, the closing millennia of the last ice age. According to some definitions this would make it late Palaeolithic, but traditionally it has often been regarded as Mesolithic. Red deer has repl...

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Azelik

A number of sites around Azelik in Niger have yielded evidence for metal working at a very early date, with copper smelting firmly attested by the 5th century bc and possibly extending back to the late 2nd millennium. It appears that iron was not worked until somewhat later, although its presence...

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Azcapotzalco

See Aztec, Triple Alliance.

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Azcapotzalco

Axayacatl

See calendar stone.

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Axayacatl

Awdaghast

The site of a major trading centre in southern Mauritania, at the southern end of the main caravan route leading across the Sahara to the ancient Kingdom of Ghana. It was probably through this route that much of the gold of Bambuk was exported northwards from at least the closing centuries of the...

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Autun

[Roman Augustodunum]. City in Saóne-et-Loire, Central France. It was a fortified town of Gallia Belgica (see Gaul) built for Augustus sometime in the last decade bc as a replacement capital for the Celtic tribe of the Aedui. (The site of their previous capital is known at nearby Mont Beuvray; see...

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Austro-Thai

Hypothetical linguistic family proposed by linguist Paul Benedict to include the present (and now geographically separated) Thai-Kadai and Austronesian families. It is possible that these two major linguistic groups could have shared a common origin area in southern China, probably in excess of 5...

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Austro-Thai

Australopithecus

The baby skull found at Taung in 1924 was named Australopithecus africanus (southern ape of Africa) by Dart in 1925. A number of African fossil hominids have subsequently been included in this genus, and since 1962 many authorities have recognized two species: A. africanus, a gracile form best-kn...

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Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition

A late Pleistocene and Holocene stone industry characterized by high-domed chunky cores (sometimes termed ‘horsehoof cores’) and steep-edge flake scrapers. Artefacts have been found in all areas of the mainland and Tasmania, dating from 30,000 bc at Lake Mungo until the recent past. This industry...

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Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition

Aurochs

Also known as urus, or wild cattle; classified as Bos primigenius. See cattle.

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Aurochs

Aurignacian

In the classic French Upper Palaeolithic sequence, the Aurignacian falls before the Solutrian and the Magda-lenian. In modem usage only the old ‘middle Aurignacian’ is still called Aurignacian. In France, radiocarbon dates place it mainly between about 35,000 and 25,000 years ago. However, there ...

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Aunjetitz

Earlier name for the Czechoslovakian site and Early Bronze Age culture of

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Aunjetitz

Au-lac

A kingdom in northern Vietnam, founded by the king of Thue (an unidentified country to the north) in 258 bc on the ruins of the kingdom of Vàn-lang. Its capital was at CÓ-Loa, near present-day Hanoi. It was incorporated in 207 bc into the kingdom of Nam-Vièt.

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Au-lac

Augst

[Roman Augusta Rauricorum]. A Roman colonia and frontier post of the Upper Rhine valley near Basel, Switzerland. Although founded in 44 bc by Caesar and L. Munatius Plancus in the territory of the tribe of the Raurici, there seems to be no evidence for occupation before 15 bc. In this year, Tiber...

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