Stratigraphic Section

The excavation of trenches and squares across manmade layers to expose a cross-section of the deposits on an archaeological site and to reveal the sequence and methods of construction.

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Stratigraphic Section

Dieng

A complex of Hindu temples of the 8th-9th centuries AD, built around the volcanic hot springs of north-central Java.

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Dieng

Horn

One of a pair of bony processes that grow from the head of many hoofed mammals. They are usually permanent hollow sheaths of keratin present in both sexes of cattle and their relatives. Antlers are also horns.

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Horn

Vulci

City of Etruria in Italy with ruins of Etruscan temple, Roman houses, Greek pottery, and a production center for bronzes. There are extensive cemeteries and a large network of streets and walls. Vulci grew out of a number of Villanovan villages and flourished chiefly in the 6th-4th century BC, la...

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Vulci

Diffusion

The process whereby cultural traits, idea, or objects are spread or transmitted from one culture or society to another. It may be carried by folk movement, war, or trade, or imitation. Diffusion has played a major part in human development by spreading ideas and techniques more rapidly than they ...

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Diffusion

Direct Dating

The use of a dating technique directly on the object being discussed, such as the charcoal from a fireplace or a piece of obsidian.

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Direct Dating

Senftenberg

Late Bronze Age fortified site of the Lusatian culture in east Germany.

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Senftenberg

Hispaniola

The second largest island of the West Indies of the Greater Antilles, which since the 17th century has been divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

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Hispaniola

Limit

The proportion of successful trials in a very large sample.

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Limit

Akhmim

A site on the east bank of the Nile opposite modern Sohag, that was the capital of the ninth nome of Upper Egypt during the Pharaonic period, c. 3100-332 BC. The earliest surviving remains are Old and Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombs. The city originally included a number of temples dedicated to Min...

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Akhmim

Timber Lacing

A technique for strengthening a stone or earthen rampart by means of a timber framework. Timber lacing was used in the second city at Troy, and for various Minoan and Mycenaean buildings. In Europe, it was used for defense works from the 10th century BC and also at many of the Iron Age hillfort s...

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Timber Lacing

Northumbria

One of the most important kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, lying north of the Humber River. During its peak period it extended from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, between two west-east lines formed in the north by the Ayrshire coast and the Firth of Forth and in the south by the Ribble/Mersey Ri...

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Northumbria

Fontbrégoua

Cave site in southern France with Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic occupations, dating to c 8000 BC. Hunting and gathering remains are hazelnuts and plants; there was domestic livestock and pottery of the Cardial and Epicardial phases. Neolithic remains include pits of human bones with cutmarks and ...

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Fontbrégoua

Trundholm

Site where a bronze wheeled model of a horse pulling a disk, dated to c 1650 BC, was found in the Trundholm bog in Zealand, Denmark. It probably represented a chariot of the sun and was deposited as a ritual offering.

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Trundholm

Fast Ray

The component of light passing through an anisotropic mineral with the lower index of refraction.

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Fast Ray

Side Notch

Shallow and wide indentations worked into both side edges of a stone tool near the base

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Side Notch

Mersin

The tell site of Yümük-Tepe on the southern coast of Turkey (Anatolia) with 33 major levels, the bulk of which are Neolithic and Chalcolithic. The lowest levels were of an Early Neolithic characterized by monochrome impressed wares and radiocarbon dated to 6000 BC. A long series of Chalcolithic l...

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Mersin

Sociofact

Archaeological data resulting from past human social activities; an object whose primary function is to express or establish social rank, rather than to serve practical or ideological needs. An example is an ax that is used as a symbol of chiefdom rather than as a weapon.

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Sociofact

Nevasa

Prehistoric site on the northern Deccan plateau in western central India with a Middle Palaeolithic industry, a regional Chalcolithic with Jorwe ware of the later 2nd millennium BC, and a settlement of the late 1st millennium BC with wares of late Iron Age southern India. Another phase shows trad...

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Nevasa

Fynbos

The vegetation of the Cape Floristic Kingdom of Cape Province, South Africa, which has an unusually high number of species but is treeless and almost grassless. Its shrub-filled area has been important for approximately 125,000 years.

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Fynbos

Clastic Rock

A rock composed of broken pieces of older rocks

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Clastic Rock

Bleeper

A surveying instrument that is a type of proton gradiometer, working on the same principle as the magnetometer. When two detector bottles are used, one near ground level and one about 2 m above, small magnetic anomalies underground affect the lower, nearer, bottle more strongly than the upper. Th...

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Bleeper

Pirri Graver

An Australian tool type with extensive flaking on one face and an underside curvature as well as retouched cutting edge on the narrow end. They are up to 80 mm long. They seem to correspond to that of the Tula.

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Pirri Graver

Clactonian

An early flake-tool culture of Europe, dating from the early Mindel-Riss (Great Interglacial) of the Pleistocene epoch, which occurred from 1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago. It was named after discoveries at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England. A kind of concave scraper, perhaps used to smooth and shape ...

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Clactonian

Sediment

A layer of soil, organic material, or rock particles which are no longer in the place where they were formed geologically but which have been redeposited away from their source. The agents of redeposition can be weathering, erosion, decay, soil-forming processes, and man himself. The material is ...

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Sediment