Lynchet

A bank of earth which accumulates on the downhill side of an ancient plowed field as the disturbed soil moves down the slope under the action of gravity. It is a small-scale terracing effect visible particularly in ancient field systems which is caused by accumulation of soil against an obstructi...

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Lynchet

Bark Beater

a stone, wood, or other hard material which was used in the Precolumbian period to soften bark for making clothing or architecture

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Bark Beater

Nderit Drift

Site on the Nderit River south of Lake Nakuru, Kenya, which preserves a long sequence of archaeological deposits which illustrate the precursors of the Pastoral Neolithic complex. A blade industry of the 11th millennium BC is regarded as a probable ancestor of the Eburran (Gambles's Cave).

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Nderit Drift

Kampong Sungei Lang

A site near Klang, Malaysia, with a metal age boat burial dated to c 300 BC. The grave goods include two Dong Son bronze drums, Mutisalah beads, and iron implements. It may be contemporary with the Bernam-Sungkai slab graves.

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Kampong Sungei Lang

Notch

A flaked U- or V-shaped indentation; matching indentations in the point base area or corners or sides

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Notch

Urban Revolution

A term applied to a sociocultural type or stage of human development. V. Gordon Childe proposed that the criteria for the urban revolution are: (1) cities, or large, dense settlements; (2) the differentiation of the population into specialized occupational groups; (3) social classes, including a ...

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Urban Revolution

Bifacial Thinning Flake

A flake removed during the thinning or resharpening of bifaces. These flakes are relatively flat, have broad, shallow flake scars (produced by the detachment of previous thinning flakes from the dorsal face), and tend to exhibit a feathering out of lateral margins. The proximal end of the flake o...

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Bifacial Thinning Flake

Ecosystem

The complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space; the total living community of a single environment - the flora, fauna, insects, and man himself - and the interactions of the constituent parts as well as their relationshi...

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Ecosystem

Belzoni, Giovanni

Italian excavator of Egyptian sites, who is known as a picturesque and unscrupulous collector of Egyptian antiques as well as a pioneer in Egyptology. Belzoni sought antiquities both for himself and for the British Consul-General on behalf of the British Museum, whose collection he enhanced enorm...

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Belzoni, Giovanni

Soda-Lime Glass

Glass produced using soda derived by burning seaweed and kelp.

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Soda-Lime Glass

Coconut

The nut or seed of the coco-palm, whose white flesh may be eaten. It was probably cultivated in Southeast Asia by 3000 BC and then spread by Austronesians through the Pacific and eventually to central America, India, and East Africa. Charred fruits occur in western Melanesian sites back to c 3000...

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Coconut

Sedimentation

The process of deposition of a solid material from a state of suspension or solution in a fluid (air, water, ice). It also includes deposits from glacial ice and those materials collected by gravity, or accumulations of rock debris at the base of cliffs. Depending on the conditions of sedimentati...

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Sedimentation

Unsystematic Survey

A simple walking survey across each part of the area, scanning the strip of ground along one's path, collecting or examining artifacts on the surface, and recording their location together with that of any surface features.

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Unsystematic Survey

Edge Angle

The angle of the cutting edge of a stone (or other material) tool. The edge angle often indicates the purpose for which the tool was used. Edge-wear analysis is the microscopic examination of the working edges of tools.

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Edge Angle

Logical Positivism

The philosophical position that there is an objectively knowable past that can be discovered through rigid adherence to scientific methods.

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Logical Positivism

Calcareous Concretion

A rounded mass of mineral matter occurring in sandstone, clay, etc. - often in concentric layers around a nucleus.

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Calcareous Concretion

Lindenschmit, Ludwig

Brothers who attributed burials they excavated at Selzen near Mainz to Great Invasions and the Franks. They used comparative methods and made proper use of terminus post quem provided by dates on coins.

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Lindenschmit, Ludwig

Faunal Association

A relative age determination technique based on archaeological associations with remains of extinct species.

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Faunal Association

Microstructure

The arrangement of phases of a material; in a ceramic, the internal arrangement of crystalline and amorphous materials, pores, and boundaries between them

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Microstructure

Skeleton

The bony supporting element in the bodies of vertebrate animals. It consists of the axial skeleton - skull (including teeth) and vertebral column - and the appendicular skeleton - ribs, girdles and limbs. In man, the proportions of various bones are fairly generalized, but in other animals bones ...

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Skeleton

Sketch Map

A roughly drawn map with few details. An impressionistic rendering of a region, site, or feature made without instruments, therefore showing no geographical direction or elevation and with distances estimated by pacing. The Incas used sketch maps and cut some in stone to show relief features. Man...

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Sketch Map

Woodhenge

Large wood circle, a sacred monument just northeast of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, and adjacent to Durrington Walls. It consists of a henge-type earthwork with a wooden structure inside. A central grave was surrounded in turn by six egg-shaped concentric rings of postholes, a ditch, and a b...

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Woodhenge

Maes Howe

A magnificent passage grave in Orkney, Scotland, roofed by corbeling and covered by a circular cairn surrounded by a ring ditch. Its unusual plan is a squared burial chamber with three rectangular cells opening from it through doorways placed about a meter above the level of the chamber floor. No...

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Maes Howe

Bambandyanalo

A hill that forms the eastern boundary of K2 in Transvaal, South Africa, where a site dates to the 11th-12th centuries AD - the southern African Iron Age.

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Bambandyanalo

Obverse

The side of a coin or medal bearing the head or principal design.

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Obverse