Armant

Solutrean

A culture of the Upper Paleolithic period in western Europe, from about 19,000 BC, following the Perigordian and Aurignacian; characterized by the use of projectile points, especially the laurel-leaf blade. From Solutré, a site in central France, it was a short-lived style of toolmaking with part...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Solutrean

Dunhuang

A site in northwestern China with many Buddhist sculptures, frescoes, and Mogao grottoes. It was a Chinese frontier outpost at a place where the Silk Route branched before crossing Central Asia. It was established as a Han military commandery in 111 BC and many documents and manuscripts dating fr...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Dunhuang

Gi

A site in northwest Botswana with Middle and Later Stone Age remains, including a microlithic industry associated with game trap pits.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Gi

Calixtlahuaca

A site in Toluca Valley, Mexico, with a ceramic sequence from Teotihuacán times till the Aztec conquest and some evidence of the Preclassic. It was occupied from 1200-1472 AD by a Nahua group (Matlatzincas) who were enemies of the Aztecs and were conquered by them between 1474-1510 AD. The Temple...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Calixtlahuaca

Gwisho

A series of mounds and hot springs in western Zambia with evidence of intense Late Stone Age (Zambian Wilton) occupation from about 5000-3500 years ago. The sites are of particular importance because of the preservation of organic materials in the spring deposits. Grass-lined hollows have been in...

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Gwisho

Kostolac

Eneolithic site in the Carpathian basin of Serbia and name of a culture considered a variant of the Baden culture.

archaeologsEnglishCultures, Place Names

Kostolac

Geoksyur

An oasis in the ancient delta of the Tedjen River in southeast Turkmenia, first settled in the early Chalcolithic period, designated Anau I or Namazga I. The earliest sequence of 10 levels span the later 5th and 4th millennia BC. Typical settlements were small villages of mud-brick houses, though...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Geoksyur

Karim Shahir

A hilltop site near Kirkuk in northern Iraq occupied in the period when the transition was beginning from hunting-and-gathering to farming. Its material is closely related to that of Zawi Chemi Shanidar and the culture is dated c 9000-7000 BC. There is no evidence of architecture, so the site was...

archaeologsEnglishCultures, Place Names

Karim Shahir

Idaean Cave

A sacred cave on Mount Ida in central Crete, one of those claimed to be the birthplace of Zeus. Votive offerings were made here by the Minoans, as it was an important cult center. There was a large rock shaped into a stepped altar. A magnificent series of decorated shields of the 8th and 7th cent...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Idaean Cave

Kökénydomb

Neolithic settlement of the Tisza culture of Hungary. The rectangular houses were decorated with elaborate incised decoration. Clay pedestals, or altars, are among the ceramics.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kökénydomb

Akjoujt

A site in southern Mauritania that appears to have been an early copperworking center in Africa, from c. 5th century BC or earlier. It is one of the few Saharan or sub-Saharan areas where there may have been a Copper Age preceding the Iron Age. Arrowheads, spearheads, axes, pins, and some decorat...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Akjoujt

Kurru, El-

A site in Upper Nubia with a royal necropolis of the Napatan period, c late 9th-mid-7th centuries BC. The site was first used from c 1000 BC onwards for the tumulus burials of the rulers of the kingdom of Kush (Kerma culture). These were replaced by steep-sided pyramids after the conquest of Egyp...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kurru, El-

Scoglio Del Tonno

Prehistoric site on a promontory projecting into the harbor of Taranto in Puglie, Italy, where a Middle and Late Bronze Age settlement existed. It was first occupied during the Late Neolithic by people suing Serra D'Alto Ware. It was then abandoned but resettled in the mid-2nd millennium BC by a ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Scoglio Del Tonno

Lisicici

A Late Neolithic culture in southern Bosnia, dated to the 4th millennium BC. There are few structural remains and the ceramic assemblage shows affinities with the Dalmatian Late Neolithic Hvar culture.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Lisicici

Benfica

A site in Angola with many shell middens, stone artifact assemblages, and Early Iron Age pottery dated to the 2nd century AD.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Benfica

Passo Di Corvo

A large Middle Neolithic settlement site on the Tavoliere plain in Puglie, southeast Italy, with a radiocarbon date of 5200 BC. The site is concentrically ditched (known as a villaggio trincerato) and encloses about 100 circular hut enclosures. The site has produced evidence of a mixed farming ec...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Passo Di Corvo

Gonur-Depe

A site in Turkmenia with a fortress of the Gonur phase between the Kelleli and Togolok phases, c late 3rd-early 2nd millennia BC. There are Murghab seal-amulets with rich iconography.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Gonur-Depe

Anlo

A site in Holland with a long sequence of occupation, starting with the Funnel Beaker culture. It was followed by a cattle enclosure during the Late Neolithic (protruding foot beaker) people, then a cemetery of five flat graves with foot beakers and bell beakers with cord ornament. The next phase...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Anlo

Calico Mountains

A site in the Mojave Desert of California where lithic debris lies in former Lake Manix. These artifacts (blades, flakes) may have been buried in fan deposits and date to c 200,000 BP. If this date is accurate, the site would be the earliest Lower Palaeolithic settlement known in the New World.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Calico Mountains

Greenland

The world's largest island; the Inuit are believed to have crossed from North America to northwest Greenland, using the islands of the Canadian Arctic as stepping stones in a series of migrations that stretched from 4000 BC to 1000 AD. Several distinct cultures are known, including the Sarqaq (c ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Greenland

Kerameikós

The most prestigious cemetery and pottery workshop region of Athens, including a multiple burial of Spartans from the 5th century BC. Many tombs were marked by stelae with relief decoration. There was a precinct for the Messenians, one for some immigrants from Heraclea on the Black Sea, and one f...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Kerameikós

Naqada

A site in Upper Egypt which produced the first evidence of the Neolithic in Egypt and provided the framework for the Predynastic sequence of the area. Its large Predynastic cemetery yielded some 2,000 burials of the Amratian and Gerzean periods. Naqada I was the Predynastic culture of ancient Egy...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Naqada

Halaf Culture Complex

A material culture with a distinctive painted pottery style, centered at Tell Halaf. It is divided into Early, Middle, and Late phases from the late 6th to early 5th millennia BC (5050-4300). The pottery is decorated with geometric, floral, and some nature motifs. The Late Halaf pottery includes ...

archaeologsEnglishCultures, Place Names

Halaf Culture Complex

Oleneostrovski Mogilnik

Large Mesolithic cemetery on Lake Onega in northern Russia with thousands of artifacts from the excavated graves.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Oleneostrovski Mogilnik

Zhob

A valley in north Baluchistan, western Pakistan, with a number of sites of a Chalcolithic culture, c 4th-3rd millennia BC. Rana Ghundai, Periano Ghundai, and Moghul Ghundai are the best-known sites. The pottery is painted black or red over a red slip; decoration may be stylized humped cattle and ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names