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Hong Kong

Hong Kong was firmly incorporated in the Chinese cultural sphere in the late Chou and Han Dynasties (late 1st millennium bc), and prior to this had a prehistory closely connected with that of neighbouring mainland south China. Earliest sites in Hong Kong date from about 3500 bc and belong to Meac...

Homo Sapiens Sapiens

Technical name of modem man. See human evolution.

Homo Sapiens Sapiens

archaeologsOthers

Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis

Technical name of Neanderthal Man. See human evolution, Neanderthal.

Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis

archaeologsOthers

Homo Habilis

Early hominid form of the period 2 to 1.5 million years ago, found mainly in East Africa. Some authorities believe Homo habilis to be closely related to the Australo-pithecines, while others believe it to be different from the Australopithecines and directly ancestral to man. See also Australopit...

Homo Erectus

Early form of man found between cl.6 and 0.5 million years ago. Many remains have been found in Java: see Mojo- bungmacan, Sangiran, Trinil. Other examples come from Zhoukoudian and Yuanmou in China and Tham Khuyen in Vietnam, and there are now fairly numerous examples also from Africa. See also ...

Hominid

See human evolution.

Hominid

archaeologsOthers

Holstein

Group of Quaternary interglacial deposits in northwest Europe. They are stratified above Elster glacial deposits and are overlain by Saale glacial deposits (see Table 5, page 418). Their exact age is unknown, but they are older than the extreme range of radiocarbon dating (70,000 bp) and can be s...

Holocene

The latest epoch of the Quaternary period, starting at 10,000 bp and extending to the present day. This epoch is, in reality, merely the most recent interglacial stage of the Quaternary, and the concept of a Holocene epoch is not a very useful one. In Britain, the term Flandrian is used to descri...

Hohokam

An early group of settled agriculturalists in North America. Their core area was in the drainage basin of the Salt and Gila Rivers in the southern Arizona desert. Traditionally 300 bc marks the earliest Hohokam manifestation, though their origin (and their disappearance) is still unclear. A major...

Hohmichele

A large barrow close to the Heuneburg hillfort in southern Germany. The barrow still stands to a height of 13 metres and covered 13 burials (eight inhumations and five cremations) of the later Hallstatt Iron Age (6th century bc). Two burials (one containing a man and a woman, the other a woman on...

Hohmichele

archaeologsOthers

Hog-Back Tombs

These tombs mostly date from the 10th century and are believed to have been developed in northwest England. They take the form of rectangular blocks with pitched roofs, and are usually decorated with interlace and other typical designs. Many scholars believe that the tombs imitate vernacular arch...

Hog-Back Tombs

archaeologsTombs

Hoedic

A small island off the coast of Morbihan in southern Brittany where a large mass burial of 13 individuals, with antlers placed over it, was discovered. The artefacts were of Tardenoisian type and the whole site was a Mesolithic midden or shell mound.

Hoedic

archaeologsOthers

Hod Hill

The site near Blandford Forum, Dorset, southern England, of an Iron Age hillfort with evidence for numbers of circular huts, the whole being defended by huge ramparts. It was attacked by Roman artillery under Vespasian in 44 ad. The Romans made use of the northwest comer only, and constructed a f...

Hochob

See Chenes.

Hochob

archaeologsOthers

Hoard

Term for a collection of objects buried usually at one time. Hoards can contain artefacts of any material and any number of different materials, but hoards of metal objects are particularly common. Depending on the circumstances of deposition, the make-up of hoards will vary. For instance, a merc...

Hoabinhian

A major stone tool industry of the mainland of Southeast Asia, with extensions into Sumatra and perhaps the northern Philippines. Dated sites range from about 12,000 be onwards, and overlap with Neolithic assemblages with pottery and ground stone tools for several millennia after 6000 be. Best de...

Hjortspring

Find-spot on the island of Ais, southern Denmark, of an Iron Age long boat preserved in a peat bog. The boat, cl7.5 metres long, was built of planks, not nailed together but tied and caulked with resin; both stem and stem terminated in carved ram’s heads. Inside was a mass of weaponry — wooden sp...

Hivaoa

See Puamau Valley.

Hivaoa

archaeologsOthers

Hittites

A people who established a kingdom in central Turkey in the 2nd millennium BC and later extended it into northern Syria. Their first capital was at Kushara, not yet identified, but it was soon moved to Hattusas, modem Boghazkôy. The Hittites did not originate in Anatolia and are thought to have i...

Hittites

archaeologsNations

Hissarlik

See Troy.

Hissar

Tell site near Damghan in northern Iran, occupied from the 5th to the early 2nd millennium bc. The earliest levels are characterized by fine painted pottery, decorated with designs of animals and birds, and by the presence of copper artefacts. In the 3rd millennium bc the painted pottery was repl...

Hissar

archaeologsOthers

Hispano-Moresque Pottery

Highly decorated ceramics that were produced in the late medieval period by the Moorish potters of Spain. They tend to be plates and jugs with bold semi-abstract designs painted on a creamy background and with a gold lustre finish. These wares were much in demand throughout Europe and, judging fr...

Hippodrome

[Greek: ‘horse race-course’]. Much the same as a stadium, but intended rather for horse- than foot-racing. The hippodrome rather than the stadium is the initial model for the Roman circus, which likewise concentrated on chariot-races.

Hillfort

Term for a hilltop settlement defended by stone walls or earth ramparts. Settlements of this type occur in many parts of the world at different times, but the term is most commonly applied to sites of the later Bronze Age and Iron Age in Europe.

High Lodge

A site close to Mildenhall in Suffolk where distinctive Palaeolithic tools were found in the 19th century, including classic Quina type scrapers similar to those found in the Charentian culture of France. The main occupation is from lake clays over- lying a glacial boulder clay, but it is now kno...

Hieroglyph

Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was developed about 3100 bc and continued in use with remarkably little change until the 4th century ad. Its meaning seems to have been forgotten soon afterwards and the hieroglyphs were not deciphered until early in the 19th century following the discovery of the bi...

Hieroglyph

archaeologsOthers

Hierakonpolis

An important Predynastic Egyptian settlement located 100 km north of Aswan. The town was of considerable extent: estimates of its population vary greatly, but the figure is almost certainly in excess of 5000. In proto-dynastic times Hierakonpolis was the capital of southern Egypt: important disco...

EnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Heuneburg

Hillfort of the Hallstatt Iron Age, overlooking the River Danube in Württemberg, southern Germany. The site has five main building phases, the most remarkable of which was the second, when the traditional timber-framed construction was replaced by a Greek type of construction, with a bastioned wa...

EnglishArchitectural

Heuneburg

archaeologsArchitectural

Hesi

Tell site on the Palestinian coastal plain west of Hebron, occupied from the Early Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period. It was excavated in the 1890s first by Sir Flinders Petrie and subsequently by F.J. Bliss, and these early excavations mark the beginning of stratigraphical excavation in this ...

EnglishPlace Names

Hesi

archaeologsPlace Names

Herzfeld

(1879-1948). German archaeologist who excavated on many sites in the Middle East before World War II, including Persepolis, Samarra and Tall-i Bakun.

Herzfeld

archaeologsOthers

Herpaly

A regional variant of the trio of Late Neolithic cultures (Tisza, Herpdly, Czoszhalom) found in the Great Hungarian Plain <4000-3400 be. The Herpdly culture, distributed in the northern Alfold zone, is characterized by tell settlement and intramural burial. The tells tend to occur on narrow penin...

Herculaneum

[Modern Ercolano], A small but wealthy and sophisticated Roman seaside town 8 km from Naples which, like Pompeii, was damaged in the earthquake of 63 ad and destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. For beginnings, we have the option perhaps either of an original Greek settlement, or of an Osc...

EnglishAncient Cities

Herat

For centuries the largest town in western Afghanistan, Herat stands on the Hari Rud. Already important in pre-Islamic times, it is sometimes identified as the capital of the Achaemenid satrapy of Aria and the Hellenistic city of Alexandria Ariana. Herat was captured by the Arabs in 645 and therea...

Hengelo Interstadial

An interstadial of the Weichselian cold stage. It is dated to around 39,000 bp.

Henge

Type of ritual monument found only in the British Isles in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. They consist of a circular or irregular area enclosed by a bank with a ditch usually but not univerally on the inside. They range in size from monuments c30 metres across like Woodhenge to the vast late...

Hen Domen

One of the many Norman motte and bailey castles in the Welsh Marches, but interesting because excavations here showed for the first time the vestigial remains of the retainers’ encampment as well as the lord’s timber castle.

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