Coyotlatelco

A ceramic horizon of the Early Post-Classic Period which begins to occur in central Mexican Mesoamerica following the fall of Teotihuacan. A distinctive red-on-buff painted ware, it appears in the early phases of both Tula and Cholula, and is a forerunner of the late Mazapan style.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Coveta De I’Or

A cave in eastern Spain near Valencia. An Early Neolithic level with impressed ware has produced remains of einkom, emmer and bread wheats, and naked barley, together with radiocarbon dates of the mid-5th millennium be. Large deep pottery jars may have been used for grain storage.

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Coveta De I’Or

Covalanas

An Upper Palaeolithic painted cave in the Cantabrian region of northern Spain. The style, including a finger-blob technique, suggests that it belongs to a primitive stage of cave art, possibly preceding the

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Coup De Poing

French name for the Palaeo-liithic tool type known in English as a hand axe.

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Coup De Poing

Counterscarp Bank

Low bank found on the outer side of a defensive ditch, most of the material from which has gone into the main bank on the inner side. The purpose of counterscarp banks is unclear, since they do not enhance the defensive value of the earthwork; they may have served to provide visual emphasis for t...

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Cotton

Plants of the genus Gossypium, cultivated for their hairy flowering heads, from which come fibres widely used in textiles. There are some 30 diploid (with two sets of chromosones) members of the genus — all of which originated in the Old World — and 4 tetrapioid (four sets of chromosones) species...

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Cotte De St Brelade

A cave with Palaeolithic occupation in the granite of St Brelade’s Bay, Jersey. A* long sequence of Mousterian levels is known, and beach deposits possibly of last interglacial date intervene in the sequence, suggesting a pre-Mousterian age for the first occupation levels. Human remains include l...

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Cotte De St Brelade

Cofofeni

Eponymous site of a widespread Late Copper Age culture distributed over most of Rumania and dated to the 3rd millennium be. The preponderance of sites are small, short-lived settlements with an altitudinal range from the lowest Danube flood plain to high mountain plateaux. Seasonality and presuma...

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Cofofeni

Cosa

[Modern Ansedonia]. A town on the west coast of Italy, some 140 km north of Rome. Cosa was a Latin colony, founded on a coastal crag in 273 BC to confirm Roman domination in an area that was still felt to be too strongly Etruscan. The fate of Etruscan Cusi (from which the Roman name derives) is o...

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Cortes De Navarra

A settlement site in the Ebro valley, northern Spain, occupied during the 1st millennium bc. The site is really a tell, as the building material used was mud-brick and successive rebuildings raised the level of the site. The houses were rectangular and arranged in rows. The cultural material is s...

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Cortailiod

A lake village on the edge of Lake Neuchâtel, and type site of the earliest Neolithic culture in western Switzerland. The houses were built on wooden frames with walls of clay set on closely spaced timbers; the roofs were probably thatched. The inhabitants practised mixed farming, but supplemente...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Cortailiod

Correlation

(1) In statistics, correlation means the degree of relation between variables. Correlations between pairs of variables may be calculated using a correlation coefficient. Multivariate techniques for assessing correlation also exist. (2) In geology, the term correlation refers to the relation of on...

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Corinthian

In traditional classical archaeology, used principally of: (1) an important stage of Greek vase-painting, notably the Proto-Corinthian and Corinthian schools of c720-550 bc, to which may be attributed perhaps the invention of Blackfigure technique, and some new shapes, such as the graceful arybal...

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Corinthian

Corinth

Major ancient Greek city on the Isthmus of Corinth, excavated since 1896 by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The city, with its exceptionally high acropolis on Acrocorinth Hill, profited from having ports on both the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs and was an important trading cit...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Core

Any lump or nodule of stone from which flakes have been intentionally removed. Frequently, cores are of special types, shaped to facilitate the removal of particular blanks like blades or bladelets, or large oval flakes with a sharp edge all round.The most distinctive cores of the last-mentioned ...

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Cordoba

Early in the 8th century, Visigothic Spain was conquered by the Arabs and became the independent caliphate of Al Andalus with its capital at Cordoba. The city quickly rose to become one of the finest in Europe, rivalled only by Baghdad and Constantinople for its wealth and splendour. Cordoba was ...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Cordoba

Corded Ware

A culture found over large parts of the north European plain in the earlier 3rd millennium BC. The characteristic pottery, which has given its name to the culture, is decorated with twisted cord impressions; the most common forms are beakers and amphorae. Associated characteristics are stone batt...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Corbridge

[Roman Corstopitum]. A Roman fort in northeast England, situated on the north bank of the River Tyne at the point where the Roman York-Scotland road (Dere Street) forked for Carlisle (the so-called Stanegate road). Probably first established by the governor Agricola in 79-80 ad, it was burnt and ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Corbel

A way of building in stone that can be used to bridge columns or walls or to roof chambers, but which lacks the keystones of the true arch or vault. It is built up of successive stones each of which juts out over the one below until the gap can be closed by a simple capstone. This method of roofi...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Corbel

Coprolite

Fossilized animal droppings. These are preserved on a variety of archaeological sites, coming from a whole range of animals, including man. The contents can be analysed and food plants, animals and palasites identified.

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Coppergate

See York.

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Coppergate

Copper Age

Another term for Chalcolithic. See also Three Age System.

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Copper

A relatively soft metal, which can be cold worked and melts at a low enough temperature to be cast using the technology available in antiquity. The metal occurs, rarely, as nuggets of native copper; it is in this form that it was first worked by man. More frequently, copper is obtained from ores....

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Coppa Nevigata

A site on the coast of southeast Italy. The first occupation was by a community of shellfish-gatherers, who have left us no trace of other economic activities, though these may well have been practised; they used impressed ware and a specialized microlithic flint industry, and may have been prese...

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Copan

An important Classic Period centre of the Southern Maya located in western Honduras on the Rio Copan, a tributary of the Rio Motagua. Although it is a ceremonial centre of massive proportions, including temple-PYRAMiDS, plazas and a ball court, Copan is best known for its ornate stone carving. 20...

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Copan

Coombe Rock

Periglacial deposit that results from solifluction (see periglacial).

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Coombe Rock

Cook Islands

An extensive island group in the central Pacific, settled by Polynesians about 1000 to 1500 years ago. Archaeological excavations have been undertaken on Rarotonga, Aitutaki and Penrhyn, and many islands of the group have well-preserved examples of Polynesian temples (marae).

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Cook

(1728-79). From 1769 until his death in the Hawaiian Islands in 1779, the great English navigator made three voyages of exploration in the Pacific and made many discoveries in Polynesia and Australia. Cook was not the first European to discover most of the islands he visited, but his accounts of ...

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Cook

Contamination

In general, the term contamination is applied to samples of archaeological deposits or materials which have been affected by contact with other matter. In particular the term is often applied to samples taken for radiocarbon dating which have been affected by their environment. For instance, they...

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Constantinople

See Byzantium.

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Conelle

Ditched settlement site near Arcevia in the Marche, which, together with the site of Ortucchio in Abruzzo, has given its name to a Copper Age culture of east central Italy (Conelle-Ortucchio group). The characteristic pottery is decorated with bands of impressed dots.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Conelle

Conchopata

A site dating to the Early Middle Horizon, located in the Ayacucho Valley near Huari, Peru, and probably the site of a religious shrine. Large beaker-shaped urns, intentionally smashed and concentrated in only a few locations, appear to have votive or some other ceremonial significance. The polyc...

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Conca D’Oro

A Copper Age culture in northwest Sicily, which takes its name from the area around Palermo. A number of cemeteries of rock-cut tombs of the a forno or ovenshaped type have been investigated. They were used for collective burial, and the associated grave goods include pottery vessels and stone an...

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Conca D’Oro

Computers

Machines which can be programmed to calculate and compare, store and manipulate information. They consist of four main components: (1) a central processing unit, in which program instructions are interpreted and calculations carried out; (2) storage units, where information may be held temporaril...

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Computers

Combe Grenal

A site near Domme on the Dordogne River, southwest France. With some 64 archaeological levels, the large rock shelter and small cave have the largest number of culture levels of any Palaeolithic site known to date. The 55 Mousterian levels have formed the basis for the analysis of the Mousterian ...

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