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Chitope

A village site in northern Mashona-land, Zimbabwe, occupied briefly during a final phase of the local Early Iron Age in the 11th or 12th century ad. The presence of a single glass bead suggests that this period saw the beginning of contact with the coastal trade, which greatly developed during th...

Chitope

archaeologsOthers

Chiripa

A site located at the south end of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and dating to the Middle Horizon. It consists of a series of •rectangular rooms, some with underfloor stone-lined graves, arranged around a rectangular plaza. An unusual feature is the use of the space between the double walls of some of...

Chiricahiia

The second of three chronological stages of the Cochise culture, with dates clustering between 3500 and 1500 be. A mixed foraging economy is indicated by assemblages commonly including cobble manos, shallow basin grinding slabs, choppers, scrapers and distinctive, side-notched projectile points. ...

Chiricahiia

archaeologsOthers

Chipping Floor

In the process of flaking stone tools, large quantities of waste chips are produced. A land surface on which a scatter of these is found is a chipping floor. At least from the earlier stone age, it is rare to discover a chipping floor where finished tools and indications of other activities are a...

Chip Carving

Technique that probably originated in the Roman and Celtic world. The method required an incised strip to be drawn across the surface of the piece to be decorated, and then a series of lozenges were cut inside the borders of the strip; each lozenge section was individually eased out with a chisel...

Chip Carving

archaeologsOthers

Chiozza

Neolithic settlement site in Emilia, northern Italy, of the later 5th or early 4th millennium be. The only structural remains were oval and circular pits, possibly the floors of sunken huts, but more probably storage pits. Pottery was of the square-mouthed type and indeed the term Chiozza is some...

EnglishAncient Pottery

Chincha

A small autonomous state of the Late Intermediate Period, centred on the Chincha Valley in south coast Peru. Although known mostly from its pottery, some sites do exist: notably the administrative complex at Tambo de Mora (probably the capital), La Centinela and La Cumbe. Chincha pottery was wide...

Chinampa

An extremely productive method of agriculture practised in Mesoamerica, especially by the Aztec. Although often incorrectly called ‘floating gardens’, the method is rather similar to a system of land reclamation. Successive rectangular mats of marsh vegetation were floated to suitable shallow-wat...

Chimu

Centred on the north coast of Peru, the Chimu kingdom was the largest of the independent states to appear in the Late Intermediate Period. Developing out of Moche, the kingdom at its zenith stretched from the borders of Ecuador to the Chilion Valley. The capital, Chanchan, was located in the Moch...

Chimu

archaeologsOthers

Childe

(1892-1957). Australian by birth, Childe spent most of his life in Britain, where he was successively Abercromby Professor of Archaeology at Edinburgh and first Professor of European Prehistory in the Institute of Archaeology at London University. For more than 30 years Childe dominated European ...

Childe

archaeologsOthers

Chicoid

[Boca Chica]. One of two ceramic series (the other being Meillacoid) that appear to have developed out of the Ostinoid series. Originating in eastern Hispaniola — the type site is at Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic — Chicoid influence spread over much of the eastern Antilles, probably by dif...

Chichimec

In the Early Post-Classic Period, mixed groups of nomadic hunters and gatherers and displaced farmers began drifting south from the northernmost margins of Mesoamerica. The reasons for this migration are uncertain, but it is thought that these northern areas were subject to sustained climatic det...

Chichen Itza

The primary centre of power in the northern Yucatan during the Early PostClassic Period. Although there is a PreClassic occupation and Chichen Itza functioned as a minor ceremonial centre in the Classic Period, its major occupation was between clOOO and 1250. From historical sources it seems like...

Chichen Itza

archaeologsOthers

Chicanel

A phase of the Lowland Maya Pre-Classic dated 300 bc to ad 150. It is characterized by a complex of architectural and ceramic traits which presage the rise of Classic Maya civilization, for instance temple-pyramids, corbelled arches and painted murals. Also notable is increasing uniformity betwee...

Chibcha

Culture centred on the eastern cordillera of Colombia, near to present-day Bogota, which was still flourishing in the 16th century at the time of Spanish contact. Much of what is known comes from historical documents of that time, although excavations at the huge site of La Ramada have provided s...

EnglishCultures

Chiapa De Corzo

Located on the banks of the Grijalva River in the central depression of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, Chiapa de Corzo has one of the longest occupational sequences in Mesoamerica. Although it spans the period C1500 bc to the present, it is most interesting for its coverage of Late Pre-Classic to ...

Chiao-Chih

[Giao-chi]. One of the nine com-manderies of the Han Chinese province of Chiao which corresponded to the region of the Red River delta, the heartland of the later (10th-century) independent state of Vietnam. The name was used by early European and West Asian traders to designate this state long a...

EnglishPlace Names

Chiao-Chih

archaeologsPlace Names

Chiao

[also Giao]. Name of the formerly independent kingdom of Nam-Vi£t (Chinese Nan-yiieh) when it was incorporated as a province into the Han empire in 111 bc. The province of Chiao consisted of nine com-manderies, six of which correspond to the present Chinese provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi and ...

Chevaux De Frise

Form of defence developed especially to break cavalry charges, although also effective against foot soldiers; consisting of closely spaced stakes or stones placed on end, chevaux de frises are sometimes associated with hillforts in prehistoric Europe.

Chester

[Roman Deva]. City in northwest England. Modern Chester overlies a massive Roman camp (castra) of some 24 hectares, sited strategically on the River Dee to control communications with the Northwest and Wales, to separate the warring tribes of the Brigantes and the Ordovices, and to assist the sis...

Chesowanja

An open site in Kenya, which has produced the earliest evidence yet recorded of fire in association with tools. The site is dated to 1.4 million years ago and predates the previous earliest evidence for fire — at Zhoukoutien — by nearly 1 million years. However, it has been suggested that the bur...

EnglishPlace Names

Chert

A very finely crystalline form of the mineral silica, found as nodules in limestones. Many cherts are so fine-grained that they behave like a glass — they fracture almost as sharply as obsidian, and may be chipped or flaked to make artefacts. All have been used as materials for making artefacts, ...

Chernigov

A town on the River Dnieper in the western Soviet Union, probably founded by the Swedish Vikings between the 9th and 11th centuries. It was principally a trading town on the north-south route across eastern Europe between the Black Sea and Baltic areas.

Chenla

The first kingdom of the Khmers which came into being in what is now southern Laos in the middle of the 6th century. Its etymology is not known. It gradually expanded towards the south to absorb the territories formerly occupied by Funan (i.e. present Cambodia). At the beginning of the 8th centur...

Chengdu

[Ch’eng-tu]. Capital of Sichuan province, China. The material culture of the Chengdu plain kept a strong local flavour long after its first contact with the Bronze Age civilizations of North China, which on the evidence of ritual vessels found in nearby Peng Xian must be dated no later than the b...

Chengdu

archaeologsOthers

Chenes

One of three architectural styles occurring in the Lowland Maya area of northcentral Yucatan. Its hallmark is the employment of elaborately decorated pre-cut veneer masonry, but it is distinguished from both Rio Bec and Puuc by its concentration on towerless, low, single-storey buildings and a pr...

Chemical Analysis

Archaeological artefacts and materials can be analysed to determine concentrations of major, minor and trace elements. The methods used for this include X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY, OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROMETRY, ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY and NEUTRON activation analysis. This information...

Chellian

The name given by de Mortillet in the 1880s to the epoch characterized by hand axes in his classification, equivalent to the Lower Palaeolithic. It replaced the term Acheulian, which was eventually reinstated after a long and confused debate. The concept of epochs, favoured by de Mortillet, has n...

Chellian

archaeologsOthers

Chelford

An interstadial of the Dev-ensian cold stage. It has been dated by radiocarbon to c61,000 bp, but this is near the present extreme range of the technique (see radiocarbon dating) and the date may be older.

Chedworth

Here, in idyllic surroundings in the Cotswold area of southern England, stand the ruins of a large Roman villa, one of the best-preserved in Britain and probably, in its final phase, typical of a whole group of rich villas that characterized the last years of the Roman occupation. At Chedworth th...

EnglishPlace Names

Cheddar

(1) Gough’s Cave in the Cheddar Gorge in the Mendips, southwest England, has produced late Palaeolithic remains, comprising bohe and stone tools and skeletal remains which include the nearly complete skeleton of Cheddar man. These finds probably date from about 8000 to 10,000 be and are often cal...

EnglishPlace Names

Chavin

[Chavin de Huantar]. In the period 900-200 bc (see Early Horizon), the Chavin Horizon art style became the dominant cultural influence in Peru. Probably developed in the medium of low-relief stone carving, it was ultimately expressed in other media as well, for instance, pottery, metals and bone....

EnglishArchitectural

Chavin

archaeologsArchitectural

Chatham Islands

Occupying an isolated position in the South Pacific, 860 km east of Christchurch, New Zealand, these islands were settled by Polynesians from New Zealand about AD 1000-1200. They are of great interest because they lie climatically beyond the limits of prehistoric Polynesian horticulture, and thus...

Chatelperron

Cave site in Allier, central France, which has given its name to the Chatelperron point, a curved backed blade point typical of the Perigord-ian I stage of the initial French Upper Palaeolithic. The phase is also called Chatelperronian.

Chatelperron

archaeologsOthers

Chateauneuf-Les-Martigues

A large rock shelter north-west of Marseilles in southern France, with a series of deposits from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. Particular interest has focused on a level with impressed ware, possibly domesticated sheep and a radiocarbon date in the early 6th millennium be; however, ano...

Château Gaillard

The magnificent castle of Château Gaillard was built at Les Andelys in Normandy by Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England and Duke of Normandy, on his return from the Third Crusade in 1196. It was situated on a promontory overlooking the Seine to control the approach to Rouen, the capital of Norm...

EnglishArchitectural

Château Gaillard

archaeologsArchitectural

Chassey

A Neolithic culture of France, named after the site of Camp de Chassey in Burgundy. In southern France, the Chassey culure succeeded the Impressed Ware culture after c4000 be, but in much of central and northern France the Chassey culture represents the earliest Neolithic, and has radiocarbon dat...

Chasing

One of the methods used in repoussé metal-work. The term ‘chasing’ may also be used in a more general way, to describe any decorative work on metal employing hammer or punch.

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