Onager

A race of Asiatic wild ass. Sometimes used in a wider sense to mean Asiatic wild asses in general.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Omori

A shell midden in Tokyo, excavated by Edward S. Morse in 1877. This was the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in Japan. ‘Jomon’ is the Japanese translation of the term ‘cord-mark’ used by Morse to describe the pottery from the site.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Omo

The Omo River basin is in Ethiopia north of Lake Turkana [formerly Lake Rudolf]. The 800-metre thick Shungura formation spanning the time from over 3 million to under 1 million years ago is of outstanding importance as a basis for dating other sites throughout Africa, because its time-scale is un...

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Olynthus

A classical Greek settlement at Toronaios Bay, Chalkidiki, familar from the speeches of Demosthenes (the so-called Olynthiacs), and of central importance as an example of Greek town-planning and the Hellenic house in the period 430-348 bc. Some late Neolithic settlement is followed after a gap by...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Olympia

At Elis in the Peloponnese, Southern Greece, was the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus and his consort, Hera, and the regular venue for the original Olympic Games. Perhaps first attracting use as an earth shrine and oracle (see Delphi and Delos), the site shows signs of continuous occupation from early ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Olorgesailie

An important Lower Palaeolithic site south of Nairobi in Kenya; the area of Mount Olorgesailie was where the Rift Valley was first recognized. One of the richest discoveries of hand axes was made here in deposits of silts of mainly volcanic origin. Baboons were hunted in large numbers. The site w...

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Olmec

A Mesoamerican group whose heartland lay in the low-lying swampy areas of the southern Veracruz and Tabasco provinces of Mexico. Since their cultural zenith occurred in the Middle Pre-Classic, they are often proposed as the earliest civilization in Mesoamerica. The ceremonial centre settlement pa...

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Olduvai Gorge

On the edge of the Serengeti plain in northern Tanzania, this is probably the most important Palaeolithic site in Africa. A fine succession of stone tool assemblages from 1.8 million years down to about 10,000 years ago has been partially investigated. Hominid remains include ‘Zinjanthropus’, now...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Olduvai Gorge

Oldowan

Stone tools from Bed I at Olduvai Gorge and levels of comparable date elsewhere in Africa are often attributed to an Oldowan culture. In its pure form, hand axes are absent, and it is pebble tools, especially those called ‘chopping tools’, which are characteristic. The subsequent ‘Developed Oldow...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Older Dryas

A stadial of the Weichselian cold stage. The Older Diyas dates to between cl2,000 and 11,800 bp. See Younger Dryas.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Old Crow Flats

The site of a Pleistocene fossil-bed on the banks of the Porcupine River in the Northern Yukon, USA. A radiocarbon date in the range 22,000-28,000 be was derived from redeposited bone material that had probably been altered by man. Although redeposition has destroyed any definite cultural associa...

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Old Crow Flats

Old Cordilleran Culture

Late Pleistocene culture which pursued a generalized hunting and gathering way of life in the high ground of the Pacific Cordilleran Mountains. The characteristic artefact is a leaf-shaped bifacial projectile point (Cascade point) which was first identified from sites in the Cascade Mountains of ...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Old Copper Culture

Unique middle/late Archaic development occurring in the Great Lakes region of Wisconsin and Michigan, USA. Characterized by hammered and annealed copper implements (such as spear points, knives, awls and atlatl weights) its best-known assemblages are from Osceola and Ocanto. Made from surface dep...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Oldbury

In the vicinity of former rock shelters in the Greensand ridge at Oldbury Hill near Ightham, not far from Sevenoaks in Kent, southeast England, a collection of tools of Mousterian of Acheulian type have been found. They are more abundant than in any other British Mousterian site, but poor by the ...

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Old Bering

Sea. An early manifestation of the western Arctic Thule tradition, often linked with the possibly contemporaneous Okvik culture. Although both share similar traits — a highly evolved art style, polished slate tools and pottery — the exact relationship between the two is still uncertain. The art s...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Old Bering

Okvik

An early manifestation of the Thule tradition, dating to the early Christian era and named after a site on the Punuk Islands in the Bering Sea. It is characterized by a high art style and by the extensive use of polished slate and organic artefacts, as is the culture with which it is frequently l...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Okhotsk

A late prehistoric culture of the coastal areas of northern and eastern Hokkaido, Skhalin and the Kurile Islands, Japan. It is intrusive to Hokkaido from the* north, co-existed with the Satsumon culture from about ad 800 to 1300, and then disappeared. The enigmatic maritime hunterfishermen, who a...

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Ogham

A script which occurs crudely inscribed b^ a group of memorial pillar stones in the Celtic regions of Britain from as early as the 4th century. Usually the memorial consisted of no more than the name and descent of the dead man, and the script was equally simple. The 20 letters of the Ogham alpha...

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Ofnet

A cave near Nordlingen in Bavaria, best known for the composite burial of 33 skulls of early Mesolithic date. Some earlier Palaeolithic deposits are also present in this arid the nearby Klein Ofnet cave.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Offa’S Dyke

A linear earthwork, 192 km long, built by King Offa of Mercia (r. 757-96) as a frontier between his kingdom and the kingdom of Powys. It consists of a large earthen bank and quarry ditch, and runs almost continuously between Treuddy and Chepstow, close to the border of England and Wales. Archaeol...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Offa’S Dyke

Oenpelli Shelters

A group of five sites in the East Alligator River area of Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Three sites (Padypadiy, Nawamoyn and Malangangerr) are situated on the riverine plain, subject to wet monsoon flooding, while Tyimede I and II lie 22 km away on the adjoining Arnhem Land plateau, 240 metres...

archaeologsEnglishOthers