Archaeologs - Archaeologs

Hurri

People known from documentary references and some archaeological sites, who originated in the area of Armenia (southeast Turkey, northwest Iran). They are documented from mid-3rd-millennium bc times, but are better known in the 2nd millennium when they settled in northern Mesopotamia and Syria in...

EnglishNations

Hunting

In the 19th century the view developed that the hunting and gathering way of life still found among some modem primitive peoples had been typical of the earlier stone age or Palaeolithic period. Subsequent research has gone a long way to confirming that before farming was developed some 10,000 ye...

Hunting

Huns

Of the many ‘barbarian’ tribes who threatened the Roman empire during the 4th and 5th centuries, the Huns are almost the most obscure in archaeological terms, but are remembered in all the literature as being the most fearsome and bloodthirsty. Their origins were not Germanic but Asiatic, their l...

EnglishNations

Hunebed

Dutch name for the local variety of megalithic tomb. They consist of rectangular stone chambers with the entrance in one of the long sides, covered by a round or oval mound surrounded by a stone kerb. They were erected in the 3rd millennium be by communities of the TRB culture.

Humus

Decomposed organic matter which becomes incorporated into soil. Litter from plants is broken down by soil organisms into fine particles, which may then by incorporated into the soil by earthworms and other soil organisms.

Human Evolution

The hominids include all species believed to be related more closely to man than to the apes (pongids). Numerous human (and hominid) fossils are now known and conflicting interpretations of them exist. The simplest view is of a single line of species leading to modem man. Ramapithecus of the Mioc...

Human Evolution

Humaita

A lithic tradition based in southeastern Brazil, dated to the 5th millennium be and lasting into the Christian era. Its earliest manifestation is a rough flake, essentially unifacial, industry although some bifaces do appear, notably the boomerang shape. Clearly hunting oriented (artefacts includ...

Humaita

Hull

City on the Humber estuary, northeast England. A 12th-century settlement called Wyc de Mitune is known to have existed somewhere close to modem Hull, but the centre of commerce seems to have changed from the mid- to late 13th century onwards, when High Street became the core of the new town. Exca...

EnglishArchitectural

Hull

archaeologsArchitectural

Huelva

Find-spot in the harbour of Huelva, southwest Spain, of a large hoard of Late Bronze Age bronzes, dated to the 7th and 6th centuries bc. The find, which may represent the remains of a prehistoric shipwreck, contained bronzes of types found in various Mediterranean contexts (e.g. a Cypriot type of...

Huasteca

A native group centred on the northeastern fringes of Mesoamerica in northern Veracruz and Tamaulipas provinces of Mexico. Although MAYA-speaking, there is little evidence of cultural contact with the Maya after 1400 be. The major influences in the Classic Period were Veracruz (see El Tajio) and ...

Huari

A major site of the Middle Horizon, located near Ayacucho in the Mantaro River basin in the Peruvian Andes. Strongly linked to Tiahuanaco, it is thought to have been a secondary centre for the diffusion, possibly by force, of the cultural traits of that city. Early ceramics (Chakipampa A) date to...

Huang

[huang]. A flat semi-circular or arcshaped jade pendant. Examples are known from Neolithic sites in China and the shape was made throughout the Bronze Age.

Style

The name applied to a class of surface patterns common on Chinese Eastern Zhou bronzes of the 6th-3rd centuries bc. Cast in relief, these dense arrays of hooks and curls — Loehr’s ‘graceful froth of the Huai style’ — derive from tight configurations of dragons but verge on complete abstraction. T...

Huahine

See Society Islands, Vaito’OTIA.

Huahine

Huaca Del Sol

See Moche. Huaca Prieta. A village site located in the Chicama valley of north-coast Peru with evidence of an early sedentary way of life. Excavated by Junius Bird and dating to the Pre-ceramic Period VI, it has an initial radiocarbon date of c2300 be. Built on an artificial hill of refuse and ot...

EnglishArchitectural

Huaca Del Sol

archaeologsArchitectural

Huaca De La Luna

See Moche.

Huaca De La Luna

Huaca

A name derived from the Quechua word meaning shrine, huacas were revered or sacred objects. Diverse in nature, ranging from portable amulets to large natural phenomena such as caves and rocks, they were thought by the Inca to have magical or religious powers. For example the Kenko Stone or Huanac...