Hatvan

The eponymous tell site for the Hatvan culture, an early Bronze Age group distributed in the Tisza Valley of eastern Hungary in the early 2nd millennium be. Many of the sites are tells in the Great Hungarian plain, although enclosed hilltop sites are known in the Carpathian foothills. Cremation c...

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Hatra

[present-day al-Hadr]. A north Mesopotamian desert oasis settlement some 80 km south of Mosul in Iraq. Hatra probably came into existence in Seleucid times (c300-100 bc) and then flourished as the capital of a little semi-independent Arab state within the Parthian orbit, close to the Roman border...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Hastinapura

A site in the upper Ganges Valley of India which is referred to in the Mahabharata (an epic story about a prolonged feud between rival princely families in the Ganges valley) as the seat of the Kaurava kings. The earliest level has Ochrecoloured pottery, which is succeeded in Period II by Painted...

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Hassuna

A tell near Mosul in northern Iraq which has given its name to a pottery style represented in the lowest levels on the type site and widely distributed over northern Mesopotamia. It is dated to the 6th millennium be and in much of the area it is associated with the earliest farming communities kn...

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Hasanlu

A tell site on the south bank of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran. It consists of a citadel, constructed early in the 1st millennium bc on the debris of much earlier prehistoric remains, and surrounded by a lower town. Four buildings on the citadel, facing onto a court and linked to a higher court wi...

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Harpoon

Barbed spears and harpoons appear at the close of the Palaeolithic and represent an important invention. Generally they were made of reindeer antler, cut into strips and carved with barbs. The harpoons were presumably fixed on the ends of wooden spears in such a way that they came loose after bei...

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Harmal

Located in the suburbs of Baghdad, Iraq, Tell Harmal has been identified as ancient Shaduppum, an administrative centre for the surrounding area, ruled by Eshnunna in the early centuries of the 2nd millennium bc before Hammurabi’s conquest. This small walled town, covering only cl.7 hectares, was...

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Harmal

Haripunjaya

The original name of the town of Lamphun, near Chiangmai, in northern Thailand. According to tradition it was founded by a colony of Mon emigrants from Lavo (present-day Lopburi) led by the queen Chammadevi; 12th-century inscriptions show a Mon dynasty reigning in Haripunjaya at that time.

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Haripunjaya

Hariharalaya

[Sanskrit: ‘abode of Hari-Hara’, i.e. the combined god Vishnu and Siva]. The ‘eastern district’ of Angkor, at present known by the name of Roluos, situated about 15 km southeast of Siem Reap. The ‘Roluos group’ consists of several brick edifices with pre-Angkorian art, as well as monuments dating...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Hariharalaya

Hargeisan

A stone industry of northern Somalia which appears to pre-date the local appearance of true backed-microlith industries. Based upon the production of blades, the Hargeisan (which has not itself been dated) may be related to the Eburran occupation of the central Kenyan Rift Valley between the 11th...

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Hard Water Effect

When material that is radiocarbon dated has been buried, groundwater may have percolated into it. Groundwater frequently contains dissolved calcium carbonate, where it has passed through limestones. Such carbonate may crystallize within the sample to be dated. As a result carbon from a source ver...

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Harappan Civilization

[Indus Valley civilization]. Name given to the civilization that flourished in Pakistan and northwest India in the later 3rd millennium bc, based on the flood plain of the River Indus and its tributaries. Nearly 300 settlements of the civilization are known: two large cities (Mohenjo-Daro and Har...

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Harappa

One of the two major cities of the Harappan civilization of the 3rd millennium bc. Whereas Mohenjo-Daro is situated in the southern Sind province, Harappa is on the middle Ravi plain of the northern Punjab. Unfortunately the site was largely destroyed during the last century by the extraction of ...

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Haniwa

Large hollow clay objects that were placed on the top, around, or inside burial mounds (kofun) in Japan. Early haniwa of the 4th century are cylinders with see-through designs, and are considered to have developed out of the tall stands for Late Yayoi ritual vessels of the 3rd century. House-shap...

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Hangtu

[hang-t’u]. A kind of rammed-earth construction used for walls, foundations, and shaft tombs in China throughout the Shang and Zhou periods. Earth was packed between wooden forms in successive thin layers, each layer being pounded hard before the next was added. In the Shang city wall at Zhengzho...

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Hangtu

Hanging Bowls

Thin bronze, shallow bowls found in Anglo-Saxon graves up until the 7th century, hanging bowls are an important part of a Celtic metal-working tradition which has its origins in the Roman and pre-Roman Iron Age. They have three equally spaced suspension rings, fixed to the bowl by means of escutc...

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Hanging Bowls

Hane

A valley on Uahuka Island, Marquesas (Polynesia), with a sand dune site behind the beach which has documented aspects of Marquesan prehistory from initial settlement (c300 ad) to European contact. It is a crucial site for documenting early human dispersal into Eastern Polynesia.

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Hand Axe

One of the most typical stone tools of the Lower Palaeolithic period. Characteristically it is made on a nodule which has been flaked over both surfaces until it is approximately almond-shaped.Usually one end is more pointed than the other, but the whole tool is normally symmetrical about its lon...

archaeologsEnglishTools

Hand Axe

Handan

[Han-tan]. The capital of the Eastern Zhou state of Zhao from 386 to 228 bc, probably to be identified with a walled city whose remains lie 4 km southwest of the modem city of Handan in southern Hebei province, China. The massive walls, which enclose an area of about three square kilometers, are ...

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