Gedi

Archaeologically, this is the most intensively excavated of the early towns of the East African coast; it does not, however, receive mention in any of the relevant written records. Located on a now abandoned site beside a tidal inlet south of Malindi, Kenya, Gedi was probably founded around 1300....

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gebal

[modem Gebail]. Ancient name of the east Mediterranean town known by the Greek name of Byblos.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gebal

Gdansk

A city situated on the Vistula estuary in Poland, which evolved from the 12th century to become one of the most important trading centres of eastern Europe. The town controlled the overland timber trade and its access to the northern-flowing rivers gave good access to the Baltic. Some of the most...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gaza

Palestinian site underlying the modem town of Gaza. No excavations have taken place, but it is known to have had Philistine, Egyptian and ‘Peoples of the Sea’ occupation. The nearby cemetery of Deir el-Daleh has produced Egyptian material. Ten km south is the mound of Tell el-Ajjul, which was exc...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Gawra Tepe

A tell, northeast of Nineveh in Iraq, which has provided a cultural sequence from the 6th millennium be to the mid-2nd millennium bc. The earliest material was of the Halaf period, while the succeeding period shows increasing contacts with the southern Mesopotamian Ubaid culture. Belonging to thi...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Gawra Tepe

Gavrinis

An early Neolithic passage grave on an island in the Gulf of Morbihan, Brittany. It is very elaborately decorated with pecked designs, mostly abstract, over most available surfaces.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gaul

[Latin Gallia]. The Romans regarded France and Germany west of the Rhine as a unity, inhabited primarily by Galli. In 121 bc they annexed the southernmost strip as Gallia Transalpina. Caesar’s conquests (58-51 bc) and Augustus’s organization (30 bc-14 ad) resulted in four Gallic provinces: the so...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gaudo

A cemetery site in Campania, southwest Italy, which has given its name to the local Copper Age culture of the 4th-3rd millennia bc. Gando sites are characterized by rock-cut tombs used for collective burial. Grave goods include abundant pottery — assymmetrical jars with strap handles sometimes ca...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Gatung’Ang’A

A site in the eastern highlands of Kenya which illustrates the Early Iron Age settlement of that region during the second half of the 1st millennium ad. The pottery shows similarities with Kwale ware and it seems probable that the Early Iron Age population of the eastern highlands derived from th...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gatung’Ang’A

Garum

Many Romans greatly appreciated good cooking, and several writers mention a rich fish sauce (garon in Greek and garum in Latin) made from small fish, and a speciality of the provinces of Greece, North Africa and Spain.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Garum

Garstang

(1876-1956). Distinguished British archaeologist who worked for more than 30 years on prehistoric sites in Anatolia and the Levant. His excavations at Sakce Gözü, Jericho and Mersin made major contributions to the development of Near Eastern prehistory.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Garstang

Gaocheng

[Kao-ch’eng]. County in southern Hebei province, China, with widely scattered Shang remains, of which the most notable are those near the village of Taixicun. The main occupation at Taixicun postdates the Erli-gang phase and is either coeval with or, more probably, a little earlier than the histo...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ganj Dareh Tepe

A small mound in the Kermanshah region of western Iran, which has yielded five occupation levels with radiocarbon dates ranging from 8400 to 6800 be. The lowest level had no permanent architecture, but only shallow pits and hollows. The next level, however, had mud-brick structures, mostly very s...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Ganj Dareh Tepe

Gangetic Hoards

Hoards of copper objects found in the Ganges basin in India. The main types of objects found are flat and shouldered axes, bar chisels, barbed harpoons, antenna-hilted swords and anthropomorphic objects. Associations with Ochre-coloured pottery suggest a date of the 2nd millennium bc. Most author...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gangetic Hoards

Ganges Civilization

In the 7th-6th centuries bc the villages of the central Ganges and the Ganges-Jamuna Doab developed into true city-states, characterized by extensive urban settlement and a developed social organization. The states engaged in long struggles for power, which ended in the 4th century bc with the es...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Gandhara Grave Culture

Culture of the 2nd and 1st millennia bc found in northwestern Pakistan. Characteristic burials are in tombs consisting of two small chambers, one on top of the other; the lower chamber contained both the burial (either inhumed or cremated) and the grave goods, while the upper chamber was empty. T...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Gandhara Grave Culture

Gandhara

An area on the northwest frontier of Pakistan which from the 6th century bc formed a satrapy of the Achaemenid (Persian) empire. Through this province Western influences, and perhaps actual craftsmen, reached India. Gandharan art reflects these Western (provincial Hellenistic) influences, alongsi...

archaeologsEnglishOthers