El Garcel

A settlement of the 4th millennium be Almerian Neolithic culture of southeast Spain. Excavations in the 19th century produced evidence of round houses, storage pits, undecorated round-based pottery and, before the end of the settlement, copper slag, suggesting the local development of metallurgy.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

El Garcel

Eleusis

Greek city, some 22 km west of Athens, famous in antiquity as the home of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a mystery cult in honour of Demeter and Persephone. Situated on a bay that is virtually an inland lake, the town enjoys good protection from the sea. This advantage, coupled with a naturally defens...

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Elephantine

An island in the Nile near Aswan on the ancient boundary between Egypt and Nubia. The area was famed for its quarries, which yielded the granite extensively used throughout ancient Egypt.

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Elephant

A group of the order Proboscidea. The living elephants are confined to Africa — Loxondonta africanus (Elephas africanus) — and India — Elephas maximus(indicus). The African elephant is adapted to a savanna environment and formerly occupied a far larger area, as is attested by skeletal evidence an...

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Electromagnetic Surveying

A geophysical surveying method. Instruments designed for this technique have two coils. One, through which an alternating electric current passes, produces a magnetic field. This field induces electrical currents in buried objects, which are detected in the second coil of the apparatus. It is pos...

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Ele Bor

A group of rocky outcrops in the north Kenya plains, not far from the foothills of the Ethiopian escarpment. A group of rock shelters yielded a composite sequence extending from ‘Middle Stone Age’ into recent times. A backed-microlith industry appeared at an as yet unknown date and continued in u...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Elateia

The earliest known Neolithic settlement in central Greece, near Phocis, dated to the mid-6th millennium be. Rectangular houses were built of timber with earthen floors. A series of pottery styles has been recognized, starting with undecorated dark-and light-surfaced wares, later replaced by black...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

El Argar

Situated on a hilltop near Almeria in southeast Spain, El Argar is the type site and largest known settlement of the Argaric Bronze Age of the 2nd millennium BC. The settlement was fortified and contained rectangular stone houses, though these are less well preserved than at other Argaric settlem...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

El Argar

Elandsfontein

A farm southwest of Hopefield in Cape Province, South Africa, and 25 km southeast of Saldanha Bay, which has produced several Palaeolithic cultures and a human skull somewhat like that of Broken Hill. The skull is believed to be associated with late Acheulian tools and may be 100,000 or so years ...

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El-Amama

A city in Upper Egypt built as his capital by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten during the 14th century bc. Palaces and temples, erected to support the worship of the divine sun-disc Aten, were abandoned and largely destroyed on Akhenaten’s death. The art of this brief period of monotheism...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

El-Amama

Elam

Important state in southern Iran with its capital at Susa. The development of civilization in this area closely paralleled that in Mesopotamia proper; for instance, writing appeared almost as early (see ProtoElamite), before 3000 bc, though later the Elamites were to take over cuneiform and adapt...

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Ehringsdorf

Travertine quarry in central Germany near Weimar. A badly broken skull and other human remains have been found here with stone tools resembling the Mous- terian. The fossil man is, of generalized Neanderthal type, but earlier than the usual Mousterian and classic Neanderthal finds. Often ascribed...

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Ehecati

See calendar stone, Quetza-

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Ehecati

Egtved

Early Bronze Age burial in east Jutland, Denmark. A round barrow covered the remains of a young woman in an oak coffin. The acid soil had destroyed all bones but, as in other oak coffin burials of this kind, remains such as skin and hair, as well as clothing, survived. She was wearing a woollen j...

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Egolzwil

A series of Neolithic sites around the shores of Lake Wauwil in Switzerland. Most of them belong to the Cortaillod culture and, like so many of the lakeside settlements of this culture, have produced very well-preserved organic material. The site of Egolzwil 4 had ten rectangular wooden houses pl...

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Effigy Mound Culture

A Middle/Late Woodland group (possibly an extension of Hopewell) centred on the upper Mississippi Valley to the west of Lake Michigan, USA. It is characterized by the construction of low mounds of various shapes, especially (though not always) life forms. Bundled, flexed and cremated burials are ...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Effigy Mound Culture

Eemian

Group of Quarternary interglacial deposits in northern Europe (see Table 5, page 418). They are found right across Europe from the Netherlands to the USSR, containing fossils that indicate warm conditions. Their exact age is unknown, but they are older than the extreme range of radiocarbon dating...

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Ecology

The relationship of plants and animals with their environment. The environment in this sense consists not only of climate, but also geology, soils, vegetation, other animals, man-made structures—anything that impinges on the organism being studied. Environmental archaeology is concerned not only ...

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Eburran

A recently proposed name for an idiosyncratic obsidian industry of the central Rift Valley, Kenya, previously known as the ‘Kenya Capsian’ and before that as the ‘Kenya Aurignacian’. Both these former names implied a connection with distant industries which is not upheld by recent research. The d...

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Ebla

Ancient city excavated at the site of Tell Mardikh on the River Orontes in Syria. Recent excavations have yielded evidence of the previously unknown language and history of a powerful state of the 3rd millennium bc. Although the site was occupied from the 4th millennium bc onwards, the period of ...

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