Cyclopean Masonry

Style of building with large, irregular blocks of stone fitted closely together. It is named after the Greek mythical character Cyclops, thought by the Greeks to have built the walls of Tiryns, which are constructed in this way.

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Cuzoul

The rock shelter of Le Cuzoul de Gramat in Lot, southwest France, has a series of Mesolithic levels, mostly Tardenoisian. Well-preserved human remains including a skeleton came from these deposits. Cycladic. Term for the Bronze Age of the Aegean Islands, equivalent to Helladic on the Greek mainla...

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Cuzoul

Cuzco

Still a thriving community, this site of the Inca capital is located in the Urubamba Valley in Peru at an elevation of 3500 metres. A ceremonial centre rather than a population centre, it stood at the intersection of the four administrative quarters of the empire (called Tawantinguyu). Although a...

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Cursus

A type of Neolithic earthen monument found in Britain, consisting of a long narrow enclosure or avenue delineated by banks and external ditches. The antiquary William Stukely was the first to identify a monument of this type, near Stonehenge, and he is responsible for the name: he compared the mo...

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Currency Bar

Term used to describe long iron objects found in the British late Iron Age and thought to represent a form of currency. Three standard types have been identified — sword, spit and ploughshare; they are thought to represent regional preferences rather than different values.

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Curicamcha

See Cuzco.

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Curicamcha

Curia

A Latin term used in the early period of Rome’s history to denote a principal subdivision of the Roman people. Each of the original three tribes of Romulus were subdivided into ten curiae. This division was important for military organization, and for political representation — an early assembly ...

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Curacchiaghiu

A rock shelter in southern Corsica with a sequence of deposits from a pre-NEOLiTHic level dated to the 7th millennium be (the earliest evidence of man in Corsica) to the Late Neolithic. A level with 6th millennium be dates had pottery with punctated and incised decoration, and a lithic industry w...

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Cupisnique

Centred on the Chicama Valley in north coast Peru, Cupisnique is characterized by ChaviN-like pottery, so much so that it is sometimes referred to as Coastal Chavin. Most often associated with graves, pottery is typically a polished grey-black ware and stirrup-spout vessels are a common form. The...

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Cup And Ring Mark

The commonest form of rock carving in the British Isles, consisting of a cup-like depression surrounded by one or more concentric grooves. Cup and ring marks are found on standing stones, on their own or in stone circles, and on the slabs of burial cists, as well as on natural rock surfaces. The ...

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Cup And Ring Mark

Cunnington

(1754-1810). British antiquary who, like his contemporary Colt Hoare, recorded and excavated many barrows and other prehistoric monuments in southern England, especially on Salisbury Plain. His excavations were of good quality for the time, but his work lacked the framework of a classificatory sy...

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Cunnington

Cuniculus

[Latin: ‘a mine’]. Latin military term, usually an area of excavation by a besieging force beneath a fortification wall with the aim of undermining the structure and/or gaining access. The digging soldiers (cunicu-larii) would normally be protected by various structures of wooden posts, shields, ...

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Cuniculus

Cuneiform

Writing system developed in Sumer in the early 3rd millennium bc and used in many areas of western Asia until the last few centuries bc. The system involved making impressions on clay tablets with a wedge-shaped stylus, which has given the script its name (from the Latin cuneus, a wedge, and form...

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Cumae

A town in Campania, southwest Italy, best known as one of the first Greek colonies in Italy and the home of the Sibylline oracle. Evidence exists for earlier (Bronze Age) occupation. Lying in the area known to antiquity as the campi phlegraei (‘fiery fields’) because of the volcanic and hot-sprin...

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Culture

As used by archaeologists, the term has two separate meanings. In the more general sense it refers to everything that man does that derives from ‘nurture rather than nature’ (V.G. Childe), that is, behaviour that is learned rather than genetically controlled. An alternative definition of culture ...

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Cuivier

(1769-1832). Eminent French geologist (nicknamed the ‘Pope of Bones’) who was one of the foremost proponents of the catastrophist geological theory, which held that the record of the earth’s surface could only be interpreted in terms of a series of great catastrophes, of which Noah’s Flood was th...

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Cuivier

Cuidadela

See Teotihuacan.

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Cuidadela

Cuicuilco

Located at the southern end of ancient Lake Texcoco, Cuicuilco was the largest and most important centre of the Basin of Mexico in the Late Pre-Classic Period. Early large-scale construction in the form of adobe and stone-faced platforms occur in c400 bc. Cuicuilco appears to have been a thriving...

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