Bonampak

A Maya ceremonial centre located close to the Lacanha River in the tropical rain-forest of northeast Chiapas, Mexico. Dating to the Late Classic Period (c450-750), it is most notable for its polychrome murals which can be tightly dated to 800 on the basis of long count inscriptions. The so-called...

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Bologna

[Bononia]. The general area at the eastern end of the Po Valley now covered by the sprawl of modern Bologna, is naturally favourable to agriculture, and straddles obvious lines of communication between plain, mountain and seaboard. Evidence for settlement is often virtually obliterated by success...

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Belling Interstadial

An interstadial of the Weichselian cold stage. It is dated to between 13,000 and 12,000 bp.

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Belling Interstadial

Boian

After the excavations of I.Nestor in 1925 at the Boian A tell, it became possible to divide the Rumanian Neolithic into two phases: an earlier, Boian, phase and a later Gumelnita, phase. The Boian culture is now recognized as the principal Middle Neolithic culture in Muntenia, in the lower Danube...

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Bog Burials

Name given to the human bodies found in peat bogs in Scandinavia and northern Europe, including more than 160 from Denmark. They are renowned for the remarkable preservation of the bodies caused by the chemicals in the peat, which has allowed archaeologists to study aspects of past life usually l...

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Bog Burials

Bog

A term generally used to describe communities of plants growing on acid waterlogged ground, as opposed to fen. Three main types of bog can be distinguished: valley bogs remain waterlogged due to the concentration of drainage into a valley; raised bogs form as large pillows of peat, and are kept w...

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Bodrogkeresztur

The eponymous site of the Middle Copper Age culture of eastern Hungary comprises a Linear pottery domestic occupation stratified below a medium-sized Copper Age inhumation cemetery. The Bodrogkeresztur culture represents the first peak of metallurgical development in Hungarian prehistory, defined...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bodh Gaya

Site in northeast India, famous as the scene of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Archaeological remains include an Asokan pillar, erected by the emperor on his pilgrimage of 249 bc, and a railing surrounding the tree beneath which the Buddha meditated for six years before his enlightenment (perhaps 2n...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bochica

See Chibcha.

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Bochica

Boca Chica

See Chicoid.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Boca Chica

Boat-Shaped Buildings

A variety of long house with bowed sides, known from Scandinavia and Scandinavian colonies in other parts of Europe throughout the Viking period. The finest examples have been excavated at 1 Ith-century Viking camps such as Trelleborg in southern Jutland. A typical example has been reconstructed ...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Boat-Shaped Buildings

Boat Burial

A pagan burial ritual widely adopted by the Vikings, and practised to a lesser extent by the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic races before them. The AngloSaxon poem Beowulf demonstrates the belief that the journey to the afterlife could be achieved in a vessel, and indeed the Saxon boat graves excavated ...

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Boat Axe

A special type of stone battle-axe found in eastern Scandinavia in the late Neolithic, so named because it resembles a simple boat with upturned ends. The term ‘Boat-axe culture’ is sometimes used for the east Scandinavian variant of the single grave or corded ware culture in which these axes occur.

archaeologsEnglishArtifacts, Tools, Weapons

Boat Axe

Boadicea

See Boudicca.

archaeologsEnglishPublic Figures

Boadicea

Bo [Po]

See bells (China).

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Bo [Po]

Bloom

Spongy mass of iron and slag, resulting from the initial smelting of iron ore.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Bloodletting

See Perforation.

archaeologsEnglishOthers