Bloodletting

Bleeper

A type of proton gradiometer, in which the reading is given as a series of bleeps. This design of magnetometer is very cheap to produce, and has therefore been widely used in archaeology.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Blade

The basis of stone technology is the removal of pieces of flint or other stone by striking the parent nodule or core with a hammer. When the flakes removed are elongated so as to be at least twice as long as they are wide, they are called blades. A typical blade has parallel sides and regular sca...

archaeologsEnglishTools, Artifacts

Blackwater Draw

Deeply stratified site in eastern New Mexico, USA, with evidence of occupation from earliest Paleo-Indian through Archaic times. Stratigraphic evidence has established unequivocally that the Llano culture was earlier than Folsom, and showed a clear association between Clovis projectile points and...

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Black Pottery Cultures

See Longshan.

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Black Pottery Cultures

Black-Figure Ware

Phase in Greek vase painting. From about 720 bc vase-painters, especially in Corinth and Athens, developed a characteristic style, in which one or more bands of human and animal figures are silhouetted in black against a red background. The red colour is given by the fabric of the pot when fired,...

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Black-Figure Ware

Black And Red Ware

An Indian pottery type, red on the outside, but black on the inside and round the rim, due to firing in the inverted position. Characteristic forms include shallow dishes and deeper bowls. In one form or another this ware is found throughout much of the Indian peninsula in the later 2nd and early...

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Black And Red Ware

Bismarck Archipelago

See Melanesia, New Britain.

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Biskupin

An Iron Age settlement belonging to the late Lausitz culture in northwest Poland. It was situated on an island and defended with timber breakwaters and box ramparts. More than 100 rectangular timber houses were laid out on a regular street system and may have housed up to 1000 people. Workshops f...

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Bisitun

[Behistun]. A rock face in northwest Iran on which Darius I placed a trilingual inscription recording his military victories in 516 bc. The inscription was in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, all three written in the cuneiform script. In spite of the difficulty of gaining access to the high v...

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Bisitun

Bir Terfawi

Late Aterian site in the Egyptian Western Desert, dated to about 42,000 be. The shores of a shallow lake were settled by hunters who preyed on a varied fauna including species of both Mediterranean and more southerly affinities.

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Bir Terfawi

Birsmatten

The Basis-Grotte at Birsmatten in the Bem district of Switzerland has one of the longest known sequences of Mesolithic deposits. There are several levels of Sauve-terrian and Tardenoisian occupation and extensive human remains of Mesolithic man.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Birdlip

A site near Gloucester with four cist graves of the 1st century bc. One cist contained the skeleton of a woman together with bronze bowls, silver and gold bracelets, a bronze brooch and a bronze mirror with incised and enamel decoration, a fine example of insular Celtic art.

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Bird Bones

These are quite commonly preserved on archaeological sites. Identification is a very specialized skill, but considerable precision is often possible. Interpretation may then be carried out in terms of diet and reconstruction of the ancient environment.

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Bird Bones

Bilzingsleben

Recent excavations on this travertine site in East Germany, not far from Halle, have revealed thousands of stone tools of a Lower Palaeolithic CLACTONiAN-type culture. A few human fossil skull pieces are known. Numerous lines of evidence indicate the interglacial environment and a date in the pen...

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Bigo

A site in southwestern Uganda marked by massive linear earthworks and recalled in oral historical tradition as a former capital. The earthworks, over 10 km in total length, attest to the organizational capabilities of the early interlacustrine kingdoms. The site has also yielded an early 13th-15t...

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Big Game Hunting Tradition

An adaptation to the grasslands environment of the Late Pleistocene period in North America, especially evident in the Great Plains. Large game animals (megafauna) were hunted as the primary means of subsistence. Lanceolate projectile points, such as Clovis and Folsom, characterize the tradition....

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Big Game Hunting Tradition

Bibracte

[modem Mont Beuvray]. An Iron Age oppidum near Bourges in central France. The site of Mont Beuvray has been clearly identified as Bibracte, capital of the Aedui tribe before the foundation of Augustodunum (Autun) some 30 km away c5 bc. Bibracte is known from Caesar’s account as a major Aeduan str...

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