Bantu

A linguistic term, applied to a widely distributed group of closely interrelated languages in sub-Saharan Africa. It has long been believed that the distribution of these languages, which form part of the Niger-Congo linguistic family, indicates a relatively recent expansion of population from a ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Banteay Srei

[Khmer: ‘the citadel of the ladies’]. A comparatively small, but very beautiful monument in pink sandstone to the east of the main group of Angkor in Cambodia, built in 967 by the Brahman Yajnavaraha, preceptor of the king, in honour of Siva. Famous in particular for its elaborate relief decorati...

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Banteay Ch’Mar

[Khmer: ‘the narrow citadel’]. A huge stone monument near the Dangrek mountains in northwestern Cambodia, erected by king Jayavarman VII towards the end of the 12th century to the memory of one of his sons killed in action. It has historically important reliefs.

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Banteay Ch’Mar

Banshan

[Pan-shan], Site of a Neolithic cemetery in the Tao River valley south of Lanzhou in Gansu province, China. It is the type site of the Banshan culture, which belongs to the western or Gansu branch of the Yang-shao Neolithic. Banshan is best known for its pottery urns with painted designs in black...

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Banpo

[Pan-p’o]. Site of an early Yangshao Neolithic village, now preserved as a museum, at Xi’an in Shaanxi province, China. Four radiocarbon dates from Banpo range from c4800 to o4300 bc. The settlement occupied about 50,000 square metres and included a cemetery and pottery kilns outside a ditch that...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Bann Point

See Larnian.

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Bann Point

Ban Kao

A burial site in Kanchanaburi Province, western Thailand, Ban Kao spans mainly the period 2000-1300 be. and the burials have produced elaborately shaped unpainted pottery with a range of bone, stone and shell artefacts. The site has produced no bronze, despite claims for use of this metal in nort...

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Banjica

An early and late VinCa open settlement on the northern slopes of the Avala Hills in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The third of five occupation horizons has been dated to c3760 be. During excavations by Todorovic and Cermanovic, complete late Vinca house plans were recovered, which yielded detailed infor...

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Ban Chiang

Site of major importance in northeast Thailand, containing 4.5 metres of burial deposits spanning the period 3600 bc to ad 1800. The basal burials are associated with incised and cord-marked pottery, copper and bronze artefacts, and evidence for rice cultivation and domesticated cattle, probably ...

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Banbhore

Standing among desolate salt flats on a former mouth of the Indus and the only major site in a sparsely populated region, Banbhore is plausibly identified as Daibal, the first town in Sind to fall to the Moslems, in 712. Excavations revealed that occupation began in the Scytho-Parthian period (1s...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Banbhore

Banane

A region of spectacular riceterracing, belonging to the Ifugao people of the Mountain Province of northern Luzon, Philippines. The terraces extend like giant steps up mountain sides and are of unknown antiquity, although they were considered by anthropologist Felix Keesing to have been constructe...

archaeologsEnglishRegions

Banane

Banas

A Chalcolithic culture of Rajasthan, western India, of the 3rd and 2nd millennia bc. The most important sites are Ahar and Gilund.

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Banana

The edible fruit-bearing bananas belong to the genus Musa, and have been classified into two sections, termed Australi-musa and Eumusa. The major cultivar in the Australimusa section (the Fei’i banana, Musa troglodytarum) probably originated in the New Guinea-Solomons area, and was spread into tr...

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Bamiyan

A high valley (2500 metres) in the Hindu Kush, which formed a corridor for the caravan route from Begram and the east to Balkh and the west. In the early centuries ad it was an important Buddist centre, and pilgrims such as Hiuen-Tsang (7th century) described the numerous rock-cut monasteries, wh...

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Bamiyan

Bambuk

The gold-yielding area of Guinea, near the headwaters of the Niger and Senegal Rivers. Through long-distance trade, the metal obtained here provided much of the wealth of the empires of Ghana and Mali. Significantly, neither of these empires appears to have incorporated the Bambuk area; instead t...

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Bambata

A cave in the Matopo Hills of southwestern Zimbabwe, where excavations have revealed a long sequence of occupations probably covering most of the past 50,000 years. The cave walls also bear an interesting series of rock paintings. The site has given its name to a stone industry and a pottery type...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Bambata

Bambandyanalo

A site in the Limpopo Valley, northern Transvaal, South Africa, where Iron Age occupation is dated to the 11th and 12th centuries ad. A large mound represents the debris of successive substantial settlements, the economy of which was evidently based upon the herding of cattle. The pottery and oth...

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Balof Cave

A coral rock shelter on New Ireland, Oceania, with a preceramic industry of Talasea (New Britain) obsidian and bone points in its lower levels, dating from c5000 be. This site has one of the earliest dates for human settlement (presumably by PAPUAN-language speakers) in Oceania east of New Guinea...

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Ballista

Of the numerous pieces of artillery (possibly about 55) available to the Roman legionary, remarkable were two large torsion engines, the ballista for projecting large boulders, and the catapulta for firing bolts and other arrow-like missiles. A ballista survives at Hatra. The two terms are often ...

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