Almerian

Neolithic culture of southeast Spain of the 5th and 4th millennia bc. number of open settlements are known (seeEl Garcel), usually on hilltops. The houses were constructed of wattle and daub, and were circular in plan, with hearths and storage pits. This culture is known particularly for its tomb...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Almerian

Alloy

A mixture of metals. Alloys containing only two major metals are known as binary alloys, those with three major constituents as ternary alloys. Bronze is a binary alloy of copper and tin; brass a binary alloy of copper and zinc. Alloys are not simple mixtures but complex crystalline structures wh...

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Altered interstadial

An interstadial of the Weichselian cold stage. It is dated to between 11,800 and 11,000 bp.

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Altered interstadial

Allen

(d. 1940). One of the pioneers of aerial photography between the two World Wars. Piloting his own aircraft and operating a hand-made camera, he took many thousands of aerial photographs, mostly in southern England. He emphasized the value of oblique aerial photographs, as opposed to the vertical ...

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Allen

All Cannings Cross

An important site of the Early Iron Age in Wiltshire, southern England. Within this open settlement were rectangular-built houses and evidence of iron smelting. It is noted especially for its fine haematite-coated bowls with horizontal furrows above the carinations. In the earlier, diffusionist, ...

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Alitar

Mount southeast of BoghazkOy in northern Anatolia. The lowest stratum comprises eight Chalcolithic levels, beginning late in the 4th millennium bc. The Early Bronze Age levels are characterized by Alitar painted pottery, which was hand-made with a buff or light red burnish, sometimes with geometr...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Alitar

Ali Kosh

Tell in the Deh Luran plain of Khuzistan, southwest Iran, occupied c7500-5600 be. This site, excavated in the 1960s by a team led by Frank Hole and Kent Flannery, was the first early farming site where significant quantities of plant remains were collected by the flotation technique, representing...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Alignment

Term referring to single or multiple rows of standing stones (menhirs). They occur most frequently in Brittany (see Carnac) and in the British Isles, where they are often found in association with stone circles or henge monuments. Other exam ples occur in Corsica. Very little dating evidence has ...

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Al Hiba

See Lagash.

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Alfred The Great

Our impression of King Alfred is largely gained from two sources: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the biography written by his friend and teacher Asser. Bom in Wantage in 849, Alfred succeeded to the throne of Wessex in 871 and had several encounters with invading Danish forces before whom he was ...

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Alfred Jewel

An outstanding example of 9th-century Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship found at Newton Park, Somerset, in 1893 and now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The jewel is a unique piece, about 8 cm long, consisting of an oval portrait (believed to be a personification of sight) executed in different coloured ...

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Alexandria

Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 bc on a narrow strip of land in the northwestern area of the Nile Delta, Alexandria soon replaced Memphis as capital of Egypt. With its double harbour favourably situated at a natural intersection of the shipping lanes of the classical world, the new city rap...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Alexander the Great

Bom in 356 bc, Alexander was tutored for six years by the philosopher Aristotle before he succeeded his father Philip as king of Macedonia and the mainland of Greece. He realized the Greeks’ long-felt ambition to be free from Persian domination by crushing Darius, but extended the defeat of Persi...

archaeologsEnglishPublic Figures

Aleppo

City in north Syria, covering an ancient city which remains unexcavated. Aleppo is located on the route between the Orontes and the Euphrates Valley, and was important for trade from at least the 2nd millennium BC. Because of its importance it was fought over by Hittites, Egyptians and Assyrians....

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Aichi

A town in Ladakh, Tibet, where A.H. Francke discovered and excavated a number of ‘nomads’ tombs’ between 1900 and 1910. The tombs measured approximately 1.8 by 1.4 metres and were cl.8 metres deep; they were lined and covered with undressed stone slabs. Each contained from 3 to 20 long-headed sku...

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Aichi

Alcala

Cemetery of the early metal ages in southern Portugal containing cORBEL-vaulted tombs of the megalithic tradition. This site, like Los Millares, was formerly thought to be a colony of Aegean settlers; few now accept this view.

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Alcala

Albarello

A late medieval Spanish drug-jar with particularly fine tin glaze over typically blue designs that imitate the forms of Arabic script. Early albarelli were made in several parts of Spain and have occasionally been found in Britain and the Netherlands.

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Albany industry

Stone industry of southernmost South Africa, dated between the 11th and 6th millennia bc, best known from stratified assemblages at Boomplaas and Robberg. It directly precedes the appearance of the local backed-microlith Wilton industry. Albany assemblages contain few formal tools other than unst...

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Albany industry