Archaeologs - Archaeologs

Aghia Triadha

Agger

A Latin military term meaning a rampart, earthwork or embankment. The term is applied in a broad way and is used, for instance, for the artificial earthworks erected to support battering engines and for the slightly raised causeway that formed the basis of most Roman roads.

ageing of skeletal material

Age at death may be estimated from ancient skeletons in a number of ways: (a) Epiphyseal fusion. Long bones grow in zones just behind their joint surfaces. Thus a growing bone consists of three elements: the central part, or diaphysis, and the ends, the ephiyses. When the bone reaches adult size,...

ageing of skeletal material

Agate Basin

See Plano.

Agade

See Akkad.

EnglishAncient Cities

Afyeh

See Nubian Group.

Afyeh

African food-production

The beginnings of food-production in Africa have only been documented with any precision in relatively recent years. Formerly, it was generally believed that techniques of food-production had been introduced into Africa in a relatively developed form, their initiation and formative processes havi...

African food-production

Afrasiab

See Samarkand.

Afrasiab

Afontova Gora II

See Yenisei.

Afontova Gora II

Afanasievo

Culture of southern Siberia, probably beginning in the late 3rd millennium bc. The Afanasievo people were the first foodproducers in the area, breeding cattle, sheep and horses, but also practising hunting. There is no direct evidence of agriculture, but it may have been practised. Most known sit...

EnglishCultures

Afanasievo

archaeologsCultures

Afalou

See Mechta-afalou.

Afalou

Aerial Photography

Technique that has proved to be one of the most successful methods of discovering archaeological sites. Large areas of ground can be covered quickly, and the ground plan of a new site can be plotted from the photographs. Accurate surveys can in fact be made by this method (see photogrammetry). Wh...

Adulis

Located on the Red Sea coast of Ethiopia, southeast of the modem port of Massawa, Adulis was the principal seaport of Axum, to which it was linked by a well-travelled trade route. There are indications that Adulis may have been established in Ptolemaic times and, indeed, it must be assumed that p...

Adria

[Atria]. Port in northeast Italy. A principal 6th-5th century BC port on the Adriatic, and important crossover point for Etruscan and Greek trade, linking the sea routes with Etruria, the Po Valley and northern Europe. Variously described as of Venetie, Greek or Etruscan foundation, the town seem...

EnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Adrar Bous

Site in the Air massif, on the edge of the Tenere Desert in Niger, where excavations have revealed a long succession of prehistoric occupation. Levalloiso-Mous-terian settlement was followed by an arid phase when the region was probably uninhabited. The succeeding Aterian industry represents a lo...

EnglishPlace Names

Adobe

An American term for sun-dried mud

Adlerberg

Early Bronze Age group in southwest Germany, a variant of the Unétice culture. It is known mainly from a number of flat inhumation cemeteries such as that of Adlerberg itself. The dead were usually accompanied by fairly simple offerings such as copper and bronze daggers and pins, flint tools and ...