Archaeologs - Archaeologs

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Anchor Ornament

An anchor-shaped, terra cotta object with a perforation through the shank. These were widespread in the Early Bronze Age of Greece and appear later in Sicily and Malta. Grooving, as if from thread wear, suggests that these objects may have been part of looms.

Ancestor Bust

Small, painted, apelike busts that were the focus of ancestor worship in Egypt’s New Kingdom. Many were of limestone or sandstone, with some smaller examples made of wood and clay.

Anathermal

A period of cool climate in the area of North America that occurred from about 7000 to 5000 bc This was Ernst Antev’s name for the first of the Neothermal periods and it is thought to have started off cool before becoming somewhat warmer.

Analytical Type

Arbitrary groupings that an archaeologist defines for classifying artifacts; groups of attributes that define convenient types of artifacts for comparing sites in space and time.

Analysis

A stage of archaeological research that involves describing and classifying artifactual and nonartifactual data.

Amulet

Small good-luck charms, often in the form of gods, hieroglyphs, and sacred animals and made of precious stones or faience. They were especially popular with Egyptians and other Eastern peoples, worn in life and placed in burials or within mummy wrappings. Amulets were supposed to afford protectio...

Ampulla

A small Greek or Roman globular flask or bottle with two handles and a short narrow neck. It was used for holding oil for bathers (called ampulla oleria) or wine, oil, vinegar, and other beverages for table use (then called ampulla potaria). These small containers were usually the form of a globe...

Amphora

A large Greek or Roman earthenware storage jar, with a narrow neck and mouth and two handles (“two-eared,” each called an anem) at the top. The body of the jar is usually oval and long, with a pointed bottom. It was used for holding or transporting liquids, especially wine or oil, and other subst...

EnglishAncient Pottery

Amorphous

Having no definite form or distinct shape.

Amersfoot Interstadial

An interstadial of the Weichselian stage that has radiocarbon dates between 68,000 and 65,000 bp, but it is possibly earlier.

Amber

Fossilized pine resin, a transparent yellow, orange, or reddishbrown material from coniferous trees. It is amorphous, having a specific gravity of 1.05-1.10 and a hardness of 2-2.5 on the Mohs scale, and has two varieties - gray and yellow. Amber was appreciated and popular in antiquity for its b...

Amarna Period

A phase in the late 18th dynasty, including the reigns of Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen, and Ay (1379-1352 bc when important religious and artistic changes took place. The name is derived from the site of Akhenaten’s capital at Tell el-Amarna.

Altithermal

A warm, dry postglacial period in the western United States c. 5600-2500 bc Coined by Ernst Antev in 1948, the term describes a time during which temperatures were warmer than at present. Other terms, like “long drought,” are also used.

Alternating Retouch

Retouch that occurs on an edge of a lithic flake in such a way that it alternates between the dorsal and ventral sides from one end to the other of the edge. [alternate retouch]

Alternate Flaking

The opposite face of each edge is steeply flaked and each face opposing the beveled edge is flatly flaked.

Alloy

Any of a number of substances which are a mixture of two or more metals, such as bronze (copper and tin), brass (copper and zinc), or tumbaga (copper and gold). An alloy has properties superior to those of the individual metals. They are not simple mixtures, but complex crystalline structures tha...

Allerod Oscillation

An interstadial (transient) period of glacial retreat at the close of the Würm glacial stage in Europe, dated to c. 12,00011,000 years ago. This temporary increase in warmth allowed forests to establish themselves for a time in the ice-free zones. Radiocarbon dates show similar conditions prevail...

Allerod Oscillation

archaeologsTools

Alkaline Glaze

A relatively low-fired glaze with a high concentration of alkali elements in its composition, often with wood ash in significant quantity.

Alfred Jewel

An elaborate gold ornament which is an example of 9th-century Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship and found at Somerset, England in 1893 (now in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). It consists of an enameled plaque with an oval portrait in different-colored cloisonné, enhanced with filigree wire and backed by a fla...

Album

İn Roman and Greek antiquity, a blank tablet on which praetors’ edicts and other public notices were recorded for public information. It was also a space on the surface of a wall, covered with white plaster, upon which were written such announcements or advertisements. Afterwards, this term was e...

Albarello

A late medieval (15th to 18th centuries) Near East, Spanish, and Italian apothecary pottery jar. It was made in the form known as majolica or with a fine tin glaze over typically blue designs imitating the forms of Arabic script. Its basic shape was cylindrical but incurved and wide-mouthed for h...

Alabastron

A Greek container made of alabaster, but sometimes clay, used for unguents. [alabastrum]

Alabaster

A term used by Egyptologists for a type of white, semitransparent or translucent stone used in statuary, vases, sarcophagi, and architecture. It is a form of limestone (calcium carbonate), sometimes described as travertine. It was used increasingly from the Early Dynastic period for funerary vess...

Ajuerado Phase

Earliest phase of pre-village, pre-agriculture in Tehuacan Valley, Mexico, from c. 7200 to 7000 bc There was hunting and gathering.

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