Storing prepared ceramic material (as a wet plastic clay body) to improve its working properties by thorough wetting of particles, slow compression, bacterial action (souring), and other processes.
An inert component such as grog or potter’s flint in ceramic bodies (especially triaxial bodies). [filler, temper]
A time of Western expansion through European exploration, discovery, and enlightenment about the world, which occurred from about the 15th through the 18th centuries, c. 1515-1800.
Any pottery that is veined and mottled to resemble agate.
An object to point at words whilst reading.
Name of a Greek metal vase with a narrow opening. It was filled with water and placed on a fire to make the chimney draw better or to indicate the wind’s direction. [aeolipylae, eolipyle]
A shield or defensive armor in ancient mythology, from the Greek word for shield; also used to describe the representation of a necklace on the head of a deity.
Archaic Greek sculpture discovered in the temple of Pallas-Athene at Aegina, an island in the Saronic group of Greece. They are in the Glyptothek at Munich, Germany. Aegina’s period of glory was the 5th century bc which left a legacy of sculpture.
A shaft-hole adze with additional hammer knob, normally of polished stone.
Capacity of a material to accept and retain another substance, such as moisture, on its surface.
Spanish term for sun-dried mud brick; also the name for a structure built out of this material. These claylike buff or brown mud bricks were not fired, but hardened and dried in the sun. The material was also used as mortar, plaster, and amorphous building material for walls. Adobe structures are...
Contracting stemmed point with a narrower section at the base than the main part of the arrowhead point.
A widespread Native American culture of the Early Woodland period in the Ohio Valley and named after the Adena Mounds of Ross County. It is known for its ceremonial and complex burial practices involving the construction of mounds and by a high level of craftwork and pottery. It is dated from as ...
An organic or mineral material mixed with clay by the potter to modify its properties in forming, drying, and firing. [temper]
İn lithics, severe short angles coming to a sharp point. used as a prefix to a date, it indicates years after the birth of Christ or the beginning of the Christian calendar. Anno Domini (Latin) means “In the year of our Lord.” The lower case “ad” represents uncalibrated radiocarbon years and ad d...
A set of artifacts that reveals the activities of a person.
1. A place where a specific ancient activity was located or carried out, such as food preparation or stone toolmaking. The place usually corresponded to one or more features and associated artifacts and ecofacts. In American archaeology, the term describes the smallest observable component of a s...
A sculptured figure, tripod, disk, or urn, made of bronze, marble, or terra cotta, placed on the apex of the pediment of a Greek temple or other substantial building.
First stage of the behavioral processes (followed by manufacture, use, and deposition), in which raw materials are procured.
Large earthenware or bronze vases that were used to strengthen actors’ voices and were placed in bell towers to help boost the sound of church bells. A church in Westphalia contains fine 9th-century Badorf wares, and larger relief-band amphorae were used in 10th- and 11th-century churches. [acous...
A small javelin or harpoon, consisting of a thick short pole set with spikes. This massive weapon resembles a trident or angon. [aclys, aclyx]
A small pick used by stone-cutters and masons in early Roman times.
A short sword or scimitar, often very short and worn suspended from a belt around the waist, and used by Eastern nations of antiquity, especially the Medes, Persians, and Scythians.
Use of hydrofluoric acid to etch a pattern onto a glass surface.
A Phoenician, Iron Age II, red-slip pottery type consisting primarily of jugs with a trefoil mouth of “mushroom” rims, red slipped, and highly burnished.
EnglishOthers