Archaeologs - Archaeologs

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Skellig Michael

Celtic monastery precipitously situated on a small rockly island out in the Atlantic, off the southwest coast of Ireland. It is one of the best preserved of the early Irish monasteries although it may be as late in date as the 8th century. The monastic complex includes two rectangular oratories w...

Skeleton

The bony supporting element in the bodies of vertebrate animals. It consists of the axial skelton — skull (excluding teeth) and vertebral column — and the appendicular skeleton — ribs, girdles and limbs. The upper (in man) or front (in quadrupeds) limb in mammals consist of the following bones: c...

Skara Brae

A Neolithic settlement on the island of Orkney, north Scotland. It was first excavated by Gordon Childe in the 1920s, while restricted re-excavation took place in the 1970s. The buildings and internal fittings were all made of stone and survive in remarkably good condition, preserved within a mid...

Six Dynasties

The period of Chinese history between the fall of the Han dynasty in ad 220 and the founding of the Sui dynasty in 589. The period takes its name from the six dynasties that had capitals in the south at Nanjing during this time (while North China was ruled by barbarian dynasties). In the course o...

Situla

Bucket-shaped vessel made of pottery or sheet bronze. Metal examples, possibly used for serving wine, were common in the Hallstatt Iron Age of temperate Europe and among related groups in northern Italy. Highly decorated situlae were produced in northeast Italy and traded to other areas (see Este...

EnglishAncient Pottery

Sittard

Settlement site of the Neolithic Linear Pottery culture in Dutch Limburg, Holland. The settlement was surrounded by a palisade and contained a number of timber long houses. The houses varied in type, but some of the larger ones were clearly divided into three parts; many authorities believe that ...

Site Catchment Analysis

Method for attempting to reconstruct the economy of archaeological sites, introduced in the late 1960s and early 1970s by E.S. Higgs and his colleague C. Vita-Finzi. A ‘site catchment’ is defined as the total area from which all the animals, plants and artefacts of which there are remains preserv...

Sitagroi

A site in eastern Macedonia, northern Greece, which has produced an important stratigraphy for the chronology of the north Aegean. The 10 metres of deposit begins with a Middle Neolithic occupation dated c4500 be, and continues into the full Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium be. The site was...

EnglishPlace Names

Sisupalgarh

An Iron Age city in Orissa, eastern India. The earliest occupation has Black and Red ware. In the later 1st millennium bc the city was surrounded by elaborate defensive walls and shows evidence of developed town planning.

Siraf

In the 9th and 10th centuries Siraf on the Persian Gulf was a leading entrepôt for the maritime trade which brought commodities and luxury goods from South and Southeast Asia, East Africa and the Red Sea to Baghdad and other cities of the Middle East. Despite torrid summers, poor soil and little ...

EnglishArchitectural

Siraf

archaeologsArchitectural

Sippar

[modern Abu Habba]. One of the most northerly of the cities of Sumer, situated near the Euphrates River north of Babylon in Iraq. The city was occupied from the Early Dynastic period and appears to have been an important religious and trading centre. Among the most important finds are thousands o...

EnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Single Grave Culture

Name for the Late Neolithic cultures of Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Low Countries, part of a larger complex extending right across the north European plain and labelled Battleaxe or Corded ware cultures; the Globular Amphora culture may also be part of this group. Characterized by the p...

EnglishCultures

Singhasari

Name of the capital of the Javanese kingdom of Tumapel. Founded in 1222 by the adventurer Angrok to succeed the kingdom of Kadiri, it became the ruling power in Java. Its art and architecture show a return to the indigenous substratum and a corresponding decline of Indian culture. Historiography ...

Singhasari

archaeologsOthers

Sinanthropus

Early name for Pekin man, now classified as Homo erectus. See also

Sinan

A district in South Cholla province, South Korea, off the coast of which a sunken merchant ship of the 14th century ad was discovered in 1976. The ship’s cargo was Chinese porcelain: some 7000 pieces have been recovered by divers and it is estimated that at least as many more remain to be salvage...

Sinai

The peninsula between the Gulfs of Akaba and Suez on the Red Sea. It is a barren desert area and was never important for settlement, but it has sources of turquoise and malachite (exploited both as a colouring agent and for copper) which were sought after by the Egyptians from the Predynastic per...

Sinagua

See Hakataya.

Sinagua

archaeologsOthers

Si Mu Wu Fang Ding

[5sw Mu Wu fang-ting]. The largest metal casting surviving from antiquity, a Chinese bronze ritual vessel cast in one piece except for its handles and weighing 875 kg. Said to have been found in 1939 in the Anyang royal cemetery, the vessel is inscribed with a dedication to an empress and dates p...

Simulation

The use of a model to simulate an observed phenomenon. Models can be used in archaeology to simulate, for example, the distribution of a group of artefacts or settlements. The purpose of this kind of simulation is to suggest the processes involved in creating such a distribution.

Silver

The main source of this metal in antiquity was the lead ore galena, in which silver sulphide occurs as an impurity. After smelting the ore, silver was recovered by the process of cupellation, where the lead is oxidized, leaving silver unaltered. Silver is soft, and could be cold worked. In fact, ...

Silt

A term describing the size of particles which go to make up a sediment, soil or similar material. Silt particles are those that lie between 0.06 and 0.002mm (BS 1377) in diameter (seeparticle size). The term has no implications of colour, organic content or any property other than particle size o...

Silk Route

The overland route followed by trade between China and the Mediterranean world from the 2nd century bc onwards. The Silk Route began at Chang an and passed up the Gansu corridor through Wuwei to Dunhuang, where it branched into two main routes across the Central Asian deserts. After crossing the ...

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