Archaeology Wordsmith

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Results for aboriginal:

aboriginal: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The indigenous or native group of a particular region and their respective culture.
burial pit: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A pit aboriginally excavated for the interment of human remains.
Canario: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: The name of a site, culture, and people in the Canary Islands. The population is thought to have been of Cro-Magnon origin and may possibly have come from central and southern Europe via northern Africa. . They left alphabet-like engravings and characters whose meanings are obscure This aboriginal group had brown complexion, blue or gray eyes, and blondish hair, and these characteristics still persist in a large number of present inhabitants of the islands. The name Canarios is now applied to all present residents.
cist: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A pit feature that is not bell-shaped but for which there is some basis for interpreting its aboriginal use as a storage pit.
coffin: SYNONYM: sarcophagus
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Any box or chest, usually rectangular or anthropoid in shape, in which a corpse or mummy is enclosed for burial. Clay, stone, metal, and wood are among the materials used. Primitive wooden coffins, formed of a tree trunk split down and hollowed out, are still in use among some aboriginal peoples. The term 'sarcophagus' is used only for the stone outer container which encases one or more coffins. From the Latin word for basket" 'cophinus'."
Coobool Creek: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site of Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains in New South Wales, found in the Wakool River, from the mid- to late-Holocene.
coolamon: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Australian aboriginal carrying dish made of wood or bark.
Devon Downs: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A limestone shelter in cliffs beside the lower Murray River in South Australia with a deposit rich in faunal material as well as stone and bone tools and dating to c 4000 BC. It was the first systematic archaeological excavation in Australia (1929). Interpretation of the stratigraphy and stone tool sequence at two sites introduced concepts of antiquity and cultural change in Aboriginal prehistory which had previously been denied in Australian anthropology.
drinking tube: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A length of hollow bird-bone used in aboriginal ceremonial situations for drinking liquids
Eskimo: SYNONYM: Inuit
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The aboriginal cultural group of the Arctic regions of North America, which evolved between 2000-100 BC. The Eskimo way of life and the distinctive tool types can be traced back into the Arctic Small Tool tradition. Other traits seem to have been adopted by the Alaskan Eskimos from the Siberian tribes. The group is characterized by uniformity in culture, language, and physical sock. The Eskimo call themselves Inuit, because 'Eskimo' is a derogatory Algonquin word meaning 'eater of raw flesh'.
ethnohistory: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: The study of non-Western cultures using evidence from documentary sources and oral traditions. In areas where prehistoric and nonliterate cultures have survived into historical times, it is possible to reconstruct history before contact with literate populations through the study of myth and oral traditions, collected ethnographically. In Central America, the aboriginal written records are used in conjunction with the early European records, archaeological investigations, and oral tradition to reconstruct prehistoric life.
fire-cracked rock: SYNONYM: fire-broken rock
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Rocks which have been cracked or broken by the heat of a fire. A common element in aboriginal campsite debris.
Holmes, William Henry (1846-1933): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American archaeologist who extinguished the more bizarre theories of the origins of humans in North America and who helped establish professional archaeology in the US. Holmes opposed a popular belief that there was a period in New World prehistory comparable to Upper Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) Europe. His 1903 monograph on ceramics laid the foundation for the culture history of the eastern United States. He was curator of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. His other published works include Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities (1919).
Jaguar Cave: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Cave in Tennessee with aboriginal footprints and charcoal dating to 4700 BP. It is also the name of a cave site in Idaho, dating to the 9th and 10th millennia BC, with early evidence of the dog.
Kangaroo Island: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An island off South Australia with Kartan sites showing previous Aboriginal occupation, though it was uninhabited at European contact. These sites may be late Pleistocene, but material found at Cape du Couedic is dated to around 7000 bp.
Kartan culture: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A group of stone assemblages with heavy core tools found on Kangaroo Island and the nearby peninsulas of South Australia, a variant of the Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition. Kangaroo Island, now separated from Australia by a 15-km strait, was joined to the mainland during the Pleistocene. There were no Aboriginal inhabitants at the time of European contact. Radiocarbon estimates of 14,000 BC have been obtained for a possibly subsequent small scraper industry in Seton rock shelter on Kangaroo Island. Kartan tools include unifacially flaked pebble choppers, large steep-edged flake scrapers, waisted ax blades, and large horsehoof cores (mean weights of 500 grams), sometimes associated with small quartz flakes. The proportion of core tools in the assemblage is much higher than in other Pleistocene sites.
Koori: SYNONYM: Koorie
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The name used by non-traditional Aboriginal people of southeast Australia for themselves.
Native American: SYNONYM: Indians
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Aboriginal inhabitants of North America, usually recognized in two groupings. The first and larger group, called Native Americans (or American Indians), is further divided geographically into North American, Middle American, and South American Indian peoples. The second group consists of a number of Arctic peoples, most of whom are variously called Eskimos or Inuit, but also including such other groups as Aleuts.
pipestone: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Any soft stone used in the manufacture of aboriginal smoking pipes
Pirri point: SYNONYM: Pirri culture, pirri point
CATEGORY: lithics; culture
DEFINITION: An Australian stone tool type, a symmetrical leaf-shaped point, up to 7 cm long, unifacially flaked all over its dorsal surface. The striking platform and bulb of percussion are sometimes removed to produce a rounded, thinned butt. Pirri points have been found distributed widely in inland Australia from South Australia to the Northern Territory and northwestern Australia. A component of the Australian Small Tool Tradition, the Pirri point dates from about 3000 BC. The aboriginal term pirri" means 'wood-engraving tool'."
Port Essington: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A pioneering example of historical archaeology in the Northern Territory of Australia. There are surviving structures of a Victoria military settlement of 1838-1849 when the British tried to settle tropical Australia. There is evidence of Aboriginal presence at the site. Relics of the settlement are preserved in the Cobourg Marine Park.
Poverty Point projectile point: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Projectile points, especially types with narrow stem-body junctures, from Poverty Point, a site is located just west of the Mississippi River in northeastern Louisiana. The site is significant because its earthworks are the oldest large aboriginal constructions known in mainland North America. They were built between 1730 and 1350 B.C. by Terminal Archaic hunter-gatherers
pre-Columbian: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A term used to describe the period in the Americas before European contact. Pre-Columbian civilization refers to the aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Mesoamerica and the Andean region prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century.
protohistory: SYNONYM: protohistoric era, protohistoric period
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The period in any area following prehistory and preceding the appearance of coherent history derived from written records. It is a transitional time period between prehistory and recorded history, for which both archaeological and historical data are employed. There are several more detailed definitions, such as 1) a time when non-literate aboriginal peoples had access to European goods but had not had face-to-face contact; 2) periods during which historical documentation is fragmentary or not directly from the society being studied; and 3) the period of 1250-1519 AD in Mesoamerica, which followed the Postclassic and ends just before the Spanish conquest (there are historic documents for this period).
residence rule: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A description of the household location of newly married couples within a given society, usually distinguished between actual and ideal patterns of behavior. In Australia's aboriginal society, residence rules generally required women to move into the groups and territories of their husbands after marriage.
Signal Butte: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Great Plains site in western Nebraska occupied from c 4500 BP until historic times. It is located on a large mesa and played an important role in the initial chronological ordering of the Great Plains. There are lanceolate projectile points resembling the Folsom type in the lowest level. In the second level there are early Late Archaic materials dating c 2000 BC. The third level had a component of the Dismal River Aspect, glass beans, aboriginal artifacts, and traded copper, as well an Upper Republican Aspect component.
Taiwan: SYNONYM: Formosa
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Island 100 miles (160 km) off the southeast coast of the China mainland. Taiwan had a native aboriginal population of Malayo-Polynesian ancestry and it occupies an important position in the prehistory of Southeast Asia. Evidence for pre-Neolithic settlement is from c 3500 BC, followed by a Neolithic culture (Ta-p'en-k'eng culture). That culture had cord-marked pottery and was related to contemporary rice-cultivating cultures on the adjacent mainland. Linguistically, it represents the earliest recognizable phase of Austronesian language in the islands Southeast Asia. Later Taiwan Neolithic cultures also show close connections with south China and the Philippines. Major Chinese settlement of the island did not occur until the 17th century AD.
Weipa: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Aboriginal site and mining town, northern Queensland, Australia, on the northwestern coast of Cape York Peninsula. Matthew Flinders noted the red deposits, which were later identified as bauxite, the ore of aluminum. About 500 shell mounds are dated c 1200 bp and they are among the largest and best-preserved examples of shell middens in the world.
X-ray art: SYNONYM: x-ray art, x-ray style, X-ray style
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A style of prehistoric rock art depicting animals by drawing or painting the skeletal frame and internal organs. The origin of the style can be traced to the Mesolithic art of northern Europe, where the earliest examples were found on fragments of bone in southern France dating from the late Magdalenian. Animals painted in the X-ray motif have also been discovered in the art of hunting cultures in northern Spain, Siberia, the Arctic Circle, North America, western New Guinea, New Ireland, India, and Malaysia. It is found today primarily in the Aboriginal rock, cave, and bark paintings of eastern Arnhem Land, in northern Australia. Figures painted in X-ray style vary in size up to 8 feet (2.5 m) in length and are delicate, polychromed renderings of the interior cavity of the animal.
Yue: SYNONYM: Yüeh
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Ancient ethnic group of southeastern mainland China during the Han dynasty, an aboriginal people who in the 5th-4th century BC formed a powerful kingdom in present-day Chekiang and Fukien provinces. The name 'Vietnam' means south of the Yüeh and some Chinese scholars consider the Vietnamese to be descendants of the Yüeh. It is also the name of an olive-colored glazed stoneware preceding celadon and porcelain and created during the Tang period of 3rd-10th centuries AD in Kiangsu and Chekiang provinces.

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