Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for ahu:

ahu: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The name of a rectangular stone platform, the largest with stepped sides, which was a focus of court rituals in prehistoric Eastern Polynesian temples (marae). Most of these platforms are found in the Society Islands, and on Easter Island, where ahu were statue foundations.
Ahualulco: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large, multiple-circle ceremonial complex in western Mexico with ball courts and elite residences, of c 200 BC-900/1000 AD. It is part of the shaft tomb culture.
Cahuachi: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large ceremonial site that was the principal center of the Nasca culture of Peru. There are 40 adobe mounds, likely to have been used only for religious ceremonies. It was built in Early Nasca periods but was used through Late Nasca and the Middle Horizon.
Calixtlahuaca: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Toluca Valley, Mexico, with a ceramic sequence from Teotihuacán times till the Aztec conquest and some evidence of the Preclassic. It was occupied from 1200-1472 AD by a Nahua group (Matlatzincas) who were enemies of the Aztecs and were conquered by them between 1474-1510 AD. The Temple of Quetzalcóatl, a circular structure, was built up three times.
Chiricahua: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The second of three chronological stages of the Cochise culture in southern Arizona and New Mexico, with dates clustering between 4000-500 BC. The appearance of distinctive, side-notched projectile points indicates an interest in hunting though a mixed food-gathering economy is indicated by assemblages commonly including cobble manos, shallow basin grinding slabs, choppers, and scrapers. There were large base camps, storage pits, and outlying specialized-activity camps that show some permanence. There is evidence from Bat Cave in New Mexico of the cultivation of primitive maize.
Cotzumahualpa, Santa Lucia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a localized culture of the Late Classic period on the Pacific slopes of Guatemala. It was known for its unique style of stone sculpture, depicting scenes of deities gazing upward, skulls, serpent heads, and human sacrifice -- all enclosed within cartouches. There was also San Juan plumbate pottery.
el-Lahun: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: el-Kahun; al-Lahun; Kahun; Illahun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Egyptian site at the entrance to the Faiyum, important in the Middle Kingdom (c 1938-1600 BC). There is the pyramid of Senwosret (Sesostris) II and the burial of Princess Sat-Hathor-Iunet with rich grave goods. The pyramid was unusual in that the entrance to the burial chamber was not on the north side of the pyramid but on the south. The pyramid was robbed in antiquity but a treasure of jewelry was discovered in the tombs of the princesses, located within the pyramid-enclosure wall. Technically and artistically, the collection rivals all other Middle Kingdom objects of its type. Hieratic papyri dealing with a variety of subjects have been recovered at the site.
Juxtlahuaca Caves: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cave site in Guerrero, Mexico, containing the earliest polychrome painting in the New World. Done in the Olmec style, they are dated to c 3000 years ago and are found nearly a mile inside a mountain. Similar cave paintings have been found in nearby Oxtotilan.
Lahun, el-/al-: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Illahun; Kahun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Egyptian site at the entrance to the Faiyum (Fayyum), important in the Middle Kingdom (c 1938-1600 BC). There is the pyramid of Senwosret (Senusret/Sesostris) II (1880-1874 BC) and the burial of Princess Sat-Hathor-Iunet with rich grave goods. The pyramid was unusual in that the entrance to the burial chamber was not on the north side of the pyramid but on the south. The pyramid was robbed in antiquity but a treasure of jewelry was discovered in the tombs of the princesses, located within the pyramid-enclosure wall. Technically and artistically, the collection rivals all other Middle Kingdom objects of its type. Hieratic papyri dealing with a variety of subjects have been recovered at the site. Excavation of the village and necropolis, which was also inhabited during the Second Intermediate Period (c 1630-1540 BC), revealed a remarkable degree of town planning.
Nahua: CATEGORY: culture; language
DEFINITION: The tribal population of Central Mexico, originating from the north. The last and best-known were the Aztecs. The language of the Aztecs, Nahua, is spoken by all the Nahua peoples in a variety of dialects.
Sacsahuamán or Sacsayhuaman: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An immense fortified Inca complex, built as an adjunct to the Incan capital at Cuzco, Peru, and begun some time after 1438. Thought to have functioned as a storage center and military garrison in peacetime, it was used as a safe haven for Cuzco residents in times of danger. Its north-facing limestone walls are Cyclopean and the remains of round towers are still visible. They are built on a zigzag sawtooth plan and the interior structures are built on three rising terraces and include storage and dwelling places, a reservoir and a conduit supply system. It is said to have been constructed over a period of 80 years with the labor of 20,000 Incans.
Sahul Shelf: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Sahul shelf
CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: The shallow ocean shelf between Australia and New Guinea, at its narrowest under the present Torres Strait; the continental shelf which comprises Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. The shelf was exposed as dry land at periods of low sea-level in the Pleistocene, and New Guinea and Australia share a linked prehistory until the Torres Strait was finally drowned between 6000-4500 BC.
Tiahuanaco: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tiwanaku
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: Large urban and ceremonial site which dominated the Titicaca Basin and the high Andes of Bolivia from c 100-1250 AD, a major Middle Horizon site and probably the capital of an empire. The central area has principal religious structures on a large rectangular plaza, a large U-shaped mound around a spring, and a monumental Gate of the Sun cut from a single block of stone. The Tiahuanaco people had trade links with the Amazon jungle and the Pacific coast, exporting potatoes, root crops, and llama products. In the 10th century, Tiahuanaco colonies were established on the coasts of southern Peru and northern Chile. Tiahuanaco's distinctive art and architectural styles influenced the central highlands and southern Peru, northern Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. Tiahuanacan influence spread over a wide area of the Central Andes and is especially evident because of its unique ceramics. Typically, pottery was pointed black-on-white on a red polished surface, although later styles employed as many as six colors. Geometric designs were common as well as stylized pumas, condors, and serpents. The kero (a flared-rim beaker) is a characteristic form. Articles of bronze, copper and gold suggest that the city may also have been an important metallurgical center. Iconographic links with Huari to the north are such that a strong economic and cultural bond between the two is assumed. Tiahuanaco and Huari together constitute the Middle Horizon style of the Andes.
Yahudiyah, Tell al-: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ancient Naytahut, Leontopolis; Tell el-Yahudiyah
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: City in the eastern Delta of Egypt dating from at least Middle Kingdom until the Roman period, c 2000 BC-200 AD. During the 19th and 20th Dynasties, the royal palace at Tell al-Yahudiyah was embellished with remarkable polychrome tiles, many of which bear figures of captive foreigners.
Aguada: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A culture of northwestern Argentina during the period 700-1000 AD, located on the western slopes of the Andes, and noted for the fine quality of its arts. Decorated copper and bronze plaques and polychrome yellow and black pottery with designs of cats, dragons, humans, birds, warriors, weaponry, and trophy heads are characteristic and reflect a possible influence from Tiahuanaco. Decapitated burials are a further indication that warfare was a dominant preoccupation of Aguada. Its sudden disappearance from the archaeological record in c 1000 AD was probably the result of invasion from the east.
Aymara: CATEGORY: culture; language
DEFINITION: A large South American tribal group occupying the Titicaca plateau (central Andes) in the Late Intermediate Period -- and the language spoken by them. The Aymara language is still spoken some parts of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. The Aymara kingdoms" -- Canchi Colla Lupaca Collagua Ubina Pacasa Caranga Charca Quillaca Omasuyo and Collahuaya -- fought amongst themselves but also shared cultural characteristics. Some of these characteristics appear to have been incorporated into the Inca political system such as class stratification a powerful ruling class and chullpa burials. The peoples lived by cultivating tubers and herding alpaca and llama."
Aztec: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mexica, Tenochcas
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The last pre-Columbian civilization to enter the Valley of Mexico after the collapse of the Toltec civilization in c 12 AD, who built a magnificent capital at Tenochtitlán and were later conquered by the Spaniards (1521). They called themselves the Mexica or Tenochca and were the dominant political group of the Late Post-Classic Period. The people spoke Nahuatl. Their origin is obscure, partly because of the deliberate destruction of their own records, but tradition says that in 1193 AD the last of seven Chichimec tribes left Aztlan , a mythical birthplace somewhere north or west of Mexico, and filtered south. For a while they lived around Lake Texococo, but in 1345 they were allowed to found Tenochtitlán (under present-day Mexico City) on some unoccupied islands. By 1428 Tenochtitlán, Texococo, and Tlacopan formed an independent state which controlled most of present-day Mexico from the desert zone in the north to Oaxaca in the south, with extensions as far as the Guatemalan border -- all through military expansion. By inclination and training the Aztecs were militaristic, and a person's status depended on his success as a warrior. The chief god of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, was a war god who required the blood of sacrificial victims, and only constant warfare supplied the altar of the god. Human sacrifice was necessary also to ensure the daily rising of the sun. Other major deities were Huitzilpotchtli (the warrior god and chief deity of Tenochtitlan), Texcatlipoca (god of night, death and destruction), Xipe Totec (god of spring and renewal), and Quetzacoatl, the plumed serpent (god of self-sacrifice and inventor of agriculture and the calendar). Tenochtitlán became a great imperial city, so large that it could not be self-sufficient but had to rely on tributes from its provinces. Luxury goods and necessities were brought to the city, and craftsmen produced jewelry, turquoise mosaics, featherwork, and carved stone. Mold-made clay figurines were common, and the black-on-orange pottery was decorated with geometrical designs and stylized creatures. Little architecture or painting survived the Spanish conquest of 1521. Copies of several books have been preserved (as the Dresden Codex). Aztec society was set in a clearly defined hierarchical class system. At the top was the ruling class (pipil) from whom and by whom the emperors were chosen. The mass of the population were freeman (machuale) and under them were the serfs (mayeques) and then at the bottom the slaves. Most people were of the landholding group called the calpulli, which had its own internal hierarchy. Change of social class was possible through state service in the military and sometimes through merchant activity. The merchants (pochteca) served as early-reconnaissance and espionage groups. The arrival of the Spaniards and the fall of Tenochtitlán after a 90-day siege marked the end of Aztec dominance.
ball-game: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ballgame, ball game; ollama, pok-ta-pok
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The ritual and sporting activity played throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, especially in Mexico and Guatemala from the Pre-Classic period. (Stone reliefs at Dainzu and the possible remains of a ball court at San Lorenzo Tenochititlan indicate that the game existed as early as Pre-Classic times.) It may have originated among the Olmecs (La Venta culture, c 800-400 BC) or even earlier and it spread to other cultures, including Monte Albán and El Tajín; the Maya (called pok-ta-pok); and the Toltec, Mixtec, and Aztec. In Aztec times, it was a nobles' game and was often accompanied by heavy betting. Various myths mention the ball game, sometimes as a contest between day and night deities. It is still played in isolated regions. The players, who were sometimes heavily padded, were allowed to use only their hips and thighs in propelling a rubber ball around the court. The ball-court itself was shaped like a capital I with exaggerated end pieces, and in the Post-Classic period stone rings or macaw heads were fixed to the side walls. Aztec records say that the team which passed the ball through one of these rings won the game outright. Tlachtli is the name of the court itself, but also for the game. Tlachtli and ollama are Nahuatl words. There was considerable diversity in the rules both over time and across culture. Death through injury was not unusual and the loss of a game could sometimes result in the sacrifice of the losing team. There is a considerable inventory of artifacts associated with the ball game, including hachas, palmas, court markers, elbow stones, and yokes.
Bat Cave: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cave in southern New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns National Park, notable for its evidence of prehistoric plant cultivation. The site of Bat Cave has produced specimens of a type of primitive corn that is also known from the Flacco phase in Tamaulipas at 2000 BC but that is here in association with a Chiricahua assemblage from which Cochise materials (maize and squash) have been dated at about 1000 BC. Evidence of beans (dated to 1000-400 BC) was found in association with San Pedro materials. Early levels indicate the use of primitive pod corn (dated c 3500 BC), but a cultivated form of maize was in use by 2500 BC, the earliest date for cultigens in the American Southwest. During the summer a colony of several million bats inhabits the cave.
Behistun: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Bisitun, Bisotun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A rock face on the Kermanshah-Hamadan road in Iran on which Darius I (Darius the Great, reigned 521-485 BC) recorded his victories which gave him the Achaemenid empire in 522-520 BC. The bas-relief -- 400 feet above the road -- shows Darius, under the protection of the god Ahuramazda, receiving his defeated enemies. The inscriptions were carved in the cuneiform script, and repeated in the Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian languages. The rock face below them was then cut back to the vertical to prevent any attempt at defacement. In total, the area covered by the inscriptions and the relief panel were about 25-feet high and 50-feet wide. In 1833, Sir Henry Rawlinson went to Iran and became extremely interested in Persian antiquities and in deciphering the cuneiform writing at Behistun. Between 1835-1847, Rawlinson went through the intense work copying the inscription from harrowing positions above the road. It enabled him subsequently to understand the cuneiform script and to decipher the languages of the inscription. In 1837, he published his translations of the first two paragraphs of the inscription. After having to leave the country because of problems between Iran and Britain, Rawlinson was able to return in 1844 to obtain impressions of the Babylonian script. As a result, his Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun" was published (1846-51) -- containing a complete translation analysis of the grammar and notes. The accomplishment yielded valuable information on the history of ancient Persia and its rulers. With other scholars he succeeded in deciphering the Mesopotamian cuneiform script by 1857. This provided the breakthrough to the decipherment later of other languages in the cuneiform script including Sumerian."
Bellows Beach: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A coastal occupation site on Oahu, Hawaii, which has produced some of the earliest occupation dates (600-1000 AD) of the island group. The assemblage is of Early Eastern Polynesian type: shell fishhooks, stone adzes, and bones of dog, pig, and rat.
Cajamarca: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Cajamarquilla
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient Inca city, the site of the capture, ransom, and execution of the Inca chief Atahuallpa by conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532. In the north Peruvian highlands, Cajamarca developed a strong regional civilization and was a provincial capital, flourishing between 200-1476 AD. Cajamarca pottery is slip-painted with linear running patterns (cursive) or with stylized creatures and animal heads in brownish black over a cream background. The Spanish capture ended the Inca period and Andean prehistory. It was a cultural center during the Early Intermediate period. The cemetery, Nievería has Huari-related artifacts.
Casas Grandes: CATEGORY: culture; site
DEFINITION: A culture, river, and site in Chihuahua, northern Mexico. The town's name, Spanish for great houses refers to the extensive, multistoried ruins of a pre-Columbian town, which was probably founded in 1050 and burned around 1340, after which the abandoned valley lands were occupied by the Suma, who migrated in from the east. Ruins of this type are common in the valleys of the Casas Grandes and its tributaries. The earliest culture, also called the Viejo, was characterized by Mogollon-type pottery and pithouse dwellings. The following period, the Medio, had adobe houses. A third period, the Tardio, came after 1300 AD and was heavily influenced by Mesoamerica. The area was settled by the Spaniards in 1661/1662 and is now a national monument under the jurisdiction of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Chiripa: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An early village site on the southern end of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, dating to the Early and Middle Horizon. Late Chiripa pottery of the Early Horizon Period (1800-200 BC) is decorated with cream on red color zones, separated by incised lines. Early pottery is a cream-on-white ware, decorated with geometric designs. The common form is a flat-bottomed, vertical-sided open bowl. The artistic style is linked to Pucara and Tiahuanaco. There is a series of rectangular rooms, some with underfloor stone-lined graves, arranged around a rectangular plaza. An unusual feature is the storage space between the double walls of some structures.
Cholula: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the great cities and religious centers of ancient Mexico, first occupied c 800-300 BC. Cholulu, Nahuatl for place of springs" was a town dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl and is known for its many domed churches which the Spanish built on top of the natives' temples. Cholula was a major center of the pre-conquest Mesoamerican Indian culture as far back as the Early Classic period (100-600 AD) and reached its maximum growth in the Late Classic period (900-1200). It came within the orbit of the Teotihuacán civilization during which time a major pyramid was built and then enlarged three times to produce the largest pyramid in Mesoamerica (177 ft or 55 m high). Tunneling has revealed the older pyramids nesting inside the final version. Around 1300 AD Cholula became a center of the Mexteca-Puebla culture. Cholula polychrome wares were highly prized by the Aztecs. When the Spaniards reached Cholula they found a splendid city dominated by the ruins of the Great Pyramid. The Cholulans who were makers and traders of textiles and pottery were Nahuatl speakers and at the time of the conquest owed a nominal allegiance to Montezuma. It was one of the independent Post-Classic centers to survive after the fall of Teothihuacan."
chullpa: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A burial tower commonly found in the southern Peruvian Andes, especially around Lake Titicaca, just before and after the Inca conquest. They were cylindrical, rectangular, or square and made of stone or adobe. Cruder chullpas are associated with pottery derived from final Tiahuanaco styles, but chullpas made of dressed stone are often of Inca date.
Cochise: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An ancient North American Indian culture that existed 9,000-2,000 years ago, in Arizona and western New Mexico. The culture was named for the ancient Lake Cochise (now Willcox Playa, Arizona), near which important finds were made. The Cochise, a local variant of the Desert Culture, contrasted with the Big-Game Hunting cultures to the east (Clovis, Folsom), and was based on the gathering and collecting wild plant foods. In later stages, there is evidence of the development of agriculture. The Cochise culture has been divided into three developmental periods. The earliest stage, Sulphur Spring, dates from 6000 or 7000 BC to about 4000 BC and is characterized by milling stones for grinding wild seeds and by various scrapers, but no knives, blades, or projectile points. Its type site has been associated with mammoth and extinct horse remains and there are some indications that hunting was done. During the second stage, Chiricahua, lasting from 4000 to perhaps 500 BC, the appearance of projectile points seems to indicate an increased interest in hunting, and the remains of a primitive form of maize in Bat Cave (NM) suggest the beginnings of farming. In the final or San Pedro stage, from 500 BC to the beginning of the Christian era, milling stones were replaced by mortars and pestles (mano and metate), and pit houses (houses of poles and earth built over pits) appeared. During the San Pedro stage, pottery appeared in the area of the Mogollon Indians. The poorly understood Cazador phase may bridge the long hiatus between Sulphur Springs and Chiricahua, but the evidence so far in inconclusive.
Conchopata: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Middle Horizon site in the Ayacucho Valley near Huari, Peru, which was probably a religious shrine. Two large offering deposits of Huari ceramics have been found, including large beaker-shaped urns and painted face-neck jars, intentionally smashed, which have a distinctive polychrome decoration that is clearly Tiahuanaco-influenced, including iconography similar to that of the Gateway of the Sun.
Cuzco: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Cusco
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The political and religious capital of Inca Empire, located in the southern highlands of Peru. Although previously occupied, the site was first settled by Inca in Late Intermediate period, c 1200 AD. After 1438, Pachacuti planned and rebuilt a city metropolis. It was a ceremonial center rather than a population center and stood at the intersection of the four administrative quarters of the empire (called Tawantinguyu). There were great palaces around the Huacapata (Holy Place), the Sunturhuasi, a tower which stood in the square, and the Sun Temple (Coricancha/Curicancha). The city was planned on a grid system and Cyclopean masonry walls of some streets, such as Callejon de Loreto, still exist, as do those of the nearby fortress of Sacsahuaman. A system of stone conduits brought residents water from various river sources.
Diaguita: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Indian peoples of South America, formerly inhabiting northwestern Argentina and the Chilean provinces of Atacama and Coquimbo. They are characterized by distinctive ceramic complexes. Two principal subgroups have been defined -- the Argentinian, on the eastern side of the Andes and the Chilean, on the western side -- which have some cultural traits in common: funerary practices, use of bronze, and probably language. The Calchaquí, the Argentinian subgroup, farmed terraced fields, built irrigation canals, and kept herds of llama. They did loom weaving of llama-wool textiles, which they dyed; basket making; and had a rather elaborate ceramic industry. Metallurgy was also known. Religious beliefs involved shamanistic practices for the cure of illness felt to be caused by witchcraft. Polychrome funerary urns were used for burial for children; adult burials were stone-lined pit inhumations. The Chilean Diaguita ceramics are, on the whole, smaller and more delicately decorated. Influence from the north (Tiahuanaco in the early stages and Inca later) is also apparent. Petroglyphs are common throughout the Diaguita area. The earliest date for Diaguita is c 900 AD and it continued till the Spanish Conquest.
Easter Island: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Rapa Nui
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The easternmost inhabited island of Polynesia, a small volcanic one, about 2500 miles from South America and 1250 miles from Pitcairn Island, its nearest inhabited Polynesian neighbors. It was settled by the Polynesians early in 1st millennium AD and developed a horticultural economy. By 700 AD, the inhabitants built large stone platforms (ahu), some of cut stone, and between 1000-1700 AD these platforms supported rows of huge stone statues (moai), some with separate top knots. Shaped by stone tools, as there is no metal on the island, from quarries in volcanic craters, there are about 300 platforms and about 600 statues. By about 1700, the warrior chiefdoms were fighting and all the statues were toppled from their pedestals. The platforms were used for human burial in stone chambers inserted into the stonework. There is a village of stone houses and many petroglyphs. The Europeans discovered Easter Island in 1722, after which the culture and population. The islanders also carved on wooden boards in an undeciphered script, Rongorongo. Easter Island culture represents the cultural development an isolated human community.
Hawaiian Islands: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A series of islands in the north-central Pacific Ocean (Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Hawaii, plus many smaller islands) first settled by Polynesians in the mid-1st millennium AD. The area has many temple remains (Heiau), dwelling-sites, and ancient horticultural systems. The finds document the development of the populous and highly stratified society observed by Captain Cook in 1778.
horizon: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: horizon style
CATEGORY: term; artifact
DEFINITION: Any artifact, art style, or other cultural trait that has extensive geographical distribution but a limited time span. The term, in anthropology, refers to the spread of certain levels of cultural development and, in geology, the layers of natural features in a region; in soil science a horizon is a layer formed in a soil profile by soil-forming processes. The main meaning, however, refers to a phase, characterized by a particular artifact or artistic style that is introduced to a wide area and which may cross cultural boundaries. Provided that these 'horizon markers' were diffused rapidly and remained in use for only a short time, the local regional cultures in which they occur will be roughly contemporary. The term is less commonly used now that chronometric dating techniques allow accurate local chronologies to be built. Examples of art styles which fulfill these conditions is called a 'horizon style' -- such as Tiahuanaco or Chavín.
Huari: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Wari
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: An empire and large city in the central Peruvian Andes near Ayacucho, dating from 600-1000 AD (Middle Horizon). The local culture first came under Tiahuanaco influence, and Huari acted as a secondary center from which a modified version of the Tiahuanaco art style was spread to the Pacific coast and into the northern Andes. As many as 100,000 people lived in the capital and the empire included most of Peru. There was polychrome pottery; early ceramics (Chakipampa A) date to the Early Intermediate Period and are seen as a blend of Huarpa (a black-on-white geometric style) and Nasca styles. The later Chakipampa B style shows a strong Tiahuanacan influence. Structures include huge rectangular compounds with multi-story and subterranean masonry. Unlike Tiahuanaco, there are no megalithic structures and although there is some dressed stone work, cobbles of unformed stone are also widely used. The Huari empire collapsed and was abandoned c 800 (Early Intermediate Period), after which the regional traditions began to reassert themselves in art and politics, with the eventual emergence of new states (Chimú, Cuismancu, Chincha). The Huari were also skilled in metalwork. The well-to-do were buried in stone tombs.
Inca: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: South American Indians who, at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1532, ruled an empire that extended along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of modern Ecuador to the Maule River in central Chile. The Inca established their capital at Cuzco (Peru) in the 12th century. They began their conquests in the early 15th century and within 100 years had gained control of an Andean population of about 12,000,000 people. These Quechua-speaking tribes' origins are uncertain. Their vast empire had a centralized organization and at its head was the ruler, 'Son of the Sun', worshipped as a god in his own lifetime. As a divine king he was above the law, and as a despotic ruler he was very much the political head of the state. Administration was in the hands of officials drawn from the Inca nobility and from the chiefs of conquered tribes. An efficient road system, along which relays of messengers could travel 250 km in a day, ensured that Cuzco was kept informed of developments all over the empire. These same roads allowed Inca forces to be quickly moved into any province which showed signs of rebellion. This centralization was both the strength and the weakness of the Inca state. The unifying force was the ruler in person, and the death of Huayna Capac precipitated a crisis. Civil war broke out when two of his sons, Huascar and Atahuallpa, disputed the succession. Atahuallpa won the war, but before he could consolidate his position he was seized and murdered by Francisco Pizarro's Spaniards in 1532. Without a leader the Inca system could not function. Most of the empire was quickly brought under Spanish control, but an independent Inca group held out in the Urubamba valley until 1572. Viracocha Inca was the creator, culture hero, and supreme deity of the Inca, but the religion embraced a pantheon of gods of nature. The most actively worshipped were the sun and, by extension, the emperor, who was considered the son of the sun. The Temple of the Sun, built at the pre-Incan ceremonial center of Pachacamac suggests some incorporation of earlier religions. Archaeologically, the Inca culture is characterized by fine quality stone masonry, agricultural terraces, mass-produced and standardized pottery forms (aryballus), and metal objects. The considerable architectural skill of the Inca is reflected in Cyclopean masonry, although many buildings were constructed using rectangular dressed stone blocks as well as adobe. The basic dwelling-unit was a cluster of single rooms arranged around a rectangular courtyard and was most often enclosed by a wall. Writing was unknown, but the quipu was used for keeping records. Agriculture was based on plant foods, especially potato, manioc, quinoa, and maize. Domesticated animals included dog, llama, cava (guinea pig), and alpaca. Fine textiles were woven using a simple backstrap loom. The civilization was the largest and most powerful political unit in all the prehistoric America. It has been argued that the whole of Inca achievement relied heavily on a variety of political, societal and religious infrastructures already in place before their ascendancy.
Intermediate Periods: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: One of the three periods in Egyptian history when the country was divided into regional potentates instead of united. These periods occurred between the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, and Late Period. The First Intermediate Period was 2130-1938 BC, Second Intermediate Period was 1630-1540 BC, and the Third Intermediate Period was 1075-656 BC. In Andean/Peruvian archaeology, there were also Intermediate Periods. The Early Intermediate Period (200 BC-600 AD) was characterized by the rise of the first great city states, such as Moche and Nasca. The Late Intermediate Period (1000-1476 AD) was characterized by the presence of numerous fractionalized corporate units which arose after the decline of Tiahuanaco and Huari, e.g. Chimu and Aymara.
kero: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A large wooden flared beaker, painted with black, white, and light red designs of pumas, condors, and other creatures on a dark red ground color. Keros decorated with incised geometric patterns were used in Inca times, but examples with scenes painted in lacquer are of post-Conquest date. In pottery the shape started earlier and was especially popular in the Tiahuanaco culture.
Maeva: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A complex of 25 Polynesian marae (stone temples) on the island of Huahine, Society Islands, Polynesia. Many of the ahu and pavements have been restored. It is one of the most visible and impressive marae complexes in Polynesia.
Mahaiatea: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The largest marae (stone temple) constructed in Tahiti, Society Islands, Polynesia. It was an 11-stepped pyramidal ahu covering 81x 22 meters, 13.5 meters high. Constructed by the chieftainess Purea of Papara district in 1767, it now has only a few foundation fragments surviving.
Makaha Valley: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An important valley on western Oahu, Hawaii, which has been the scene of intensive settlement archaeology to document cultural developments from 1100-1800 AD. There are agricultural terraces, habitation sites, and heiau. The valley contains well-preserved dry-land cultivation systems in its lower portion and wet taro terraces in its upper section for root crops.
marae: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: malae
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A stone temple of Eastern Polynesia, comprised of courtyards and stone platform or ahu, where ceremonies took place. The court was walled, paved, or terraced. Marae are among the important remains on Easter Island, the Hawaiian Islands (especially Heiau), and the Tuamoto, Society, Cook, Austral, and Marquesas Islands. Ancestral forms probably go back to Early Eastern Polynesian settlement, c 500 AD. Figures of the gods were kept at the marae, often in special wooden containers housed in portable shelters. Large numbers of thin, tall wooden slabs were set up on the marae; they were carved with openwork geometric designs and topped with figures of birds, human beings, or spiked projections. Marae are especially characteristic of 1200-1800 AD. The term 'marae' also refers to an open space within a village in Tonga, Samoa, or New Zealand.
Middle Horizon: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A division of time in Andean/Peruvian South America, c 600-1000 AD, used to refer to the first imperialistic domination of area under the unifying forces of Tiahuanaco and Huari (Wari) cultures. It was the time of the first large-scale imperial expansions. During the first half of the Middle Horizon, in central Peru, the Huari came to control the highlands and possibly the coast. The remains of large groups of food-storage buildings in the Huari strongholds suggest military activity like that of the late Inca. Huari is closely linked in its art style to the monuments of the great site of Tiahuanaco, located on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. Tiahuanaco expanded over the altiplano and adjacent regions of Bolivia, southern Peru, and northern Chile. The principal buildings of Tiahuanaco include the Akapana Pyramid, a huge platform mound or stepped pyramid of earth faced with cut andesite; a rectangular enclosure known as the Kalasasaya, constructed of alternating tall stone columns and smaller rectangular blocks; and another enclosure known as the Palacio. They practiced the raised-field system of agriculture. Some Tiahuanaco effigy vessels have been discovered at Huari, but otherwise they seem to have been independent entities. In the second half of the Middle Horizon, the political and economic systems slowly collapsed. The decline of these two states was followed by a period of more localized political power. The Late Intermediate Period began about 1000 AD.
Mitla: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in central Oaxaca, Mexico, which was first occupied in the centuries before 800 BC, after which it became an outpost of Monte Albán civilization. It is generally believed that Mitla (Nahuatl: Place of the Dead) was established as a sacred burial site long before the Christian Era, probably by the Zapotecs, whose influence was predominant until about 900 AD. Between 900-1500, the Mixtecs moved down from northern Oaxaca and took possession of Mitla; it is the Mixtec influence that is most pronounced on the existing ruins. Its ceramics date from Monte Alban I (900-300 BC), but there is no structural evidence until Monte Albán III (200-1521 AD). After the parent site was abandoned in the 8th-10th centuries AD, a fortification wall was built at Mitla and pyramids were constructed there. The town became an important religious center and there are five clusters of columned, flat-roofed palace structures (Grupo de las Columnas (Columns Group), Grupo de las Iglesias (Churches Group), Grupo del Arroyo (Arroyo Group), Grupo de los Adobes (Adobe Group), and Grupo del Sur (Southern Group)). Major construction in the Early Post-Classic coincides with the abandonment of Monte Alban, suggesting that it became a new locus for the Zapotec. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Mitla was said to be the residence of the Zapotec high priest. Certain frescoes were painted in pure Mixtec style, although Mitla itself may have remained under Zapotec control.
moai: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Colossal stone figure found on Easter Island carved between c 600-1500 AD. There are 800-1000 known quarried from the volcanic tuff at Rano Raraku. They can be up to 10 meters tall and weigh 28 tons. Many were put in ahu on the coast, on top and facing inland. The moai were probably ancestor figures. Most of the moai were knocked over during internal strife on the island. The term moai also refers to small wooden statue of uncertain religious significance, also carved on Easter Island. The figures are of two types, moai kavakava (male) and moai paepae (female). They were sometimes used for fertility rites but were more often used for harvest celebrations. During the time between these public festivals, the statues were wrapped in bark cloth and kept in private homes.
Mulloy, William Thomas (1917-1978): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American archaeologist who developed the cultural chronology of the northwest Plains, especially at Pictograph Cave in Montana. He also worked on Easter Island on orongo, ahu, and their moai.
Náhuatl: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A Uto-Aztecan language; the language spoken by the Aztecs and many other Mexican tribes. Related languages are disturbed sporadically from the northwestern United States to Panama. Still widely spoken in the Basin of Mexico, it is the source of a number of words current in the English language, such as tomato and chocolate. It is also the source of the widely used New World term for spear thrower, atlatl. Groups speaking Nahuatl migrated into Mesoamerica from its northern frontier, Gran Chichimec.
Nasca: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Nazca
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Major culture of the southern coast of Peru during the Early Intermediate Period, c 200 BC-600 AD, developed out of Paracas. The principal Nasca site is at Cahuachi on the Nasca River, with a great adobe temple atop a mound, some walled courts and large rooms, and a number of smaller constructions. The earliest pottery, of roughly the 2nd century BC, still shows Paracas influence in the iconography and the use of up to 16 colors, but the paint was not put on before firing. Typical Nasca pottery with designs of fish, birds, severed heads, human figures and demons, shows a long internal development. The final Nasca substyle incorporates patterns taken from the art of Huari, and this contact was soon followed by invasion. Stylistically, the Nasca ceramics have been divided into nine phases. With the expansion of the Huari empire to the coast around the 7th century AD, Nasca culture came to an end and was replaced by a local version of Huari. To the Nasca period belong some (or all) of the desert markings, the so-called 'Nasca lines', made by scraping away the weathered surface of the desert to expose the lighter material beneath. Motifs include lines, geometrical patterns, and a few animal or bird forms. The dead were buried in large cemeteries, mainly near Cahuachi. Nasca survived into the Middle Horizon, when it became fused with the more dominant Huari and Tiahuanaco styles.
Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders (1853-1942): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: An English Egyptologist and a leading figure in the development of archaeology; he developed the technique known as sequence-dating. He was self-taught and, in 1880, went to Egypt to draw up plans and take measurements of the Pyramids (Tanis, Naucratis, Daphnae, Hawara, Kahun, Meidum, El Amarna, Nagada, Abydos, Memphis, Sedment, Qau). He is recognized as the first scientific excavator in Egypt and he wrote many books on general topics, tools and weapons, ancient weights and measures, and Egyptian architecture; in all, he published more than 1000 books and articles. His work was summarized in Seventy Years in Archaeology" (1931). At Tell el-Hesi in 1890 the importance of stratigraphy in the excavation was for the first time fully appreciated. At Naqada in 1894 his discovery of the predynastic cemetery led him to devise the technique of sequence-dating a form of seriation. Sequence dating used the pottery types found in the nearly 3000 graves of the Naqada cemeteries. His other achievements in Egypt include a survey of the Giza pyramids excavation at El-Amarna and the discovery of the Greek city of Naukratis. After 1926 he concentrated on Palestine for example at Tell el-Ajjul."
potato: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: common potato, white potato, Irish potato
CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: One of some 150 tuber-bearing species of the genus Solanum (family Solanaceae). The potato is considered by most botanists a native of the Peruvian-Bolivian Andes and is one of the world's main food crops. At the time of the Spanish conquest, potatoes were grown all over the highlands from Colombia to Chile. Unlike maize, the potato flourishes at high altitudes and was the basic staple of many of the societies of the Altiplano, such as Tiahunaco.
Pucara: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A major urban center of the Early Intermediate Period, near the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca. The important buildings included a walled sanctuary, monumental U-shaped sunken court surrounded by structures, and walls of dressed stone slabs. The city is best known for its carved stone statues and its polychrome pottery with designs, including the divided eye motif found later at Tiahuanaco. The pottery is typically black-and-yellow on red with color zones separated by incised lines, possibly related to the ceramics of the late Paracas culture. Radiocarbon dates indicate occupation from 200 BC-200 AD. There are subterranean burial vaults. The site was abandoned before the zenith of Huari and the art style is almost certainly a precursor to Tiahuanaco.
Rano Raraku: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An extinct volcanic crater on Easter Island which served as a quarry for the stone statues (moai) which were erected in rows on the many ahu on the island. The rock is a soft tuff and the main usage of the two quarries, one inside and one outside the crater, dates to between c 1000-1500 AD. The site is filled with almost 400 unfinished statues and with many finished moai erected. Thousands of basalt handheld picks were discarded at the site.
Recuay: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Huaylas
CATEGORY: culture; site
DEFINITION: Pre-Columbian culture and site near present-day Recuay in the Callejón de Huaylas Valley of the northern highlands of Peru. The Recuay culture dates to the Early Intermediate Period c 200 BC-600 AD and was contemporaneous with the Moche culture on the north coast. Recuay is known for its distinctive pottery which features a type of decoration in three colors (black, red, white) and a style of modeling with small figures of men, jaguars, llamas, and other animals attached to the vessel. The vessels were found in underground galleries and box-shaped tombs. The style, also called Huaylas, shows contact with the Moche and Gallinazo styles. Recuay stone carving (called Aija) is related to that of the Pucará and Tiahuanaco cultures. It is characterized by the stiff blockish quality which is widespread throughout the Peruvian Highlands.
San Pedro: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The final chronological period of the Cochise culture in the Atacama region of northern Chile, contemporaneous with Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, c 500-1000 AD. Polychrome kero or beaker-shaped vessels are found in graves and typically, tool assemblages contain seed-grinding tools such as manos and metates, mortars and pestles, and a variety of projectile points, including the narrow stemmed, side-notched type which first appeared during Chiricahua. Pit houses (houses of poles and earth built over pits) are also characteristic. During the San Pedro stage, pottery appeared in the area of the Mogollon Indians. The Cochise tradition may be taken as the base for subsequent cultural developments among various Indians in the Southwest.
Taputapuatea: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Traditionally, the most sacred marae of eastern Polynesia, on Raiatea, Society Islands. It is associated with the worship of the god Oro. The surviving platform (ahu) is 40 meters by 7 meters and is faced with coral slabs. The platform's shell is dated to the 17th century AD.
teocalli: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Nahuatl (Aztec) term for temple; an ancient temple of Mexico or Central America usually built upon the summit of a truncated pyramidal mound.
tlatoani: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The Nahuatl (Aztec) term for ruler, the head of the state. All household heads owed allegiance, respect, and tax obligations to the tlatoani. It was mostly an inherited position; in some areas, succession passed from father to son; in others, the succession went through a series of brothers and then passed to the eldest son of the eldest brother. In still other states, the office was elective, but the choice was limited to sons or brothers of the deceased ruler. The ruler lived in a large, multiroom masonry palace inhabited by a number of wives, servants, and professional craftsmen. He was carried in a sedan chair in public and held considerable power: appointing bureaucrats, promoting to higher military status, organizing military campaigns, and distributing of booty and tribute. He also owned private estates with serfs, was the final judge in legal cases, was titular head of the religious cult, and head of the town market.
Triple Alliance: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A military alliance formed in 1428 AD, in the Late Post-Classic Period, between Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tacuba and which became the dominant force in the Lake Texcoco region of the Basin of Mexico. They joined together to overthrow the Tepenacs in the city-state of Azcapotzalco. The Aztecs eventually dominated the alliance, although Texcoco, under philosopher-king Nezahuacoyotl, became a renowned center of culture and learning.
Ty (c 2500 BC): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ti
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Fifth Dynasty official who was overseer of the pyramid complexes and sun temples of the rulers Neferirkara and Nyuserra at Abusir, as well as the sun temples of Sahura and Raneferef.
Uhle, Max (1856-1944): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Peruvian archaeologist, one of the greatest in South American archaeology. He was one of the first to use artifact style and stratigraphic associations to produce a chronological sequence. Uhle was the first to apply the principles of stratigraphy and seriation to central Andean material, and he carried out more fieldwork in western South America than any scholar before or since. He worked at Tiahuanaco, Pachacamac, at several Mochica sites, an early Chimú cemetery, in the valleys of Chincha, Moche, Chancay, and Ica; near Ancon, near Cuzco, and in Chile and Ecuador. He established the Early, Middle, and Late Tiahuanaco and Inca Ceramic sequence, which though corrected and elaborated, still stands today. His more than 130 volumes of unpublished notes and other records are housed at the University of California.
Vinapu: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Location of two important Easter Island ahu, one with a seaward face of close-fitted blocks of stone, similar to Inca masonry in Peru (c 1516 AD), the other of normal Easter Island type (c 857 AD). Both ahu have a series of moai.
Wallacea: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Biogeographical zone of islands between Southeast Asia Sunda shelf and the Sahul shelf -- an area separating Australia from Southeast Asia for 70 million years. It marks the division between two major faunal groups: oriental animals (elephants, tigers, and apes) and the animals of Australia (kangaroos, wombats, and monotremes). Dates of first human settlement are uncertain; the first settlers of Australia prior to 30,000 years ago had to cross sea gaps of up to 70 km in this zone. The water formed a barrier to the spread of animals and humans into Australia and New Guinea. It is named after the British naturalist A.R. Wallace, who first recognized its significance.
winged disk: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: winged disc; Egyptian 'py wer
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A sun disk with an outspread pair of wings attached, found in Egypt from the 1st Dynasty. It is associated with Horus of Behdet (Edfu), and symbolizes the sun, especially in architecture on ceilings, cornices, and stelae. It was often copied outside Egypt -- used in the Levant and by the Hittites, and in Assyria it represented the sun god Shamash and perhaps Ashur. It was adopted by the Achaemenid Persians to represent their chief god Ahuramazda.

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