Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for civilization:

Aquatic Civilization: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Aqualithic
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: This term has been used to describe a widespread series of cultures in the high lake and river areas of the southern Sahara and Sahal between the 8th and 3rd millennia BC (also 10,000-8000 BP). There are barbed bone harpoon heads and pottery with parallel wavy lines that reveal some similarities between the regions. First investigated at Early Khartoum, sites of this type are now known as far to the southeast as the Lake Turkana basin in Kenya. To the west, related material is found as far as Kourounkorokale in Mali. The greatest significance of the aquatic civilization" lies in the settled lifestyle of its people for this led up to the subsequent adoption of food production. Artifacts include bone harpoons."
civilization: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Complex sociopolitical form defined by the institutions of the state and the existence of a distinctive Great Tradition.
Ganges civilization: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A city-state civilization by the 7th-6th centuries BC, characterized by extensive urban settlement and a developed social organization. The state engaged in long struggles for power, which ended in the 4th century BC with the establishment of the Mauryan empire. Much of the information about the Ganges civilization comes from literary sources. Archaeological excavations have usually been on a small scale. Cities were large and usually fortified, often with massive mud ramparts. The characteristic pottery is Northern Black polished ware.
Harappan civilization: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Indus Valley civilization
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: One of the great civilizations of antiquity, located in Pakistan and northwest India in the 3rd millennium BC. Nearly 300 settlements of the civilization are known: two large cities (Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa), and a number of smaller towns and villages (Chanhu-Daro, Judeirjo-Daro, Kalibangan, and Lothal). The Harappan civilization was characterized by a high level of architectural, craft, and technical achievement. We know little of the political, social, and economic structure of the civilization because, although it was literate, the script remains undeciphered. Like other early civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Harappan civilization was based on the cultivation of cereal crops (plus rice and cotton), probably with irrigation. Among the most distinctive achievements of this civilization are the architecture and town planning, with the use of true baked brick for building, and cities and towns laid out on a grid-iron street plan, perhaps the earliest examples of town planning in the world. Among crafts, the most outstanding were the seals, mostly made of steatite and decorated with carefully executed incised designs. The Harappan civilization came to an end early in the 2nd millennium, either as a result of environmental factors (excessive flooding) or as a result of invasions by Aryan intruders. It is divided into three phases -- Early, Mature (Urban), and Late (Post-Urban) and emerged from Punjab and Baluchistan regions.
Indus civilization: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Indus Valley civilization, Harrapan civilization
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent, identified in 1921-1992 by its two capitals -- Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro -- both in modern Pakistan. It was also the most extensive of the three earliest civilizations, the other two being Mesopotamia and Egypt. It was one of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, but its origins are obscure. By around 2300 BC, the Indus civilization was fully developed and in trading contact with Sargonid Sumer. Radiocarbon dates from several sites support an origin c 2600 BC, and suggest that by 2000 BC the civilization was in marked decline. The Indus River seems to have played a significant part, as many sites show deposits left by frequent catastrophic floods. Exploitation of the vegetation, particularly for the baking of enormous quantities of brick, caused the decline of the countryside. The final collapse seems to have been due to hostile attack. A few inhumation cemeteries have been found associated with the gridiron-plan cities and there were elaborate drainage systems, also. The site of Mohenjo-Daro had a great bath, assembly hall, and other monumental buildings. There was widespread use of an undeciphered hieroglyphic script and standard weights and measures. The economy was based on mixed agriculture and humped cattle were the most important domestic animals. The pottery was mass-produced and plain. Artistically the finest products were square steatite seals, carved with local or mythical animals and brief inscriptions. The civilization's effect on the later culture and religion of India seems to have been considerable.
Shang: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Yin; Shang civilization
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The first dynasty recorded historically, thought to have ruled from the mid-16th to mid-11th century BC (Some scholars date the Shang dynasty from the mid-18th to the late 12th century BC.). However, Shang as an archaeological term must be distinguished from Shang as a dynastic one. Earlier stages of the culture known from Anyang have been recognized at sites assigned to the Erligang Phase and, still earlier, the Erlitou phase. So far virtually no inscriptions have been found at these pre-Anyang sites; even if the date of the dynasty's founding were known it would be uncertain to what extent these archaeologically defined phases fall within the Shang period. Thus while the type site of the Erligang phase at Zhengzhou is generally assumed to have been a Shang capital, some archaeologists have argued that the Erlitou phase falls in the time of the Hsia dynasty, traditional predecessor of Shang. The archaeological classification of Middle Shang is represented by the remains found at Erligang (Erh-li-kang) (c 1600 BC) near Cheng-chou (Zhengzhou). The Shang replaced the Hsia (Zia) in c 1500 BC and was overthrown by the Chou in 1027 BC. The Shang dynasty belongs technically to the advanced Bronze Age -- with that metal used for tools (socketed axes, knives, etc.), weapons (halberds, spears, and arrowheads) and for the highly ornamented and artistic ritual vessels. There was a fine white pottery and coarser grey wares, wheelmade and occasionally glazed, which clearly derive from the preceding Neolithic pottery. The period's claim to rank as a civilization is supported by the size and complexity of its cities and its use of writing. Two of its capitals have been identified, at modern Cheng-chou and Anyang, both in Honan province near the middle Yellow River. Rich cemeteries provide much of the evidence, particularly the royal tombs at Anyang. Building was mainly in timber on rammed earth foundations; city walls were also of rammed earth. Burial was by inhumation in pit graves with the skeletons extended, some face down. The pictographic writing appears as occasional inscriptions on the bronzes, much more commonly on the enormous number of oracle bones. The Shang was the second of the Chinese dynasties in the Protohistoric Sandai period.
South Arabian civilization: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A series of pre-Islamic kingdoms of the 1st millennium BC through the mid-1st millennium AD in southwestern Arabia (modern Yemen). The most famous of these were the Minaeans, Qatabanians, Sabaeans, and Himyar.
Abu Salabikh, Tell: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site of southern Mesopotamia with evidence of the Early Dynastic III and Uurk times. Many texts, including the earliest-known literary works of Sumerian literature. I.J. Gelb proposed the name 'Kish civilization' to identify this culture of the mid-3rd millennium.
Acacus: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tadrat Acacus
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A region of the central Sahara (now southwestern Libya) known for rock shelters with occupation deposits and rock paintings. Pottery was made from about 7000 BC, the earliest of the so-called Aquatic Civilization typified by wavy-line decoration. The skull of a shorthorn ox and traces of sheep/goat supply evidence for animal domestication as early as c 4000 BC. Rock paintings of oxen predate c 2700 BC.
Achaemenids: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Achaemenid dynasty, Achaemenid
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The Persian dynasty, descendants of Achaemenes (c. 700 BC), which ruled from Cyrus the Great to Darius III (c 550-331 BC). Cyrus II (559-530 BC) overthrew the Medes empire to found a Persian empire, conquering Lydia, Babylonia, the Iranian plateau, and Palestine. His son, Cambyses II, added Egypt in 525 BC. The throne then passed to Darius, who set up an efficient administration of an empire then extending from the Nile to the Indus. This empire united for the first time all the peoples of the east -- from Thrace and Egypt to the Aral Sea and the Indus Valley -- and had as its capitals Parsargadae, Susa, and Persepolis. At Marathon in 490 BC, Darius failed to conquer the Greeks, as his son Xerxes failed at Salamis in 480. Their successors, notably Artaxerxes, fought to consolidate a waning empire. The Achaemenids were finally overthrown in 332 BC by Alexander the Great. The period is an important one in Iranian civilization. It was marked by contacts between the classical civilizations of Europe and the east and the appearance and spread of Zoroastrianism, at its time the most advanced religion outside Judaism. The Achaemenids' most famous monuments are the work of Darius: his capital of Persepolis, outstanding for its architecture and monumental reliefs, and his trilingual rock-cut inscription at Behistun for the key it gave to the translation of the cuneiform script. Other surviving Achaemenid monuments include the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae and the rock-cut tomb of Darius at Naqsh-i Rustam near Persepolis.
Akkad: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Agade
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Ancient region in what is now central Iraq and was the northern (or northwestern) division of ancient Babylonian civilization. It is an archaeologically unlocated site, in or near Babylon roughly where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are closest to each other. The name Akkad was taken from the city of Agade, which was founded by Sargon in about 2370 BC. Sargon united various city-states in the area and his rule encompassed much of Mesopotamia, creating the first empire in history.
Alamgirpur: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The easternmost site of the Harappan civilization, northeast of Delhi in the Ganges Valley. It was a small late Harappan settlement. After a gap of unknown duration, there were later occupations which showed Painted Grey Ware and iron use.
Allahdino: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A village site in Pakistan near the Indus delta. It was an agricultural community of the Harappan civilization.
Amorites: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Amurru
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A branch of the Semites who were nomads in the Syrian desert and who overthrew the Sumerian civilization of Ur c 2000 BC and dominated Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine till c 1600 BC. In the oldest cuneiform sources (c 2400-2000 BC), the Amorites were equated with the West, though their true place of origin was most likely Arabia, not Syria. They founded a series of kingdoms throughout Mesopotamia and northern Syria, the most important being Babylon and Assur. Their arrival in Palestine was at the change from Early Bronze to Middle Bronze Age. The Amorites became assimilated into the population and culture of these regions. Eventually, the Amorites settled and amalgamated with the Canaanites of the Middle and Late Bronze Age. During the 2nd millennium BC the Akkadian term Amurru referred not only to an ethnic group but also to a language and to a geographic and political unit in Syria and Palestine. In the dark age between c 1600-1100 BC, the language of the Amorites disappeared from Babylonia and the mid-Euphrates; in Syria and Palestine, however, it became dominant. In Assyrian inscriptions from about 1100 BC, the term Amurru designated part of Syria and all of Phoenicia and Palestine but no longer referred to any specific kingdom, language, or population.
Amri: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in the Indus Valley in Pakistan, probably dating to the early 3rd millennium. It was the first site to be recognized as belonging to the Early Harappan Period when excavated by Majumdar in 1929. Its name has been given to a style of hand- and wheel-made painted pottery found in its Chalcolithic levels and on tells over much of Sind and up into the hills of Baluchistan. These tall globular beakers of fine buff ware are painted with geometric designs in black between red horizontal bands. Chert and some copper were used for tools and the architecture was in mud-brick. Fractional burial was the practice for the dead. Periods I and II represent the pre-Harappan settlement of agricultural farmers, who kept cattle, sheep, goat and donkey, but also hunted (or herded) gazelle. In the later part of Period II Harappan ceramics appear alongside Amri wares; Period III represents a full mature Harappan occupation. The culture was gradually succeeded by that of the Indus civilization. The uppermost levels contained Jhukar and Jhangar material.
Anyang: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: An-yang, Yinxu
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A city in the Honan province of China that was the last capital of the Shang (Yin) Dynasty, occupied in the 12th and 11th centuries BC. It was founded c 14 BC and overthrown by the Chou in 1027 BC and was the seat of 12 kings who ruled for 273 years, a time referred to as the historical Anyang period. Anyang is one of the most extensively excavated sites, beginning in 1928. The buildings had rammed earth floors and many sacrifices of men and animals and chariot burials were found under them. Deep storage pits held oracle bones with inscriptions in an archaic form of Chinese, but the most important finds came from the cemeteries, which included royal tombs. At least as early as the Song dynasty (960--1279), Anyang was known as a source of bronze ritual vessels. Very large cruciform shaft tombs were found near the village of Houjiazhuang. There were eight large tombs in the western part of the Xibeigang cemetery and five more in the east. Excavation has shown that rows of satellite burials in the eastern section were not laid down at the time of the royal entombments but instead were later sacrifices offered to the tombs' occupants; these burials correspond with the oracle texts descriptions of victims sacrificed, sometimes by the hundreds, to the reigning king's ancestors. The only intact royal tomb yet discovered is that of Fu Hao, which is not in the Xibeigang cemetery but across the river at Xiatoun. Later excavations have established that Anyang was heir to the flourishing civilization of the Erligang Phase.
archaic: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Archaic, Archaic period, Archaic tradition
CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: A term used to describe an early stage in the development of civilization. In New World chronology, the period just before the shift from hunting, gathering, and fishing to agricultural cultivation, pottery development, and village settlement. Initially, the term was used to designate a non-ceramic-using, nonagricultural, and nonsedentary way of life. Archaeologists now realize, however, that ceramics, agriculture, and sedentism are all found, in specific settings, within contexts that are clearly Archaic but that these activities are subsidiary to the collection of wild foods. In Old World chronology, the term is applied to certain early periods in the history of some civilizations. In Greece, it describes the rise of civilization from c 750 BC to the Persian invasion in 480 BC. In Egypt, it covers the first two dynasties, c 3200-2800 BC. In Classical archaeology, the term is often used to refer to the period of the 8th-6th centuries BC. The term was coined for certain cultures of the eastern North America woodlands dating from c 8000-1000 BC, but usage has been extended to various unrelated cultures which show a similar level of development but at widely different times. For example, it describes a group of cultures in the Eastern US and Canada which developed from the original migration of man from Asia during the Pleistocene, between 40,000-20,000 BC, whose economy was based on hunting and fishing, shell and plant gathering. Between 8000-1000 BC, a series of technical achievements characterized the tradition, which can be broken into periods: Early Archaic 8000-5000 BC, mixture of Big Game Hunting tradition with early Archaic cultures, also marked by post-glacial climatic change in association with the disappearance of Late Pleistocene big game animals; then Middle Archaic tradition cultures from 5000-2000 BC, and a Late Archaic period 2000-1000 BC. In the New World, the lifestyle lacked horticulture, domesticated animals, and permanent villages.
Aryan: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Arya; Aryans
CATEGORY: culture; language
DEFINITION: A people of the Rigveda who invaded Iran and India from the northwest in the 2nd millennium BC and who then spread east and south over the succeeding centuries. Their language was an early form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European tongue. By c 500 BC, Aryan speech was probably established over much of the area in which Indo-Aryan languages are now spoken (the Indian subcontinent). Archaeologists have not found much to attribute to the Aryans except for some Painted Grey Ware. It is theorized that the Aryans may have been responsible for, or contributed to, the downfall of the Indus (Harappan) civilization.
astronomy: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: Most ancient civilizations studied the skies for astronomical knowledge. Ancient astronomy has been studied by archaeologists in prehistoric Europe through monuments and in Central America through inscriptions and documents. Studies of prehistoric astronomy in Europe have concentrated on the megalithic monuments and stone circles, which have been proven to incorporate alignments of the sun, moon, and brighter stars -- especially significant points in their cycles. Solar alignments occur at New Grange and Stonehenge, lunar orientations at the Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire and the Carnac stones in Brittany. Many theories are discussed as to the accuracy of measurements and the degree of astronomical understanding achieved by these early societies. The ability to predict astronomical events would have enhanced political power, which is something suggested in Mesoamerica. The ability to predict events by the governing elite class increased their credibility as able rulers. The Mesoamerican people put great emphasis on the calendar and astronomy and were able to make extremely accurate measurements of the solar year, the appearance of eclipses, and the phases of the Moon. Buildings seen as observatories occur at Chichen Itza and at Palenque, and the Dresden codex is a detailed collection of calculations tracing the eclipses of the Moon and Sun and the cycles of Venus and possibly Mars and Jupiter. The Maya were even aware of the impreciseness of the 365-day year in their Calendar Round and added a correction factor to account for the quarter-day per year discrepancy. The cycle of the Moon, in comparison, was calculated with amazing accuracy (29.5302 days compared to the actual figure of 29.5306). The cycle of Venus (calculated at 583.92) was also pinpointed as accurately as measurements taken by modern astronomical methods. The ancient astronomers' awareness of long-term astronomical phenomena was astonishing.
Athens: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Athínai (modern Greek), Athenai (ancient Greek)
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Important classical Greek city-state with evidence for continuous occupation from the Late Neolithic, but because of its continuous occupation and the resulting disturbance of the earlier levels, its history is told from the time of the Mycenaeans in the Late Bronze Age. The citadel on the Acropolis was walled early in its history. It is the capital of Greece and generally considered to be the birthplace of Western civilization. Athens is best known for its temples and public buildings of antiquity. The Parthenon, a columned, rectangular temple built for the city's patron goddess, Athena, is considered to be the culmination of the Doric order of classical Greek architecture. Also located on the Acropolis are the Erechtheum, originally the temple of both Athena and Poseidon, and the Propylaea, the entrance of which is through the wall of the Acropolis. At the foot of the Acropolis, to the south, are the theaters of Herodes and Dionysus, while to the northwest is the Agora, the ancient marketplace of the city. The Kerameikos cemetery documents the city's Iron Age (c 11-8 BC), after which archaeology and history combine to tell of its brilliance through the classical period. It supposedly rivaled Knossos and later resisted successive waves of Dorian invaders. It is still not clear how far Athens, perhaps the base of the very early Ionian colonies, managed to ride out the 'dark age' that followed the collapse of Mycenaean civilization. There is evidence of a cultural and commercial renaissance in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. A major component of this socioeconomic revolution was the borrowing of the Phoenician alphabet for the writing of Greek. Commercial success brought rapid economic growth and a population explosion. New ideas were imported and political upheaval led to experiments in government, such as democracy. Athens resisted Persian invaders and developed a prestige which allowed the establishment of the Delian League and the extension of her political power -- the Athenian empire. In the years 447-431 BC, under Pericles, vast sums were spent on public works, such as the new group of buildings on the Acropolis including the Parthenon. Pericles would not grant the Hellenes the freedom requested by Sparta, which led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) after which Athens was a dependent of Sparta. Escape from Spartan imperialism in the 4th century BC was threatened by Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great. By the end of the century, Macedon dominated and Athens did not achieve independence until 228 BC. Rome then intruded in the 2nd and 1st centuries and Athens was sieged and plundered by Sulla. During the Imperial period, Athens was confined to a role as a cultural center and seat of learning for the rich -- which lasted into the 6th century AD, when the edict of Justinian in 529 closed down the schools of philosophy. By the Byzantine period, Athens had become a modest provincial town. Athens' ruins will be difficult to protect from the corrosive atmosphere and millions of visiting tourists.
Atlantis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Atalantis, Atlantica
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An earthly paradise described by Plato in two of his dialogues, Timaeus" and "Critias". In "Timaeus" quoting Athenian lawgiver Solon Plato describes a circular island that developed a high level of civilization but which degenerated and sank into the sea (due to earthquakes) as punishment. Atlantis was a rich island whose powerful princes conquered many Mediterranean lands until they were finally defeated by the Athenians and their allies. It was described as existing 9000 years before Solon's birth -- an unlikely dating. Though its location is unknown it is supposed to have existed between Africa and the New World (west of the Straits of Gibraltar) and larger than Asia Minor and Libya combined. Some have suggested that it was a vanished Minoan civilization or ancient Thera which was destroyed c 1470 BC. Many other interpretations have been offered including that Plato's Atlantis is a philosophical abstraction. In the Critias Plato supplied a history of the ideal commonwealth of the Atlantians."
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.
Babylonia: CATEGORY: site; culture; language
DEFINITION: An ancient region occupying southern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (southern Iraq from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf), whose capital was Babylon for many centuries. The term Babylonia also refers to the culture that developed in the area from its original settlement c 4000 BC and their language of cuneiform script. Before Babylon's rise to political prominence (c 1850 BC), the area was divided into Sumer (in the southeast; the world's earliest civilization) and Akkad (in the northwest) during the third millennium BC. The region one of the richest agricultural areas of the ancient world.
Bahrain: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An island in the Persian Gulf that has been identified with the ancient land of Dilmun (Telmun) of about 2000 BC, a prosperous trading center linking Sumeria with the Indus Valley. Written records of the archipelago exist in Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman sources. Burial mounds in the north of Bahrain Island suggest a period of Sumerian influence in the 3rd millennium BC. There are densely packed fields of tumuli in Bahrain and at several places on the adjacent mainland. They are associated with densely packed complexes of cist burials. Excavation has shown the island to be an important link in the sea trade between that region and the Indus civilization. Two important sites in the north of the island belong to the 'Dilmun period': a walled town at Qala'at al-Bahrain and a complex temple building at Barbar. Among the finds of this period are circular steatite stamp 'Persian Gulf' seals, related to Indus Valley seals, but probably made locally.
Balearic Islands: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A group of islands including Majorca (Mallorca), Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, off the east coast of Spain. Various civilizations left their marks on the islands, though the prehistoric talayotic civilization (so-called from its rough stone towers called talayots) seems to have continued without modification for 2600 years. Their position in the Mediterranean laid them open to continuous influence from eastern civilizations, as is found in archaeological finds. Bronze swords, single and double axes, antennae swords, and heads and figures of bulls and other animals are found. Native talayotic pottery was consistent until the Roman occupation. Their most interesting period was the Bronze Age with three important monuments: the Naveta, Talayot, and Taula. The islands were successively ruled by Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Moors, and Spaniards.
beehive tomb: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: tholos
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: An architectural structure of the Mycenaean civilization, a pointed dome built up of overhanging (corbeled) blocks of conglomerate masonry cut and polished, often with an alley or approach and a great door. The rich or noble of the Bronze Age were buried in these sometimes enormous, perfectly proportioned vaults though they were built in the Shaft Grave Period as well, perhaps first in Messenia in the 16th century and then in Greece by the middle of the 15th century. The tholos tomb has three parts: a narrow entranceway, or dromos, often lined with fieldstones and later with cut stones; a deep doorway, or stomion, covered over with one to three lintel blocks; and a circular chamber with a high vaulted or corbeled roof, the thalamos. Most tholos tombs have collapsed, often when the lintel cracked and gave way, and their contents have largely been looted
Beijing: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Pei-ching, Peking
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The modern capital of China. More than 2,000 years ago, a site just outside present-day Peking was already an important military and trading center for the northeastern frontier of China. The Shang civilization reached this area in the early part of their dynasty and a grave of c 14th century BC at Pinggu Liujiacun contained bronze ritual vessels and a bronze ax with a blade of forged meteoritic iron. There have been many early Zhou finds, notably at the cemetery site of Fangshan Liulihe. In 1267, during the Yüan (Mongol) dynasty (1206-1368), a new city built on the site (called Ta-tu) which became the administrative capital of China. During the reigns of the first two emperors of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Nanking was the capital, and the old Mongol capital was renamed Pei-p'ing (Northern Peace"); the third Ming emperor however restored it as the Imperial seat of the dynasty and gave it a new name Peking ("Northern Capital"). Peking has remained the capital of China except for a brief period (1928-49) when the Nationalist government again made Nanking the capital (then to Chungking during World War II)."
Black-and-red ware: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: black and red ware
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: Any Indian pottery with black rims and interior and red on the outside, due to firing in the inverted position, which was made beginning in the Iron Age. Characteristic forms include shallow dishes and deeper bowls. It first appeared on late sites of the Indus civilization and was a standard feature of the Banas culture. This ware has been found throughout much of the Indian peninsula with dates of the later 2nd and early 1st millennium BC. In the first millennium it became widespread in association with iron and megalithic monuments. In the Ganges Valley it post-dates ochre-colored pottery and generally precedes painted gray ware.
Borneo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The largest island of Southeast Asia, first mentioned in Ptolemy's Guide to Geography" of c 150 AD. Joined to mainland Southeast Asia during the low sea-level Pleistocene period archaeological sequences have been found in the Niah Caves of Sarawak and the Madai-Tingkayu region of Sabah. The Niah Great Cave sequence suggests the presence of a population of early Australoids from about 40 000 years ago and evidence from all sites indicate that the ancestors of present-day Borneans arrived around 3000 BC possibly from the Philippines. Though traces of Homo erectus from 2 million years ago were found on neighboring Java so far no evidence has been found of Homo erectus in Borneo. Roman trade beads and Indo-Javanese artifacts give evidence of a flourishing civilization dating to the 2nd or 3rd century BC. A Sanskrit inscription dated to c 400 AD is the earliest historical document on the island. Three rough foundation stones with an inscription recording a gift to a Brahman priest date from the early 5th century AD found at Kutai provide evidence of a Hindu kingdom. The first recorded European visitor was Franciscan friar Odoric of Pordenone who visited on his way from India to China in 1330."
Breasted, James Henry (1865-1935): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American Egyptologist, archaeologist, and historian who excavated Megiddo (Armageddon), established ancient Egyptian historical periods, and founded University of Chicago's Oriental Institute (1919). Breasted promoted research on ancient Egypt and the ancient civilizations of western Asia as well as compiled a record of every known Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription and published a translation of these in a five-volume work, Ancient Records of Egypt" (1906). He led expeditions to Egypt and the Sudan (1905-1907) and copied inscriptions from monuments that had been previously inaccessible or were perishing. The Oriental Institute is a renowned center for the study of the ancient cultures of southwest Asia and the Middle East. His other books included "History of Egypt" (1905) and "Ancient Times" (1916) and "Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt" (1912). His excavation at Megiddo uncovered a large riding stable thought to have been King Solomon's and one at Persepolis yielded some Achaemenid sculptures."
Bronze Age: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The second age of the Three Age System, beginning about 4000-3000 BC in the Mideast and about 2000-1500 BC in Europe. It followed the Stone Age and preceded the Iron Age and was defined by a shift from stone tools and weapons to the use of bronze. During this time civilization based on agriculture and urban life developed. Trading to obtain tin for making bronze led to the rapid diffusion of ideas and technological improvements. The Iron Age began about 1500 BC in the Mideast and 900 BC in Europe. Bronze artifacts were valued highly and became part of many hoards. In the Americas, true bronze was used in northern Argentina before 1000 AD and it spread to Peru and the Incas. Bronze was never as important in the New World as in the Old. The Bronze Age is often divided into three periods: Early Bronze Age (c 4000-2000 BC), Middle Bronze Age (c 2000-1600 BC), and Late Bronze Age (c 1600-1200 BC) but he chronological limits and the terminology vary from region to region.
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.
calendar: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: calendrics
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A cyclical system of measuring the passage of time. The day is the fundamental unit of computation in any calendar. Most ancient civilizations (and perhaps some non-literate prehistoric societies) developed calendrical systems to mark the passage of time and various methods have been employed by different peoples. Where these were both carefully calculated and written down, as in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica, they are of considerable assistance to archaeologists for dating purposes. In the Americas, the origins of calendrics are still obscure, but evidence from Monte Albán suggests that the 52-year Calendar Round was known by the 6th century BC. The Long Count system was in use by c 1st century BC if not before. Ancient Near Eastern calendars varied from city to city and from period to period. In most cities the year started in the spring and was divided into 12 or 13 months. In some places the months were of fixed length; in others they were lunar months starting at the first sighting of the crescent of the new moon. As there are more than 12 lunar months in a solar year additional, or intercalary, months were included so that every third year contained 13 months. The earliest Egyptian calendars were based on lunar observations combined with the annual cycle of the Nile inundation, measured with nilometers. On this basis, the Egyptians divided the year into 12 months and three seasons: akhet (inundation), peret (spring/ crops), and shemu (harvest). The Egyptians had 30-day months and 5 intercalary days in their solar or civil calendar. For agricultural purposes and for determining religious festivals, they used a different calendar based on observations of Sirius, the dog star. The calendar in use in ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant was lunar, based on 12 months of 30 days each. This produced a year of only 354 days, about 11-1/4 days short of the true solar year; the necessary correction was made by the addition of seven months over a period of 19 years. This type of calendar is still used in both Judaism and Islam for religious purposes, though many countries now also employ the Gregorian solar calendar for secular purposes. The origin of the calendric system in general use today -- the Gregorian calendar -- can be traced back to the Roman republican calendar, which is thought to have been introduced by the fifth king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus (616-579 BC). This calendar was likely derived from an earlier Roman calendar -- a lunar system of 10 months -- that was supposedly devised about 738 BC by Romulus, the founder of Rome. In the year 46 BC, Julius Caesar corrected the calendar by having a year of 445 days (known as the ultimus annus confusionis' or 'the last year of the muddled reckoning'). He then adapted the Egyptian solar calendar for Roman use, inserting extra days in the shorter months to bring the total up to 365, with the addition of a single day between the 23rd and 24th February in leap years. This calendar, known as the Julian Calendar, remained in use until the time of Gregory XIII in 1582, who made a further correction (of eleven days) and instituted the calendar which is in general use today. Very useful to Mesoamerican archaeologists is the Maya Long Count or Initial Series, which was a means of recording absolute time. Its starting date of 3113 BC (using the Goodman-Thompson-Martinex correlation) marks some mythical event in Maya history and itself stands at the beginning of a cycle 13 Baktuns long. A Baktun at 144,000 days in the largest unit of time in the calendar and is further divided into smaller units: the Katun (7200 days); the Tun (360 days); the Uninal (20 days) and the Kin (a single days). Thus Long Count dates are expressed in terms of these units in a five place notation. Therefore the date 9.18.0.0.0. indicates the passage of 9 x 144,000 plus 18 x 7200 days since the initial date of 3113 BC. In cultural contexts, however, the dates are inscribed as a series of hieroglyphs which incorporate numeration via bars (units of five) and dots (units of one). Short count dating replaced the Long Count after 900 AD and the Katun replaced the Baktun as the largest unit. It is less precise, however.
Cambodia: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kampuchea
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Neolithic peoples inhabited present-day Cambodia during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. Stone tools have been found in terraces of the Mekong River in possible association with tektites from a shower that fell c 600,000 to 700,000 years ago. In western Cambodia there is an important Hoabinhian sequence from the cave of Laang Spean dating to 4300 BC. A major Neolithic mound site at Somrong Sen yielded elaborate assemblage which seems to predate 100 BC. Khmer civilization developed over several distinct periods, starting with the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms of Funan and Chenla in the 1st century AD, which extended into the 8th century.
carnelian: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: cornelian
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A reddish brown semiprecious stone used for beads, seal stones, and jewelry in antiquity. The Indus Valley civilization, Greeks, and Romans valued the stone. It is a translucent variety of the silica mineral chalcedony. Carnelian is usually found in volcanic rocks, such as the Deccan Traps of western India. Engraved cornelians in rings and signets have offered information about manners and customs of ancient Greeks and Romans.
catastrophe theory: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: catastrophism
CATEGORY: term; related field
DEFINITION: A mathematical theory and branch of geometry which demonstrates ways in which a system can undergo sudden large changes as one or more of the variables that control it are continuously changed. I.e., the theory explains change through a succession of sudden catastrophes. A small change in one variable can produce a sudden discontinuity in another. Archaeologists use the theory to show how sudden changes can stem from comparatively small variations. It has been used to explain the dramatic change in settlement patterns and the collapse of Maya and Mycenaean civilizations by comparatively small changes without there being large causes such as invasions or natural disaster.
Chanhu-Daro: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Chanhudaro, Chanhu-daro
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A city of the Harappan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC that is located in the Indus Valley south of Mohenjo-Daro in modern Pakistan. First excavated in the 1930s, it was characterized by a gridiron street plan and drainage system of typical Harappan towns. Evidence was found for the processes of sawing, flaking, grinding, and boring of stone beads. Occasional copper or bronze weapons of foreign" type are found in late contexts at Chanhu-daro. Excavation also showed that like Mohenjo-Daro Chanhu-Daro had been inundated by floods: it was twice destroyed and subsequently rebuilt on a different plan. After the end of the Indus Valley civilization it was reoccupied by the Jhukar culture."
Chicanel: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A phase of the Lowland Maya Pre-Classic, the Late Formative culture of Petén, dating from 300 BC to 150 AD. It was characterized by architectural and ceramic traits which convey the rise of the Classic Maya civilization: temple-pyramids, corbelled arches, and painted murals. Their sites are quite uniform and there was a variety of ceramic forms. Chicanel pottery includes dishes with wide, grooved rims, bowls, and vessels resembling ice buckets. Figurines are absent. Temple platforms (e.g. Uaxactún) were built by facing a cemented-rubble core with thick layers of plaster. At Tikal, a huge Maya ceremonial center, the Acropolis was begun in Chicanel times, and white-stuccoed platforms and stairways with polychromed masks were much like Uaxactún. There is also a huge site, El Mirador, in the northern part of Petén. The El Mirador construction dwarfs even that of Tikal, although El Mirador only flourished through the Chicanel phase. Chicanel-like civilization is also known in Yucatán, where some temple pyramids of enormous size are datable to the Late Formative. Another important site is the cave of Loltún in Yucatán.
Childe, Vere Gordon (1892-1957): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Australian-born British historian whose study of European prehistory in the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC brought his development of the diffusionist theory which was to explain the relationship between Europe and the Middle East. Childe introduced the concept of the archaeological culture. The Diffusionist view interpreted all major developments in prehistoric Europe in terms of the spread of either people or ideas from the Near East. Childe was professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Edinburgh and then director of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. His many publications include The Dawn of European Civilization (1925; 6th ed., 1957), The Danube in Prehistory (1929), The Bronze Age (1930), Man Makes Himself (1936), What Happened in History (1942), and Society and Knowledge (1956).
Chimú: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: South American Indians who created the largest and most important political system in Peru before the Inca, and who developed large-scale irrigation systems. The distinctive pottery of the Chimú aids in dating Andean civilization in the late periods along the north coast of Peru. The black pottery had molded reliefs with some vessels in the shape of people, animals, houses, and everyday items. The stirrup-spout and spout-and-bridge vessels are the most common forms. There were also objects of silver and gold. The Chimú expanded by conquest and the state began to form, according to legend, as a political entity was the creation of Ñançen-pinco (reigned c 1370 AD), but archaeology shows that Chimú material culture developed out of the terminal Moche (Mochica) culture of the north coast from c 850/900 onwards. Chanchan was capital, a vast settlement of giant rectangular enclosures. In 1465-70, however, they were conquered by the Inca, who absorbed much of the culture, including their political organization, irrigation systems, and road engineering.
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."
chronology: CATEGORY: chronology; technique
DEFINITION: Any method used to order time and to place events in the sequence in which they occurred. A sequential ordering that places cultural entities in temporal, and often spatial, distribution. It involves the collection of dates or successive datings establishing the position in time of a series of phenomena such as the phases of a civilization or the events of the history of a state. A chronology is relative/floating when only the order of a succession of facts is known, but not their dates, and absolute when the opposite is true. For periods or areas for which no textual evidence is available, relative chronologies have to be established and these are mostly based on pottery sequences and typology. Relative chronology is also based on the application of the principles of stratigraphy and cross-dating. The discovery of inscribed monuments and calendars associated with dated astronomical observations contributed to the development of an Egyptian chronology and it has served as a framework -- through cross-dating -- for all other Near Eastern chronologies. Inscribed Egyptian objects found in Near Eastern contexts have allowed the latter to be dated. Absolute chronology is based on scientific methods such as radiocarbon dating, thermoluminescence dating, and archaeomagnetism. Dates are often calibrated with dendrochronological dates. For dates after 1500 BC, an absolute chronology is not likely to change by more than ten years.
classic, Classic, Classical: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Classical Age, Classic Period
CATEGORY: culture; chronology
DEFINITION: A general term referring to the period of time when a culture or civilization reaches its highest point of complexity and achievement. In a broader sense, the term often describes the whole period of Greek and Roman antiquity with the following breakdown: Early Classical Period 500-450 BC, High Classical Period 450-400 BC, and Late Classical 400-323 BC. Specifically, the term describes, in New World chronology, the period between the Formative (Pre-Classic) and the Post-Classic, which was characterized by the emergence of city-states. During the Classic stage, civilized life in pre-Columbian America reached its fullest flowering, with large temple centers, advanced art styles, writing, etc. It was originally coined for the Maya civilization, initially defined by the earliest and most recent Long Count dates found on Maya stelae, 300-900 AD. A division between Early and Late Classic was arbitrarily set at 600 AD, but since in some areas, e.g. Teothihuacan, great civilizations had already collapsed, some scholars regard this date as marking the end of the Classic Period. By extension, the word came to be used for other Mexican cultures with a similar level of excellence (Teotihuacán, Monte Albán, El Tajín). In these areas the cultural climax was roughly contemporary with that of the Maya, and the term Classic took on a chronological meaning as well. The full Maya artistic, architectural, and calendric-hieroglyphic traditions took place during the Early Classic. Tikal, Uaxactún, and Copán all attained their glory then. In the Late Classic, between 600-900 AD, ceremonial centers in the Maya Lowlands grew in number, as did the making of the inscribed, dated stelae and monuments. The breakdown of the Classic Period civilizations began with the destruction of the city of Teotihuacán in about 700 AD. Some date the Classic period to 300-900 AD.
classical: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Classic, Classical
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A general term referring to the period of time when a culture or civilization reaches its highest point of complexity and achievement. In a broader sense, the term often describes the whole period of Greek and Roman antiquity with the following breakdown: Early Classical period 500-450 BC, High Classical period 450-400 BC, and Late Classical 400-323 BC. Specifically, the term describes, in New World chronology, the period between the Formative (Pre-Classic) and the Post-Classic, which was characterized by the emergence of city-states. During the Classic stage, civilized life in pre-Columbian America reached its fullest flowering, with large temple centers, advanced art styles, writing, etc. It was originally coined for the Maya civilization, initially defined by the earliest and most Recent Long Count dates found on Maya stelae, 300-900 AD. A division between Early and Late Classic was arbitrarily set at 600 AD, but since in some areas, e.g. Teothihuacan, great civilizations had already collapsed, some scholars regard this date as marking the end of the Classic Period. By extension, the word came to be used for other Mexican cultures with a similar level of excellence (Teotihuacán, Monte Albán, El Tajín). In these areas the cultural climax was roughly contemporary with that of the Maya, and the term Classic took on a chronological meaning as well. The full Maya artistic, architectural, and calendric-hieroglyphic traditions took place during the Early Classic. Tikal, Uaxactún, and Copán all attained their glory then. In the Late Classic, between 600-900 AD, ceremonial centers in the Maya Lowlands grew in number, as did the making of the inscribed, dated stelae and monuments. The breakdown of the Classic Period civilizations began with the destruction of the city of Teotihuacán in about 700 AD. Some date the Classic period to 300-900 AD.
classical archaeology: CATEGORY: branch
DEFINITION: A field within historical archaeology specializing in the study of Old World Greek and Roman civilizations, their antecedents and contemporaries.
clay: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil particles of less than 0.005 millimeters in diameter or rock composed mainly of clay particles. There are ceramic clays, clay shales, mudstones, glacial clays, deep-sea clays, and soils -- which are plastic when wet and hard when dry. No other natural material has so wide an importance or such extended uses as does clay. The use of clay in potterymaking antedates recorded human history, and pottery remains provide a record of past civilizations. As building materials, bricks (baked and as adobe) have been used in construction since earliest time.
clay tablet: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The main writing material used by the scribes of early civilizations. Signs were impressed or inscribed on the soft clay, which was then dried in the sun. The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites wrote on tablets made from water-cleaned clay. A common form was a thin quadrilateral tile about five inches long which, while still wet, was inscribed by a stylus with cuneiform characters. By writing on the surface in small characters, a scribe could copy a substantial text on a single tablet. For longer texts, several tablets were used and then linked by numbers or catchwords. Book production on clay tablets probably continued for 2,000 years in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Either dried in the sun or baked in a kiln, clay tablets were almost indestructible. The latter process was used for texts of special value, legal codes, royal annals, and epics to ensure greater preservation. Buried for thousands of years in the mounds of forgotten cities, they have been removed intact or almost so in modern archaeological excavations. The number of clay tablets recovered is nearly half a million, but there are constantly new finds. The largest surviving category consists of private commercial documents and government archives. When the Aramaic language and alphabet arose in the 6th century BC, the clay tablet book declined because clay was less suited than papyrus to the Aramaic characters.
Copán: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A ruined ancient Mayan city, in extreme western Honduras near the Guatemalan border, one of the largest and most impressive sites of that civilization. Copán was an important Maya city during the Classic Period (c 300-900 AD), peaking in the 8th century with as many as 20,000 people. The site has stone temples, two large pyramids, several stairways and plazas, and a ball court for tlachtli. Most of these structures center on a raised platform called the Acropolis and are constructed in a locally available greenish volcanic tuff. Copán is particularly known for the ornate stone carving on the buildings and the portrait sculptures on its many stelae. The Hieroglyphic Stairway, which leads to one of the temples, is beautifully carved with 2500 hieroglyphics total on the risers of each of its 63 steps. During the Classic Period, there is evidence that astronomers in Copán calculated the most accurate solar calendar produced by the Maya up to that time. The site's ruins were discovered by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century and rediscovered by American traveler John Lloyd Stephens in 1839, who purchased" the site for $50. Since then much of the beautiful carving has deteriorated but the highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings of his colleague Frederick Catherwood still survive and are a great source of iconographic detail. Restoration work revealed much of Copán's political and dynastic history through the decipherment of hieroglyphic inscriptions on its monuments. A dynasty of at least 16 kings ruled Copán from about 426-822 AD; the Maya had completely abandoned the site by about 1200. Finds date from the Late Prehistoric period (c 300 BC-AD 250."
Copper Age: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Chalcolithic, Eneolithic
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: An intermediate period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Ages, characterized by the use of copper tools. According to the principles of the Three Age System, it should strictly mean the period when copper was the main material for man's basic tools and weapons. It is difficult to apply in this sense as copper at its first appearance was very scarce, and experimentation with alloying seems to have begun early on. The alternative names of Chalcolithic and Eneolithic imply the joint use of copper and stone. In many sequences, notably in Europe and Asia, there is a period between the Neolithic and Bronze Age, separated from each by breaks in the cultural development, within which copper was coming into use and Copper Age is the best term to use. In Asia, the age saw the origins of civilization, and in Europe the great folk movements of the beaker and corded ware cultures, and perhaps the introduction of the Indo-European languages. The period lasted for almost 1000 years in southeast Europe, from 3500 BC.
cotton: CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: A plant cultivated for its hairy flowering heads, from which come fibers widely used in textiles. The earliest cotton yet found comes from the site of Mehrgarh in Pakistan, where it was probably being cultivated before 4000 BC. The earliest records of cotton in the New World come from the Tehuacan Valley of central Mexico, c 4300 BC, and pre-ceramic villages on the Peruvian coast from 3300 BC. It was grown in northeast Mexico by c 2000, and was introduced into the southwestern United States in the 1st millennium BC. In the Old World, the first known occurrence is in the Indus Valley civilization where cotton was used for both string and textiles at Mohenjo-Daro by 2750 BC. The first record in African archaeology goes back only to the culture of Meroë in the fifth century BC. Actual cotton fabrics appeared at Mohenjodaro around 2500 BC.
Crete: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The fifth largest island in the Mediterranean, lying south of Greece, where the first flowering of the Greek Bronze Age culture took place (c 2600-2000 BC). There is no evidence that humans arrived on Crete before 6000-5000 BC. By 3000 BC, however, a Bronze Age culture -- the Minoan civilization, named after the legendary ruler Minos -- had developed. Strongly influenced by Eastern ideas, in its first centuries this culture produced circular vaulted (tholos-type) tombs and some fine stone-carved vases, but about 2000 BC it began to build palaces on the sites of Knossos, Phaestus, and Mallia. This was called the first palace period (Middle Minoan 2000-1700 BC) and second palace period (1700-1400 BC) during which the population greatly increased and large settlements were built. The Minoan civilization was centered at Knossos and reached its peak in the 16th century BC, trading widely in the eastern Mediterranean. It produced striking sculpture, fresco painting, pottery, and metalwork. By about 1500 BC Greek mainlanders from Mycenae began to influence Minoan affairs, but then Crete suffered a major earthquake (c 1450) that destroyed Knossos and other places. The Mycenaeans took power until the Iron Age (1200 BC). Eventually the Dorians moved in and gained power. Crete is the source of many myths, legends, and laws. The Romans came and by 67 BC had completed their conquest of the island.
culture: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: In a general sense, the whole way of life of man as a species. In a more specific usage, it is the learned behavior, social customs, ideas, and technology characteristic of a certain people or civilization at a particular time or over a period of time (such as Eskimo culture). In this sense, a culture is a group of people whose total activities define what they represent and are transmitted to others in the group by social (mainly linguistic) -- as opposed to genetic -- means. Culture includes the production of ideas, artifacts, and institutions. In a more restricted sense (as in the term 'blade culture') culture signifies the artifacts or tool- and implement-making tradition of a people or a stage of development. Similar or related assemblages found in several sites within a defined area during the same time period, considered to represent the activities of one specific group of people is a culture. Cultures are often named for a particular site or an artifact. The word 'culture' in archaeology means a collection of archaeologically observable data; it is defined as the regularly occurring assemblage of associated artifacts and practices, such as pottery, house-types, metalwork, and burial rites, and regarded in this sense as the physical expression of a particular social group. This usage is especially associated with Gordon Childe, who popularized this concept as a means of analyzing prehistoric material. Thus the Bandkeramik culture of Neolithic Europe is an hypothesized social group characterized by its use of a particular type of pottery, houses, etc. The term, in reference to the specific elements of material culture, is most often used in the Old World.
cylinder seal: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A cylinder engraved with a design, scene, and/or inscription which was impressed onto the plastic clay when the cylinder seal was rolled over a clay tablet. This was the standard seal form of the Mesopotamian civilization, starting in the Uruk period. The incised stone cylinder was rolled over a soft surface so that the design appeared in relief. These seals were used to mark property and to legalize documents. Dating is based on changes in the design carved on the seal as well as the seal's size and proportion.
Dabar Kot: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large tell site in the Loralai Valley in north Baluchistan, Pakistan. It was a trading post of the Indus civilization, probably occupied first from the 5th millennium BC; later occupied by other cultures. The later levels have produced material of Harappan type associated with local artifacts such as figurines of Zhob type.
Dalmatia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Roman province on the east coast of the Adriatic, roughly corresponding to modern Yugoslavia. The Roman expansion began c mid-2nd century BC and ended around the 9th century AD when it became the province of Illyricum. The fall of the Dalmatian capital, Delminium, in 155 brought Roman civilization to the country. On the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Dalmatia fell under the power of Odoacer in 481 and later under that of Theodoric. It was a battlefield during the wars between the Goths and the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and valuable to Rome for its mineral deposits, land routes and harbors, and legendary soldiers. Illyricum was soon subdivided into two provinces, known by the Flavian period as Dalmatia and Pannonia. The name Dalmatia probably comes from the name of an Illyrian tribe, the Delmata, an Indo-European people who overran the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula beginning about 1000 BC.
diffusion: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: cultural diffusion; diffusionism; diffusionist approach; diffusionist
CATEGORY: term; technique
DEFINITION: The process whereby cultural traits, idea, or objects are spread or transmitted from one culture or society to another. It may be carried by folk movement, war, or trade, or imitation. Diffusion has played a major part in human development by spreading ideas and techniques more rapidly than they could have spread had they been independently invented. Primary diffusion occurs when people migrate and take their habits with them. When ideas or customs, but not the people who have them, move, it is secondary diffusion. The spread of agriculture in North America was secondary diffusion. The burden of proof is on the diffusionist to show that the trait is the same in the two areas, that communication between the two was possible, and that there are no difficulties in the relative dates. In a great number of cases these criteria can be met and diffusion is an important explanatory concept in culture history. The theory popularized by V.G. Childe, who said that all the attributes of civilization from architecture to metalworking had diffused from the Near East to Europe.
Dilmun: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tilmun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A region and island situated in the Gulf, probably Bahrain, the western shore of the Gulf and the island of Failaka in Kuwait, that was an important trading center during the 3rd millennium BC. The name appeared in Mesopotamian texts of the Early Dynastic, Akkadian, and Ur III periods; the epic hero Gilgamesh visited Dilmun in his search for immortality. The name Dilmun appears in economic documents with which the cities of Magan and Meluhha traded. From the Mesopotamian documents it seems that Dilmun served mainly as an entrepot for trade between the Indus Valley civilization and Mesopotamia, but it is also recorded as exporting dates and pearls of its own.
divination: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The practice of foretelling the future by various natural, psychological, and other techniques. It is found in all civilizations -- both ancient and modern, primitive and sophisticated -- and in all areas. In the Western world, the primary form is the use of horoscopic astrology or horoscopes. There is no scientific evidence that divination indeed foretells the future.
Dorians: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Peoples who invaded southern Greece from the north around the end of the 2nd millennium BC (1100) after the decline of the Mycenaeans. Some speculate that the Dorians were responsible for the Mycenaeans' overthrow. It has proved difficult to recognize their products in the archaeological record, and therefore it hard to discover their origins. In classical times the important Dorian dialect was spoken through much of the Peloponnese, the southern Aegean islands, and the southwest coast of Asia Minor. They also introduced the use of iron for swords. The invading Dorians had a relatively low cultural level, however, and after sweeping away the last of the declining Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations, they the region into a dark age out of which the Greek city-states did not emerge until almost three centuries later.
Dzibilchaltún: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large Maya ceremonial site in northwest Yucatan Peninsula, one of the largest Mayan cities ever built, covering 50 square miles and having a maximum population of over 50,000 around 1000 AD. Its occupation was continuous from 500 BC to the late Classic and Early Post-Classic, from 600-1000 AD, but the population dropped to less than 10% of its former size form 1000-1200 AD. Its earliest occupation is denoted by Mamon ceramics and Chicanel structures. The site centers around the Cenote Xlacah, with major plazas, the Temple of Seven Dolls, pyramids, platforms, and numerous causeways (sache) converge in the middle of the site. It may have been the capital of the Maya civilization.
Early Intermediate period: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A period of development of distinctive regional cultures in the central Andes of South America, c 1-600 AD (also said to be c 300-600 AD). The period was characterized by nationalism, full population, first large-scale irrigation works in coastal valleys, interregional warfare, construction of forts, craft specialization, social class distinctions, rise of first great Peruvian cities. Two of the better-known cultures are the Moche and Nasca civilizations. The Middle Horizon emerged from these expansions.
Early Khartoum: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A base camp site within modern Khartoum which provided the first clear picture of the so-called 'Aquatic Civilization'. The site had traces of sun-dried daub suggesting the presence of temporary structures. Fishing done with bone-headed harpoons was the economic basis of the settlement. Other artifacts include chipped and ground stone and pottery with 'wavy-line' decoration. Dates of 6th or 5th millennium BC seems probable; similar harpoons at Tagra, to the south, are dated to c 6300 BC.
Egyptology: CATEGORY: branch
DEFINITION: A branch of archaeology specializing in the investigation of ancient Egyptian civilization, especially the study of pharaonic Egypt (c 4500 BC-641 AD) and its relics. Some scholars date the beginning of the discipline September 1822, when Jean-François Champollion wrote his Lettre a Dacier relative a l'alphabet des hierglyphes phonetiques" in which he demonstrated that he had deciphered the hieroglyphic script. Others say Egyptology began when the scholars accompanying Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt (1798-1801) published the "Description de l'Égypte" (1809-28) which made large quantities of source material about ancient Egypt available to scholars."
El Tajín: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tajín
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The major ceremonial site of the classic Veracruz civilization on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The first construction goes back to 100 BC and building was continuous until c AD 1200 when the site was burned and abandoned. The principal structure is The Pyramid of Niches with 365 square niches built into the sides, corresponding to the 365 heads on the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan. There are several ball-courts and a series of carved reliefs depicting mythological and ritual themes in which ball-players have an important role. Another part of the site is Tahin Chico, containing chambered buildings on low substructures. The people of El Tajín maintained trade contacts with Teotihuacan and the Maya states. The art style of the site was subject to many influences including Mayan, Izapan, and Olmec, but Teotihuacan influence dominates the early period. The artifact most commonly associated with Classic Veracruz culture is the hollow, clay 'smiling face' figurine. El Tajin's final destruction was probably at the hands of the Chichimecs.
Elam: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Elamite
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: An ancient kingdom of southwest Iran with its capital at Susa and other centers at Anshan and Dur-Untash. This broad valley of the Karkeh and Karun rivers was geographically an extension of the southern plain of Mesopotamia. Early on, it adopted writing and devised its own pictographic script (proto-Elamite) to suit its language; later it used Akkadian cuneiform. Politically the two regions were usually bitterly opposed and the Elamites overthrew the 3rd dynasty of Ur shortly before 2000 BC and raided as far as Babylon in the later 13th century BC. The Golden Age of Elamite civilization was c 1300-1100 BC, reaching its peak under Untash-Gal (c 1265-1245 BC), the builder of Choga Zambil. Raids into Mesopotamia brought the downfall of Kassite Dynasty in 1157 BC. The period was also remarkable for glass technology and bronze casting (cire perdue). Elam was absorbed into the Achaemenid empire in the 6th century BC, after falling to the Assyrians when Ashurbanipal sacked the city of Susa. Little is known about the Elamite language, which is not related to any known tongue and still not fully deciphered.
Ele Bor: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A rock shelter site which was first occupied in the Middle Stone Age. There was a backed-microlith industry used by them and the following group of the Aquatic Civilization. Domestic sheep/goats and camel were present in small numbers from about the 3rd millennium BC, at which time pottery also came into use. The climate at the time was somewhat moister than that of the present. With the subsequent drier climate, cereal use was abandoned, but both hunting and small-scale pastoralism continued into the present millennium.
Elliot Smith, Sir Grafton (1871-1937): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Australian-born anatomist who, with his student W.J. Perry, espoused a theory called hyper-diffusionism" which said that all civilizations if not all cultures (including the New World) originated from ancient Egypt. He was involved in the examination of the remains from Piltdown and it has been suggested that he may have been involved in the forgery."
emblem glyph: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Symbols standing for royal lineages and their domains in the Maya civilization; a Maya glyph identifying a place or polity. Each of the principal Maya cities had its own hieroglyph, which appears in inscriptions of all kinds. All such emblem glyphs share the same prefix, but the main element varies from one city to another. Many of these glyphs can now be linked to specific sites; others have still to be identified. They were first discovered in 1958.
Erlitou: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Erh-li-t'ou
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: Type site of the Erlitou phase in Henan province, north China. The Erlitou phase represents the earliest known stage of the Chinese Bronze Age of c early 2nd millennium BC. The earliest bronze ritual vessels yet known from China, along with bronze blades and fine jades were also found. Two palace compounds have been excavated. The Erlitou remains provide the fullest evidence now available for the emergence of the Shang civilization from its local forbears.
Etruscan: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The people who occupied north central Italy (ancient Etruria, modern Tuscany) in the 1st millennium BC. They can first be recognized in the 8th century BC, distinguished from their predecessors the Villanovans by the wealth and oriental appearance of their tombs. They developed a high level of civilization very quickly, with extensive trade contacts with Greece and Carthage, and across the Alpine passes to central Europe. Their cities were large and rich: Populonia, Vetulonia, Tarquinia, and Caere (Cerveteri) near the coast, and Veii, Clusium (Chiusi) and Perusia (Perugia) inland. Etruscan influence spread widely, through Rome itself down to Campania in the south, and north to the Po valley and the civilization reached its height in the 6th century BC. Conflict with the Celts in the north and Rome in the south led to conquest by the latter, beginning with Veii in 396 BC and completed early in the 2nd century BC. The Etruscans' own writings, in an alphabet borrowed from the Greeks, can be transliterated, but little of their non-Indo-European language can be translated. Etruscan tombs show their genius; the finest are mounds covering a burial vault, as in the cemeteries of Tarquinia and Cerveteri. The vaults may be elaborately frescoed with scenes from life, mythology, or the rites associated with death. Also remarkable is a tomb at Cerveteri, the walls of which are covered with stucco reliefs of everyday objects. There is a high preponderance of imports, especially metalwork and Athenian pottery. Typical products of the Etruscans are decorated bronze mirrors, bucchero pottery, and sophisticated filigree jewelry. The influence of the Etruscans on Roman civilization was enormous. Rome is indebted to the Etruscans not only for its early kings, such as the notorious Tarquin, but virtually for the total infrastructure of its civilization. Roman culture is essentially the continuation of Etruscan under another name and language. Among areas of continuity are religion (e.g. Etruscan haruspex and Roman augury), political and social organization, strategic arts, architecture, art, drama, theater and civil engineering (notably hydraulics, such as aqueducts and drainage systems). The origin of the Etruscans has been a subject of debate since antiquity. Herodotus, for example, argued that the Etruscans descended from a people who invaded Etruria from Anatolia before 800 BC and established themselves over the native Iron Age inhabitants of the region, whereas Dionysius of Halicarnassus believed that the Etruscans were of local Italian origin.
Evans, Sir Arthur (1851-1941): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A British scholar and archaeologist who contributed much to the study of Greek archaeology with his excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos. His first interest was in coins and hieroglyphic seals, and it was the latter which drew his attention to Crete. He began excavations at Knossos in 1899 at his own expense, and in the next 35 years laid bare not only this Bronze Age palace of the Minoans, but in effect their whole civilization. Careful cross-dating with Egypt allowed him to put dates to his sequence, making it a vitally important link in the dating of prehistoric Europe before the discovery of radiocarbon. Though he was unable to decipher the Minoans' three written scripts, his detailed study of them gave the necessary basis for later work, culminating in the reading of Linear B by Michael Ventris in 1952. He was largely responsible for demonstrating the existence of a pre-Mycenaean Aegean civilization, for naming it Minoan (after the legendary King Minos of Crete), and for revealing most of its characteristics. He was the son of Sir John Evans.
Fertile Crescent: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The region in the Middle East where the civilizations of the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin began. The term was invented by the American Orientalist James Henry Breasted in 1916. It applied to the crescent-shaped area of cultivable land between the highland zones and the West Asian desert, stretching from Egypt through the Levant to southern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia, and eastwards to the flanks of the Zagros Mountains. Conditions in this area were favorable for the early development of farming, and all the earliest farming communities were thought to lie within it. The Fertile Crescent in its wider extension corresponds exactly to the region described in the Hebrew traditions of Genesis; it also contains the ancient countries -- Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia -- from which the Greek and Roman civilizations evolved. The belief that the earliest culture known to mankind originated in the Fertile Crescent has been confirmed by radiocarbon dating since 1948. It is now known that incipient agriculture and village agglomerations there must be dated back to about 8000 BC, if not earlier, and that irrigation was used almost immediately.
feudalism: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: feudal system
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A hierarchical political and economic system of the Middle Ages in which land was granted in return for military or labor services and the peasantry was ruled by a class of landowners. Several of the great civilizations of the world have passed through a feudal period in the course of their history -- in many countries of Europe and in Japan. The origins of European feudalism were in the early Frankish kingdom of the 8th century; feudalism spread with Frankish conquests.
fort: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: fortress, fortification
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A fortified place or position prepared for defensive or protective purposes and usually surrounded by a ditch, rampart, and parapet. Forts were first built on hilltops, from late Neolithic to Roman times. Even farmhouses had earthworks of ditch, rampart, and wooden stockade built against raiding parties. At first, stockades were built on hilltops without massive earthworks. The origins of fortification in the Greek and Roman world were probably influenced by eastern Mediterranean civilizations and were in the major cities of the Greek Bronze Age. In ancient days, fortifications hindered the best attacking troops for months and even years.
Frankfort, Henri (1897-1954): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A Dutch-American archaeologist who completed a well-documented reconstruction of Early Dynastic Mesopotamian culture, established the relation between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and discovered much new information on both civilizations. A historian, he worked at Abydos, Amarna, Armant in Egypt and in Iraq as head of the University of Chicago's Diyala project. He published important works on pottery and cylinder seals as well as a study of kingship, religious attitudes, and art in western Asia and Egypt.
funerary monument: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: In many cultures and civilizations the tomb was superseded by, or coexisted with, monuments or memorials to the dead. This foreshadowed a general revival of the Greek practice of erecting funerary monuments, rather than tombs, during the 16th century.
Gandhara: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Gandhara grave culture complex
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A culture of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC in the valleys of northwestern Pakistan -- and the Achaemenid (Persian) satrapy of this name. This culture was important in passing Persian ideas on to the civilizations of the Ganges valley. It also introduced Hellenistic art styles to India. Western influence is also apparent in the grid town planning found at the Gandharan cities of Charsada and Taxila. Characteristic burials are in tombs consisting of two small chambers, one on top of the other; the lower chamber contained both the burial (inhumed or cremated) and the grave goods, while the upper chamber was empty. The population, which bred livestock and carried out agriculture, were accomplished metalworkers, producing tools, weapons, and ornaments of copper, bronze, gold, silver, and iron. The pottery within the grave goods was mostly a red or gray plain burnished type.
geometric: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Geometric
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A style of decoration with repeated geometric motifs -- circles, squares, triangles, lozenges, and running linear patterns -- flourishing in Greece c 900-700 BC. The term is also applied to such design on wall painting, for textiles. The style derived from the triangular, circular, meander, zigzags, rhomboids, and other linear decoration on Greek pottery of this period. In classical Greek art history, the term is used specifically of the early phases of vase-painting as, for example, Protogeometric (c 1050-900 BC), Geometric (c 900-750 BC), and Late Geometric (c 750-700 BC). When the term is applied to the period of Greek history in which the decoration flourished, it is often extended to 1100-700 BC, after the fall of Mycenaean civilization and marking transition from Bronze to Iron Age. The first phase, called Protogeometric (1100-900) corresponds to the dark ages" when Greek culture was inward looking and very poor. Its final phase Late Geometric (770-700) coincided with resumption of relations with Asian cultures and beginning of colonization of the northern southern and western shores of Mediterranean."
Gerzean: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Nagada II
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A late predynastic culture of Upper Egypt, successor of the Amratian, c 4000-3500 BC. It is named after the site of El Gerza or Gerzeh in the Fayum and is well represented at the cemetery of Naqada in Upper Egypt; another important site is Hierakonpolis. Flintwork included ripple-flaked knives and their was metalworking as copper was coming into use for axes, daggers, etc. Faience was introduced and ground stone vessels were popular and very finely worked. Typical pottery is a light-colored fabric in shapes imitating the stone vessels, decorated with red painted designs. These include imitations of stone markings, geometrical patterns and designs taken from nature. Ships were common, especially the papyrus-bundle craft used on the Nile. There is much evidence of contacts with southwestern Asia (in wavy-ledged handles on the jars, in cylinder seals, representations of mythical animals, the use of mudbrick in architecture, and possibly writing). These seem to have led to the advances which brought Egypt to the level of unified civilization at the start of the Dynastic period c 3200 BC.
Glozel: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Allier, France, with an assemblage of pottery, clay tablets, bricks, terra-cottas, and glass that has been claimed as evidence of civilization in France prior to Greek and Roman contact. These items have been dismissed as forgeries but some items tested by thermoluminescence indicate a date range of 700 BC-100 AD. The discrepancy between the archaeological and the scientific evidence has yet to be resolved.
Harappa: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: One of the twin capitals of the Indus Civilization, located in Pakistan and northwest India, c 2300-1750 BC. Excavation has revealed a pre-Indus occupation related to that of Kot Diji and perhaps the Zhob Valley. There was a brick-walled town with pre-Harappan material, rare Indus inhumation cemetery, granaries, and cemetery of dismembered burials with non-Indus pottery, dating from reoccupation, possibly by Aryans. Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa are remarkable for their town planning and public and private systems of hygiene and sanitation. Unfortunately the site was largely destroyed during the last century by the extraction of bricks for ballast for the Lahore-Multan railway, then under construction.
Helladic: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Helladic culture
CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: The Bronze Age culture of central and southern mainland Greece, with three main divisions: Early (c 3000-2000 BC), Middle (c 2000-1550 BC), and Late (c 1550-1050 BC). It is equivalent to Cycladic in the Cyclades and Minoan in Crete; Late Helladic is equated with the period of the Mycenaean civilization. Each of the three periods is subdivided into three phases designated by Roman numerals.
Hellenistic period: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Hellenistic and Roman period; hellenistic
CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: Period of widest Greek influence, the era between the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) and the rise of the Roman Empire (27/30 BC), when a single, uniform civilization, based on Greek traditions, prevailed all over the ancient world, from India, in the east, to Spain, in the west. During these three centuries, Greek culture crossed many political frontiers and spread through many cities founded at that time, especially the new capitals of Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamum. A common civilization became established throughout the known world for the first time, one which integrated the cultural heritage of each region and subsequently left a deep impression on the institutions, thought, religions, and art of the Roman, Parthian, and Kushan empires. Hellenistic cultural influence continued to be a powerful force in the Roman and Parthian empires during the early centuries AD. A common form of the Greek language, Koine [Greek: 'common'] developed, which was largely indebted to Attic Greek. The term 'hellenistic art' is applied to the post-classical material outside this geographic area, such as in Etruria or southern Italy.
Iblis, Tal-i: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A prehistoric mound of Kirman, Iran, occupied off and on in the 5th through 1st millennia BC. The earliest occupation, dating to the early 5th millennium BC (Tal-i Iblis O), is characterized by coarse-tempered red burnished ware made into a variety of simple forms. In the next phase, dated to the late 5th millennium BC (Tal-i Iblis I), small quantities of painted ware, in maroon or black on a buff ground, appear in a settlement of mud-brick houses, each consisting of a central area of storerooms, surrounded by living rooms with red plaster floors. This layer also produced abundant evidence of copper-working and smelting. The finds suggest that the communities of Iran were at least as developed as those of Mesopotamia, if not more so, in the practice of metallurgy. The exploitation of copper and steatite and trade in these commodities to the civilizations of southern Mesopotamia and Susiana in the 4th and early 3rd millennia BC allowed Tal-i Iblis to grow to urban or proto-urban status. Clay tablets inscribed in the Proto-Elamite script demonstrate the connections that linked Iran to western countries by the early 3rd millennium BC.
Ilopango: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a catastrophic volcanic eruption in south-central El Salvador in the late Pre-Classic Period, c 260 AD. At least two volcanic events occurred close together and the effects devastated a large area, forcing the local populations of early Maya to migrate north and east into the lowlands of central Guatemala and Belize. This sudden influx of migrants may have given rise to the improved agricultural methods which mark the beginning of the Classic Maya civilization. Archaeological evidence at Barton Ramie (and at Altar De Sacrificios) indicates a period of noticeable environmental and demographic change at that time.
Inamgaon: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Pune of west-central India which depicts the 2nd millennium BC Malwa and Jorwe cultures of the northern Deccan. The Malwa phase had large rectangular, wattle-and-daub structures. By late Jorwe times, the structures were mainly small round wattle-and-daub huts. The area provides one of the clearest pictures of the region after the demise of the Indus civilization.
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.
Indianization: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Hinduization
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The transplantation by peaceful means of the Indian civilization in Europe and other parts of Asia; the process of making Indian in character or composition, as by the replacement of foreigners by native-born Indians in positions of authority. The expansion of the Indian culture was founded upon their concept of royalty, and characterized by Hindu or Buddhist cults, mythology and cosmology, and use of the Sanskrit language. The process began around the beginning of the Christian era, lasted for several centuries and created so-called Indianized kingdoms or civilizations which declined in the 13th or 14th century.
Ishango: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Stone Age midden on the shore of Lake Edward in eastern Zaire, dated to 20,000 BP. It has a long sequence of occupation and represents the southernmost known manifestation of the so-called African Aquatic Civilization. A crude stone industry with rare backed microliths was accompanied by bone harpoon heads. There was no pottery.
Jennings, J.D. (1909-?): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American anthropologist and archaeologist who has researched the archaic civilizations, or desert cultures" of the semiarid western areas of North America of the past 10 000 years. Work at Danger Cave Utah dating to c 9000 BC confirmed survival of earliest ways of life in American West until historic times."
Jhukar: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A site in Sindh, Pakistan, lending its name to a Late Harappan culture of Chalcolithic times (2nd millennium BC). The culture, which succeeded the Indus Civilization on certain sites in Sindh (type site of Chanhu-daro; Amri) has material showing a mixture of elements from the Indus, Baluchistan, and the Middle East. There were compartmented seals, copper dress pins, and a shafthole ax. The pottery is that of the Mature Harappan. Certain copper or bronze weapons and tools are comparable to examples from Iran and Central Asia.
Judeirjo-daro: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A town of the Harappan Civilization in Kachi province, Pakistan, probably the third largest settlement of this civilization, after Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Surface investigation suggests that both pre-Harappan and mature Harappan phases are represented on the site.
Kalibangan: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in India near the extinct Ghaggar/Hakra River with Early and Mature Harappan settlements. A Chalcolithic settlement similar to Kot Diji and the site underlying the Indus city at Harappa has given radiocarbon dates of c 2750 BC. An intact plowed field has been discovered, indicating that the plow was already in use before the main Harappan period. About 2450 a small town of the Indus civilization was built over it, which flourished to c 2150 BC. In the Mature Harappan period, the site consisted of a citadel and a lower town, both defended, and laid out, in the normal Indus Valley grid pattern.
Kaminaljuyú: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large and important Maya site near Guatemala City that originally contained over 200 mounds, strongly influenced by Teotihuacán during the Early Classic. As the greatest of the early centers in the highland Maya zone, Kaminaljuyú has a history of occupation dating back to c 1800 BC, but it reached its first climax during the Miraflores phase in the centuries after 300 BC. Its earliest occupation during the Early to Mid-Pre-Classic has Olmec-influenced artifacts such as the 'squashed frog' motif, kaolin pottery, and pits reminiscent of those at Tlatilco. About 200 burial sites from the Late Formative Period, 300 BC-100 AD, have been uncovered, and there are carved stelae in the Izapa manner and a hieroglyphic script unlike that of the lowland Maya.. There are also courts for playing the ball game tlachtli. Because of the lack of stone suitable for construction, pyramids and other structures at Kaminaljuyú were built of adobe and later of other perishable materials. After a period of decline, the site was revived in c 400 when it became an outpost of the Teotihuacán civilization. Kaminaljuyú controlled the obsidian production along the Pacific. Its decline took place after the Late Classic Period c 600-900 AD. Evidence suggests that various Mexican dynasties ruled over the Maya population until the Spanish conquest.
Kausambi: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kaushambi
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in the Ganges Valley of northern India which was a great urban center in the early historical period. Its earliest wall, of mudbrick faced with baked brick 12 m high, was built about 500 BC. Within it is a Buddhist monastery the fifth century BC where, according to an inscription, the Buddha himself stayed for a time. Of the same period is a building interpreted as a palace, with walls of stone rubble. The site has provided important information about the origins and development of the Gangetic Iron Age urban civilization. The earliest levels contain pottery related to the Ochre Colored Pottery horizon and are dated to the mid-2nd millennium BC. The second level has black-and-red, red, gray, and black wares and iron objects also appear, in the second quarter of the 1st millennium BC. There was Northern Black Polished Ware in the third level of around 500 BC.
Khmer: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The ethnic name of a linguistic group inhabiting Cambodia, southern Vietnam, and parts of Thailand. Late in 6th century AD, they annexed the declining Funan Empire of south Cambodia and extended westwards. The Khmer were linguistically related to the Mon and at the height of their power ruled most of Thailand and southern Laos. The empire had its capital at Angkor in Kampuchea and it was destroyed by the Thais in about 1400 AD. Khmer was one of the most impressive civilizations of southeast Asia, known for spectacular and monumental religious architecture.
Kot Diji: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell site of the Indus Valley, east of Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan, which has given its name to one of a group of pre-Harappan cultures in the area (variant of Nal-Amri). Radiocarbon dates suggest early 3rd millennium BC for the settlement, which was eventually destroyed and replaced by a settlement of the Indus Civilization. The Kot-Dijian pottery was a thin pinkish ware decorated with horizontal black lines, perhaps related to that of the Zhob valley. Comparable wares have been found in pre-Indus levels at Harappa and Kalibangan in Punjab.
Kulli: CATEGORY: culture; ceramics
DEFINITION: An important Chalcolithic culture and pottery style of south Baluchistan. The pottery is mainly buff and wheelmade, painted in black with friezes of elongated humped bulls, cats, or goats and spiky trees between zones of geometric ornament. Clay figurines of women and bulls are found in this culture, as are copper tools and ornaments of lapis lzauli, bone and other materials. The culture is further distinguished from those of Amri-Nal in the same area by the practice of cremation burial; an important cemetery was excavated at Mehi. Mud-brick architecture and small tell sites are common to the two cultures. There are signs of Indus civilization influence on later Kulli material with carved stone vessels identical with examples from Early Dynastic Mesopotamia, dating to the early 3rd millennium BC.
Landa, Bishop Diego de (1524-1579): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Spanish Franciscan priest and bishop of Yucatán who is best known for his classic account of Mayan culture. His book Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan" is the primary resource for interpretation of Maya archaeology. Especially important was the calendar section recorded day and month names and rudimentary explanation of Katun. Landa was sympathetic to the Mayan people but he abhorred their human sacrifices. Landa in his religious zeal ordered all icons and Mayan books to be burned. At the same time he wrote his comprehensive work on Mayan culture his orders to destroy all icons and hieroglyphics obliterated the Mayan language forever helping to undermine and destroy the civilization he so vividly described. Yet his book which was not printed until 1864 provided a phonetic alphabet that made it possible to decipher about one-third of the Mayan hieroglyphs and many of the remainder have since been deciphered."
Late Horizon: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Upper Formative; Inca Period
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A division of time in central Andean chronology, 1450-1533 AD, which corresponds to the Inca Empire's expansion from Cuzco. It is the most recent and briefest period of a chronological construction of Peruvian archaeology. The early date marks the point at which territorial expansion was virtually complete; the late date marks the passing of control to the Spanish under Pizarro. Archaeologists have come to distinguish the various peoples and civilizations by descriptive terms -- the Late Preceramic, the Initial (or Lower Formative) Period, the Early Horizon, the Early Intermediate Period, the Middle Horizon, the Late Intermediate Period, and the Late Horizon.
Lathrap, Donald Ward (1927-1990): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American archaeologist who studied South and Central America and who proposed that the lowland Amazon regions supported complex societies and civilizations prior to those elsewhere on the continent. He published The Upper Amazon" in 1970."
Li Chi (1896-1979): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: [Li Ch'i]
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Chinese archaeologist responsible for establishing the historical authenticity of the semilegendary Shang dynasty of China (c 1766-1122 BC). He supervised numerous excavations at Anyang (An-yang), working to identify the features distinguishing the Shang civilization from previous Neolithic cultures. More than 300 tombs, including four important royal burial sites, were uncovered and carefully studied. Some 1,100 skeletons and oracle bones, unquestionably linked with the Shang period, were recovered. Li Chi created a typology of bronzes based on their shapes, of ceramic sherds, and bone hairpins. Following the Japanese invasion of China and the expulsion of the Chinese Nationalists from the mainland, many of Li's Anyang remains and notes were lost. After escaping to Taiwan, he established the first archaeology and anthropology department at a Chinese university (National University in Taipei). He published a number of books, including The Beginnings of Chinese Civilization" (1957). "
llama: CATEGORY: fauna
DEFINITION: South American member of the camel family, Camelidae, a domesticated animal exploited by the ancient Andean civilizations as a beast of burden and, to a lesser extent, for its meat and wool. It is smaller in size than a camel and lacking a hump. Its wild ancestor, the guanaco, is still found in the Andes. The center of domestication was probably the highlands of southern Peru, Bolivia, and north Chile, perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC. The first clear evidence of its domestication (dating to the Initial Period) comes from ceremonial burials in the Viru Valley and from remains at Kotosh. Able to carry loads of up to 60 kg over difficult terrain, the Ilama gained economic importance as the basic unit of transportation of goods in the Inca empire, and was also maintained purely as a form of wealth, with the state owning huge flocks. Sacrifice (sometimes in the hundreds) was quite common.
Longshan: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Lung Shan; Lung-shan; lungshanoid
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Collective name of the regional cultures of the Late Neolithic in northern China of the 3rd to mid-2nd millennia BC. The term refers to the culture of the Chengziyai type site, often distinguished as the Classic Longshan or Shandong Longshan, which may have survived to a time contemporary with the bronze-using Shang civilization. The Longshan period encompasses first metal use, warfare, compressed earth walled sites of Hangtu construction, abundant gray pottery, rectangular polished stone axes, and the delicate wheelturned black-burnished pottery of intricate shapes. A method of divination involving the heating of cattle bones and interpreting the cracks began here. In Honan, where its distribution overlaps that of the Yang Shao culture, Longshan is stratified above the former and below Shang material. Lungshanoid is another term used to describe these Neolithic cultures.
Lothal: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Harrapan town, one of the most important of the southern Indus Civilization sites, at the head of the Gulf of Cambay, northwestern India. Besides typical Indus structures like a walled citadel, granary, drainage system, and a grid street plan, it had a dock faced with baked brick. There were residential and craftworking (shell, bone, bead, copper, gold) areas. The site was important for its sea trade, as shown by the discovery of a Dilmun seal from the Persian Gulf. There were also contacts with the Chalcolithic cultures of the Deccan peninsula and the practice of rice cultivation which had been introduced from further east. There was much local non-Harappan pottery in the Mature Harappan levels. Radiocarbon dates place it in the later 3rd millennium BC (c 2400-2100 BC).
Lydia: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Lydians
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A small kingdom which appeared in western Anatolia (Turkey) in the 1st millennium BC known to the Assyrians as Luddu. Their land extended east from the Aegean Sea, occupying the Hermus and Cayster river valleys. By about the 7th century BC, Lydia was important in trade between the Aegean and the oriental civilizations. Its capital at Sardis became rich, exploiting the gold of the nearby Pactolus River; the Lydians are said to the originators of gold and silver coins. In the mid-7th century the kingdom was overrun by the Cimmerians, but reemerged powerfully. The kingdom was most powerful under Alyattes (c 619-560 BC), who extended his rule in Ionia. The legendary rich king Croesus (560-546 BC) was ruler when Lydia was finally overcome by the Achaemenids (c. 546-540). Sardis subsequently became the western capital of the Persian empire, linked to Susa by a royal road. The Lydians are known for two achievements in particular: mastery of fine stone masonry, witnessed in the Acropolis wall at Sardis and in the Pyramid Tomb and the Tomb of Gyges in the royal cemetery, and the invention of a true coin currency, which was adopted by both the Greeks and the Persians. The Lydians were a commercial people, who, according to Herodotus, had customs like the Greeks and were the first people to establish permanent retail shops. Sardis was captured by Alexander the Great in 334 BC and became a Greek city.
Müller, Sophus (1846-1934): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Danish prehistorian and paleontologist who succeeded Christian Jurgensen Thomsen as Director of the National Museum of Denmark in 1865. In the field, Müller improved the techniques of excavation, particularly in recognizing stratigraphic relationships. Müller developed new techniques of excavation and monument preservation and supported the principle of the influence of Mediterranean civilization on northern Europe. He built detailed typological sequences and cross-dated them by reference to the historical calendars of the Near Eastern civilizations. He was aware of the possibility of variation in culture among contemporary groups and suggested, for instance, that there were several contemporary versions of the Neolithic of northern Europe. During the late 19th century, he discovered the first of the Neolithic battle-ax cultures in Denmark.
Magna Graecia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A group of ancient Greek cities along the coast of southern Italy; a general term for the Greek cities of southern Italy and Sicily. An important center of the Greek civilization, it was the site of extensive trade and commerce and the seat of the Pythagorean and Eleatic systems of philosophy. Euboeans founded the first colonies, Pithecussae and Cumae, about 750 BC, and subsequently Spartans settled at Tarentum; Achaeans at Metapontum, Sybaris, and Croton; Locrians at Locri Epizephyrii; and Chalcidians at Rhegium (Reggio di Calabria). After the 5th century, attacks by neighboring Italic peoples, strife among cities, and malaria caused most of the cities to decline in importance.
Marib: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site in northern Yemen on the Wadi Dhana that is associated with Sabaean kingdom of the South Arabian civilization. It was the capital of the kingdom of Saba'. A dam was built across the wadi in the mid-1st millennium BC and used until the mid-1st millennium AD. The temple of Haram Bilqis (Awwam) still stands. The temple of Almaqah, also in Marib, had an unusual shape, that of an ellipse with a major axis about 345 feet long, with a strong wall about 28 feet high, built of fine limestone ashlars. A small temple, in front of which were eight standing pillars, comprises a gallery supported by pillars around a rectangular court; it served as a peristyle to the main temple, in the wall of which it was inserted
Marinatos, Spyridon Nikolaou (1901-1974): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Greek archaeologist who came up with the theory that the end of the Minoan civilization in the Aegean could have been caused by the volcano on the island of Thera in 1500 BC. He also discovered the buried Bronze Age port city at Akrotiri on Thera. Among the finds made at the site were the finest frescoes discovered in the Mediterranean region to that time, surpassing even those found at Knossos in Crete. He was the discoverer of the site of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) and the burial ground associated with the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). He wrote Crete and Mycenae" (1959)."
Marshall, Sir John (1876-1958) (DISPUTED d. 1959): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British archaeologist who worked in India as Director-General of Archaeological Survey in India and who was part of revealing India's long prehistory. He excavated at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro and at sites of the Indus Civilization. He discovered much about the Chalcolithic cultures preceding it. He was also interested in Alexander's campaign and in Graeco-Buddhist monuments at Sanchi, and Taxila.
Maya: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Classic Maya
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Very important culture of Mesoamerica, one of the major Classic civilizations, which occupied the peninsula of Yucatan and Belize, the lowland jungle south of it, and the highlands of Guatemala and western Honduras. The civilization developed from other pre-Classic cultures by about 200 BC and continued until being conquered by the Spaniards in 1541 AD. By c 200 BC, at sites like Tikal and Uaxactún, the first pyramids were being built. Population increase and the introduction of new ceramic and architectural forms are accompanied by an artistic transition from Olmec through Izapan to Mayan. The classic Maya civilization dates to c 292 AD, the earliest Long count date found on stele 29 at Tikal. The Early Classic period (200-600) was the golden age of the lowland culture and the great centers acted as foci for administration, religion, and the arts. Architecture, sculpture, and painting were highly developed; records were kept in hieroglyphic writing, and elaborate ceremonies were carried out in the temples on top of their pyramids. A class of astronomer-priests observed the sun, moon, and planets, and had evolved a calendrical system more accurate than the Julian calendar used in Christian Europe. In mathematics the priests used a vigesimal system with the concept of zero and with a positional notation. The Classic Maya culture is characterized by an immense investment of labor in construction of ceremonial architecture, the erection of stelae, and a growing differentiation between the elite and the peasant population. The Maya practiced swidden agriculture as well as intensive agriculture, terracing and raised fields, and arboriculture. Polychrome pottery is a hallmark of the Maya Lowland Classic culture. The Late Classic period (c 600-900 AD) shows development in sculpture and architecture -- and regional styles can be recognized. Northern Yucatan began to come into its own at sites like Chichén Itzá and Uxmal, where fine buildings in the Punc style were erected during the 7th-9th centuries. The later part of this period witnessed the end of civilization in the lowlands; the great centers were abandoned during the 9th and early 10th centuries. The Post-Classic period, c 900 to the Spanish conquest, had strong Mexican influence, particularly at Chichén Itzá where buildings were constructed in the Toltec style of central Mexico, and the art shows representations of Toltec warriors overpowering Maya chiefs. During the collapse in the southern Lowlands, centers in the northern Lowlands began to grow, c 800-1000 AD. The South's decline may have played a role in the North's prosperity. Sometime around 1200, the Itzá were driven from their capital, and Mayapán became the leading city of Yucatan. In about 1440-1450, Mayapán was overthrown and there followed a time of disunity and warfare which lasted until the Spaniards conquered Yucatan in 1541. The Maya kingdoms of highland Guatemala were subdued in 1525, but in the lowlands the descendants of the exiled Itzá held out until 1697. The collapse of Maya culture (in c 900) is a puzzling phenomenon, but its relative suddenness still remains without satisfactory explanation. There are no Long Count dates after 900, after which time lowland populations dwindled by as much as 90 percent. The term Maya also refers to a culture area and is typically divided into the lowland and highland Maya. Descendants of the Maya still occupy the region.
Maya calendar: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A method employed by the Maya of measuring the passage of time, comprised of two separate calendar systems: the Calendar Round, used for everyday purposes, and the Long Count, used for the reckoning of historical dates. Maya chronology consisted of three main elements: a 260-day sacred year (tzolkin) formed by the combination of 13 numbers (1 to 13) and 20 day names; a solar year (haab), divided into 18 months of 20 days numbered from 0 to 19, followed by a five-day unlucky period (Uayeb); and a series of cycles -- uinal (20 kins, or days), tun (360 days), katun (7,200 days), baktun (144,000 days), with the highest cycle being the alautun of 23,040,000,000 days. All Middle American civilizations used the two first counts, which permitted officials accurately to determine a date within a period defined as the least common multiple of 260 and 365: 18,980 days, or 52 years. The Classic Maya Long Count inscriptions enumerate the cycles that have elapsed since a zero date in 3114 BC. Thus, 9.6.0.0.0 a katun-ending date, means that nine baktuns and six katuns have elapsed from the zero date to the day 2 Ahau 13 Tzec (May 9, AD 751). To those Initial Series were added the Supplementary Series (information about the lunar month) and the Secondary Series, a calendar-correction formula that brought the conventional date in harmony with the true position of the day in the solar year.
Mehi: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell site of the Kulli culture in southern Baluchistan (Pakistan) with a settlement and cremation cemetery. Grave goods include copper tools, beads, and terra-cotta figurines of females, bulls, and birds. The tell also yielded Indus civilization material such as carved stone vases. A number of steatite bowls imported from Tepe Yahya around 2800 BC have been found.
Mehrgarh: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mehrgahr
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Important site of a series of settlements of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in Baluchistan, western Pakistan, important as the earliest farming site known in the area, perhaps dating from the 8th-6th millennia BC. The earliest phase was aceramic and the evidence at Mehrgarh provides a clear picture of an early agricultural settlement exhibiting domestic architecture and a variety of well-established crafts. The use of sea shells and of various semiprecious stones, including turquoise and lapis lazuli, indicates the existence of trade networks extending from the coast and perhaps also from Central Asia. Subsequent phases in the 5th, 4th, and 3rd millennia show a developing society, characterized by craft specialization (with specialist production of pottery figurines and beads of semi-precious stones) and extensive trade networks linking Baluchistan with eastern Iran and southern Turkmenistan. Although no Harappan Civilization phase is represented here, the culture of Mehrgarh provides a plausible local antecedent for this civilization. It was probably occupied until the beginning of the Mature Harappan in the 3rd millennium BC.
Meluhha: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The ancient Akkadian name for the Indus region. It was a land which traded with the city-states of Sumer, to its west, and appeared in Mesopotamian texts of the Akkadian and Ur III periods. The land was described as a source of gold and is usually identified as the area of the Harappan civilization in western India and Pakistan during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. In the 1st millennium BC, Meluhha refers to Nubia, to the south of Egypt. Literary references to Meluhhan trade date from the Akkadian, Ur III, and Isin- Larsa Periods (i.e., c. 2350-1800 BC), but as texts and archaeological data indicate, the trade probably started in the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2600 BC). During the Akkadian period, Meluhhan vessels sailed directly to Mesopotamian ports, but by the Isin-Larsa Period, Dilmun (modern Bahrain) was the entrepôt for Meluhhan and Mesopotamian traders. By the subsequent Old Babylonian period, trade between the two cultures evidently had ceased entirely.
Mesoamerica: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A geographical and cultural area from central Honduras and northwest Costa Rica north through Mexico and including Tamaulipas and Sinaloa -- roughly between central Mexico and Costa Rica -- the location of several notable pre-Columbian civilizations. It is the area in Central America in which various Classic and Postclassic civilizations developed, including the Olmec, Teotihuacán, Aztec, and Maya. The culture area was originally defined on the basis of shared traits such as the developments of agriculture, urbanization, and elaborate ceremonial practice. An immense environmental diversity is enclosed within the area. In recent years the term has been applied to the geographic area alone, without being limited by the defining traits named above. The culture began with village life more than 4000 years ago.
Mesopotamia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Term meaning land between the (two) rivers" the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in western Asia (modern Iraq) which encompasses various ancient kingdoms. This land was the home of the world's earliest civilization that of the Sumerians and of the later Babylonian Akkadian and Assyrian civilizations. The chronology of the prehistoric periods is based on radiocarbon dates; the historical periods' chronology is based on a combination of documentary sources and calendrical information. The area was the focus of the development of complex societies until the collapse of Mesopotamia at the end of the 1st millennium BC. The geography of the area allowed the development of husbandry agriculture and permanent settlements. Trade with other regions also flourished irrigation techniques were created as well as pottery and other crafts building methods based on clay bricks were developed and elaborate religious cults evolved. The birth of the city took place in the 4th millennium BC and the invention of writing occurred about 3000 BC -- both in Sumer. Excavations of Sumerian cities (Eridu Kish Uruk Isin Lagash Ur) have yielded thousands of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing. Sargon the king of Akkad fought wars of conquest from the Mediterranean to the Zagros and ruled over history's first empire. The Akkadians were a Semitic people and their Akkadian language became the common vocabulary. The Akkadian rule only about two centuries. After that Ur (c 2112-2004 BC) the parallel dynasties of Isin and Larsa (to c 1763 BC) and then Babylon were the powers. The outstanding ruler of Babylon was Hammurabi (c 1792-1750 BC) who is best known for the code of laws he had inscribed on a great stela. From about 1600-1450 BC Babylonian culture declined as the Hurrians and the Kassites migrated into Mesopotamia and established themselves as rulers. Some time after 1500 BC the Mitanni kingdom extended its rule over much of northern Mesopotamia. The language of the kingdom was Hurrian but its rulers may have been of Aryan origin. Toward the end of the 15th century BC the city of Ashur in northern Mesopotamia a region that came to be known as Assyria began its rise. By 1350 BC the Assyrian empire was well-established and its kings conquered large areas from the Mitanni kingdom the Kassites and the Hittites. Another Babylonian dynasty known as the 2nd dynasty of Isin revived the greatness of the Old Empire under Nebuchadrezzar I (c 1119-1098). Assyria reached new heights of power under Tiglath-pileser I (c 1115-1077) and Ashurnasirpal II (883-859). Between 746-727 BC the Neo-Assyrian empire formed and subdued the Aramaeans who had settled much of Babylonia and then conquered Urartu Syria Israel and other areas. The empire reached its after conquering Egypt in 671 and then the reign of Ashurbanipal (668-627) but its rapid decline came soon after attacks by the Medes Scythians and Babylonians. The Assyrian empire was crushed in 609. Babylon's Nebuchadrezzar II (605-561) is best known for his destruction of Jerusalem in 588/587 and his forcing of thousands of Jews into the "Babylonian exile." The Neo-Babylonian empire ended in 539 when Nabonidus surrendered to Cyrus II of Persia. Under the Persians and Alexander the Great Babylon was a rich capital. The Seleucid kings ruled Mesopotamia from about 312 BC until the middle of the 2nd century BC. In the 2nd century BC Mesopotamia became part of the Parthian empire. Human occupation of Mesopotamia began some time around 6000 BC. The prehistoric cultural stages of Hassuna-Samarra' and Halaf succeeded each other here before there is evidence of settlement in the south (Sumer). There the earliest settlements such as Eridu appear to have been founded around 5000 BC in the late Halaf period. From then on the cultures of the north and south move through a succession of major archaeological periods that in their southern forms are known as Ubaid Warka Protoliterate and Early Dynastic at the end of which -- shortly after 3000 BC -- recorded history begins. The historical periods of the 3rd millennium are in order: Akkad Gutium 3rd dynasty of Ur; those of the 2nd millennium: Isin-Larsa Old Babylonian Kassite and Middle Babylonian; and those of the 1st millennium: Assyrian Neo-Babylonian Achaemenian Seleucid and Parthian."
Metsamor: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Sites in Armenia near Yerevan with Kura-Araxes and Late Bronze to Early Iron Age occupations. The latter indicates the existence of pre-Urartian states in Transcaucasia. Objects inscribed in Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics have been found in the graves dating to the 15th-14th centuries BC. these imply long-distance contacts with southern civilizations.
Middle Bronze Age: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: MBA
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: In the Levant, the period of sophisticated urban civilization of the Canaanites, MBA I c 1950-1800 BC and MBA II c 1800-1550 BC. The Middle Bronze Age provides the background for the beginning of the story of the Old Testament. The archaeological evidence for the period shows new types of pottery, weapons, and burial practices. It was an urban civilization based on agriculture. There was much contact with the Phoenicians and the Egyptians during this time. The destruction of Megiddo, Jericho, and Tell Beit Mirsim that followed the Egyptians' expulsion of the Hyksos into Palestine occurred at the end of the Middle Bronze Age.
Minoan: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The Bronze Age civilization of Crete, a name coined by Sir Arthur Evans derived from the legendary ruler of Knossos, Minos. The civilization is divided into three phases: Early (c 3000-2000 BC), Middle (c 2000-1550 BC), and Late (c 1550-1050 BC). Each had three subdivisions marked with Roman numerals. They stand out as the first civilized Europeans, with a highly sophisticated way of life and material equipment, and were surprisingly modern. They probably represented a fusion between Anatolian immigrants and the native Neolithic population, with some trading contacts through the east Mediterranean. In the Middle Minoan period, urbanization became apparent, towns appeared and, a Minoan specialty, the first of the great palaces, Knossos, Mallia, and Phaestos. Overseas trade was greatly expanded, too. The height of its development was in the 18th-15th centuries BC. By about 1580 BC Minoan civilization began to spread across the Aegean to neighboring islands and to the mainland of Greece. Minoan cultural influence was reflected in the Mycenean culture of the mainland, which began to spread throughout the Aegean about 1500 BC. The palaces were destroyed c 1450, probably by the cataclysmic eruption of Santorini/Thera -- or by conquerors from the mainland. After that, Greek-speaking Mycenaeans gained control of Knossos and Crete; only Knossos was reoccupied on a significant scale. The final fall of Knossos, c 1400 BC, marked the end of Crete's period of greatness. Their Linear A script has not been deciphered, but Linear B has been successfully translated as an early form of Greek, written in a syllabary, but belongs only to the period of mainland domination, and is therefore more relevant to Mycenaeans than Minoans. Their pottery is among the most artistic of any place or time, using abstract curvilinear, floral, and marine designs. Craftsmen reached high levels of technical skill and aesthetic achievement in pottery, metal work, stonework, jewelry, and wall painting (the palaces are lavishly decorated with frescoes). Vessels, figurines, and magnificent seal stones were also carved in stone and bronze and gold objects made. There were many bull sporting events. Cult activities normally took place either in hilltop shrines, often in caves, or in small shrines within the palaces, and often involved animals, including goats and especially bulls. There is an alternative division of the Minoan civilization into Prepalatial (Early Minoan I-III), Protopalatial (Middle Minoan I-II), Neopalatial (Middle Minoan III-Late Minoan IIIA1), and Postpalatial (Late Minoan IIIA2-IIIC).
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.
Mogollon: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A prehistoric civilization that existed from before 500 BC to approximately 1400 AD in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico in the Mogollon Highlands. Its roots lie in the Cochise version of the Desert Culture in this area, but the Mogollon folk were settled agriculturists who lived in villages of pit houses; they were also strongly influenced by the Anasazi and Hohokam. Evidence of maize and bean horticulture found at Bat Cave dates to earlier than 2000 BC, but unequivocally characteristic traits, such as plain brown pottery, do not appear until 300 BC. Although the tradition was agriculturally based, hunting and gathering continued to play some part in subsistence activities. Before c 1000 AD, typical communities were small villages of pit houses, located in easily defensible positions such as high mesas. Larger villages often included a communal assembly building (possibly early kiva) and sometimes fortifications. From c 1000 AD, the Mogollon people came under the influence of their northern neighbors, the Anasazi, and began to build pueblos. To this late period belongs some of the finest pottery of the American southwest, Mimbres ware, painted with stylized black animals on a white background. The culture is chronologically divided on the basis of architectural and pottery changes (Pine Lawn period, about 200 BC-AD 500; Georgetown period, 500-700; San Francisco period, 700-900; Three Circle period, 900-1050; and Mimbres period, 1050-1200). Unlike the Anasazi culture, the Mogollon culture did not survive as a recognizable group of modern Native Americans. Remnants of the Mogollon may have merged with Anasazi peoples to become what is known as the Western Pueblo people. The tradition has a number of regional variants: Mimbres, Pine Lawn, Upper Little Colorado, Forestdale, and Point of Pines.
Mohenjo-daro: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mohenjo-Daro
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the two capitals of the Indus civilization, the best known of the Mature Harappan cities, located in the Sind region on the right bank of the Indus in Pakistan. Radiocarbon dates and corroboration with Mesopotamian data date the capital to about 3000-1700 BC. The city, covering approximately 2.5 square km, was laid out on a grid plan, the oldest recorded. The larger blocks, separated by broad streets with elaborate drains, were subdivided. It was the largest of all the Indus Valley sites, and like other Indus Valley settlements, Mohenjo-Daro consists of two parts: a lower town in the east, overlooked by a high artificial mound or citadel on the west side. Traces of mud and baked brick defenses have been found. Within these an assembly hall, 'college', great bath, and granary were excavated. Numerous craft installations were in the lower town, for pottery, beadmaking, shell working, dyeing, and metalworking. Artifacts provide the basic definition of the Mature Harappan material culture for pottery styles, seals, weights, bead forms, metal forms, figurines, etc. There are many flood deposits, which many times overwhelmed the city. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned c 1700/1600 BC, apparently after a massacre, as in the latest layers groups of skeletons were found lying in houses and in the streets. The other capital, Harappa, was 400 miles away.
Montelius, Oscar (1843-1921): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Gustav Oscar Augustin Montelius
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Swedish archaeologist who constructed a chronology for prehistoric Europe and who developed typological schemes for the European Neolithic and Bronze Age. He divided European prehistory into numbered periods (four for the Neolithic, five for the Bronze Age) and to these periods he gave absolute dates by extending cross-dating from Egypt across Europe. Montelius believed in the diffusionist view (called ex oriente lux) that all European culture in later prehistoric times was derived from the ancient civilizations of Egypt and the Near East. Still controversial is his theory, the Swedish typology suggesting that material culture and biological life develop through essentially the same kind of evolutionary process. He published Om tidsbestämming inom ronsåldern" (1885; "On Determining the Periods Within the Bronze Age") "The Civilization of Sweden in Heathen Times" (1888) and "Die älteren Kulturperioden in Orient und in Europa" (1903-23; "The Older Cultural Periods in the Orient and Europe")."
Morgan, Lewis Henry (1818-1881): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A founder of American anthropology (scientific anthropology), known especially for establishing the study of kinship systems and for his comprehensive theory of social evolution. He put forth the scheme of development as being savagery to barbarism to civilization. His work directly affected the application of the theory of evolution to the discipline of anthropology. Morgan's theory of cultural evolution was published in Ancient Society or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization" (1877). This was the first major scientific account of the origin and evolution of civilization with illustrations of developmental stages drawn from various cultures."
Morley, Sylvanus Griswold (1883-1948): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American archaeologist known for his work on the Mayan civilization. His major contribution relates to carved Mayan inscriptions, which he catalogued, reproduced, and partially translated. His interpretation was that the Classic Maya were not urban dwellers, but farmers who occupied the ceremonial centers only on religious holidays.
Mycenaeans: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mycenaean
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Inhabitants of Mycenae, the civilization of late Bronze Age Greece, set in the Argolid. Their name for themselves was Achaeans, and their achievements were remembered in the legends of the classical Greeks. Their forebears probably arrived in Greece around 2000 BC, bringing Minyan ware and an Indo-European language with them. Mycenaean civilization arose in the 16th century BC by the sudden influx of many features of material culture from the Minoans. Later traditions speak of the arrival of new rulers from the east. By c 1450 BC, the Mycenaeans were powerful enough to take over both Knossos and the profitable trade across the east Mediterranean, especially in Cypriote copper. Trade was extended also to the central Mediterranean and continental Europe, where Baltic amber was one of the commodities sought. The peak of their power lasted only a century and a half until natural and unnatural disaster struck. The Trojan War at the end of the 13th century points to unrest east of the Aegean. There is evidence of increasing depopulation of southern Greece about the same time, paving the way for invasion by the Dorians. At home, the Mycenaeans dwelt in strongly walled citadels containing palaces of the megaron type, exemplified at Mycenae, Tiryns, Thebes, and Pylos. To these were added the more Minoan features -- frescoes, painted pottery, skillfully carved seals, artistic metalwork, clay tablets, etc. Their writing, Linear B, was an adaptation of the Minoan script, presumably first made by the mainlanders who had occupied Knossos, for the writing of their own, Greek, language. (Linear B was deciphered by Michael Ventris.) The Mycenaeans contributed greatly to the economy and technology of Late Bronze Age Europe, and to the population of the east Mediterranean coasts after the Egyptian defeat of the Peoples of the Sea, and they also left a legacy in their language and literature to their descendants in Greece. The civilization collapsed in c 1200 BC.
Nal: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cultural group named after the site of Sohr Damb (Red Mound), near the village of Nal in central Baluchistan, Pakistan. It is related to the Kulli culture further south and is dated to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Both settlements are associated with water-control systems which allowed exploitation of alluvial plains for agriculture. The Chalcolithic population used copper for many tools and weapons, as well as ground stone. They made beads from agate and perhaps also lapis lazuli. The fine buff pottery, some wheelmade, is decorated with geometric patterns in black paint; red, blue, green, and yellow pigments were often applied after firing. Some traits in the pottery, a glazed steatite seal and many faience beads point to contact with the Indus Civilization. Many burials were excavated on the type site, belonging to a period later than the settlement. The rite employed was fractional burial, the graves containing fragmentary skeletons together with quantities of distinctive pottery.
Namazga-depe: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Large Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement in southern Turkmenia (western Central Asia) on the north slope of Kopet Dagh. The Namazga phases I-III are assigned to the Chalcolithic period, while Namazga IV and V belong to the Bronze Age -- the Eneolithic (c 4800-3000 BC) and Bronze Age (c 3000-1500 BC); the sequence covers Anau IA Neolithic to the beginning of the Iron Age. The site was urban in character with a high population concentration and separate artisans' quarters, producing evidence of specialist production of bronze, gold, and silver goods, and wheelmade, kiln-fired pottery. The 'proto-civilization' of southern Turkmenia in the later 3rd millennium BC was characterized by two large towns -- Namazga-depe and Altin-Depe -- and a number of smaller settlements such as Ulug-depe. Other features include a wide-ranging trade network and an incipient writing system with repetitive symbols incised on flat clay figurines. This civilization never reached the levels achieved by the fully fledged civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. There was a marked decline in the early 2nd millennium BC, possibly due to environmental changes, and a collapse in its final 'tower' phase in the late 3rd or early 2nd millennium BC. Altin-depe was abandoned while Namazga-depe survived only as a small village.
Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Nebuchadrezzar, ancient Nabu-kudurri-usur
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The most famous of the kings of Babylon, the second of that name. His father, Nabopolassar, ejected the Assyrians to restore Babylon's independence and to found Chaldaea or the Neo-Babylonian kingdom in 626 BC. Nebuchadnezzar extended these conquests to the Mediterranean, capturing Jerusalem twice, and on the second occasion, 586 BC, sacking it and deporting its people to exile 'by the waters of Babylon'. It was under his rule and that of a successor, Nabonidus (556-539 BC), that the civilization of Babylon reached its highest level. Nebuchadnezzar II was a great royal figure and is well known from the Bible accounts of his activities in Judea and Samaria. The Neo-Babylonian empire did not long survive his death. Nabodinus fought with the Marduk priesthood at Babylon and Cyrus conquered Babylonia in 539 BC, freeing the Jewish captives.
Nile: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The longest river in Africa and the world, stretching for 6741 km, rising in highlands south of the equator and flowing northward through northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. Its waters and fertile flood-plain allowed Egyptian civilization to develop in the deserts of northeastern Africa. The Nile River basin covers about one-tenth of the area of the African continent. Three rivers flow in from the south: Blue Nile, White Nile, and Atbara. The southern section between Aswan and Khartoum interrupted by six 'cataracts' consisting of a series of rapids and corresponding to the land of Nubia. The first use of the Nile for irrigation in Egypt began when seeds were sown in the mud left after the river's annual floodwaters had subsided and it has supported continuous human settlement for at least 5000 years.
Northern Black Polished Ware: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Northern black polished ware; NBP, NBPW
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A fine gray metallic ware with a glossy black surface characteristic of the Iron Age civilization of northern and central India, dating to c 500-100 BC. It is a hard, wheelmade ware, mainly bowls and dishes. The surface is made with an alkali flux and fired in a reducing atmosphere. It succeeds Painted Grey Ware in the Ganges sequence and is the main pottery type associated with the Ganges Civilization. It characterizes the urban kingdoms of early historical India.
Ochre-Colored Pottery: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ochre Colored Pottery; OCP
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: An Indian pottery type, a distinctive ceramic of post-Harappan upper Ganges Valley. It is a thick and usually badly fired and badly preserved red ware with an ochre wash and its importance lies in the fact that it serves to bridge the gap in the later 2nd millennium between the Harappan material of the Indus Civilization and the black-and-red and painted-gray wares of the Iron Age. The earliest date for the ware comes from Jodhpura in Rajasthan c early 3rd millennium BC, but in the upper Ganges Valley it has early 2nd millennium BC dates. It has been found in association with a harpoon of Gangetichoard type at Saipai and with Gangetic hoards.
Olmec: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tenocelome, La Venta
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The first complex civilization of Mesoamerica and its distinctive art style, beginning in the Early Preclassic (c 1200 BC) and ending c 400 BC. The farming population built and supported great ceremonial centers (La Venta, San Lorenzo, Tenochititlan, Tres Zapotes), importing tons of serpentine and basalt from outside the region. The Olmecs were great stone-carvers whose products ranged from basalt heads almost 2 meters high to small jade figurines in which the attributes of a baby-faced human being merge and blend with those of a jaguar to form a composite monster (were-jaguar). Carvings in this distinctive style have been discovered over much of Mexico and as far south as El Salvador and Costa Rica. They are also noted for a distinctive black, white-rimmed kaolin pottery. Olmec figurines and pottery have been found at various sites in central Mexico and contacts were strong with the cultures of Oaxaca before the construction of Monte Albán. The Olmec are also known for art in jadeite and shell and the first hieroglyphic writing system. The Olmec golden age was the early part of the 1st millennium BC. They developed many of the religious traditions that were to sustain the Maya and other Mesoamerican civilizations such as Teotihuacán. They are not to be confused with historic Olmecs, who were a later group and may have helped destroy Teotihuacan, and whose tyranny was responsible for migration of many Mesoamerican peoples.
oracle bones: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: oracle bone
CATEGORY: language; artifact
DEFINITION: The bones (usually shoulder blades) of oxen or tortoise under-shells used in the Shang culture of northern China for divination. Used to divine messages from ancestors, they are inscribed with either the question, answer, and/or name of the diviner. Oracle bones ordinarily record a question addressed by the Shang king to his deceased ancestors, or the response to the question, or even the ultimate outcome of the matter divined. The subjects of divination comprise a limited range of royal concerns. The Anyang kings asked chiefly about war, hunting, rainfall, harvests, sickness, their consorts' childbearing, the fortune of the coming week and, above all, sacrifices. They originated in the Lung-Shun culture and have been discovered at the Chou site of Qishan and Shang site of Anyang, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Anyang was the last capital of the Shang dynasty; apart from the far more limited corpus of inscriptions on bronze ritual vessels, the oracle texts are the only documents left by the Shang civilization. The depressions were made in bone and then a heated point was applied to cause bone to crack. Divination by interpretation of these cracks. The inscriptions are the earliest examples of the fully developed form of Chinese characters. Those deciphered from Anyang have helped reconstruct the Shang kinship system and aspects of the culture. These inscriptions preserve the earliest known Chinese writing and sometimes, by naming kings and ancestors, confirm the historical basis of early legends. A few examples have been found at Neolithic sites as Kexingzhuang (Dadunzi). The divination practice is called 'scapulimancy' (scapulae are shoulder blades).
Parthian: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Parthia, Parthava (modern Khorasan)
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A steppe people from east of the Caspian Sea who entered northeastern Iran and set up a kingdom at the expense of the Seleucid empire and Bactria. The Parthian empire existed from 247 BC-224 AD. The earliest Parthian capital was probably at Dara; two of the later capitals were Nisa and Hecatompylos. Between 160-140 BC, Mithridates I extended the Parthian state into an empire, incorporating Iran and most of Mesopotamia, which survived 350 years of almost constant conflict with the Seleucids and later the Romans until its overthrow by the Sassanians in the early 3rd century AD. When flourishing, the Parthians established an oriental empire with Greek civilization grafted on. Their culture and location was an important intermediary between the Near and Far East and they controlled most of the trade routes between Asia and the Greco-Roman world. The silk road to China was opened under Mithradates II (124/123-87 BC). The Parthians were also famous for their superlative horsemanship.
Piotrovsky, Boris B. (1908-?): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Russian archaeologist who excavated Urartu (Armenia), the citadel of Karmir-Blur (ancient Teishebaini). He wrote on the Scythians in Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Urartu" (1967) offers a popular survey of the kingdom's art while his "The Ancient Civilization of Urartu" (1969) is an illustrated political and cultural history."
Poliochni: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A settlement site on the island of Lemnos in the northern Aegean, first occupied in the Final Neolithic. Its seven successive phases span the Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age, parallel to the first six cities of Troy. Its Neolithic cities, equipped with stone baths, represented the most advanced Neolithic civilization yet found in the Aegean. The Copper Age city was dated to c 5000 BC. In the Early Bronze Age (c 3000 BC) it was a fortified township with stone defenses, one of the largest in the Aegean, with houses laid out along streets and evidence of the practice of metallurgy. An associated cemetery of inhumation burials has many with rich grave goods. There was a catastrophic destruction, though it was later reoccupied.
Post-Classic or Postclassic: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The final pre-Columbian period in New World cultural history, following the collapse of Classic period civilizations, start in 750/900 until 1520 AD. The period is characterized by metalworking, complex urban societies, advanced commerce, militarism, imperialism, and secularism. It is traditionally dated from the fall of the Classic Maya in 900, but the collapse did not occur simultaneously throughout Mesoamerica.
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.
pre-Dynastic period: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Pre-Dynastic Egypt; Predynastic
CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: The period before recorded history in Egypt and before it became a unified state in c 3100 BC. The term predynastic denotes the period of emerging cultures that preceded the establishment of the 1st dynasty in Egypt. In the late 5th millennium BC there began to emerge patterns of civilization that displayed characteristics deserving to be called Egyptian. The accepted sequence of predynastic cultures is based on the excavations of Sir Flinders Petrie at Naqadah, al-'Amirah (el-'Amra), and al-Jazirah (el-Gezira). Another somewhat earlier stage of predynastic culture has been identified at al-Badari in Upper Egypt. Until recently, most of our knowledge of pre-Dynastic Egypt was derived from the excavation of graves. Pre-Dynastic communities appeared in the section of the Nile Valley immediately south of Asyut. Large settlements were established, notably that at Hierakonpolis. Some time after 5000 BC the raising of crops was introduced, probably on a horticultural scale, in small, local cultures that seem to have penetrated southward through Egypt into the oases and the Sudan. The food-producing economy was based on the cultivation of emmer wheat and barley and on the herding of cattle and small stock, together with some fishing, hunting, and use of wild plant foods. Highly specialized craftsmen emerged to build vessels, make copper objects, weave linen, and make basketry and pottery. A series of small states arose until around 3100 BC, the unified kingdom of Ancient Egypt came into being.
prime mover: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A concept in the study of the origins of civilization, meaning a single, primary cause generating urban societies. This includes crucial factors that stimulate cultural change; the causal variable in a simple, direct, and inevitable relationship, resulting in a particular effect. Many theorists considered irrigation a prime mover of Egyptian civilization.
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana (1909-1985): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Mesoamerican archaeologist and epigrapher born in Siberia who worked to decipher the Maya glyphs. She established the use of stelae to document dynastic sequences and deciphered glyphs of conflicts, adding substantially to an understanding of the Maya civilization. She wrote An Album of Maya Architecture" (1963 1978)."
Proto-Elamite: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: The earliest texts written in an undeciphered script by the civilization of Elam in the late 4th to early 3rd millennia BC. Like the early Sumerian writing, Proto-Elamite is pictographic and it may well be derived from the slightly earlier Sumerian script. Many of the Proto-Elamite clay tablets bear numerical symbols only and it is assumed that it was used for accounting and trade. Proto-Elamite tablets have been found over a surprisingly wide area of modern Iran: Warka, Susa, Godin, Sialk, Tepe Malyan, Tepe Yahya, Acropole, Sialk, and Shahri-I Sokhta and are usually associated with a distinctive ceramic assemblage and style of seal.
Rahman Dehri: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site in the western Punjab, Pakistan, with a culture of 3400-2500 BC leading up to the Mature Harappan civilization. Early levels have a regional painted pottery; the ceramics became Kot Diji style. There is graffiti on sherds, possibly an antecedent to the Harappan script.
Rajagrha: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: modern Rajgir
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Indian city of the Ganges Civilization and capital of the kingdom of Magadha. The earliest surviving remains are ramparts of rubble masonry, probably of the 6th century BC. The city was often visited by the Buddha and a series of elliptical structures may be the remains of his monastery. One of the towers on Baibhar Hill (Vaibharagiri) has been identified as the Pippala stone house in which Buddha lived. It is also said to be said to have been the residence of the legendary Magadha emperor Jarasandha of the Hindu epic Mahabharata"."
Rajghat: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Old Banaras
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: City of the Ganges Civilization, India, in Uttar Pradesh with the earliest occupation characterized by Black and Red Ware and the beginnings of iron technology. There are eight phases starting with that in c 800 BC. The settlement of this period was surrounded by a massive brick rampart. After c 700-600 BC, Northern Black Polished Ware and copper coins appear.
redistribution: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: redistributive exchange
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A mode of primitive exchange in which the operation was directed and controlled by some central organizing authority; a complex process that was a critical part of the evolution of civilization. Goods are received or appropriated by the central authority and subsequently some of them are sent by that authority to other locations. It might involve the physical collection and pooling of locally produced items and their subsequent reallocation, or merely control the flow without central collection. Storage facilities and a system of record-keeping are often associated with the central power. The goods exchanged may be local products, which would permit some degree of craft specialization, since the specialists will be able to depend on the central authority for the supply of all necessities. The products received in return for these exports may be treated as prestige items and made available to only a restricted number of the local people in the upper levels of the social hierarchy. Redistribution is often associated with societies organized as chiefdoms with a central authority and marked differences in social ranking.
Renaissance: CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: The period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages, conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in classical learning and values. It was the rebirth of European intellectual curiosity about the natural world and the role of humans in it, originating in the 15th century in Italy. Changing social, political, and economics conditions, as well as rediscovery of Classical texts, were basic to this rebirth.
Rhodes: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Large Ionian/Aegean island, prosperous in Classical times as it was on trade routes from Greece to Egypt and the East. Minoan remains at Ialysus are evidence of early Cretan influence. With the collapse of the Minoan civilization (c. 1500-1400 BC), Rhodes became a powerful independent kingdom with a late Bronze Age culture. Rhodes was occupied by Dorians, mainly from Argos, c 1100-1000 BC. The Rhodian cities of Lindus, Ialysus, and Camirus, along with Cos, Cnidus, and Halicarnassus, belonged to the Dorian Hexapolis (league of six cities) by which the Greeks protected themselves in Asia Minor. The cities of Rhodes traded throughout the Mediterranean and founded colonies in Italy, Sicily, Spain, and Asia Minor. Rhodes supported Rome during its war with Philip V of Macedonia. The island steadily declined after Rome made Delos a free port c 166 BC. During the triumvirate of Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus (43 BC), the conspirator Gaius Cassius plundered Rhodes for refusal to support him. Though it continued for another century as a free city, it never recovered its former prosperity; in about 227 BC a severe earthquake devastated the island. Excavations have unearthed a stadium, odeum, temples, and city walls. At its wealthiest and most powerful in the period c 323-166 BC, Rhodes developed a new form of house colonnaded court (peristyle) with one row of columns higher than the others; provided a grand entrance to the Lindos acropolis sanctuary of Athena, and produced sculptures of quality, including a colossus overlooking the harbor (which fell in the earthquake of 227 BC). Rhodes became important again during the Crusader period, when it was chosen for an important military base.
Rimini: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ariminum
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A harbor town on Adriatic Sea in northern Italy. It originally belonged to the Umbro-Etruscan civilization and was occupied in 268 BC by the Romans. A Latin colony was established there and as the junction of the great Roman roads the Via Aemilia and the Via Flaminia, it became a Roman municipium. It was later sacked by the dictator Sulla. Rimini passed to the Byzantines and from them to the Goths, from whom it was recaptured by the Byzantine general Narses, and then to the Lombards and Franks. It has one of earliest Roman triumphal arches, built in 27 BC.
ritual vessel: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Any object made and intended for the worship of ancestors, who are often named in inscriptions on the object, which is usually bronze. Many were specially cast to commemorate important events in the lives of their possessors. The vessels were also meant to serve as heirlooms. Although ritual vessels are found in many parts of ancient world (rhytons or libation vessels of Greek Bronze Age), they were particularly important in China -- used for sacrifices of food and wine offered to ancestors. The bronze ritual vessel is the characteristic artifact of the Chinese civilization. Many are found in the tombs of Shang and Chou Dynasties, made almost exclusively by casting. Beginning in Anyang period (c 1300-1030 BC), vessels were often cast with inscriptions dedicating them to the service of deceased ancestors; hence the sacrificial offerings of wine and food presented in the vessels were connected with the ancestral cult known also from the Anyang oracle bone inscriptions. The practice of providing imposing vessels as mortuary gifts, and perhaps even the ancestral cult itself, originated in the east-coast Neolithic tradition, where some of the Shang vessel shapes have precursors in pottery and where important Shang cultural traits are foreshadowed as early as the 4th millennium BC. The vessel types are known today either by names given them in Shang or Chou times that can be identified in contemporary inscriptions, such as the li, ting, and hsien, or by names, such as yu, chia, and kuang, given them by later Chinese scholars and antiquarians. The vessels may be grouped according to their presumed function in sacrificial rites.
road: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A traveled way on which people, animals, or wheeled vehicles move. The earliest roads developed from the paths and trails of prehistoric peoples; their construction was concurrent with the appearance of wheeled vehicles, which was probably in the area between the Caucasus Mountains and the Persian Gulf sometime before 3000 BC. Road systems were developed that connected the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt and facilitated trade. The first major road was the Persian Royal Road, which extended from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea over a distance of 1,775 miles (2,857 km) and was used from about 3500-300 BC. Originally made for the use of troops and their supplies, were eventually much used by the civilian population for the carriage of goods. This encouraged free trade, helped the advance of civilization, and the subjugation and unification of the tribes. Early roads were about 20 feet wide and had ditches along both sides for drainage purposes. Large stones were laid on the foundation, then smaller ones, or gravel, on top. Traffic and weather blended the road material and helped to form the surface. Stone kerbs were made to hold the road surface together and sometimes a line of stone was laid in the middle too, to help in the binding. The Romans were the first to construct roads scientifically. Their roads were characteristically straight, and the best ones were composed of a graded soil foundation that was topped by four layers: a bedding of sand or mortar; rows of large, flat stones; a thin layer of gravel mixed with lime; and a thin wearing surface of flintlike lava. Roman roads varied in thickness from 3-5 feet, and their design remained the most sophisticated until the modern road-building technology in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Along the Roman roads were rest houses / mansiones and horse-changing stations / mutationes.
rouletting: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: roulette
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A technique used to decorate pottery. In Greek pottery-making, it began in the early 4th century BC. A strip of metal was applied to the pot as it was turned on the wheel, leaving a band of even decoration on the inside; it was more accurately called chattering. Alternatively, a cogged wheel was rotated over the soft clay of a pot to leave a series of impressed dashes at right angles. That method was used especially on Roman pottery and was found on the exterior of vessels, especially on the rim. In India, the technique was used on pottery of rougher fabric and on forms derived from Northern Black Polished wares, possibly beginning in the late 1st millennium BC. The pre-Columbian civilization of the Chavín also used rouletting on its pottery.
Royal Cemetery: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Ur in southern Mesopotamia with 1500 tombs from the later Early Dynastic to the Ur III period, mostly of the c 2600-2300 BC time. The richest tomb belonged to king Meskalamdug, which held many precious materials and famous artifacts of the Sumerian civilization. The royal burials were accompanied by soldiers and servants, carts, and horses.
Rupar: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in east Punjab, Pakistan, at the foot of the Simla Hills with vestiges of two phases of the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization. It is stratified below an occupation with Painted Grey Ware, which was itself by a level with Northern Black Polished Ware.
Samarran culture complex: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Cultural phase of east-central Irqu along the Tigris River which dates to the second half of the 6th and early 5th millennium BC, with sites such as Tell es Sawwan and Choga Mami. There are three phases of the complex: Early Samarran with coarse ware decorated by incision, Middle Samarran with painted pottery using naturalistic scenes and geometric designs; and Last Samarran with more geometric painted pottery and no naturalistic scenes. The Samarrans used irrigation agriculture and herding of animals, both important to the developing Mesopotamian civilizations.
Schliemann, Heinrich (1822-1890): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: German businessman and archaeologist who discovered and excavated Troy, Tiryns, Mycenae, and Ithaca. Retiring from business a wealthy man at 41, he sought to identify Homer's Troy. He did so, on a site overlooking the Dardanelles with nine superimposed cities containing a startling wealth of material. He was the first to recognize stratigraphy in a Near Eastern tell (Hisarlik was the first large dry-land man-made mound to be dug.), he popularized archaeology; and he set standards of careful observation, recording, and rapid publication. He also worked at Mycenae, where his discovery of the shaft graves and their implications was as important as his work at Troy. Schliemann, together with Wilhelm Dörpfeld, excavated the great fortified site of Tiryns near Mycenae. They revealed the wealth and civilization of the Aegean Bronze Age and gave added support to the reliability of the classical legends. Modern archaeologists have criticized his approaches, but Schleimann remains a pioneer and extremely important contributor to the study of the Mycenaean civilization. He had long thought that there must have existed in the Mediterranean a civilization earlier than Mycenae and Bronze Age Hisarlik, and he guessed that it might be in Crete. At one time he wanted to excavate in Crete, but he could not agree to the price asked for the land. The discovery of the pre-Mycenaean civilization of Minoan Crete was left to Sir Arthur Evans, 10 years after Schliemann's death.
Seibal: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Lowland Maya center located in south-central Petén, Guatemala. The site was occupied as early as 800 BC, expanded in size and importance in Preclassic period, and was at its height in the Late Classic, 770-900 AD, while rest of Maya civilization was declining. Archaeologists think that influx of non-Classic Maya (Putun) from the Gulf Coast prompted its development at that time. The site is dominated by three groups of ceremonial buildings, built around plazas and connected by causeways. Most of the population lived in small house clusters around these nuclei. Seibal was abandoned by 950, probably as part of the general decline of the Classic Petén centers.
Shortugai: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site with definite links to the Harappan civilization near the Amu River, northeast of Konduz, Afghanistan. The lower two levels had Mature Harappan material (2nd half of 3rd millennium BC) and an irrigation system; it was probably a trading colony. There was also occupation by the Beshkent culture dated to the 1st half of the 2nd millennium BC.
slave: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: People who 'belonged' to someone else, who had few rights and were used to perform duties for the 'owner'. The existence of slaves is known from many civilizations, including ancient Egypt. There, it was a 'hereditary profession', included among possessions of kings, high-ranking officials, or temple estates, and better described as serfs (semedet or meret), allowed to own property but enjoying limited freedom by modern standards. In ancient Italy, there were great numbers of slaves by the 3rd-1st centuries BC, some used in agriculture or serving the administration and others being servants, workers, or craftsmen. It was not unusual for slaves to be freed. In some areas, although they could be sold, punished at will, and could never legally marry, they often held highly responsible posts, such as doctors, estate managers, etc.
steatite: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: soapstone
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soft magnesian mineral, white to green massive rock composed mainly of talc. The softness of the stone made it very popular for the carving of artifacts: figurines, vessels, jewelry, decorative stone works, and stamp seals. Its resistance to high temperatures made it particularly suitable for mold-making for metal casting. In the Indus Civilization seals of this material were whitened by heating with lime, a process called 'glazing'.
stela: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: stele, stelae (pl.)
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An upright, freestanding stone monument, often inscribed or carved in relief, and sometimes painted. These pillars or tablets of stone were often used to mark a grave or erected as a monument. Inscriptions may commemorate a victory or a major event, or proclaim a formal decree. Stelae are frequently encountered in Maya and Olmec sites of Mesoamerica (often carved with calendrical and hieroglyphic inscriptions), in the Buddhist civilizations of Asia, and in early Greece. The earliest funerary stelae are from a cemetery of 1st- and 2nd-Dynasty kings at Abydos, and are located in publicly accessible superstructures of the tombs. Commemorative stelae were erected in temples. Votive stelae recorded an individual's veneration of a particular deity(ies).
stela or stele: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. stelae
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An upright, freestanding stone monument, often inscribed or carved in relief, and sometimes painted. These pillars or tablets of stone were often used to mark a grave or erected as a monument. Inscriptions may commemorate a victory or a major event, or proclaim a formal decree. Stelae are frequently encountered in Maya and Olmec sites of Mesoamerica (often carved with calendrical and hieroglyphic inscriptions), in the Buddhist civilizations of Asia, and in early Greece. The earliest funerary stelae are from a cemetery of 1st- and 2nd-Dynasty kings at Abydos, and are located in publicly accessible superstructures of the tombs. Commemorative stelae were erected in temples. Votive stelae recorded an individual's veneration of a particular deity(ies).
Stephens, John Lloyd (1852-1905): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American explorer and amateur archaeologist who visited the abandoned Maya Lowlands centers with Frederick Catherwood. His documentation was published in books which became bestsellers and did much to arouse popular interest in what was then an almost unknown civilization. The drawings by Catherwood set a new standard of scientific accuracy.
Steward, Julian Haynes (1902-1972): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American anthropologist and archaeologist who influenced archaeological theory, emphasizing that the goals of both disciplines were the same: understanding of cultural change and the plotting of that change on spatial and temporal planes. His best-known book was Theory of Culture Change: the Methodology of Multilinear Evolution" (1955) and he also wrote "Handbook of South American Indians" (1946-1950) and "Irrigation Civilizations" (1955). He carried out fieldwork in the Great Basin British Columbia and the Andes planned and helped establish the Virú Valley project. He worked for the use of evolutionary and ecological thought in anthropology and archaeology; he is known as the as the founder of the theory of cultural ecology."
Sumer / Sumerian: CATEGORY: site; culture; language
DEFINITION: The earliest documented inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia (southern Iraq), c 3500 BC, considered the world's first civilization. Located between Babylon and the head of the Persian Gulf, these people spoke a language unrelated to any other known language. Formed originally by the need for irrigation agriculture, they created a social and political organization, their own art, literature, and religious observances and greatly influenced neighboring cultures. Cities appeared, such as Eridu, Lagash, Uruk, and Ur, with craft specialization and accumulation of wealth. Most important was the invention of writing. The cuneiform script developed for writing Sumerian can be read. The political unit was the city-state, in which the patron deity, through the priesthood and temple organization, was the major power in all matters. Secular rulers were required only in time of war. The various city-states were united by a common culture and religion, the patron deities such as Enki, Enlil, Nannar, and the rest being members of a single Sumerian pantheon. Sumer was conquered by the Semites of Akkad under Sargon c 2370 BC. The Sumerian culture survived this and later foreign conquests with very little change. Some scholars believe that the Sumerians go back much further and may even have been the first sedentary inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia, from about 5500 BC. The Sumerian language had invariable bisyllabic or monosyllabic roots, around which prefixes or suffixes, also invariable, were arranged to express grammatical inflections. The structure of the language must have made it easier to invent writing and, in a second period, the use of syllabic characters. Sumerian overtaken by Babylonian and ceased to be spoken at beginning of 2nd millennium BC, but then became a language used for cultural purposes and retained that function until cuneiform writing itself disappeared in 1st century AD.
Sutkagen Dor: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The westernmost site of the Indus (Harappan) civilization near the shore of the Arabian Sea, west of Karachi, probably a port or trading post supporting the sea trade with the Persian Gulf. It was defended by a massive semi-dressed stone wall and was divided into a citadel and a lower town; the lower town shows connections with the local Kulli culture.
Syracuse: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Corinthian colony and principal port founded traditionally c 734 BC on the east coast of Sicily. The earliest occupation was on the island of Ortygia; later settlement was on the mainland in the Achradina area. Early Palaeolithic material occurs in the Great Harbor. Syracuse was the leader of Greek cities in Sicily and had many struggles with Athens and Carthage, becoming capital of Roman Sicily in the 3rd century BC. Siding with Hannibal in the Second Punic War was a mistake which led to a long siege by Rome. In the early Christian era, Syracuse became something of a religious center, and there are extensive catacombs. From the 5th century onward, the city's civilization disintegrated under the general chaos of the western empire. Surviving remains include the archaic Doric temples of Zeus and Apollo, Temple of Athena, the Greek theater, and a 3rd-century AD amphitheater. Evidence also survives for an extensive fortification system of Epipolae, a triangular-plan rocky plateau which was unified with the city in some 27 km of walling; the Fort of Euryalos was at the highest point.
Teotihuacán: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Very important site north of Mexico City, at its peak c 450-650 AD the largest and most powerful city in Mesoamerica. It had its beginnings as one of a number of small agricultural settlements around the shores of ancient Lake Texcoco. Teotihuacán flourished by c 300/200 BC and by 100 AD, it had about 40,000 inhabitants. Archaeological work has provided more information about Teotihuacán than about any comparable Mexican site. Teotihuacán maintained extensive political and trade contacts with lowland Mexico, and is famed for its enormous public buildings and pyramids. At its heart is a complex of magnificent architecture including the massive Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon, the Cuidadela (probably an administrative center), and the Great Compound (probably a market place); there are no ball courts. The structures are distributed along a central roadway known as the Street of the Dead. After the destruction of Cuicuilco, Teotihuacan expanded and people were housed in apartment compounds which exhibit some social differentiation. Many of the inhabitants were craftsmen, and some 500 workshop sites have been identified. Four-fifths of those sites were devoted to obsidian working. Teotihuacán controlled the central highlands of Mexico, and was in contact with all the principal centers of civilization (Monte Albán, Tikal, etc.) as far as Belize. The influence of Teotihuacán during the Early Classic was considerable and most major centers have some Teotihuacán forms. Characteristic of Teotihuacán influence are Talud-Tablero architecture, images of Tlaloc, cylindrical tripod vases, Thin Orange Ware, murals, and stylized human face masks. There is very little massive stone sculpture except as architectural embellishments. The end of Teotihuacan came fairly suddenly. A decline in its influence at other sites was evident by c 600, but the city itself was not destroyed until 750. There is much evidence of burning from that time, indicating that the city may have been sacked --possibly by the Chichimecs. The city was never rebuilt, but a small population remained in the ruined city for more than a hundred years.
tholos: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. tholoi; tholos tomb; beehive tombs
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A beehive-shaped tomb built of stone and roofed by corbelling, sometimes royal, characteristic of the Mycenaean civilization. In Greek architecture, the term is generally used for the burial chambers of certain passage graves of similar plan and construction. The round chamber had an attached rectilinear entrance passage, the most famous examples being the Treasury of Atreus and Tomb of Clytemnestra at Mycenae. The corbelling is trimmed to form a smooth surface, and the ornamental doorway is approached by a masonry-lined, horizontal passage or dromos. Such a tomb is set partly underground or sometimes built into the side of a hill. In classical archaeology the term can be applied to either temples or tombs.
Thompson, Sir John Eric Sidney (1898-1975): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: English archaeologist and ethnographer who worked in the Maya area. He reconstructed the Temple of the Warriors at Chichen Itza and correlated the Mayan and Gregorian calendars (Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation between Mayan and Christian calendars which provided the basis for the chronology of Classic Maya civilization). Thompson was able to extensively decipher early Mayan glyphs, determining that they contained historical as well as ritualistic and religious records. He also worked at Lubaantun, Rio Bec and Pushilha, and he was the first to establish a chronology for the Belize Valley based on the seriation of ceramics. His books include The Civilization of the Maya" (1927) "The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization" (1954) and "Maya History and Religion" (1970)."
tomb: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A burial structure or chamber; the term is applied loosely to all kinds of graves, funerary monuments, and memorials. In many cultures and civilizations the tomb was superseded by, or coexisted with, monuments or memorials to the dead. The style of tombs has undergone different phases of development in various cultures.
Tzakol: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: One of the chronological phases or cultures of the Lowland Maya civilization which is Early Classic and began shortly before 250 AD. It is characterized by Lowland Maya artifacts, including elaborately decorated polychrome pottery, especially a basal flanged bowl. Almost all early Tzakol monuments draw heavily upon a heritage from the older Izapan civilization of the Late Formative, with its highly baroque, narrative stylistic content. Because of the Maya penchant for covering older structures with later ones, Tzakol remains will have to be laboriously dug out from under towering Late Classic.
Uaxactún: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Maya center in the Guatemalan Petén with most surviving structures of the Classic period (100-900 AD). Occupation of the Uaxactún site began in the Middle Formative period of Mayan culture (900-300 BC), and before the close of the Late Formative period (300 BC-100 AD) a number of ceremonial buildings had been erected, including a temple with giant stucco masks reminiscent of the more ancient Olmec civilization. The site has many usual Lowland Maya architectural features, but was a small center in contrast to Tikal, to whom it owed politico-religious allegiance. The central complex consists of a small plaza flanked by long, low palace- or apartment-style buildings and two temple-pyramids. The site is best known for its Late Chicanel stucco decoration in the Izapan style. Stele 9 has one of the earliest Long Count dates of the Classic Period (328 AD). The terminal Long Count date for the site is 889 AD. In the 9th century, Uaxactún declined like other southern lowland Mayan centers and was abandoned in the 10th century. For many years, the pottery sequence (Formative to Classic) at Uaxactún formed the basis for the whole of Lowland Maya chronology.
Ubaid: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ubaid period; 'Ubaid culture complex
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A small tell of Ur which has given its name to a culture c 5000-3000 BC in southern Mesopotamia, where it underlies practically every city of Sumer. It later spread to the north, displacing the Halaf culture and becoming the first culture to cover the whole of Mesopotamia. It is distinguished by a well-made buff pottery, frequently overfired to a greenish color, and painted in dark brown or black. In the south, stone was scarce, but there were terra-cotta pounders, sickles, hoes, and axes. Temples were built (e.g. Eridu, Gawra), ancestral in structure and siting to those of Sumerian times. At Al 'Ubaid are the remains of a temple with copper statues and reliefs, and mosaic friezes of the 1st Dynasty of Ur c 2600 BC. The period represents the time when the first villages, and later, the first towns and cities, appeared and many of the characteristics of Sumerian civilization emerged. It expanded greatly and between 4500-3700 BC, it influenced almost the entire Near East, from coasts of Syria to Iranian plateau and the Arabian Gulf. It lasted until the beginning of the Uruk period.
Ubaid: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ubaid period; 'Ubaid culture complex
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A small tell of Ur which has given its name to a culture c 5000-3000 BC in southern Mesopotamia, where it underlies practically every city of Sumer. It later spread to the north, displacing the Halaf culture and becoming the first culture to cover the whole of Mesopotamia. It is distinguished by a well-made buff pottery, frequently overfired to a greenish color, and painted in dark brown or black. In the south, stone was scarce, but there were terra-cotta pounders, sickles, hoes, and axes. Temples were built (e.g. Eridu, Gawra), ancestral in structure and siting to those of Sumerian times. At Al 'Ubaid are the remains of a temple with copper statues and reliefs, and mosaic friezes of the 1st Dynasty of Ur c 2600 BC. The period represents the time when the first villages, and later, the first towns and cities, appeared and many of the characteristics of Sumerian civilization emerged. It expanded greatly and between 4500-3700 BC, it influenced almost the entire Near East, from coasts of Syria to Iranian plateau and the Arabian Gulf. It lasted until the beginning of the Uruk period.
unilinear cultural evolution: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: unilinear evolution
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A 19th-century evolutionary theory holding that all human cultures pass through the same sequence of evolutionary changes or stages, from simple hunting and gathering to literate civilization. Lewis H. Morgan described seven stages, or ethnical periods, from lower savagery, barbarism, to civilization.
urbanization: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The clustering of large numbers of people into cities, though there is no clear-cut line between large towns and cities, both being characterized by very high population densities. In southeast Europe, urbanization seems to have begun by 4000 BC, in Greece leading eventually to growth of Mycenaean civilization, in Italy (early 1st millennium BC) to Etruscan civilization, etc. Many civilizations, e.g. the Maya, with large ceremonial centers, have wrongly been called urban"."
Uruk: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: biblical Erech, modern Warka; Uruk period
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: One of the greatest city-states of Sumer, northwest of Ur, which flourished at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. It is 250 km south of Bagdad, Iraq. Pottery dating from around 5000 BC has been found there, but the civilization is traditionally dated to c 3800-3100 BC. Uruk's rulers tried to lead Sumer until Ur became more powerful, but Uruk still remained important as a holy city. It was one of the great Sumerian city-states, developing from the 'Ubaid period. It was the site of numerous innovations, the most important being the invention of writing. It lost importance with the rise of Ur, c 2100 BC, but remained occupied till the Parthian period. Archaeologists have found very important structures and deposits of the 4th millennium BC and the site has given its name to the period that succeeded the Ubaid and preceded the Jemdet Nasr period. Uruk was Mesopotamia's -- and the world's -- first true city. There are two large temple complexes -- the Anu sanctuary and the Eanna sanctuary -- both with several successive temple-structures during the Uruk period, including the White Temple in the Anu sanctuary and the Limestone and Pillar Temples in the Eanna sanctuary. A characteristic form of decoration is clay cones with painted tops pressed into the mud plaster -- known as clay cone mosaic. A ziggurat laid out by Ur-Nammu in the Ur III period (late 3rd millennium BC) is by the Eanna sanctuary. The earliest clay tablets appear in late Uruk levels; they are simple labels and lists with pictographic symbols. Tablets from slightly later levels, of the Jemdet Nasr phase, show further developments towards the cuneiform script of the Early Dynastic period. There was also mass-produced wheelmade pottery, cylinder seals, and sophisticated art. Uruk was the home of the epic hero Gilgamesh, now thought to be a real king of the city's first dynasty.
Vaillant, George Clapp (1901-1945): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American archaeologist who was an expert on the high plateau of central Mexico and other aspects of Mesoamerican chronology. He was the first to systematically investigate systematically the remains predating the time when the Classical civilizations were at their height. He also established some basic chronologies of the Maya Lowlands and the Basin of Mexico.
Vaisali: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A city of the Ganges civilization of northern India, famous as the birthplace of Mahavira, founder of the Jain religion. The earliest occupation belongs to the Iron Age, when Mahavira lived (6th century BC) and has yielded Northern Black Polished Ware and iron artifacts.
Warring States period: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Contending States
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A division of the Zhou/Chou Dynasty, 475-221 BC, the latter part of the Eastern Zhou period, made up of six or seven small feuding Chinese kingdoms. The Warring States period saw the rise of many of the great philosophers of Chinese civilization, including the Confucian thinkers Mencius and Hsün-tzu, and the establishment of many of the governmental structures and cultural patterns that were to characterize China for the next 2,000 years. The Warring States period is distinguished from the preceding age, the Spring and Autumn (Ch'un Ch'iu) period (770-476 BC), when the country was divided into many even smaller states. In 223 BC, Ch'in defeated Ch'u and two years later established the first unified Chinese empire.
were-jaguar: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A creature with human infant and jaguar features which was important in Olmec art. It has a babylike expression, fangs, snarling mouth, and other feline facial features. The number and unity of the objects in this style first suggested to scholars that they were dealing with a new and previously unknown civilization. There is a whole spectrum of such were-jaguar forms in Olmec art, ranging from the almost purely feline to the human in which only a trace of jaguar can be seen. These Olmec monuments were generally carved in the round, technically very advanced even though the only methods available were pounding and pecking with stone tools. Considerable artistry can also be seen in the pottery figurines of San Lorenzo, which depict nude and sexless individuals with were-jaguar traits. The Olmec also worshipped a rain deity depicted as a were-jaguar.
Wilson, Daniel (1816-1892): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Scottish antiquary who coined the word prehistoric" in his book "The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland" (1851). He was the first to organize Scotland's artifacts according to the Three-Age System. He also wrote "Prehistoric Man: Researches into the Origin of Civilization in the Old and new World" (1862)."
Woolley, Sir (Charles) Leonard (1880-1960): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British archaeologist known for his work at Ur, Carchemish, Tell el-Amarna, Tell Atchana, Al Mina, and Al 'Ubaid. At Ur, he revealed 5000 years of history and wrote it up in a 10-volume series (Ur Excavations"). His discovery of geological evidence of a great flood suggested a possible correlation with the deluge described in Genesis and his findings in the Royal Cemetery brought the astonishing wealth and skills of the Sumerian civilization to the public's attention. He was an exacting excavator outstanding in interpretation and published popular accounts of his results. His other books include "The Sumerians" (1928) "Ur of the Chaldees" (1929) and "Digging up the Past" (1930)."
writing: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: Any system for symbolizing the symbols of a language. Writing was developed independently several times in different places and both the writing materials and the types of script show great variation. The earliest true writing developed in southern Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC Uruk culture. The writing material was clay; it was first inscribed and later impressed with a stylus to produce the wedge-shaped cuneiform signs. The earliest signs were pictograms ('picture writing', in which the signs represent stylized pictures of the objects in question), but these rapidly developed into ideograms (the signs indicated not only the original object, but also associated objects or concepts). The Egyptian hieroglyphic script, used for inscriptions on stone, painting on walls, and also writing on papyrus, appears well before 3000 BC. There is dispute as to whether the Egyptians developed writing independently or whether the art was diffused from Mesopotamia. The Harappan Civilization of the Indus Valley had a writing system of its own, dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC and is found almost exclusively on stamp seals and seal impressions. It has not been deciphered. The first true alphabet, with signs for individual letters, seems to have developed in the Levant, probably in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. The first definite evidence comes from Ugarit in the mid-2nd millennium BC. The Phoenicians spread the alphabet throughout the Mediterranean and theirs is ancestral to most of the alphabets in use today. In China, writing developed independently, first appearing on oracle bones of the Shang dynasty. In Europe the only pre-Classical writing occurs in the Aegean in the 2nd millennium BC -- the hieroglyphic and Linear A scripts of the Minoans, as yet undeciphered, and the Linear B of the Mycenaeans, used to record an early form of Greek. The development of writing in the Americas occurred only in Mesoamerica -- the glyphic writing of the Maya and related groups, found in inscriptions carved on monuments, and the pictographic writing of Post-Classic groups such as the Mixtecs and Aztecs, found on manuscripts of bark or deerskin known as codices.
Yahya, Tepe: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Tell site in the Soghun valley of Kirman province, Iran, with a long cultural sequence of seven periods from c mid-5th millennium BC to early 1st millennium AD. The most important phase was Yahya IV, beginning c 3000 BC. It was at that time an active trading center, with a cache of tablets inscribed in proto-Elamite, the script of Elam. Jemdet Nasr painted wares and beveled rim bowls have been found. A local source of steatite (chlorite) was worked into distinctive bowls which were traded to Sumer, the Indus civilization, and the Persian Gulf. The site was on an important trade route between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, possibly via Shahr-i-Sokhta and the Persian Gulf via Bampur. Tepe Yahya was also in contact with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley and indeed was strategically placed on the overland route between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. In the later 3rd millennium BC, the importance of Tepe Yahya declined.
Zhob: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A valley in north Baluchistan, western Pakistan, with a number of sites of a Chalcolithic culture, c 4th-3rd millennia BC. Rana Ghundai, Periano Ghundai, and Moghul Ghundai are the best-known sites. The pottery is painted black or red over a red slip; decoration may be stylized humped cattle and buck and groups of vertical lines linking narrow horizontal bands. Other artifacts include female figurines and copper. Buildings were of mudbrick and burials by cremation. Related material was found stratified beneath that of the Indus Civilization at Harappa, and there are similarities to the painted ware of Tepe Hissar in northern Iran. This phase was succeeded by the 'Incinerary Pot' phase, with burials placed in vessels under house floors, after disarticulation and some cremation.
Zhongyuan: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Chung-yüan
CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: Literally the 'Central Plain' or 'Middle Plain', an area of northern China, comprising the river basins and alluvial plains of the Wei River and the Yellow River east of its confluence with the Wei. Capitals of the Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, and Northern Song dynasties are in this plain and the Zhongyuan area is traditionally regarded as the birthplace of Chinese civilization.

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