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Results for figurine:

figurine: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A small carved or sculpted figure of a human or animal, usually of clay, stone, wood, or a metal. A figurine's purpose is often religious, either as an object of worship itself or as a votive offering to a god. They were made in prehistoric Europe from the Upper Palaeolithic onwards, though they became less common in Bronze Age.
Nok culture: SYNONYM: Nok figurine culture
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A valley in central Nigeria (Benue Plateau) associated with first iron-smelting people of West Africa and an Early Iron Age culture characterized by distinctive broken terra-cotta human and animal figures, some of them life-sized. Shallow pits with low surrounding walls served as furnaces for the smelting of iron. The terra-cotta figures are associated with an agricultural fertility cult; the detailed and accomplished modeling pays particular attention both to attributes such as beads as well as to physical peculiarities or deformities. Other artifacts of the Nok culture include iron tools, stone axes and other stone tools, and stone ornaments. Nok sites at Taruga and Samun Dukiya date to c 5th-3rd centuries BC. The culture may have continued to the 2nd century AD in some places. Their work was possibly ancestral to medieval sculpture of Yoruba and Ibo.
pipe-clay figurine: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Small statuettes modeled or cast in fine white pipe clay.
Venus figurine: SYNONYM: Venus' figurine
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Small female statuettes of the Upper Palaeolithic, found from southwest France to European Russia -- statuettes, sculptured in the round, of naked and often obese women. The figures, sometimes with exaggerated abdomen, breasts, and buttocks, were made of clay, stone, antler, bone, limestone, steatite, or mammoth ivory, and have been found on Eastern Gravettian and Upper Périgordian sites from the Pyrenees to eastern Russia. The heads are featureless and the legs and arms are little emphasized. They mainly date from the period 30,000 to 15,000 years ago; a later series is different in character, more slender and hollow stomached, and are contemporary with the Magdalenian.
Abdul Hosein, Tepe: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An aceramic Neolithic site of Iran's Zagros mountains with mud-brick structures, chipped and ground stone tools, clay figurines, and evidence of barley and emmer cultivation.
Agrelo culture: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The Agrelo culture was centered in northwestern Argentina and dates from AD 1 to 1000. The type site is just south of Mendoza and it features distinctive deep, wide-mouthed pottery with parallel stepped incised lines, punctations, and fingernail impressions, typical of southern Andean tradition. Pottery spindle whorls, crude figurines, labrets, clubheads, triangular projectile points, and beads of stone have been found. Pit inhumations were marked by stone circles. The Agrelo represents the agriculture-pottery threshold in this semi-arid area. Nearby coastal pottery styles (Cienega, El Molle) may be precursors to Agrelo.
Alaca Hüyük: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell site in north central Turkey, near Boghaz Köy and 150 km east of Ankara, that was occupied in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd millennia BC. Its Chalcolithic and Copper Age phases include a cemetery of 13 extremely rich tombs from c 2500 BC (Early Bronze Age II). The burials were single and double inhumations in rectangular pits, with fine metalwork including copper figurines (thought to be mounts from funeral standards), sun discs, ornaments, weapons, jugs and goblets, diadems, bracelets, and beads. The quantity of gold and copper imply that this was a royal cemetery. The tombs were lined with rough stone and skulls and hooves of animals were hung from the wooden beams as part of the funeral rite. The site was later reoccupied under the Hittites, who erected a monumental gateway with two great stone sphinxes. It has been tentatively identified as the Hittite holy city of Arinna.
Amlash: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in northwest Iran, southwest of the Caspian Sea, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Rich burials in tombs have produced gold and silver vessels, pottery figurines, animal-shaped pottery rhytons (ritual vessels) -- material similar to that at Marlik Tepe.
Amorgos: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An island in the eastern Cyclades, Greece, which was prosperous in the Early Bronze Age and had three cities, Arcesine, Minoa, and Aegiale. There is an important cemetery on the island with single burials in cist graves, accompanied by copper weapons and pottery. Fine carved stone figurines of Early Cycladic type have also been found, usually made of marble and some being almost life-sized.
Arpachiyah: SYNONYM: Arpachiyah, Tell
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell site in Iraq near Mosul on the Tigris inhabited in the Halaf and Ubaid periods (mid-6th to early 4th millennium BC). The Halaf settlements yielded a long pottery sequence and circular buildings with some rectangular antechambers on cobbled streets. The function of these buildings is unknown. The site appears to have been a specialized artisan village making the fine polychrome pottery. In addition to the painted polychrome wares, other finds include steatite pendants and small stone discs with incised designs, probably early stamp seals. There was pottery of northern Ubaid style and fine Halaf pottery, and stone amulets and figurines.
Aspero: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Late Preceramic site on the north-central coast of Peru, dating to 4360-3950 BP. It is one of the largest Preceramic settlements known in the Andes and it had a complex social hierarchy. Six platform mounds and other structures include rooms with artifacts, textiles, plant material, clay figurines, and feathers.
Avdeevo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic site near Kursk in Russia with a single occupation between 11,950-22,700 BP. There were pits and hearths and artifacts of shouldered points and animal and Venus figurines. Woolly mammoth dominates the large faunal assemblage.
Aztec: SYNONYM: 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.
Badarian: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An Upper Egyptian, Predynastic culture of the later 5th millennium BC, named for the type site of el-Badari, on the east bank of the Nile River. It extended over much of Middle Egypt also. Excavations during the 1920s revealed settlements and cemeteries dating to about 4000 BC (Neolithic). Their fine pottery, black-topped brown ware (later red), was very thin-walled, well-baked, and often decorated with a burnished ripple. This effect was apparently produced by firing it inverted to prevent the air from circulating inside and over the upper rim, keeping these areas black whereas the base and lower wall externally were oxidized to brown or a good red color. Other remains include combs and spoons of ivory, slate palettes, female figurines; and copper, shell, and stone beads. Badarian materials have also been found at Jazirat Armant, al-Hammamiyah, Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar), al-Matmar, and Tall al-Kawm al-Kabir. Flinders Petrie and other found large numbers of graves with artifacts in 1893-1894 and divided it into two phases: Naqada Culture I and Naqada Culture II.
Bahía: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A phase in Ecuador's culture, dating c 500 BC - 500 AD that was discovered on La Plata Island (Manabi). Large pyramidal platform mounds, helmeted figurines, spouted jars, and incised pottery have been found and evidence of polychrome painting and metallurgy. Houses with saddle roofs (low, downward-curving roof ridges), pottery head/neck rests, figurines with one leg crossed over the other, Pan pipes graduated towards the center and ear plugs shaped like golf tees were unique to the culture -- but they have parallels in southeast Asia. It has been suggested that they were introduced into Ecuador by voyagers from across the Pacific. Particularly elaborate anthropomorphic vessels give information on dress and ornamentation (nose discs and tusk-like pendants). Bahia was a well-developed socio-political and religious unit. The La Plata Island site was probably a ceremonial center as there is little evidence of daily living. Unfortunately, many sites have already been lost to modern development.
Bakun, Tall-e: SYNONYM: Bakun, Tall-I
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A prehistoric tell site near Persepolis in south-central Iran, occupied continuous from c 4200 to c 3000 BC. The site, the oldest yet discovered in that area of Iran, was first excavated in 1928. It consisted of 12 mud-brick buildings with 1-7 rooms each. Bakun was occupied by an agricultural community that made fine painted pottery related to Susa A wares. Vessels included conical bowls and goblets with a large variety of geometric patterns and animal motifs. Other finds include flint implements, stamp and button seals, vessels of calcite and many animal and human figurines. The pottery is especially important for the study of early Iranian art.
Brak, Tell: SYNONYM: Brak, Tall Birak at-Tahtani
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell on the upper Khabur River in Syria which had an Akkadian fortress and garrison and was occupied from at least the Halaf and Ubaid period until the mid-2nd millennium BC. On the Syrian-Iraqi border, it was a powerful fortress on the imperial line of communication and its most important remains are the four 'Eye Temples' of the Jemdet Nasr period, c 3000 BC. They are so-called for the large number of small, flat alabaster figurines of which the eyes are the only recognizable features. Eye temples were decorated with clay cones, copper panels, and gold work, in a style very similar to that found in the contemporary temples of Sumer. Halaf, Ubaid, and Uruk sherds have been found. When the site became a frontier post of the kingdom of Akkad, a palace was built by Naram-Sin c 2280 BC, and it became a depot for the storage of tribute and loot. The city was plundered after the fall of the Akkadian empire, but the palace was rebuilt in the Ur III period by Ur Nammu. A Roman fort was built there later.
Buret: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in southern Sibera, western Turkistan, which was occupied in late Palaeolithic times. It is known for mammoth-tusk figurines of women. They resemble Paleolithic statuettes from Europe and the Middle East and the nude ones probably served as fertility symbols or as representations of the great goddess, whose cult was widespread. Of five found at Buret, the most unusual is a clothed woman wearing a one-piece trouser suit with a hood attached to it comparable to those still worn by present-day Eskimos.
Butmir: CATEGORY: culture; site
DEFINITION: A Late Neolithic settlement near Sarajevo in Bosnia which gave its name to a culture, though the type site is not characteristic of the entire Butmir culture. The site represents a classic or late phase, defined by richly decorated ceramics (with incised meander designs) and a wide range of fired clay anthropomorphic figurines of various physical types, costume, and pathological condition. The culture was related to the Vinca culture. The Butmir culture comprises the Middle and Late Neolithic of central Bosnia, in the period c 4350-3700 BC.
Cayönü Tepesi: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on a tributary of the Tigris River in eastern Turkey with occupation dating from c 7500-6500 BC. There are impressive architectural remains with stone foundations and evidence of a farming and hunting community. The latest phase included domesticated sheep and goats. Einkorn wheat was cultivated as well as emmer wheat, peas, and lentils. Another important feature of this site was the very early appearance of simple copper objects, derived from closeby Ergani Maden. Also, clay bricks, baked figurines, and pottery have been found.
ceramic artifact: CATEGORY: ceramics; artifact
DEFINITION: Any artifact made of fired clay, belonging to pottery, figurine, or other ceramic industries.
Cerro de las Mesas: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in southern Veracruz, Mexico, in the plains of the Papaloápan River that is a hybrid site of Pre-Classic and Classic periods. Dozens of earthen mounds are scattered over the surface in a seemingly haphazard manner, and the archaeological sequence is long and complex. The site reached its apogee in the Early Classic, when the stone monuments for which it is best known were carved. Most important are a number of stelae, some of which are carved in a low-relief style recalling Late Formative Tres Zapotes, early lowland Maya, and Cotzumalhuapa. Cerro de las Mesas pottery, deposited in rich burial offerings of the Early Classic, is much like that of Teotihuacan, with slab-legged tripods. Potters made large, hollow, handmade figures of the gods and the most spectacular discovery on the site was a cache of 782 jade objects, many of Olmec workmanship. Cerro de las Mesas is famous for Remojadas-style pottery figurines, found in great quantity as burial goods. Because the Classic occupation contains abundant Teotihuacan materials and two Maya Long Count dates (ad 468 and ad 533), it is usually interpreted as a redistribution point for materials from both Mexico and the Maya lowlands.
Chancay: CATEGORY: ceramics; culture
DEFINITION: In central Peru, a distinctive type of pottery made by the Chancay people between 1000-1500 AD (from Late Intermediate Period). It is black-on-white with parallel or checkered design, sometimes with biomorphic figures or painted in soft colors. The most common forms were tall, two-handled, egg-shaped collared jars; bowls and beakers with slightly bowed sides; and large figurines. The pottery is associated with large effigy figurines, dolls, and lacelike textiles. Chancay weaving was considered excellent.
Chiapa de Corzo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on the Grijalva River in Chiapas, Mexico, with one of the longest occupational sequences in Mesoamerica, c 1500 BC to the present. It flourished in Late Pre-Classic to Early Classic times with adobe construction, ceramics and figurines, and then pyramids dating to 550 BC and residential complexes of cut stone to 150 BC. The style and iconography of certain artifacts indicate contact with Izapa and Kaminaijuyu in the Late Pre-Classic. Hundreds of broken sherds tell of trade contact with sites in the Penen, Monte Alban, and Teotihuacan in the Early Classic.
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.
Choga Mami: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A settlement site of the Samarra culture in southeast Iraq with radiocarbon dates of the late 6th millennium BC. There are several occupation phases from the Samarran to the Ubaid culture. Cattle, sheep, and goats were raised and wheat, barley, and flax cultivated with the aid of irrigation. The site has buildings of mud-brick; houses were rectangular and had ranges of rooms, in two or three rows. A mud-brick tower guarded the entrance to the settlement. Artifacts include Samarran painted pottery and elaborate female figurines of clay.
chryselephantine statue: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of figurine sculpture made of ivory and gold. The flesh was of ivory and the drapery of gold. These were produced in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete, and in Greece from the 6th century BC. They were often colossal cult figures placed in the interiors of major temples, such as that of Minerva by Pheidias, which stood in the Acropolis at Athens and was 40 ft high, and that of Zeus, 45 ft high, also by Pheidias, in the temple of Olympia.
Chuquitana: SYNONYM: El Paraiso
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Late Preceramic site on the coast near Lima, Peru, occupied between 1800-1600 BC. The ruins reveal eight complexes of approximately 25 rooms, each built of stone. The complexes were rebuilt five or six times. Artifacts of shell, bone, stone, wood, and polished dried clay figurines have been found as well as evidence of woven cotton textiles.
cinnabar: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A red, crystalline form of mercuric sulphide, a naturally occurring and most important ore of mercury. It was used as a pigment for painting sculptures, pottery, and figurines by the Romans, Olmecs, and others.
cire perdue: SYNONYM: lost wax process
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A metalworking technique used to cast figurines and statues. A model of the object to be cast is made in wax, solid if the object is to be of solid metal, or made around a clay core if it is to be hollow. The wax model is covered with clay, and the whole is heated to allow the wax to melt and run off; this leaves a space into which molten metal is poured. After it has cooled the outside clay is knocked off, the inner core may be removed, and remaining is a metal version of the original wax model. The technique is common on every continent except Australia and dates from the 3rd millennium BC, having gone through few changes since then. Since the 'mold' cannot be used again, each version of an object made using this technique is unique, and the process is more time consuming than making a complex mold and re-using it. However, more detail can be accomplished with the cire perdue process.
Cuicuilco: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A Late Pre-Classic ceremonial site, at the southern end of ancient Lake Texcoco near Mexico City, that has the first stone monument (pyramid) on the Mexican plateau. Cuicuilco was one of the largest and most important centers of the period -- possibly an early rival of Teotihuacan. Early large-scale construction in the form of adobe and stone-faced platforms took place around 600-200 BC. The pyramid is a truncated cone, with a clay-and-rubble core; the rest is made of sun-dried brick with a stone facing. Rising up in four tiers, the Cuicuilco pyramid is faced with broken lava blocks and the summit was reached by ramps on two sides. The site was covered by volcano lava around 300-400 AD, forcing total abandonment. Lava from the volcano covers all of Cuicuilco, including the lower part of the round pyramid. The Cuicuilco-Ticomán culture succeeded the Middle Formative villages of the valley but retained many of their traits, such as the manufacture of solid handmade figurines.
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.
Divostin: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Neolithic site in Serbia with occupations of the Early Starcevo and Vinca cultures dating from c 5250-4960 (Starcevo) to c 3900-3300 BC (Vinca). Excavation uncovered seven complete house-plans of the Late Vinca village, including one house containing 100 pots. The subsistence economy was based on cattle husbandry and agriculture. Cult objects included a model ritual scene and many fired clay anthropomorphic figurines.
dogu: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of clay figurine, most often depicting a pregnant female, made in Japan during the Jomon period, c 5th-4th millennium to c 250 BC. The function of these figurines is unknown, but it is generally believed that they were some kind of fertility symbol and they are reminiscent of the rigidly frontal fertility figures produced by other prehistoric cultures. Archaeological evidence suggests they were aids in childbirth as well as fertility symbols. They are also found in simulated burials, indicating some kind of ceremonial function. Fired at a low temperature, they often have crumbly surfaces and many are painted red.
Dolní Vestonice: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic camping site in southern Moravia of the mammoth hunters of loess country. Excavation has revealed various phases of occupation, represented by houses, hearths, flint tools (burins, scrapers, backed blades), ornaments of mammoth ivory, animal figurines of baked clay, Venus figurines, faunal and human remains. The main occupation level dates from 25,000 BP, the beginning of the last glacial maximum (the end of an interstadial period). The culture has been called Pavlovian or eastern Gravettian.
Eastern Gravettian: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic industry across central and eastern Europe during the last glacial maximum, c 30,000-20,000 BP. Assemblages include shouldered points, backed blades, and some Venus figurines.
El Tajín: SYNONYM: 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.
Eridu: SYNONYM: Abu Shahrain
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell site at Abu Shahrain, identified as the ancient Eridu, the oldest city of Sumer -- possibly the oldest in history. Occupation began in the 'Ubaid period, the earliest phase of which is named after this site, in the mid 6th millennium BC. A series of temples of the 'Ubaid and Uruk periods have been found, decorated with typical Sumerian buttresses and niches in the walls. Its long succession of superimposed temples portrayed the growth and development of an elaborate mud-brick architecture. A palace of the Early Dynastic period c 2500 BC has also been excavated. It was important throughout Mesopotamian history as a religious center and sanctuary of Enki (Ea). Outside the temple precinct, a large cemetery of the late 'Ubaid period was found; containing around 1000 graves. Grave goods include painted pottery vessels, terra-cotta figurines, and baked clay tools, such as sickles and shaft-hole axes. The site declined in importance with the rise of Ur under its 3rd dynasty (c 2100 BC) and was occupied until around c 600 BC.
execration text: CATEGORY: artifact; language
DEFINITION: Curses written on clay figurines, statuettes, or pottery jars/vessels, listing the names of the enemies of Egypt -- places, groups of people, or individuals regarded as hostile or evil. These texts were ritually smashed and then buried as part of a magical process of triumphing over the persons or places listed.
Fafos: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An early Vinca settlement in Serbia with several occupation levels with pits and postholes. The site is characterized by particularly rich ritual artifacts, including fired clay figurines in the local Kosovo style.
faience: SYNONYM: faïence, fayence; frit, paste
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A name used for the medieval pottery of Faenza in northern Italy, one of the chief seats of the ceramics industry in the 16th century; it was an early majolica. It is also used for the tin-glazed earthenware made in France, Germany, Spain, and Scandinavia as distinguished from Faenza majolica, and that made in The Netherlands and England, which is called delft. But most accurately, it is the primitive form of glass developed in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC and then, almost as early, in Egypt; it is sometimes called Egyptian faience. It is a substance composed of a sand and clay mixture baked to a temperature at which the surface begins to fuse to a bluish or greenish glass. It was colored with copper salts to produce a blue-green finish and used especially for beads and figurines, particularly in the second millennium BC. Its main use in the Bronze Age was for beads, seals, figurines, and similar small objects. The glazed material could be comprised of a base of either carved steatite (soapstone) or molded clay with a core of crushed quartz (or quartz and soda-lime) fired so that the surface fuses into a glassy coating. Examples occur also in Bronze Age contexts in Europe, including the Wessex Culture.
First Temperate Neolithic: SYNONYM: FTN
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A term sometimes used to describe the earliest farming cultures in the temperate zone of Europe (and sometimes in other areas). In southeast Europe from c 5400-4500/4300 BC, there was the Starcevo (eastern and northern Yugoslavia), Körös (eastern and southwest Hungary), Cris (west and lowland Rumania), Kremikovci (northwest Bulgaria), and Karanovo (central and southern Bulgaria). The regional groups are differentiated by their individual painted wares, but the group of cultures is unified by non-ceramic traits such a miniature polished bone spoons, fired clay lip-plugs, rod-head figurines, and stamp seals. The vast majority of early FTN sites are located in the major river valleys of the Balkans, either as tell settlements or as short-lived flat sites. Hoe or digging-stick agriculture combined with cattle husbandry was the economic base of most FTN settlements.
Fort Harrouard: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Middle Neolithic fort in Eure-et-Loir, France, that was occupied till the Gall-Roman period. There was a Chasséen phase with decorated vase supports and terra-cotta female figurines, an Artenacien occupation, and evidence of metallurgy in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (crucibles, molds, etc.).
Gagarino: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic site in the Don River basin in European Russia. The artifacts, including shouldered points and Venus figurines have been assigned to the Kostenki-Willendorf culture or the Eastern Gravettian as the dates are 30,000-21,800 bp. The people were mammoth hunters who also carved bone and ivory.
Ganj Dareh, Tepe: SYNONYM: Ganj Dareh
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A small mound in the Kermanshah region of western Iran, which has yielded five occupation levels with radiocarbon dates ranging from 8400-6800 BC. The lowest level had no permanent architecture, only shallow pits and hollows. The next level had mud-brick structures, mostly very small adjoining cubicles, perhaps used for storage. Subsequent phases include wattle-and-daub rectilinear structures and a wide range of unfired clay objects. Animal and human figurines suggest that the stone industry remained largely the same throughout.
Garagay: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Initial Period site occupied into the Early Horizon period, near Lima, Peru. There is a large U-shaped ceremonial formation and central mound estimated 3000-1800 BC. There is Chavín-like clay figurines and pottery.
Geissenklösterle: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cave in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with Middle Palaeolithic, Aurignacian (36,000-34,000 bp), Gravettian (23,000 bp), Magdalenian, and Mesolithic material. The Aurignacian levels have ivory figurines and an ivory bas-relief of a human.
Gravettian: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic industry named after the site La Gravette in the Dordogne of southwest France and characterized by well-developed blade tools of flint and female figurines of ivory. This advanced industry succeeded the Aurignacian and preceded the Solutrean, c 28,000-20,000BP. In France it is known as the Upper Périgordian (Périgordian IV) and the Gravettian appears to have developed in central Europe, expanding to the east and west. The small, pointed blades with straight blunted backs are called Gravette points. Most of the French sites are caves, but possibly related industries, known as Eastern Gravettian, are distributed through the loess lands of central Europe and Russia at the camp sites of mammoth-hunters; other sites are in Spain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy. The Gravettians invented the bow and arrow, blunted-back knives of flint, and the tanged arrowheads. They are famous, too, for their cave paintings. Other artifacts include bone or ivory spears and, in eastern Europe, numerous other bone tools incised with an elaborate geometric pattern.
Grimaldi: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on the Italian Riviera near the French border with caves and rock shelters of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic flint industries, mainly Aurignacian and Gravettian assemblages (also termed Grimaldian industries). The caves also have elaborate Homo sapiens sapiens burials with grave goods including Venus figurines, backed blades, and objects of adornment. The Grotte du Prince yielded a pure Mousterian deposit. There is no Magdalenian in Liguria, where the Grimaldian persists until the end of the Palaeolithic period.
Hacilar: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A small but important site in the lake region of southwest Turkey, with a Late Neolithic and early Chalcolithic (c 5600-4500 BC). The aceramic early levels have some radiocarbon dates in the 7th millennium BC. The houses were of mudbrick or wood and daub on stone foundations, with an upper story of wood. They were finished internally in plaster, rarely painted. Crops included barley, emmer, and lentils and bones of sheep, deer, and cattle were also found. The site was abandoned and reoccupied in the Late Neolithic, early in the 6th millennium BC, when it had more substantial houses, monochrome red to brown pottery, and some use of copper. Querns, mortars and braziers were fitted into mud plaster floors, while recesses in the walls acted as cupboards. The kitchen was separated from the living rooms and upper stories were used as granaries and workshops. Female figurines of a unique style were also made. The latest phase of this period was burnt c 5400 BC and when the site was reoccupied it was smaller; this settlement was also burnt c 5050-5000 BC. The Hacilar (Chalcolithic) period had a fortified settlement, characterized by boldly painted red on white pottery.
Hal Saflieni: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large rock-cut hypogeum on Malta, which was constructed by the same population that built the Maltese temples, and is a complex of many small rock-cut chambers, on three different levels, linked by a series of halls, passages, and stairways. Many of the chambers are elaborately decorated, often with carved features imitating wooden structures such as beams and lintels; other chambers have painted decoration, usually on the ceilings. Most of the chambers had been used for burial and it has been calculated that some 7000 individuals were buried in the whole hypogeum, over a period of some centuries. The hypogeum may also have been used as a temple as some places without burials were set aside for ritual. Artifacts include highly decorated pottery and a series of female figurines. The earliest chambers date to the 5th millennium BC.
Hamangia: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A Late Neolithic culture of the Black Sea near the mouth of the Danube (Romania and Bulgaria) which was contemporaneous with the early periods of the Boian and Maritsa cultures. The culture was rather short-lived, c 4000-3700 BC and was succeeded by the Gumelnita culture. It is regarded by some as a branch of the Impressed Ware culture, arriving by sea from the Aegean before 4300 BC. Noteworthy are its spondylus shell bracelets and its famous terra-cotta and marble figurines.
Hatvan: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: The type site, northeast of Budapest, Hungary, of the second stage of the Hungarian Early Bonze Age (which is defined by Tószeg). The Hatvan culture occurred between the Nagyrév culture and the Füzesabony, c early 2nd millennium bc. Many of the sites are tells in the Great Hungarian plain, although enclosed hilltop sites are known in the Carpathian foothills. Cremation burials in pits were frequent. Hatvan settlements commonly produce large numbers of fired clay zoomorphic figurines and vases, as well as model cartwheels.
Herpaly: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A regional variant of the three Late Neolithic cultures (Tisza, Herpaly, Czöszhalom) of the Great Hungarian Plain, c 4000-3400 BC. The Herpaly culture, distributed in the northern Alföld zone, is characterized by tell settlement. Throned figures and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines indicate ritual activities.
Hongshan: SYNONYM: [Hung-shan]
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Liaoning Province, China, an the name of a Neolithic culture dated to c 3500-3000 BC. Hongshan had elaborate jade animal ornaments, large temple sites, female figurines, and masks.
Idojiri: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A group of about 50 Middle and Late Jomon sites in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The sites are large clusters of substantial pit houses. The pottery has molded rim ornamentation, and there are figurines and ceremonial stone arrangements. It is thought that the inhabitants practiced plant cultivation, nut-collecting, and hunting.
Jaina: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An island north of Campeche, Yucatan, in the Gulf of Mexico, which was an important Late Classic Maya necropolis. It is known for its high-quality portrait ceramic figurines. There are two minor ceremonial centers at Zayosal and El Zacpool, built of uncut stone and stucco. Burials are commonly flexed, wrapped, and sprinkled with cinnabar; a jade bead was commonly put in the mouth to serve as currency in the next world. Some cremations and urn burials also occur.
Jarmo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A small aceramic Neolithic to ceramic Neolithic village site in the foothills of the Zagros mountains of northern Iraq. Jarmo was used to explain the origins of food production by Robert Braidwood, as the site dates to the later 7th millennium BC and there was carbonized wheat and barley. Its radiocarbon dates place it amongst the world's earliest food-producing settlements. Goat and dog bones show domestication. The first 11 of its 16 levels had no pottery, though clay-lined pits were baked in situ. Square houses of pisé were built with clay ovens and grain pits which included flint and obsidian chipped stone tools, stone bowls, and clay figurines. Flaked and ground stone were freely used for tools and utensils. It is the type site of the Jarmoan culture.
Kamegaoka: SYNONYM: Obora culture, Kamegaoka culture
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A waterlogged Jomon site in Aomori prefecture in northern Honshu, Japan, best known for its Final Jomon deposits with elaborate pottery and lacquered wooden dishes. The Kamegaoka complex, named after the site, is characterized by the distinctive pottery style, production of hollow figurines, stone and bone personal ornaments, salt-making out of sea water, and fishing and sea-mammal hunting with harpoons. It was partly contemporary with the Early Yayoi Culture.
Keros-Syros: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Cultural phase of two islands in the Cyclades, corresponding to Early Cycladic II, c 2700-2300 BC, in traditional chronology. An open-air sanctuary filled with marble figurines on the island of Kéros (Káros) is assignable to the Early Bronze Age.
Khotylevo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Palaeolithic sites on the Desna River in the Ukraine. In the Middle Palaeolithic level, there are Levallois cores and bifaces. In the Upper Palaeolithic level, there are Venus figurines.
Kostenki: SYNONYM: Kostenki-Borshchevo
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Group of 25 Upper Palaeolithic sites on the Don River in Russia. The most important are Kostenki I, XIV, VIII, XII, II, XI, and XVII. The Early Upper Palaeolithic occupations, associated with the remains of horse and other mammals began by 25,000 bp. Other sites dated to c 36,000-26,000 bp with assemblages assigned to the Strelets Culture and Spitsyn Culture. Other layers from c 32,000-26,000 are of the Strelets and Gorodtsov cultures. The industries of 25,000-10,000 bp have mammoth-bone houses, hearths, and some portable art. Skeletons of Cro-Magnon type but mainly immature have been found at sites II, XIV and XV. Kostenki I has produced more of the Venus figurines than any other site in Europe.
Kostenki-Willendorf culture: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Upper Palaeolithic culture of central Europe and the Russian plain dating to c 30,000-20,000 bp. This culture is based on assemblages containing backed blades, shouldered points, and Venus figurines among the art objects. It is generally equated with the Eastern Gravettian industry.
Krems: SYNONYM: Krems-Hundssteig
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic site on the Danube in northeast Austria, dating to around 35,200 bp. The Krems-Hundssteig locality has revealed a very rich Aurignacian-like assemblage in which numerous bladelets, endscrapers, retouched blades, and 'Krems' points were found. A female figurine of green serpentine was dated to 31,790 bp.
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.
Las Bocas: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Puebla, Mexico, known for its hollow figurines and other pottery in the Olmec style, at the eastern entrance to the Morelos Plain. Las Bocas is noticeably similar to a site at the other end of the plain, Chalcatzingo, and is thought to have been one of a series of Olmec trading stations. Burials similar to those at Tlatilco further confirm the Olmec connection.
Los Millares: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Important Chalcolithic settlement and cemetery in Almeria, southeast Spain, of c 2400 BC and located on a spur between the River Andarax and a stream. Within the settlement are circular houses, outside there are forts, megalithic walls, and a cemetery with 80+ passage graves (circular tholos type). The rich grave goods included bone idol figurines, copper axes and daggers, pottery with double-eye motifs, and ivory and ostrich-eggshell artifacts. The site typifies Millaran culture" of mid-3rd millennium BC in southern Spain and Portugal with the emergence of ranked societies whose power may have been based on the control of water supplies and sources of metal ores."
Luka Vrublevetskaya: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Eneolithic settlement of the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture in the Ukraine. Pit dwellings include hearths and female figurines.
Machalilla: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A series of early Formative Period sites on the coast of Ecuador of c 2000 BC, known chiefly through ceramics -- the distinctive Macalilla ceramic complex. Traded sherds found in both Valdivia C and Late Tutish-Canyno contexts suggest mid- to late 2nd millennium BC. Machalilla ceramics, in contrast to Valdivian, are painted (red banded and black-on-white) and figurines are rare and crudely made. Wattle-and-daub fragments in middens indicate that houses existed, but no foundations have been defined.
Maikop: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: The site of one of the richest Eneolithic Kurgan burials ever discovered, located in the northern Caucasus Mountains of Russia and dating to the late 3rd millennium BC. The barrow covered a timber mortuary house divided into three sections. In the central one was a royal burial of a man sprinkled with ochre and laid under a canopy with gold and silver supports. The corpse was accompanied by copper tools and weapons, gold ornaments, gold vessels and figurines, rich textiles, carnelian and turquoise jewelry, wooden carts or wagons, and silver vases engraved with animal scenes. The metalwork shows links with Mesopotamia and southwest Asia. The Maikop burials have given their name to the Maikop culture and its walled settlements.
Majninskaya: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Upper Palaeolithic site on the Uj River near its confluence with the Yenisei in Siberia. The occupations dated from c 19,000-9000 bp. Artifacts include wedge-shaped microcores, sidescrapers, endscrapers, bone points, and an anthropomorphous figurine.
Mamon: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A phase of the Pre-Classic in the Lowland Maya area dated c 550-300 BC, first defined at Uaxactún and Tikal. Some artifacts of stone and obsidian are included in the complex, but it is principally characterized by monochrome pottery with a 'waxy' feel to it. The flat-bottomed bowl was a common shape. Figurines are also characteristic.
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: SYNONYM: 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.
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).
mobiliary art: SYNONYM: home art; French art mobilier; chattel art
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A general term used to describe the small and portable objects produced by artists during the Upper Palaeolithic period. These included carved or engraved stone, bone, ivory, or antler, and small crudely fired clay models. Artifacts include figurines, artists' trial pieces, decorated weapons, tools, and ornaments. The distribution extends from Siberia to Spain. Cave art covers the paintings, engravings, and reliefs found on the walls of caves and rock shelters of the same period. Unlike wall art, which is difficult to date, mobiliary art is usually found in archaeological layers and can therefore be dated. The earliest pieces probably date to about 35,000 years ago and they continued being made throughout the Upper Palaeolithic to c 10,000 BC.
Mohenjo-daro: SYNONYM: 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.
mold: SYNONYM: mould
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A matrix for casting metal. Molten metal poured into a concavity will solidify into a corresponding shape. The concavity has only to be given the shape of the required artifact. Such molds can be made of stone, pottery, or metal with a melting point higher than that of the alloy being cast. Molds were also used for making figurines and relief-decorated pottery. The simplest type of mold is a one-piece or open one, from which the casting emerges with one flat face, requiring further hammering to give it a symmetrical form. Two-piece molds allowed bifacial tools and weapons to be cast -- a third piece, or core, being added if a socket was required. These technical advances had been made before the end of the Early Bronze Age. Multi-piece molds were used in Shang China. Molds were used to produce the elaborate asymmetrical vessels of the Mochica and Chimú styles. The earliest molds for casting metal were made of stone. During the Late Bronze Age, piece molds began to be formed of clay.
Momil: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on Sinu River in western Colombia, which has two ceramic periods -- Momil I 1000-500 BC and Momil II of 500 BC-1 AD. The site is also significant for its evidence of the transition from manioc to maize farming. Momil I had stone tools, both percussion and pressure flaked, incised and stamped pottery, and circular-rimmed griddles. Momil II had troughed metates, similar to those used in Mesoamerica. New vessel forms, hollow figurines, and the earliest known occurrence of negative resist painting in Colombia, also appear.
Myrina: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: City on the western coast of Turkey with Hellenistic cemeteries containing hundreds of terra-cotta figurines.
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.
Nea Nikomedeia: SYNONYM: Nea Nikomidhia
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Early Neolithic tell settlement in Macedonia in northern Greece. From a large structure (shrine?) in the center of the mound, there were terra-cotta female figurines thought to have been used in rituals. The remains of rectangular mud houses, a number of crouched burials, and plain and painted pottery, frogs carved from greenstone, flint blades, and many ground stone axes have been found. Radiocarbon dates of c 6200-5300 BC was obtained. The earliest known domesticated cattle date from about 6000 BC at Nea Nikomedeia, in association with cultivated einkorn, emmer, and barley.
Noyen-sur-Seine: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Middle Neolithic system of palisades cutting across a meander of the River Seine in France. There are hearths, storage pits, pottery, and female terra-cotta figurines. Peat deposits preserved organic remains from c 7000-5000 BC, such as a dugout canoe and basket fish-traps.
nuraghe: SYNONYM: plural nuraghi; nurhag; Nuraghic culture
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A type of tower built of cyclopean masonry and peculiar to Sardinia from c 1500 BC until the Roman conquest of the island c 800 BC. They are circular stone defensive towers with corbel-vaulted internal chambers of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The walls of the tower slope inwards towards the top, and there are commonly two or more stories. Each floor consists of a single round room roofed by corbelling and sometimes provided with lateral cells. The turrets were as high as 30-60 feet, and some nuraghi contain stones of 100 cubic feet each in their structure. The more complex examples consist of several towers, courtyards, and curtain walls, and many nuraghi (e.g. Barumini) are surrounded by substantial outer fortifications with further stone towers. Nuraghi continued to be built during the Phoenician and Carthaginian occupation of the island, right down to the Roman conquest. There are thousands of nuraghi in Sardinia and they remain a prominent feature of the island's landscape today. The Nuraghic culture is associated with a flourishing bronze industry which in its later stages produced a series of attractive figurines and votive models. The megalithic tombs known as 'tombe di giganti' belong to the monuments including sacred wells. The Corsican torre (torri) and Balearic Island talayots share many architectural features with the nuraghi of Sardinia.
Oelknitz: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Upper Palaeolithic site on the Saale River, eastern Germany, dated to 12,542-11,750 bp. There are backed blades, endscrapers, burins, bone points, and Venus figurines. The assemblage is assigned to the Magdalenian.
Olmec: SYNONYM: 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.
Oxus Treasure: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A collection of Persian art of the Achaemenidian period (6th-4th century BC) now in the British Museum, London. It was discovered in 1877 on the bank of the Oxus River near the present Afghanistan-Russian border. This large hoard of gold and silver metalwork included a variety of jewelry, ornamental plaques, figurines, chariot models, and vessels. One of the armlets consists of a circular gold band with its two ends meeting in the form of finely worked griffins.
Ozieri Culture: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Late Neolithic culture of Sardinia, known from caves and open villages, and dated to the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC. It produced elaborately decorated, high-quality pottery. Classic Ozieri decorated ware has been dated to c 4100-3500 BC at the Grotta di Filiestru (Bonu Ighinu). There are rock-cut tombs with Beaker pottery and occasionally copper and silver objects and marble figurines.
Palmela: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cemetery of four Copper Age (Chalcolithic) rock-cut tombs in Setúbal, Portugal, near Lisbon. Each has a kidney-shaped chamber, originally used for collective inhumation, entered by a long passage or through a hole in the roof. The cemetery forms the type site of a culture flourishing in central Portugal c 3800-3200 BC. A variety of amuletic objects in stone includes decorated plano-convex or cylindrical stylized human figurines, crescents, model hoes or adzes, and a pair of sandals from Alapraia. Stonework follows Neolithic traditions, but adds deeply concave-based arrowheads. The tombs were rich in Beaker material, including 50 beakers with copper knives and fragments of gold foil. Pottery, too, follows on from the Almeria culture, though foreign elements have been connected with the dark-slipped Urfirnis ware of Greece. There is also a distinctive type of arrowhead with near-circular copper blade and long tang, the Palmela point. The settlements are likely a variant of the Vila Nova de Sao Pedro culture.
Pavlovian: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic culture found in central and eastern Europe, with the type site at Pavlov in southern Moravia, Czechoslovakia. There, a large settlement of Upper Palaeolithic mammoth-hunters left skeletal remains, hut plans, and numerous art objects. The artifacts include small retouched blades, Gravette points, and animal figurines assigned to the Eastern Gravettian. The radiocarbon dates are 26,730-26,000 bp.
Poverty Point: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in northern Louisiana with a spectacular group of late Archaic sites, c 1300-400 BC in the Woodland stage. The site consisted of six concentric octagons, each formed of earthen ridges that seem to have been used as dwelling areas. There are also two mounds, and from the larger one the vernal and autumnal equinoxes can be observed directly over the center of the village. Artifacts include numerous clay balls used for cooking in lieu of heated stones, microliths, stone smoking pipes and vessels, clay figurines, and fiber-tempered pottery sherds. The clay balls are found in thousands, both here and at other sites in the Lower Mississippi valley. A high level of social organization is indicated by the presence of earthworks like that at Poverty Point, but there is very little evidence of the practice of agriculture.
Predionica: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Late Neolithic settlement of the early Vinca culture in southern Serbia. The first of three occupation horizons has a radiocarbon date of c 4330 BC. Monumental fired-clay figurine heads have been discovered which were made by abstract modeling with plastic features reinforced by incised lines.
Regional Development period: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A term used in Ecuadorian archaeology for the period 500 BC-500 AD, when local adaptation led to the proliferation of regional cultures. The continuum Formative, Regional Development, Integration Period has also been applied to neighboring parts of South and Central America. Some of the Ecuadorian coastal variants produced fine pottery, elaborate figurines, and many small art objects. There are hints of Asiatic influence in the cultures of Bahía and Jama-Coaque, which occupied the coastland from La Plata island to Cape Francisco. The period is characterized by changes in socio-political organization and art styles and technology, which gave rise to region-wide rather than purely local cultures.
Remojadas: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Classic Period center with distinctive pottery, dating to the Late Formative and lasting until the Early Postclassic, southeast of El Tajin near Veracruz, Mexico. Best known are the mold-made 'smiling face' figurines and small wheeled animals. The figurines were turned out in incredible quantity for use as burial goods. Ball-game players and warriors are frequent subjects of the figurines, but women and children are also common. Locally available natural outcrops of asphalt were used as paint to highlight some features of the figurines. Examples of wheeled animals have been found as far afield as Nayarit and El Salvador. Further down the Gulf coast plain, the Remojadas tradition of hollow pottery figurines continued to be active in the Late Classic, with a particularly large production of the mysterious smiling figures of dancing boys and girls, which were intended as funerary offerings.
Salamis (Cyprus): CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A principal city of prehistoric and classic Cyprus, located on the east coast of the island, north of modern Famagusta. According to the Homeric epics, Salamis was founded after the Trojan War by the archer Teucer, who came from the island of Salamis, off Attica. This literary tradition probably reflects the Sea Peoples' occupation of Cyprus (c 1193 BC). Later, the city grew because of its harbor; it became the chief Cypriot outlet for trade with Phoenicia, Egypt, and Cilicia. Salamis came under Persian control in 525 BC. In 306 BC, Demetrius I Poliorcetes of Macedonia won a great naval victory there over Ptolemy I of Egypt. Salamis was sacked in the Jewish revolt of 115-117 AD and suffered repeatedly from earthquakes. It was completely rebuilt by the Christian emperor Constantius II (reigned 337-361 AD) and given the name Constantia. Under Christian rule, Salamis was the metropolitan see of Cyprus. Destroyed again by the Arabs under Mu'awiyah (c 648), the city was then abandoned. There is a large area of surviving ruins, and an extensive necropolis to the west. The Mycenaean settlement was probably at Enkomi. Most remarkable are the so-called 'Royal Tombs', perhaps dating from the Late Geometric period, featuring large dromoi. The burial chambers are constructed of large rectangular blocks and have gable roofs, but were robbed in antiquity. There is an association with horse-and-chariot funerary rites, and horse skeletons still complete with bit in mouth have been discovered. There are also bronze horse accouterments, and cauldron and tripod, and ivory furniture. One tomb shows evidence for an original upper beehive structure or tholos; other tombs are rock-cut and show evidence for rites involving pyres and clay figurines.
Saliagos: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Neolithic village on an islet once part of a peninsula joining Paros and Antiparos in the Cyclades of the Aegean. The community that lived here c 4200-3700 BC lived largely by tunny fishing, although farming was also practiced. Tanged points of Melian obsidian were common, as was painted pottery, with white designs on a dark ground. Parian marble was used to produce stylized fiddle-shaped idols, ancestral to the better known figurines of the later Cycladic Bronze Age.
San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan / San Lorenzo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The oldest-known Olmec center, located in Veracruz, Mexico, and revealing information on Olmec origins. It was a large nucleated village flourishing during the Early Formative. The first phase of occupation (Ojochi, c 1800-1650 BC) left no architectural traces, but during the next period (Bajío, 1650-1550 BC) a start was made on the artificial plateau with lateral ridges forming the base of most subsequent structures. The Chicharras phase (1550-1450 BC) foreshadows true Olmec in its pottery, figurines, and perhaps also in stone-carving. The San Lorenzo phase (1450-1100 BC) marks the Olmec climax at the site, whose layout then resembled that of La Venta. The principal features of the site are a large platform mound and a cluster of smaller mounds surrounding what may be the earliest ball court in Mesoamerica; more than 200 house mounds are clustered around these central features. A system of carved stone drains underlying the site is a unique structural feature. Around 900 BC, the stone monuments were mutilated and buried upon the center's collapse. La Venta then came to power. The monuments weighed as much as 44 tons and were carved from basalt from the Cerro Cintepec, a volcanic flow in the Tuxtla Mountains about 50 air miles to the northwest. It is believed that the stones were somehow dragged down to the nearest navigable stream and from there transported on rafts up the Coatzacoalcos River to the San Lorenzo area. The amount of labor involved must have been enormous, indicating a complex social system to ensure the task's completion. Most striking are the colossal heads human portraits on a stupendous scale, the largest of which is 9 feet high. After a short hiatus, the site was reoccupied by a group whose culture still shows late Olmec affinities (Palangana phase, 800-450 BC), but was again abandoned until 900 AD when it was settled by early post-Classic (Villa Alta) people who used plumbate and fine orange pottery. The collapse of San Lorenzo c 1150/1100 BC was abrupt and violent. The population was forced to do its agricultural work well outside the site, which may have contributed to the center's collapse.
Sarab, Tepe: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Early farming site near Kermanshah in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran dating c 6000-5650 BC. The most unusual finds are two female figurines, in the sitting position with bulging thighs and breasts, but without facial features.
Sawwan, Tell es-: SYNONYM: Tall Sawwan
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the earliest villages discovered in the plain of Mesopotamia, near Samarra, the best-known Samarran period site. A developmental sequence for the painted pottery was very important as was the uncovering of five architectural levels (pottery plain and crude, then monochrome, then polychrome). There is a large group of burials and evidence of crops, early irrigation, domestication of animals. The radiocarbon dates are in the second half of the 6th millennium BC. The earliest known moldmade bricks are from this site, which also has veined alabaster vessels and figurines.
Shaar ha-Golan: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Palestinian type-site of a Neolithic culture of the Jordan Valley, the Yarmukian. Its characteristic artifact is a schematic pebble or clay figurine.
shabti: SYNONYM: Egyptian ushabti, shawabti
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Funerary figurine of Egyptian tombs from the Middle Kingdom, usually mummiform in appearance and carrying agricultural tools. It was developed out of the funerary statuettes and models provided in tombs of Old Kingdom. The shabti was intended to serve as a replacement if the deceased was called upon to perform manual labor in the netherworld. The finest examples were from the New Kingdom, some of Saite date. Made of wood, stone, terra-cotta, or faience, such statuettes were placed in the tombs often in large numbers.
Shahr-i Sokhta: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Tell site in the Seistan district of eastern Iran, close to the Afghan and Pakistan borders, which was the site of a vast urban center of the late 4th-early 2nd millennium BC. As well as abundant structural remains, enormous numbers of finds have been excavated -- thousands of potsherds and stone tools, clay figurines, and animal bones. The wealth of Shahr-i Sokhta was due at least in part to its role in the trade in lapis lazuli between its source in north Afghanistan and the markets of Mesopotamia and Egypt. An industrial area produced thousands of unfinished lapis lazuli beads, as well as flint drills and other tools used in their manufacture. Shahr-i Sokhta also has a huge cemetery, estimated to have contained 200,000 burials. In the early 2nd millennium BC, the course of the Helmand River, on which the city depended, changed; this led to the decline and abandonment of the settlement. The site is still important for understanding the urbanization, production and subsistence techniques, and complex societies of Bronze Age Iran and Afghanistan.
shawabti: SYNONYM: shabti, Egyptian ushabti
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Funerary figurine of Egyptian tombs from the Middle Kingdom, usually mummiform in appearance and carrying agricultural tools. It was developed out of the funerary statuettes and models provided in tombs of Old Kingdom. The shabti was intended to serve as a replacement if the deceased was called upon to perform manual labor in the netherworld. The finest examples were from the New Kingdom, some of Saite date. Made of wood, stone, terra-cotta, or faience, such statuettes were placed in the tombs often in large numbers.
steatite: SYNONYM: 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'.
Strelice: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Small settlement site of the Late Neolithic Lengyel culture in central Moravia, Czechoslovakia and dated to the mid-4th millennium BC. The rich middle Lengyel ritual assemblage included a fired-clay house model showing timber posts and a pitched roof, and the largest group of anthropomorphic figurines in Moravia.
Sur Jangal: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Prehistoric site in the Loralai Valley of northern Baluchistan, Pakistan, with three major phases of occupation probably belong to the later 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Black-on-red painted wares frequently show humped (zebu) and humpless cattle; other artifacts include female figurines of Zhob type.
Szegar-Tuzkoves: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A later Neolithic settlement near Szentes, southeast Hungary. There is an occupation of the Szakalhát (Alföld Linear Pottery) of the late 5th millennium BC and a Tisza culture level dated to the 4th millennium BC. Several complete Tisza culture house plans have been excavated, some with bucrania on the gable ends. Also found was the 'Sickle God', a complete, seated, fired-clay male figurine carrying a sickle.
Tîrpesti: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Settlement site of the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, located in Moldavia, Rumania, and dated to the start of the 4th millennium BC. It is a characteristic promontory site, surrounded by a ditch. The remains of ten fired clay house floors have been discovered, associated with a rich Pre-Cucuteni III pottery assemblage and figurines.
Tanagra: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site in Boeotia, Greece, where a large cache of finely worked, cast terra-cotta figurines were found in Hellenistic period cemeteries spanning the period from c 340-150 BC. There are also Mycenaean chamber tombs in the area. The nearly circular hill of the ancient ruined city was first occupied by the Gephyreans, an Athenian clan. It became the chief town of the eastern Boeotians, with lands extending to the Gulf of Euboea. Tanagra probably assumed leadership of the Boeotian confederacy following the Greco-Persian Wars when it took over the clay-working industry of devastated Thebes.
Tarentum: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Colony of ancient Sparta in southeast Italy. It was founded in the late 8th century BC. Excavations have found Mycenaean pottery, tombs of the Archaic period with Greek pottery; and Apulian pottery and terra-cotta figurines produced in the Classical period. Rome put down resistance in Italy and took Tarentum by siege in 272 BC.
Taruga: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Settlement site on the slopes of the Jos Plateau in central Nigeria of the Iron Age. Terra-cotta figurines of Nok type were found in association with domestic pottery and iron-smelting debris c 5th-3rd centuries BC. The iron-smelting debris and furnaces are among the oldest discovered in West Africa.
Tarxien: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Late Neolithic temple complex in eastern Malta with four temples dated c 3500-2500 BC. Many stone slabs in the walls and courtyards are decorated with relief carvings. The most remarkable find is the lower half of an enormous statue of a 'fat lady', known also from figurines and thought to represent a goddess, and is 2.75 meters high. The temples were abandoned c 2500 BC. In the ruins, Bronze Age people placed a rich cremation cemetery, dating 2500-1500 BC. The Bronze Age culture is named the Tarxien Cemetery culture after this site.
terra-cotta: SYNONYM: terra-cotta
CATEGORY: artifact; structure
DEFINITION: Literally 'baked earth' or 'baked clay'; fired clay which is incompletely fired and still porous. It is used to make artifacts such as vessels, figurines, tablets, spindle whorls, loom weights, or net sinkers. It is a material from which much ancient pottery and other fired clay objects were made. It is also found as a structural material in hearths and kilns, where the clay of which they were built has been baked in use. A special variety of terra-cotta called 'daub' was produced only by accidental burning. Today, the term is applied to statuary, building materials, etc. rather than the better fired modern pottery.
Tlatilco: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Pre-Classic village site right just outside present-day Mexico City, dated to c1500-1000 BC, with a cemetery of more than 500 graves. The graves had local artifacts and some of the Olmec style, including figurines showing clothing types, hairstyles, skin decoration, and various occupations. Although there is no monumental stone architecture, low earth pyramids and bottle-shaped pits filled with household refuse indicate permanent residence. Located on an exit point on the western side of the valley, Tlatilco may possibly have been one of a number of stations on an Olmec trade route Veracruz with the raw material sources of western Mexico.
Tordos: SYNONYM: Turdas
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on the Mures River in Transylvania, Rumania, with archaeological finds dating from the Middle Neolithic Age (3500-2600 BC). Its has given its name to the Transylvanian regional group of the Vinca culture and is often coupled with that of Vinca to describe a Middle Neolithic culture covering parts of Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Hungary. Tordos is the largest Vinca site in Rumania and has a collection of incised signs and a range of fired clay figurines.
Totonac: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A member of a Middle American Indian people of east-central Mexico. The Totonacs occupied the central part of Veracruz in Postclassic Period and possibly in Classic Period. Artifacts from ballgame, scrolls, and figurines are common. The Totonac lived in two environments -- high mesa, cool and rainy (highland Totonac), and coastal lowland, hot and humid (lowland Totonac). In ancient times, both grew corn (maize) and squash as staple crops. Lowland Totonac also kept bees, poultry, and hogs. Highland Totonac kept poultry and raised some livestock. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Cempoala was the great city of the Totonacs with a population of around 30,000. The Totonacs paid tribute to Aztecs. Today, this region is dominated by speakers of Totonac, a distant relative of Mayan, and the Totonac themselves claim that they built El Tajín.
Upper Paleolithic: CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: The final part of the Paleolithic period, from about 40,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago. It was characterized by the development of bladed stone tools and regional stone-tool industries (e.g. Perigordian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian of Europe), the hunting of large herd animals, human burials, the appearance of cave paintings and other art forms, and during which modern humans (Cro-Magnon man) replaced the Neanderthals. There were also localized industries in the Old World and the oldest known cultures of the New World. Upper Paleolithic industries exhibit greater complexity, specialization, and variety of tool types and distinctive regional artistic traditions emerged. This includes small sculptures (clay and stone figurines, ivory carvings), monumental paintings, incised designs, and reliefs on the walls of caves.
ushabti: SYNONYM: shabti
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Small wooden or glazed-stone mummiform figurines placed in Egyptian tombs of the Middle Kingdom onwards. They were to undertake work on behalf of the deceased, who might be called upon to perform manual labor in the afterlife.
Valac: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Small hilltop settlement of the Late Vinca phase, c 3950 BC, near Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo, Serbia. The single occupation level has poor ceramics, but each house has a rich ritual assemblage with fired clay zoomorphic figurines known as 'centaurs'.
Valdivia: CATEGORY: culture; site
DEFINITION: Early Formative period site on Ecuador's coast, and the name of a Formative period culture c 3200 BC. The type-site flourished beginning sometime before 3800 BC and lasting until c 1400 BC. Its pottery is among the oldest in the New World. Radiocarbon dates, stratification of midden deposits, and considerable stylistic variation in the highly distinctive ceramic complex have facilitated the construction of a chronology. The periods are: A: 3200-2300 BC; B: 2300-2000 BC; C: 2000-1500 BC and D: 1500-1400 BC. Characteristically, ceramics have a gray body, are smoothly polished and decorated with incision, rocker stamping, and appliqué. Decoration is typically only on the upper part of the vessel and all vessels are utilitarian rather than ritual. Periods C and D contained some traded sherds from Machalilla. Figurines in stone and ceramic appear after Period B with the ceramics usually portraying stylized nude females often with a distinctive 'page boy' hairstyle. Valdivia sites consist of coastal shell mounds left by fishermen and shellfish collectors, and also villages (Real Alto) of maize farmers.
Valencia: SYNONYM: Valencoid subtradition
CATEGORY: ceramics; culture
DEFINITION: Ceramic complex of red-colored jars, one of the best known in Venezuela and found on a number of mound sites in north central part of country. The shapes of huge human figurines with flat, wide heads are very distinctive. Typically the pottery is coarse and sand- or mica-tempered. Decoration may be appliqué work, rectilinear incision, or modeled human faces with coffee-bean eyes. It is c 1000-1500 AD and possibly derived from Arauquim complex or from the La Cabrera phase of the Barrancoid series.
Vetulonia: SYNONYM: Etruscan Vetluna
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Principal Etruscan city and, according to traditional sources, one of the confederation of twelve. The original settlement was probably early Iron Age (Villanovan) and it prospered between the 9th-6th centuries BC. There are Villanovan pits, biconical ossuaries (a type of circular tomb with a tumulus), and some monumental tholos-like vaulted examples. The grave goods are often rich, of gold, silver, and particularly bronze. From the Tomba della Pietrera have come the earliest examples of Etruscan stone statuary, which are flat, rectilinear figurines.
Vinca: SYNONYM: Vinca culture
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: Large tell just outside Belgrade, Serbia, spanning c 5000-3500 BC. Its lowest level consisted of Starcevo material; the next of Middle and Late Neolithic are Vinca-Tordos and Vinca-Plocnik. The pottery is typically dark burnished with fluting, channeling, and simple incised decoration. It was a settled farming community that was also important in trade. Many anthropomorphous figurines are found on Vinca sites as well as copper artifacts and evidence of copper mining. It is one of a group of cultures important in development of copper metallurgy.
Vladimirovka: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the largest sites of the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture in the Ukraine's Bug Valley, dated to the late 4th millennium BC. The settlement consists of over 200 complete huts of the Polshchadki type organized in five concentric rings on a broad promontory. Amongst the rich domestic assemblages of Cucuteni B pottery were numerous house and shrine models and many fired clay anthropomorphic figurines.
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.
Willendorf: SYNONYM: Willendorf II
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Upper Palaeolithic site on the River Danube near Krems, Austria with five Willedorfian or Eastern Gravettian levels (c 32,000 bp) and lower levels of the Aurignacian (c 41,700-39,500 bp). The Gravettian yielded art objects, including a famous Venus figurine. Willendorf II had an early Aurignacian settlement and sequence of classic industries in central Europe.
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.

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