Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for function:

distance-decay function: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: distance decay
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A mathematical expression of the inverse ratio between the quantity of a substance and the distance from its source; the rate at which interaction declines as the distance from the source increases. This function is a specific example of linear regression analysis and can be used to describe the relationship between the amount of a given commodity found at any point and the place from which it was exported. The patterns and mathematical expressions help to distinguish different forms of trade and exchange. In general, distance-decay varies with the value of the object traded, with the richer items spreading further from the source.
eco-functional theory: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Any theory which posits that human culture is an adaptation to the environment and thus culture functions to maintain humans and the environment in a sustainable balance.
function: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: functional concept
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The purpose or use of a component within a culture. The second goal of archaeological research is analysis of data and their relationships to determine function and thus reconstruct and create synchronic descriptions of ancient behavior. It is a model of culture that is keyed to the functions of its various components, which unite into a single system or structure.
functional attribute: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Any characteristic of an object that indicates its function, such as its form or a residue from an activity for which it was used.
functional type: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type based on cultural use or function rather than on outward form or chronological position
functional type: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Classification based on cultural use or function rather than on outward form or chronological position.
functional typology: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: functional type
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Classification based on cultural use or function rather than on outward form or chronological position.
ideofunction: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: adj ideofunctional
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The use of an object for ideological purposes; for example, the wearing of a special garment as part of a religious ceremony.
sociofunction: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The use of an object for social purposes, to express social status or organization, such as the wearing of a certain garment to convey high social status.
technofunction: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: adj. technofunctional or technomic
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The use of an artifact for practical purposes; e.g., garments offering warmth or protection.
utilitarian function: CATEGORY: typology
DEFINITION: The physical functions of artifacts distinguished form symbolic or ideological functions.
allometry: CATEGORY: measure
DEFINITION: A scaling of body parts in animals so that the measurement of one part is a function of the measurement of another part.
analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: analytical archaeology
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A stage in archaeological research design that involves isolating, describing, and structuring data, usually by typological classification, along with chronological, functional, technological, and constituent determinations. The research involves artifactual and nonartifactual data. The method evolved from the tendency to formalize the archaeological process, especially through the work of LR Binford, DL Clarke, and JC Gardin. Computer science and mathematics are used to elaborate the means for transforming simple descriptions of archaeological data into cultural, economic, and social reconstructions of earlier societies. This type of research is attempts to provide archaeology with a theoretical framework based on scientific method.
appliqué: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A ceramic finishing technique that involves joining shaped pieces of plastic body to a leather-hard surface by pressure. The applied pieces can be functional, as with handles, or decorative, as the rope" decoration and modeled figures."
Arpachiyah: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: 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.
association: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: associated
CATEGORY: term; technique
DEFINITION: The co-occurrence of two or more objects sharing the same general location and stratigraphic level and that are thought to have been deposited at approximately the same time (being in or on the same matrix). Objects are said to be in association with each other when they are found together in a context which suggests simultaneous deposition. Associations between objects are the basis for relative dating or chronology and the concept of cross-dating as well as in interpretation -- cultural connections, original function, etc. Pottery and flint tools associated in a closed context would be grounds for linking them into an assemblage, possibly making the full material culture of a group available. The association of undated objects with artifacts of known date allows the one to be dated by the other. When two or more objects are found together and it can be proved that they were deposited together, they are said to be in genuine or closed association. Examples of closed associations are those within a single interment grave, the material within a destruction level, or a hoard. An open association is one in which this can only be assumed, not proved. Artifacts may be found next to each other and still not be associated; one of the artifacts may be intrusive.
Atlantic Bronze Age: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: carp's tongue sword complex
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A late Bronze Age metalworking industry which developed on the west coast of France (Brittany to Gironde) c 1000-500 BC and spread to southern England and Iberia. The unifying factor of these areas was very active trading along the Atlantic seaways. It is known from a large number of hoards with typical products being the carp's tongue sword, end-winged ax, hog-backed razor, and bugle-shaped object of uncertain function. The tradition flourished west of the area dominated by the central European Urnfield cultures.
atlatl: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: atl-atl, spear thrower
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A New World version of a spear-throwing device, used by the Aztecs and other peoples of the Americas. It consisted of a wooden shaft used to propel a spear or dart and it functioned like an extension of the arm, providing more thrusting leverage. Atlatl weights are objects of stone fastened to the throwing stick for added weight. These may be perforated so that the stick passes through the artifact, or they may be grooved for lashing to the stick. In western North America it was the main hunting weapon from about 6500 BC till 500 AD.
atlatl or atl-atl: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: spear thrower
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A New World version of a spear-throwing device, used by the Aztecs and other peoples of the Americas. It consisted of a wooden shaft used to propel a spear or dart and it functioned like an extension of the arm, providing more thrusting leverage. Atlatl weights are objects of stone fastened to the throwing stick for added weight. These may be perforated so that the stick passes through the artifact, or they may be grooved for lashing to the stick. In western North America it was the main hunting weapon from about 6500 BC till 500 AD.
ax: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: axe
CATEGORY: lithics
DEFINITION: One of the last major categories of stone tool to be invented, around the end of the last Ice Age in the Palaeolithic. A flat, heavy cutting tool of stone or metal (bronze) in which the cutting edge is parallel to the haft and which might have the head and handle in one piece. Its main function was for woodworking (hewing, cleaving, or chopping trees) but it was also used as a weapon of war, as the battle-ax. There are many forms of ax, depending on the different materials and methods of hafting. The word ax" is now used instead of celt. "Hand-ax" is used to denote the earlier implement which was not hafted. In Mesolithic times stone axes were usually chipped from a block of flint and could be resharpened by the removal of a flake from the end. In the Neolithic axes were polished and often perforated to aid hafting. Axes are now usually iron with a steel edge or blade and fixed by means of a socket in the handle. Smaller lighter ones are called hatchets."
ax-hammer: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: axe-hammer, axe-adze, hammer-axe
CATEGORY: artifact; lithics
DEFINITION: A tool consisting of an ax and a hammer combined, i.e. a shaft-hole ax having a hammer knob in addition. It was primarily a weapon of war, combining the functions of battle-ax and mace.
baton perce: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: perforated baton
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic artifact, occasionally encountered in Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Solutrean assemblages but more typically found in Magdalenian toolkits. It consists of a decorated cylinder of antler with a hole through the thickest part. The baton may be decorated with intricate carving. Its function is unknown, although it is generally interpreted as a shaft-straightener, from the use-wear in and around the hole.
batter: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: batter (v.)
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The slope of a wall, pier, terrace, or bank, from the perpendicular; a receding slope, etc. The term also refers to the slope of a structure built specifically to increase the stability of a wall; usually subterranean. This functional and decorative technique was regularly employed for the walls of mastaba tombs as well as the enclosure walls of Egyptian temples, where it was associated with pan bedding and sectional construction. Inclination is expressed as one foot horizontally per vertical unit (in feet).
battle-ax: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: battleaxe, battle-axe
CATEGORY: lithics
DEFINITION: A type of prehistoric stone weapon, designed as a weapon of war. It is always of the shaft-hole variety, and frequently has a hammer, knob, or point at the opposite end from the cutting edge. In stone, they are common throughout most of Europe in the Late Neolithic and Copper Age, and often associated with corded ware and beakers. (The term Battle-Ax culture is often used as a synonym for Corded Ware or Single Grave culture.) Further east, more elaborate ones of copper or gold were more ceremonial than functional. The Vikings made iron battle-axes and used them well into the Middle Ages. The pole-ax is distinguished from the battle-ax by a spike on the back of the ax.
Bayesian analysis: CATEGORY: measure
DEFINITION: A probability approach that compares the uncertainty of any parameter before and after observing new data. Bayes' theorem provides the basis for combining the prior information with the data to result in a posterior statement, which also has a probability function.
beetle: CATEGORY: fauna
DEFINITION: Any member of the insect order Coleoptera, with at least 250,000 species (the largest order in the animal kingdom), characterized by their special forewings, which are modified into hardened wing covers (elytra) that cover a second pair of functional wings. The order includes some of the largest and smallest insects and is the most widely distributed insect order. Beetles can be found in all environments except Antarctica and the peaks of the highest mountains. Most feed either upon other animals or upon plants, but some eat decaying matter. Many beetles are very dependent on particular features of their environment; some, for example, live only in the bark of a particular tree. It is this particularity" that makes beetles useful for reconstructing ancient environments. Parts of the tough beetle exo-skeleton may be well-preserved in acidic or waterlogged conditions (as in peats silts and lake clays). The temperature preferences of beetles may be determined from the fossils making it possible to reconstruct climatic changes. Beetles can also be used to investigate changes in vegetation living conditions and food-storage problems."
bell-shaped cist: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A large pit whose greatest diameter is substantially larger than the diameter of its opening. A storage function is implied.
belt hook: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: toggle
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Small decorative and functional objects used as garment hooks in China, Korea, and other Near Eastern areas as early as the 7th century BC. Belt hooks have been found in Han tombs in southwestern China, but this luxury item was most in vogue during the Warring States period (5th-3rd centuries BC). These belt hooks were inlaid with gold or silver foil, polished fragments of turquoise, or more rarely with jade or glass; sometimes they were gilded. Most examples are bronze, often lavishly decorated with inlays, but some are made of jade, gold, or iron. The belt hook consists of a bar or flat strip curving into a hook at one end and carrying at the other end, on the back, a button for securing it to the belt. The hooks vary widely in size, shape, and design, and although contemporary sculptures sometimes show them at the waists of human figures, some examples are far too large to have been worn and their function is unclear. Textual evidence hints that the belt hook was adopted by the Chinese from the mounted nomads of the northern frontier of inner Asia, perhaps along with other articles of the horseman's costume. They were probably worn by both men and women.
boat-shaped buildings: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, there is evidence of a variety of longhouse with bowed sides during the Viking period. The finest examples have been excavated at 11th-century Viking camps such as Trelleborg in southern Jutland. A reconstructed example there has walls made of halved tree trunks set in rows, with the curved face outwards as in stave churches. A series of angled posts around the outside acted as buttresses and gave additional support to the gabled roof with its curved ridge. The roof may have been covered in wooden shingles, thatch, or turf. There is considerable variation in boat-shaped houses, depending on function and location. Two British examples are a boat-shaped building in Hamwih and another in Bucken.
bodkin: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A sharp slender instrument for making holes or for other functions. It may be shaped like a dagger, stiletto, hairpin. The term is also used for a blunt needle with a large eye for drawing tape or ribbon through a loop or hem.
bossed bone plaque: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Objects of unknown function made from long animal bones and carved with a row of bosses -- circular, square, or oval ornamental motifs. Examples from Lerna, Troy, and Altamira date to the late 3rd millennium BC. The finest have engraved decoration also. A series from Castelluccio, Sicily, with outliers in Italy and Malta, are curved in cross-section and dated just before 2500 BC.
butcher marks: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: cut marks, chop marks, scrapes
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Marks made on animal bone by stone tools during butchering. These marks are used to associate humans with animal remains for a relative date. The marks are classified according to form and function as cut marks, chop marks, and scrapes.
caliph: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: calif, khalifah
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Any of the successors of Muhammad (Mohammed) as rulers and religious leaders of the Muslim community, the most powerful being those of the Umayyad and 'Abbasid dynasties. A caliphate is the Islamic empire ruled by a caliph. When Muhammad died (June 8, 632), Abu Bakr succeeded to his political and administrative functions as khalifah rasul Allah, successor of the Messenger of God but it was probably under 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, that the term caliph came into use as a title of the civil and religious head of the Muslim state. Abu Bakr and his three immediate successors are known as the perfect" caliphs. There were then 14 Umayyad caliphs and 38 'Abbasid caliphs whose dynasty fell to the Mongols in 1258. There were titular caliphs from 1258-1517 when the last caliph was captured by the Ottoman sultan Selim I. The Ottoman sultans then claimed the title and used it until it was abolished by the Turkish Republic in 1924."
calpulli: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Corporate group in Aztec society which functioned above the level of the household. Calpullis had social, political, and economic functions. They occupied whole villages or neighborhoods of towns and cities; members corporately held rights to farm plots as long as they continued to use them.
carination: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A sharp break or angle in the curve of the profile of a container or vessel, which resulted in a projecting angle or arris. On ancient jars or pots, it appeared as a sharply angled shoulder dividing the neck from the body of the vessel. It has been considered to be a purely stylistic feature derived from metal prototypes, but it may also be that carination may have had a practical function -- for example, for retaining dregs from a liquid while pouring.
central place theory: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: central-place theory
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: In geography, a theory concerning the size and distribution of central places (settlements) within a system or region. The primary purpose of a settlement or market town, according to central-place theory, is the provision of goods and services for the surrounding market area. Such towns are centrally located and may be called central places. As applied to archaeology, the theory states that human settlements will space themselves evenly across a landscape as a function of the availability of natural resources, communication and transportation routes, and other factors. Eventually, these will evolve into a hierarchy of settlements of different size that depend on one another. Central-place theory attempts to illustrate how settlements locate in relation to one another, the amount of market area (goods and services) a central place can control, and why some central places function as hamlets, villages, towns, or cities. The theory was first developed by German geographer Walter Christaller. Christaller's theory concentrated on centers of different order, since in a complex system there will be some larger centers offering more specialized services to a wider area; there may indeed be many levels of such centers in a complex settlement hierarchy. Christaller's model has been modified by other geographers, especially August Losch. The theory may suggest ways in which the factors have affected the settlement pattern. Central place theory has found useful applications in archaeology as a preliminary heuristic device.
ceremonial object: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Any artifact associated with a ritual or ceremony or that functions only in a symbolic sense, as opposed to a tool or other practical device.
chief steward: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: steward
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: In Egypt's New Kingdom and Late Period, the title of the administrator of an estate of the temple of a god, the king or his mortuary temple, of a member of the royal family, or even a private individual. Because of the economic importance of the function, chief stewards were very influential. One, Senenmut, combined the offices of Chief Steward of Amun, of Queen Hatshepsut, and of Princess Neferure. He designed and built Queen Hatshepsut's temple near the tomb of Mentuhotep II at Deir al-Bahri. Amenhotpe Huy, the brother of Ramose, was Chief Steward of Memphis in the reign of Amenophis III.
church: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A building used for collective Christian worship, the performance of ceremonies, pilgrimages, and the veneration of relics. The earliest churches were hidden in caves and catacombs. With the official acceptance of Christianity in the 4th century, larger buildings were built specifically for communal worship. In the early Christian period, baptisteries, martyria, and covered cemeteries often remained separate on the side of the building. Although the usual form of churches has been the hall or axial plan, other forms have also been used: circular, polygonal, or cross-shaped. The plan and appearance of a church is determined by its liturgical and ceremonial functions and by other symbolic and spiritual considerations.
classification: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The ordering of archaeological data that share certain attributes or characteristics into groups and classes; the divisions arrived at by such a process. Classification is the first step in the analysis of archaeological data -- when particles or objects are sorted or categorized by established criteria, such as size, function, material, or color.
clearing excavation: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any excavation designed primarily to reveal the horizontal and, by inference, functional dimensions of an archaeological site -- such as the extent, distribution, and patterning of buried data.
cognitive-processual approach: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An alternative to the functional-processual approach, this theory is concerned with the cognitive and symbolic aspects of early societies and the role of ideology as an organizational force.
conjunctive approach: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A methodological alternative to traditional normative archaeology, developed by Walter W. Taylor in 1948. In it, the full range of a culture system is to be taken into consideration in explanatory models, with explicit connection of archaeological objects within their cultural contexts. Ancient behavior is reconstructed by defining functional sets of archaeological data.
construct: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The most basic level of archaeological theory, referring to concepts through which time, space, form, and function are perceived and interpreted.
context, systematic: CATEGORY: term; technique
DEFINITION: Artifacts and features as they functioned in the behavioral system that produced or used them.
copper: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A ductile, malleable metallic element used in many functional and decorative artifacts. It was one of the first metals to be exploited by man because, like gold, it can be found in the native form, pure and requiring no smelting. It is most frequently obtained from a variety of ores: the carbonate (malachite), oxides, and sulphides. Shaping could be done by simple hammering, which served also to harden the metal. 'Pure' copper may contain up to one per cent of impurities and the concentrations of these impurities may indicate the source of the ore. Arsenical copper alloys (2-3% arsenic) have some advantages over pure copper in ease of casting and in the hardness of a hammered edge. In the New World, cire perdue casting of copper is first recorded in the Paracas culture of Peru and by the European conquest, the technique was practiced from the southwest U.S. to Argentina. Copper occurs fairly widely in the Old World, and was first used in Western Asia before 8000 BC as a substitute for stone, though it did not come into common use until after 4000 BC. Metallurgy dawned in Egypt as copper was cast to shape in molds (c 4000 BC), was reduced to metal from ores with fire and charcoal, and was intentionally alloyed with tin as bronze (c 3500 BC). The earliest surviving examples from Egypt are small artifacts such as beads and borers of the Badarian period, c 5500-4000 BC. Great copper hoards occur in the Ganges-Yamuna alluvial plain and just south of the lower Ganges, and elsewhere in India and Pakistan.
cultural materialism: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A research strategy that assumes that technological, economic, and ecological processes are the components of every sociocultural system. Developed by Marvin Harris, an anthropological historian, who saw functionalism in the social sciences as being similar to adaptation" in biology. His work on the surplus controversy and ethnoenergetic exchange in primitive cultures led him to comparisons with medieval European economies in which he saw two distinct types feudalism and manorialism."
cultural processual approach: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: cultural process
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A deductive approach to archaeological research that is designed to study the changes and interactions in cultural systems and the processes by which human cultures change throughout time. A cultural process is the cumulative cause-and-effect of the mechanisms and interactions within a culture that produce stability and/or change. The delineation of cultural process is one of the goals of archaeological research. Processual archaeologists use both descriptive and explanatory models based on functional, ecological, or multilinear cultural evolutionary concepts of culture.
culture complex: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: An integrated group of cultural traits functioning as a distinct system within a culture area.
cursus: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A Neolithic ritual monument consisting of a long narrow enclosure or avenue delineated by banks and external ditches. William Stukeley coined the term for the Stonehenge example which is more than 3 km long. These monuments clearly represent a very considerable investment of labor for Neolithic communities, but their function remains unknown. This type of monument is found only in Britain, and belongs to the later part of the Neolithic. The Dorset Cursus (the longest known example) in Cranborne Chase is six miles long, 100 yards wide, flanked by banks and external ditch, and is the largest prehistoric monument in Britain.
Cuvier, Georges (1769-1832): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: French zoologist who was the founder of comparative anatomy and paleontology. He was an expert on fossil bones and one of the most influential proponents of catastrophism". Although Cuvier's theory of catastrophism did not last he based the science of palaeontology on a firm empirical foundation. He introduced fossils into zoological classification showing the progressive relation between rock strata and their fossil remains and by demonstrated in his comparative anatomy and his reconstruction of fossil skeletons the importance of functional and anatomical relationships."
decoration: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: One or more of a series of modifications made on pottery for purposes that are mainly nonfunctional.
discriminant analysis: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of multivariate analysis in which new variables are calculated from the original, large number of variables and this function is combined with classification. Discriminant functions are especially calculated to show up differences between previously defined groups of items (e.g. artifacts from several different sites), whereas principal components do not make any distinction between groups. The object of the classification is to see how widely separated the multivariate distributions of a number of previously defined groups of items are in hyperspace. The results are presented as a classification results table in which the known grouping of items is compared with the most likely grouping, calculated from the variables supplied from the analysis. An example of useful classification would be in comparing groups of skulls from different sites on the basis of their measurements.
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.
embossing: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: The raising of portions of a ceramic piece to form decorative or functional patterns.
Etowah: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large temple mound site in northern Georgia, of the Mississippian tradition and dating from the Temple Mound II period, c 1200-1700 AD. There was a fortified farming village with three temple mounds, which appears to have functioned mainly as a ceremonial center. In North America only Monk's Mound at Cahokia contains a greater volume than Etowah's 20-meter high mound. The artifacts include Lamar pottery (an elaborately stamped or incised utilitarian ware), under life-size stone statues of humans usually in a sitting or kneeling position, and Southern Cult paraphernalia.
extrinsic attribute: CATEGORY: typology
DEFINITION: Any attribute of an object that is not inherent in the object -- context in time, space, function, society, psychological state in which object was found, made, used, seen, or discarded.
face urn: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A jar with a human face, usually in appliqué technique, formed on the shoulder. The function of these vessels was often funerary. There are also flagons with faces molded on the neck.
fibula: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. fibulae
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: In antiquity, a clasp, buckle, or brooch of various designs, usually shaped like a modern safety pin. It was often used for fastening a draped garment such as a toga or cloak, made of bronze, gold, silver, ivory, etc.; and consisted of a bow, pin, and catch. It is the Latin word for brooch" and is so named for the outer of two bones of lower leg or hindlimb which together with the tibia resemble an ancient brooch. The earliest examples date to around 1300 BC. There are two main families of fibulae. In the south they were made in one piece starting with the Peschiera or violin bow form in northern Italy and Mycenaean Greece. From this developed the arc fibula north of the Mediterranean and the harp and spectacle fibulae in the eastern Alps in the years around 1000 BC. From the Certosa form was derived the long series of La Tène Iron Age varieties. Even wider variation is found among the succeeding Roman fibulae leading on to the final forms in the Saxon and Migration periods. Around the same time there was an apparently independent development in northern Europe of the two-piece variety. Fibula types include: violin bow arc elbowed serpentine dragon harp disk with 'elastic bow' leech boat two-piece fibula spiral La Tène I III. Fibula terms include: catchplate pin spring bow stilt elongated catchplate disk catchplate knobbed (Certosa) catchplate. Although primarily functional fibulas were often also highly decorated items of personal adornment sometimes inlaid with glass and precious stones. An enormous number of different types of fibulae were made and they can often be a useful guide to dating."
form: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: formal difference, formal dimension, form attribute, form analysis, form type
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The physical characteristics -- size, shape, composition, arrangement -- of any archaeological find or any component of a culture. Form is an essential part of attribute analysis; in archaeological research, the first objective is to describe and analyze the physical attributes of data to determine distributions in time and space and leads to form classifications. For example, the shape of a pot or other tool directly reflects its function.
forum: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. fora
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The administrative center and marketplace of a Roman town, usually placed at the intersection of the main streets, the decumanus and cardo. The square served as a meeting- and/or market-place; it answered the Greek agora. Public notices were displayed on the basilica. Inside the basilica, the court of law would meet, functions of the town hall carried out, and businessmen would discuss deals. The forum was the main shopping center, with rows of shops having colonnades in front, most having open fronts to the forum. The main baths and temples were adjacent to the forum. The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) was important from the time of the republic onwards and various emperors built fora of their own: Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, Nerva, and Trajan. Most include a temple (sometimes the capitolium), peristyle courtyard, basilica, comitium, and curia.
Gaussian distribution: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: bell curve, normal distribution
CATEGORY: measure
DEFINITION: A probability density function for continuous interval data.
ge: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ko
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A dagger-ax, the characteristic weapon of the Chinese Bronze Age during the Shang Dynasty and then made from iron from the Zhou Dynasty onwards. The dagger-shaped bronze blade, usually with a flat tang but occasionally with a shaft hole, was mounted perpendicular to the wooden shaft. The blade had a crosspiece parallel to the shaft to help hold it in place. Bronze Age blades and non-functional jade replicas of blades often appear as mortuary gifts in Shang tombs. The earliest ge yet known have come from Erlitou, c mid-2nd millennium BC. In the Eastern Zhou period the ge was sometimes combined with a spear, the ge blade at right angles to the spearhead, to form a ji. The ji was in existence by the late 6th or early 5th century BC. They are chopping implements.
geoglyph: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Nasca lines; Nazca Lines
CATEGORY: artifact; lithics
DEFINITION: Any ground-constructed example of rock art, such as intaglios or rock alignments; straight lines, geometric shapes, and other representative designs found on the desert plain. Geoglyphs can be formed by piling up materials on the ground surface or by removing surface materials and most suggest a largely ceremonial function.
hacha: CATEGORY: lithics
DEFINITION: A thin-bladed axe" thought to have had a ceremonial function for the Maya with a possible connection to the ball game tlachtli."
helmet: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Protective headgear that goes back almost as far as evidence for warfare. The basic function was to protect the head, face, and sometimes the neck from the cutting blows of swords, spears, arrows, and other weapons. The Assyrians and Persians had helmets of leather and iron, and the Greeks created bronze helmets, some of which covered the entire head, with only a narrow opening in front for vision and breathing. The Romans developed several forms of helmets, including the round legionary's helmet and the special gladiator's helmet, with broad brim and pierced visor, giving exceptional protection to head, face, and neck. The troops on the Royal Standard of Ur wear leather helmets. The Blue Crown worn by pharaoh in the New Kingdom of Egypt was a war helmet. One type covered with boar's tusks was current among the Mycenaeans. More obviously for parade than war are the bronze examples from the European Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Among the Villanovans the cinerary urn was often covered with the helmet of the dead warrior. Several fine examples from Britain are decorated with Celtic art. The New World has yielded helmets made of gold and of wood encrusted with turquoise mosaic. The term 'helm' was applied by both Saxons and Normans, in the 11th century, to the conical steel cap with a noseguard, the common head piece of the day. Helmet is the diminutive of helm.
hierarchy: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Any organization of a group of items into a series of classes ranked from high to low, each successively higher class having fewer members. In a social hierarchy, the ranking would reflect differences in power, prestige, or access to economic resources. In a settlement hierarchy, the individual sites might be organized on the basis of population size or number of functions fulfilled into a series of classes such as town, village, and hamlet.
higher-order central place: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A large and functionally diverse community in a regional hierarchy of communities differentiated by number, size, and function.
hinge: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A joint that holds two parts together so that one can swing relative to the other; a natural joint that performs a similar function, for example that of a bivalve shell.
histogram: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A graphical representation of a distribution function by means of rectangles whose widths represent intervals into which the range of observed values is divided and whose heights represent the number of observations occurring in each interval. For example, if measurements of length have been taken for bronze spearheads from one particular area and period, the measurements are represented by marking off intervals of lengths on the horizontal axis, and counting the number of spearheads falling into each division. These numbers are marked off on the vertical axis. In order to compare one set of data with another, or others, a cumulative version of the histogram may be used, where the succeeding values are added to the preceding: these are called cumulative frequency polygons, and are useful for comparative work, but are difficult to use if single histograms need to be extracted. A useful way to assess the density of rocks is to make a histogram plot of the statistical range of a set of data. The representative value and its variation can be expressed as follows: (1) mean, the average value, (2) mode, the most common value (i.e., the peak of the distribution curve), (3) median, the value of the middle sample of the data set (i.e., the value at which half of the samples are below and half are above), and (4) standard deviation, a statistical measure of the spread of the data (plus and minus one standard deviation from the mean value includes about two-thirds of the data).
homology: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A type of reasoning by analogy, where two phenomena separated in time are similar because of an historic or genetic connection. In biology, similarity of the structure, physiology, or development of different species of organisms based upon their descent from a common evolutionary ancestor. Homology is contrasted with analogy, which is a functional similarity of structure based not upon common evolutionary origins but upon mere similarity of use.
ideofact: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Archaeological material resulting from past human ideological activities. Any object whose function is to express or symbolize the beliefs of a people rather than to serve practical or social needs.
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.
industry: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A frequently repeated assemblage of a particular material or function, i.e. flake industry, flint industry. Such an assemblage of artifacts including the same types so consistently suggests that it is the product of a single society. The term also describes a large grouping of artifacts that is considered to represent or identify a particular people or culture, e.g. the Acheulian industry. If more than one class of objects (e.g. flint tools or bronze weapons) is found, it is a culture"."
iron: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A ductile, malleable, magnetic metallic element, used to make artifacts of both practical and decorative function. Its oxide form, hematite, is found naturally and the technique of ironworking was mastered around 1500 BC by the Hittites. Iron began to spread and replace bronze for man's basic tools and weapons -- the start of the Iron Age. Early in the 1st millennium BC, iron industries were established in Greece and Italy, and by 500 BC, iron had replaced bronze for the manufacture of tools and weapons throughout Europe. The pre-Columbian New World, however, did not develop iron technology. Iron smelting is more complicated than for copper or tin, since the first smelt gives only slaggy lumps, the bloom. Hammering at red heat is then required to expel stone fragments and combine carbon with the iron to make in effect a steel; the resulting metal is far superior to copper or tin. The two basic methods of working it are by forging -- hammering into shape at red heat -- and casting. The Chinese used the latter method as early as the 5th century BC, but it was not employed in Europe until the Middle Ages. The first evidence of iron smelting in Egypt dates to the 6th century BC. Large-scale steel manufacture depends on the production of cast iron, which in Europe dates only from the 14th century AD. The West did not enter the 'Age of Steel' until the 19th century with the invention of the Bessemer and Siemens processes, which are industrial processes for obtaining liquid metal of any desired carbon content by the decarburization of cast iron. Steel was made in China within a few centuries of the first known use of smelted iron. In principle, modern techniques descended from China's casting techniques.
kana: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: The Japanese writing system, developed in the ninth century AD from simplified Chinese characters. There are two types of kana (hiragana and katakana) syllabaries, each with symbols for 46 basic sounds and each of which independently represents all the sounds of the language. Although each derives its simple elements from Chinese characters, the two serve different purposes and differ stylistically. Katakana symbols, which are more angular, are used for foreign words, telegrams, and some children's books and often for advertising in print media, television, and billboards. Hiragana, a cursive, graceful writing system that is used in modern Japanese primarily to perform grammatical functions. In theory, any sound in Japanese can be written using one of the kana systems, but in practice, a combination of the two, together with Chinese characters, is used.
lekane: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: In Greek antiquity, large open basin, usually with two horizontal handles and used in the common household. It was probably multipurpose in function. Some had a cover or lid.
Lindholme Hoje: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Lindholm Hills
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on the northern shore of Limfjord in Jutland, used as a gravefield from the prehistoric period until the Viking era, including a Viking ship cemetery. In the 11th century it was overlaid by a Viking village which functioned as a small trading and industrial settlement. One interesting find was a spoked wagon wheel. The settlement went out of use around 1100 due to the silting-up of the fjord and continual sand drifts.
Lindisfarne: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Holy Island
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Island off the coast of Northumberland, northeast England, where in 634, St. Aidan and other monks from Iona founded a monastery. It became a center for producing illuminated manuscripts (Lindisfarne Gospel, c 700) and works of art of the Northumbrian school. In 793, it was subjected to the first Viking (Danes) raid on England and the monastery only functioned intermittently afterwards. There are no traces of the earliest buildings; the church, cloister, ranges and walls visible today all date to the Norman Benedictine abbey. Lindisfarne's past is reflected in the manuscripts that have survived, St. Cuthbert's coffin, and some carved sculpture. It was connected to the coast of Northumberland only at low tide.
line graph: CATEGORY: measure
DEFINITION: A type of graph that depicts how the value of some attribute on the y-axis varies as a function of an attribute on the x-axis.
logogram: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: logograph
CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A written or pictorial symbol intended to represent a whole word. Writing systems that make use of logograms include Chinese, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, and early cuneiform writing systems. No known writing system is totally logographic; all such systems have both logograms and symbols representing particular sounds or syllables. A logogram represents a frequently recurring word or phrase, differing from a determinative in that it furnishes additional information instead of classifying information already given. Many scripts contain a class of logograms, such as $, =, +, and numeric signs in English. Abbreviations, though composed of phonograms, are logographic in function.
lower-order central place: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A small and functionally simple community in a regional hierarchy of communities differentiated by number, size, and function.
Memphis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Men-nefer
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The capital of Egypt in the Archaic Period and Old Kingdom (c 2575-c. 2130 BC), and thereafter one of the most important cities of the Near East. Located in Lower Egypt, it stood near the key point where the Nile begins to divide its waters at the head of the delta, 15 miles south of Cairo. The only surviving remains are the cemeteries west of the city, most notably the pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza. The main pyramid fields are: Abu Ruwaysh, Giza, Zawayet el-Aryan, Abu Sir, Saqqarah (Saqqara), and Dahshur. It is said to have been founded by the 1st Dynasty ruler Menes c 2925 BC and was the seat of the creator god Ptah. During the New Kingdom (1539-1075), Memphis probably functioned as the second, or northern, capital of Egypt. Despite the rise of the god Amon of Thebes, Ptah remained one of the principal gods of the pantheon. The Great Temple was added to or rebuilt by virtually every king of the 18th dynasty. Chapels were constructed by Thutmose I and Thutmose IV and by Amenhotep III. Amenhotep III's son, the religious reformer Akhenaton, built a temple to his god, Aton, in Memphis. A number of handsome private tombs dating from this period in the Memphite necropolis testify to the existence of a sizable court. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great used Memphis as his headquarters while making plans for his new city of Alexandria. From the Fifth Dynasty onwards there was a very marked reduction in the size of the royal tombs, together with the use of materials and techniques which involved a lesser expenditure of effort and resources in their construction. By the First Intermediate period, the construction of monumental tombs seems to have stopped.
mirror: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A polished metal artifact with functional and symbolic uses. It was made in the Iron Age and the backs were decorated in beautiful La Tène designs. It was also made in Egypt from at least the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC). In China, mirrors were thought to have magical powers to influence the spirits, and were therefore frequently buried in tombs from late Chou Dynasty (1072-221 BC) until T'ang Dynasty (618-906 AD). Made of bronze, they were cast with elaborate decoration on the reverse of a highly polished convex surface. In Japan, many round imported mirrors and their domestic copies are found from Yayoi and Kofun graves. In Greek and Roman world, mirrors were of polished tin and bronze, decorated and had handles of bone or ivory. Celtic Britain had fine bronze mirrors of c 100 BC-100 AD.
model: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A devices used by archaeologists to aid the interpretation of data; models consist of hypothetical reconstructions of dynamic processes partly based on material remains and partly testing the validity of interpretations of material culture. They are idealized representations of the real world, used to demonstrate a simplified version of some of its characteristics. Models vary in complexity and can be physical representations or literary descriptions. It might be a physical model of a site or landscape to explain some feature of its function or organization; such models at full scale are well known in experimental archaeology. A simple model might be a map showing, for example, the distribution of sites in a region or a scatter diagram showing the relationship between two measured variables. Models need not be based on specific archaeological data, but can be derived from a number of sources: invented data can be generated by computer simulation; geometrical and mathematical models can also be used, such as central place theory or the rank-size rule in the study of regional settlement, or catastrophe theory in the study of cultural collapse. General systems theory can also be a source of systems models designed to show a simplified version of the working of a complex social or economic organization. The term model can also be used in a less specific sense for any general mode of thought in which archaeological research is conducted, for example descriptive, historical, or ecological. Models may also be diachronic or synchronic. The concept of formulating a model, testing it and refining it, is frequently applied in a non-mathematical way and this is the way in which it is most often used in archaeology. In this sense it is either synonymous with 'hypothesis' or refers to a number of interlocking hypotheses.
morphological type: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: morphology
CATEGORY: typology
DEFINITION: A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than specific form or function. The shape, size, and superficial characteristics of artifacts, features, structure, sites, etc., provided by measurements (including weight) that permit comparative statistical analysis of attributes and frequencies.
morphological type: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: morphological typology
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than specific form or function. The shape, size, and superficial characteristics of artifacts, features, structure, sites, etc., provided by measurements (including weight) that permit comparative statistical analysis of attributes and frequencies.
morphological typology: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: morphological type; morphology
CATEGORY: typology
DEFINITION: A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than specific form or function. The shape, size, and superficial characteristics of artifacts, features, structure, sites, etc., provided by measurements (including weight) that permit comparative statistical analysis of attributes and frequencies.
multivariate: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: multivariate explanation, multivariate analysis, multivariate techniques
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Having or involving a number of independent mathematical or statistical variables. In reference to analysis or explanation, it is a perspective that views several interacting variables simultaneously rather than focusing on one variate at a time, as in univariate analysis. This approach is used to generate explanations of culture change, e.g. the origin of the state, which, in contrast to monocausal approaches, stresses the interaction of several factors operating simultaneously. Some multivariate techniques (e.g. cluster analysis and discriminant analysis) analyze the distribution of the items under study within hyperspace, reporting their results as a table or plot. Other techniques (e.g. principal components, discriminant functions, multidimensional scaling) mathematically reduce the number of dimensions of the space. Typically, a multidiminesional distribution may be reduced to two or three dimensions, after which it may be plotted or analyzed by conventional statistics.
Nasca lines: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: geoglyphs; Nazca lines
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: In the Peruvian desert or Nasca region of the southern coast, geometric and geomorphic patterns created by the removal of surface stones to reveal the pale earth beneath. The lines were made by clearing the surface of small red/brown stones and exposing the lighter-colored soil underneath. The straight lines radiate to points in small hills and suggest a ceremonial function. The straight lines date to the Early Intermediate as well as to later periods. Maria Reiche, a researcher, believes that the figures represent constellations and the straight lines have astronomical significance. Others believe the lines pointed toward sacred places. The Nasca lines are virtually indecipherable from ground level, but are plainly visible from the air. The lines have been preserved by the extreme dryness of the climate of the region.
nearest-neighbor analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: nearest-neighbor statistic
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A method of analyzing the extent to which two-dimensionally located points are randomly distributed; a measure of the relationship between a cluster of points in a pattern based on the expected value and the observed value. The statistic equals observed value divided by expected value. This method of analyzing the degree of dispersion in a distribution pattern was first developed by plant ecologists studying the concentration of certain species. A nearest-neighbor index (usually denoted by the symbol R), is calculated from the ratio of the average observed distance from each point in the pattern to its nearest neighbor, to the average distance expected if the pattern were randomly distributed, which depends solely on the density of the pattern being studied. The index R varies from 0.00 for a totally clustered pattern through 1.00 for a random distribution to a maximum of 2.15 for a completely regularly spaced pattern. The index is influenced by the size of the study area chosen; it is therefore essential to select a relevant framework for the distribution being studied. With any boundary, however, it is possible for the index to be distorted by the 'boundary effect' to give a figure closer to the maximum than would be justified; this arises because the nearest neighbors of points near to the boundary may in fact lie beyond the boundary and hence not be properly counted, thus increasing the figure for the observed mean distance. It is also essential that the points in the pattern being analyzed are of the same date and similar function, and that the pattern should be complete. The index R describes only a part of the total pattern and can serve as a useful basis for asking more detailed questions about the factors that underlie the observed pattern. The technique has been useful to archaeologists studying the distribution of sites over a landscape and their relation to each other.
niche: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: In ecology, the smallest unit of a habitat that is occupied by an organism. Habitat niche refers to the physical space occupied by the organism; ecological niche refers to the role it plays in the community of organisms found in the habitat (sometimes referred to as an animal's profession). Niche is also the functional role of an organism within a community; not only where that organism lives, but also what it does and eats, how it responds to the environment, and how it is constrained by other species and external forces.
Nimes: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Roman Nemausus
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Colony founded by the emperor Augustus in southern Gaul (France), originally a Celtic settlement (capital of the Volcae Arecomici). It became a colony in 121 BC and the walls and gates were built by Augustus; in Roman times one of the richest towns of Gaul. Remains include an amphitheater designed by Titus Crisius Reburrus which holds 24,000 people; the Maison Carrée, a temple from the 1st century BC, and part of the colony's aqueduct, Pont du Gard, built by Agrippa. Maison Carée was a rectangular temple 82 ft (25 m) long by 40 ft (12 m) wide, dedicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, adopted sons of the first Roman emperor Augustus, and is one of the most beautiful monuments built by the Romans in Gaul, and certainly the best preserved. The Tour Magne, on top of a hill just outside the city, is the oldest Roman building, 92 ft high, but probably originally higher. Its original function is not known, but it was incorporated into the Roman wall in 16 BC. Nimes seems to have achieved its greatest prosperity somewhere around the end of the 2nd century AD. In the 5th century, Nîmes was plundered by the Vandals and the Visigoths. It was later occupied by the Saracens (Arabs), who were driven out in 737.
Parthenon: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The famous temple of Athena in the Acropolis at Athens, considered the finest example of the Doric order of architecture. It was built by Ictinus and Callicrates, 447-432 BC, as the centerpiece of Pericles' grand scheme for the Acropolis, under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias, who contributed the great statue of Athena. The material is Pentelic marble (from Mount Pentelikon, north of Athens). Much of the sculptured decoration may be seen in the British Museum, London (the so-called Elgin marbles). After the classical period, the building survived various conversions to the function of church and mosque, until wartime in 1687 when the temple exploded into two ruined halves. Other sculptures from the Parthenon are now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, in Copenhagen, and many are still in Athens.
Persepolis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: modern Takht-i Jamshid; Parsa
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The capital of the Achaemenid empire, in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, founded by Darius shortly after 518 BC; it was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. The ceremonial palace was built by teams of workers and craftspeople from all parts of the empire. It replaced the earlier capital, Pasargadae, and was in many ways modeled on it, although incorporating many architectural and artistic innovations. It consists of a stone terrace platform on which were erected a series of monumental palaces and audience halls, as well as other buildings, constructed over a period of some 60 years. It is the showpiece of Achaemenid art, consisting of a series of great palaces and columned reception halls (apadana). Monumental stairways are flanked by lines or reliefs showing Median and Persian nobles, tribute bearers from all quarters of the empire, servants preparing banquets, as well as the enthroned rulers themselves. The records and stylistic details attest the employment of Medes, Syrians, Urartians, and Ionian Greeks among others. The two largest buildings, the Apadana of Darius and the Throne Hall of Xerxes, occupied the center of the terrace and divided it into two functional halves. The northern area was military and mainly the work of Artaxerxes I, while the southern area contained the Palaces of Darius and Xerxes, the harem and treasury areas. Just north of Persepolis is Naqsh-i Rustam, where four monumental tombs were carved in the cliff face; these are the tombs of Darius I and three of his successors (probably those of Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, and Darius II). They are also decorated with relief carvings and bear trilingual inscriptions in Elamite, Babylonian (Akkadian), and Old Persian. There are also late 2nd millennium BC Middle Elamite and early 1st millennium AD Sassanian inscriptions.
pin: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: One of the simplest artifacts, consisting of a narrow metal or bone shaft with a point at one end and usually some sort of decorative head at the other. Its function was to secure garments (ancestral to the fibula) or, sometimes, the hair. Their decorative heads were highly variable and non-functional, therefore a culturally significant feature.
port of trade: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Any town or city whose specific function is to act as a meeting place for foreign traders. It serves as a center for transshipment and storage of goods; the site is characterized by facilities for storage. Ports of trade, such as Tyre and Sidon, may have been important models of early long-distance trade.
postprocessual archaeology: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: post-processual explanation, postprocessual approach
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A relatively new school of archaeological thinking that uses the ideational strategy and cautions against the shortcomings of scientific methods and the new (or processual) archaeology. It was formulated in reaction to the perceived limitations of functional-processual archaeology and pushes for an individualizing" or "idiosyncratic" approach that is influenced by structuralism critical theory and neo-Marxist thought. It emphasizes social factors in human societies both the active role of individuals as decision makers and the meaning-laden contexts in which decisions are made. It is based on the notions that culture must be understood as sets of symbols that evoke meanings and that these vary depending on particular contexts of use and the histories of artifacts and the people who use them."
processual archaeology: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: new archaeology
CATEGORY: branch
DEFINITION: A branch of archaeology which seeks to understand the nature of cultural change by a study of the variables which cause it, usually in a manner characteristic of new archaeology". After scientific observation questions are formulated hypotheses are formed to answer the questions and are then tested against the data. The ultimate aim is the formulation of laws. This approach stresses the dynamic relationship between social and economic aspects of culture and the environment. The earlier functional-processual archaeology has been contrasted with cognitive-processual archaeology where the emphasis is on integrating ideological and symbolic aspects."
prytaneion: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: prytaneium, prytaneum; Greek prytaneion
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Greek antiquity, a building for the prytaneis, the administrative officials / inner executive council of a Greek city-state; the town hall of a Greek or Hellenistic city-state. Its origin may be in palaces of tyrants or kings, combining official with residential functions. In Athens, it had a central courtyard with rooms around it; the so-called tholos, a round building as an office, nearby. At Athens, for example, a group of 50 prytaneis ('presidents, chief'), elected by lot and serving for short periods in rotation, acted as committee to the boule ('council'). Ambassadors, distinguished foreigners, and citizens who had done signal service were entertained there. Prytanea are attested at Sigeum in the Troas from the 6th century BC and at various dates in Cyzicus, Erythrae, Priene, Ephesus, Epidamnus, Rhodes, and Olympia.
retouch: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: secondary working; secondary flaking
CATEGORY: lithics
DEFINITION: The working of a primary flake, usually by the removal of small fragments, to form a tool; to thin, sharpen, straighten, or otherwise refine an existing stone tool for further use. It is the work done to a flint implement after its preliminary roughing-out in order to make it into a functional tool. In the case of a core-tool, such as a hand-ax, retouch may consist of roughly trimming the edge by striking with a hammerstone, but on smaller, finer flake or blade tools it is usually carried out by pressure-flaking. It is done two ways, either by blows that knock small flakes off an edge (percussion retouch) or by pressure to force the flakes off (pressure retouch). The different types of retouch are also described as: backing or blunting retouch, and invasive or normal retouch. Invasive retouch can be steep or shallow, depending mainly on the kind of edge being retouched; this retouch can also be scaly in character. Backing is most often applied to blades and may have been done to blunt the back or to bring its end to a stout point. Evidence suggests that it may have been done to regularize the blade edge to facilitate fixing by resin 'mastic' to a bone or wood shaft. Such a strip of mastic was found in Lascaux, France. Notching or toothing is another form of retouch, and the removal of spalls or slivers as in the burin technique could be regarded as a further form of retouch or modification. Retouch is one of the most obvious features distinguishing a manmade from a naturally struck flint.
Richey-Roberts Clovis Cache: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Clovis site in Washington state with just 30 artifacts and bone and antler fragments. There are several hypotheses for the site's function.
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.
roof furniture: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Wooden, stone, or ceramic items used as decorative and functional features of a roof. They include finials on the gables, antefixes to act as stoppers for hollow tiles emerging at the eaves, chimney pots, louvers, and smoke turrets to ventilate fires inside the building and let fumes escape, and ridge tiles along the highest point.
round tower: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A form of architecture in which a hollow circular column of 50-150 feet high is capped by a short pointed roof of stone. There are many in Ireland (upwards of 100), also in Scotland, the Isle of Man, in Denmark, and as part of Windsor Castle in England. Round towers were a feature of Irish monasteries from the Viking period and into the Romanesque. There is usually a single entrance door, about 8-15 feet above the ground, usually five stories high, and each floor was lit by a separate window and had a wooden floor. Because the doors were placed high off the ground, it seems that the main function of the towers was as a refuge from Viking and Irish raiders, but they may also have been used as companiles.
Sacsahuamán or Sacsayhuaman: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An immense fortified Inca complex, built as an adjunct to the Incan capital at Cuzco, Peru, and begun some time after 1438. Thought to have functioned as a storage center and military garrison in peacetime, it was used as a safe haven for Cuzco residents in times of danger. Its north-facing limestone walls are Cyclopean and the remains of round towers are still visible. They are built on a zigzag sawtooth plan and the interior structures are built on three rising terraces and include storage and dwelling places, a reservoir and a conduit supply system. It is said to have been constructed over a period of 80 years with the labor of 20,000 Incans.
secondary use: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: An artifact or feature showing an alternate or later use that differs from its original function. For example, an abandoned well might be used as a refuse pit.
Semenov, Sergei Aristarkhovich (1898-1978): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Russian archaeologist who developed the technique of microscopic analysis of wear patterns on artifacts to determine their function.
shield: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A piece of armor carried in the hand or on the arm, usually the left, to ward off weapons. Examples from the Bronze and Iron Age come from bogs and rivers of northwest Europe. In the Bronze Age, shields were circular and made of wood covered with bronze. They had a raised, dome-shaped boss in the center into the back of which the hand fitted, holding the grip. In the Iron Age, shields were sometimes called bucklers, and had become long and rectangular. They were made of bronze and embossed. Some were enameled in La Tène style and lined with wood or leather. Leather shields, with few surviving, are functionally more efficient, and wooden ones are also known, notably in Mexico, where they were decorated with feather mosaic.
simple data cluster: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Clustered data that are homogeneous in that they have a single function, such as those from an obsidian tool workshop.
Sirikwa Holes: CATEGORY: feature; site
DEFINITION: Feature of Iron Age sites in the Western Highlands of Kenya which consists of circular depressions 5-10 meters in diameter, sometimes encircled by stone walling. They functioned as cattle barns during the first half of the 2nd millennium AD.
site catchment analysis: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: SCA; site-catchment analysis
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A method of reconstructing the economy of a site by studying the resources that are available within a reasonable distance, generally 1-2 hours' walking time from the site. The technique was devised by E. Higgs and C. Vita-Finzi for 'the study of the relationship between technology and those natural resources lying within economic range of individual sites', an extension of the least-cost principle. The catchment area is defined by drawing a circle around the site; the radius has often been set at 5 km (i.e. an hour's walk) for agriculturists and 10 km (i.e. two hours' walk) for hunter-gatherers, figures which represent ethnographically observed averages. Within the catchment area the proportions of such resources as arable or pastoral land are calculated, and from these figures conclusions can be drawn concerning the nature and function of the site. The technique offers a valuable and reasonably objective method for analyzing relationships between site location, technology, and available resources. This type of off-site" analysis can concentrate on the total area from which a site's contents have been derived."
site hierarchy: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The site size and functional differences within a group of roughly contemporary sites -- possibly indicating different economic arrangements, political hierarchy, etc.
skeleton: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The bony supporting element in the bodies of vertebrate animals. It consists of the axial skeleton -- skull (including teeth) and vertebral column -- and the appendicular skeleton -- ribs, girdles and limbs. In man, the proportions of various bones are fairly generalized, but in other animals bones may become eliminated, elongated, or strengthened. Only broken fragments of the skeleton usually survive on archaeological sites, except in such cases as deliberate burial. For this reason, human bones are often studied separately from those of other animals. In the case of most animals, the parts which survive are a function of butchery. Identification of species may be possible when there is a considerable number of fragments.
skeuomorph: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: adj. skeuomorphic
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An object in which its shape or decoration copies the form it had been when made from another material or by another technique. For example, a pot would be decorated to make it look similar to a vessel of basketry, skin, or other material. In some cases, it is an artifact which represents in decorative form a feature which was originally functional. A decorative bow attached to a shoe is a skeuomorph of the laces once used to tie it; triangular shapes drawn below handles on pottery are skeuomorphs of the metal plates by which the handles on metal prototypes were attached; and the semicircular mark on the back of a teaspoon represents the broadening of the handle where it was soldered to the bowl when it used to be made in two pieces. Frequently a skeuomorph may yield important information about extinct types, especially when organic materials like basketry are recorded in this way.
slab-lined pit: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A pit that has been at least partly lined with stone slabs but for which no functional determination can be made.
Society of Professional Archaeologists: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: SOPA
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Professional organization for archaeologists specializing in contract archaeology and cultural resource management. Incorporated in 1976, it was created in response to the rapid growth of culture resource management in the U.S. and Canada. One of its major functions has been to compile and maintain an up-to-date listing of qualified professional archaeologists and those accepting such certification must subscribe to SOPA's code of ethics, institutional standards, and standards of research performance.
sociofact: CATEGORY: term; artifact
DEFINITION: Archaeological data resulting from past human social activities; an object whose primary function is to express or establish social rank, rather than to serve practical or ideological needs. An example is an ax that is used as a symbol of chiefdom rather than as a weapon.
spatial analysis: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The statistical study of concentrations of human activity in a defined space; the systematic study of spatial patterning in archaeological data. Distribution maps showing artifacts or sites have long been used in archaeology, but spatial analysis adds rigorous mathematical and statistical techniques for examining such maps. Techniques adapted from modern geography include locational analysis for the study of settlement patterns, and the use of distance-decay functions, linear regression analysis, and trend-surface analysis for exploring the distribution of artifacts.
Stonehenge: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Ancient monument on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, the remains of four massive trilithons surrounded by concentric circles of megaliths, probably constructed since c 3200 BC. It was a major Neolithic and Early Bronze Age ritual monument, architecturally unique, surrounded by a whole complex of barrow cemeteries and ritual sites. It had many phases of reconstruction. Apart from a cursus, the oldest structure was a circular earthwork about 100 meters in diameter, consisting of a ditch with an inner bank broken by a single entrance. Just inside the bank was a ring of 56 Aubrey holes (pits), some of which contained cremations. There were further cremations in the ditch and on the inner plateau. The presence of grooved ware pottery, together with radiocarbon dates from a cremation suggest that Stonehenge I belongs to the end of the Neolithic. Phase II occurred in c 2200-2000 when two concentric rings of sockets were dug at the center of the site for the erection of 80 bluestones imported from the Preseli Hills of southwest Wales. To this period belongs the Avenue, two parallel banks and ditches which run from the entrance to the river Avon 3 km away. In Stonehenge's third phase, the bluestones were removed, and Sarsen stones, some weighing over 50 tons, were brought from the Downs 38 km away to the north. These blocks, unlike those of any other henge or megalithic tomb, were dressed to shape before erection, and were then set up as a circle of uprights with a continuous curving lintel, enclosing a U-shaped arrangement of five trilithons. This phase has been dated 2120 +/- 150 BC and its work was carried out by the bearers of the Wessex culture. At a later stage (phase IIIc) the bluestones were re-erected in their present positions, duplicating the sarsen structure. There is a radiocarbon date of 1540 +/- 105 BC for the early part of this final stage, and the whole of Stonehenge III probably falls within the Early Bronze Age. The final stage came in the Middle or Late Bronze Age when the Avenue was extended 2000 meters east. The function of the monument is usually held to be religious, though it had no connection with the Druids. Theories are that the northeast-southwest axis may suggest some form of sun cult, the stone settings may have been used for astronomical observations in connection with the calendar, and the Aubrey holes for calculating the occurrence of eclipses. It has also been interpreted as the temple of a sun or sky cult. Archaeologists have long been fascinated by this monument, with its evidence of massive manpower input (one calculation suggests 30 million man-hours would have been required for the phase IIIA structure), its architectural sophistication, and astronomical alignments.
stylistic analysis: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Artifact analysis focused on form and function as well as the decorative styles used by the makers, used very often for ceramics.
subassemblage: CATEGORY: term; technique
DEFINITION: A grouping or association of artifacts, based on form and functional criteria. A subassemblage is assumed to represent a single occupational group within a prehistoric community.
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.
surface treatment: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: Any modification made to the surface of pottey for either technological or functional purposes.
symbolic anthropology: CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: A research perspective which gives prime attention to the role of symbols in society. Culture is a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms which are used to communicate and develop knowledge and attitudes. The function of culture then is to impose meaning on the world and make it understandable. The role of symbolic anthropologists is to try to interpret the guiding symbols of each culture. In this view, culture becomes a public phenomenon transcending the cognitive realization of any single individual. This field is based mainly on the work of Clifford Geertz.
system: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Any organization that functions through the interdependence of its parts; a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole.
talayot: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Talayotic culture
CATEGORY: structure; culture
DEFINITION: Massive dry-stone towers of the Bronze and Iron Age of the Balearic Islands, mainly Majorca and Minorca, c 1000-300 BC. In its oldest and most simple form, a talayot is a round tower built of large stone blocks. It may be solid, or enclose a single cell or chamber roofed by corbelling; there may niches in the wall. In other examples the roof is of flat slabs supported by a central pillar. From c 850 BC, square talayots were also built and some of these have a second chamber above the one on the ground floor. Many later became the center of a small village of dry-stone houses and enclosed by walls of Cyclopean masonry. The architecture shows resemblances to contemporary structures in Sardinia (the nuraghe) and in Corsica. The precise function of talayots is unknown, but they could have been used as lookout towers or as refuges in times of trouble. The tower has also given its name to the local Bronze age culture.
taula: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Bronze Age ritual monument found in the Balearic Islands of Minorca and Majorca from the Talayot culture. A taula may be 4 meters in height, and consists of a horizontal block supported either by a monolithic pillar or a column made of several stones. Often surrounded by a U-shaped enclosure wall, they are thought to have had a cult function.
technofact: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An artifact that was used for a practical function, such as providing food, shelter, or defense, rather than connected to social or ideological activity. The term is also more generally applied to archaeological data resulting from past technological activities.
temple: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: templum
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A building with a religious function, of various shapes and sizes. For the ancient Egyptians, it was the 'house' of a deity or deities and the most important component was the innermost cult-chamber or shrine, where the image of the deity was kept. Temples were not originally intended for worshippers, but as shrines for the gods. They consisted of the following elements: the pylon, an open courtyard with colonnades, the hypostyle hall, and the sanctuary. The sacred precinct of a town, including the temple and associated buildings, was often surrounded by a massive mud-brick wall. In the Classical world, many great temples were built. Because of the importance of temples in a society, temple architecture often represents the best of a culture's design and craftsmanship.
Temple Mound Period: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mississippian
CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: Time period from c 800 AD to European colonization when Native Americans of the Mississippian tradition built large flat-topped earthen structures (platform mounds) designed to function as artificial mountains elevating their temples above the landscape. This period followed the Burial Mound period and is the most recent period of a chronological construction relating to the whole of eastern North American prehistory (formulated by J.A. Ford and Godon Willey). The periods are: Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Burial Mound, and Temple Mound. The Temple Mound period is divided into two sub-periods: Temple Mound I (800-1200 AD), the establishment and rise of the Mississippian Tradition; and Temple Mound II (1200-1700 AD), the peak and then demise of the Mississippian.
tool kit: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: toolkit
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A term for all the tools used by a given culture for its technology (spatially patterned), or for a set of tools used together for a specific task (functionally patterned).
tool kit or toolkit: CATEGORY: artifact; lithics
DEFINITION: A term for all the tools used by a given culture for its technology (spatially patterned), or for a set of tools used together for a specific task (functionally patterned).
transmission electron microscopy: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique used to examine the internal and surface structure and microstructure of materials such as metals, ceramics, and stone. A type of electron microscope is used in which the specimen transmits an electron beam focused on it, image contrasts are formed by the scattering of electrons out of the beam, and various magnetic lenses perform functions analogous to those of ordinary lenses in a light microscope. The sample must be very thin for examination of its internal structure; this is achieved either by grinding and depositing the material on to carbon film, or by preparing thin foils of metallic or non-metallic material by electropolishing or ion-thinning techniques. It is possible to study in detail such things as the wear marks on stone tools or the techniques of potterymaking through examination of the surface.
trapped charge dating: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A form of dating relying on the fact that electrons are trapped in minerals' crystal lattices as a function of background radiation; the age of the specimen is the total radiation received, divided by the annual dose of radiation
typology: CATEGORY: typology
DEFINITION: The study of classes with common characteristics; classification of artifacts; the systematic classification of artifacts or remains according to type, i.e. form and decoration. This is the first step in archaeological analysis and necessary in comparing assemblages and in determining time sequences. Groups of pottery, for example, may be assembled by those with long necks, those with handles, and those with a pedestal base. Within these may be sub-groups based on variations in handle shape or decoration. The relationships between similar types can sometimes be shown not merely to classify, but also to explain, their development -- which is called seriation. It may show increasing complexity or functional improvement, simplification and functional decline, or change based on fashion. Typology may be associated with chronology, in that it may be possible to place groups of the same kind of material in a sequence.
uniform distribution: CATEGORY: measure
DEFINITION: A probability density function whereby all potential observations within a specified range have an equal probability of occurring.
use-wear striae or use-wear stigmata: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Polish, striations, breakage, or minor flaking which develop on a tool's edge during use. Microscopic examination and study of the wear may indicate the past function of tools.
villa: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Roman architecture, the name of a farm or country house or a farming residence with luxurious private, urban, and humble rural dwellings. In the Roman context, the farmstead had ancillary buildings and one main residential structure. In a Minoan context, a villa was a rural residence with some local administrative functions. The residential villas were often in an area of beauty or on the seashore. Many villas existed throughout the Roman Empire, and references to them are common in the works of Roman writers, especially Cicero, who had seven villas, and Pliny, who described his villas in Tuscany and near Laurentum. The most famous villa is Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli (c 120-130 AD).
Virú Valley: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Valley on the north coast of Peru, which was the scene of the first serious attempt to study a regional settlement pattern in the New World. The aim was to study the relationship between site function and location, and between settlement patterns, ecology, and cultural development over a long period of time. The settlements pattern approach uses locational and environmental interrelationships between sites (over a broad region) as a means of interpreting prehistoric cultures. A comprehensive project of survey and excavation has taken place in this valley.
Warsaw: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Stare Bródno
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: City and now capital of Poland, which began as Stare Bródno, a small trading settlement of the 10th and early 11th centuries AD. That settlement's functions were taken over successively by Kamion (c 1065) and Jazdow (c 1262). About the end of the 13th century, Jazdow was moved to the north, to a village named Warszowa (Warsaw), and the community was strengthened by the protection of a castle. Medieval Warsaw grew up on the left bank of the River Vistula. Excavations around the royal castle located the earthworks of a proto-urban 10th-century fortress with earth-and-timber ramparts and gateways. The area around the cathedral was the site of the citadel of the 10th-century town.
world system: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A larger functioning economic unit of a trade network that extends far beyond the boundaries of individual political units (states). An economically and politically integrated social system spanning the globe.

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