Archaeology Wordsmith

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Results for herm:

aerial thermography: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of aerial reconnaissance that detects differences in retention and radiation of heat in ground surfaces.
Altithermal: SYNONYM: Climatic Optimum, Thermal Maximum, Long Drought; altithermal; Great Drought; Holocene climatic optimum.
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A warm, dry postglacial period in the western United States approximately 5600-2500 BC. Coined by Ernst Antev in 1948, the term describes a time during which temperatures were warmer than at present. Other terms, like Long drought, are used.
anathermal: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A period of cool climate in the area of North America that occurred from about 7000-5000 BC. This was Ernst Antev's name for the first of the Neothermal periods and it is thought to have started off cool before becoming somewhat warmer.
Armant: SYNONYM: ancient Iunu-Montu, Hermonthis
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Upper Egypt on the west bank of the Nile, southwest of Luxor, that was the original capitol of the Theban nome until the 11th Dynasty. Excavations have revealed extensive cemeteries and areas of Predynastic settlement. Thutmose's annals on the walls of the temple of Karnak describing 20 years of military activity in Asia are supplemented by stelae from Armant.
differential heat analysis: SYNONYM: differential thermal analysis
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A remote sensing technique in which the variability in heat absorption and dissemination is used to plot hidden archaeological features. In analytical chemistry, this technique is used for identifying and quantitatively analyzing the chemical composition of substances by observing the thermal behavior of a sample as it is heated.
herm: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A statue in the form of a square stone pillar topped by a bust or head, especially of Hermes.
Hermeneutics: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: An epistemological theory with roots in the study of biblical texts that understanding is based on the dialectical (back-and-forth) relationship between the whole and its parts (the hermeneutic circle). Understanding of the parts should be coherent with each other and the whole.
Hermopolis Magna: SYNONYM: el-Ashmunein; ancient Khmun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient pharaonic capital in northern Egypt, of the 15th Upper Egyptian nome. It was the cult center of Thoth, of which there are remains of his great temple, and had its necropolis at Tuna el-Gebel. The earliest dates of the stone structures are from the Middle Kingdom. There is also the remains of a Roman basilica.
Hypsithermal: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A Holocene climatic optimum in the Eastern Woodlands, equivalent to the Altithermal segment of the Holocene Epoch (Holocene is 10,000 years ago-present), dated on the basis of pollen studies. The Hypsithermal Climatic Interval began about 9,000 years ago and ended about 2,500 years ago. It has been divided into smaller units beginning with the Boreal. The Hypsithermal follows the Pre-Boreal and precedes the Sub-Atlantic intervals. It was a time of comparatively warm climatic conditions which resulted in the elimination of many cooler plant and animal refuges and the extinction of some species. In many parts of the world, pine forests gave way to forests dominated by oak during the Hypsithermal. Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures are contemporaneous with Hypsithermal events in both the New and Old Worlds.
isothermic line: CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: A line on a map linking locations of equivalent temperature at a given time.
medithermal: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The last of the divisions of the Neothermal (postglacial) period, dating from about 4,000 years ago to present.
Neothermal: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: Postglacial times, a period of time from about 11,000 years ago to the present.
Playa Hermosa: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on central Peruvian coast north of Lima which has yielded an assemblage of preceramic period tools, textiles, and evidence of cultivated corn, lima beans, chili peppers c 2300-2100 BC.
thermae: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Roman architecture, a bath complex with rooms of different temperatures and exercise areas. Such a complex of rooms designed for public bathing, relaxation, and social activity for the ancient Romans. The great imperial thermae are Baths of Titus (81 AD), Baths of Domitian (95), Trajan's Baths (c 100), Baths of Caracalla (217), and the Thermae of Diocletian (c 302).
thermal analysis: SYNONYM: thermoanalysis
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any technique used to get information on the physical or thermodynamic properties in which heat is involved; in archaeology, especially to obtain information on the firing temperature of pottery and other clay objects. The techniques include boiling, freezing, solidification-point determinations; heat of fusion and heat of vaporization measurements; distillation, calorimetry, and differential thermal, thermogravimetric, thermometric, and thermometric titration analyses.
thermal infrared multispectral scanner: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A remote sensing technique using equipment mounted in aircraft or satellite to measure infrared thermal radiation given off by the ground; with sensitivity to 0.1 degrees Celsius, it can locate subsurface structures by how they affect surface thermal radiation
thermal prospection: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A remote sensing method used in aerial reconnaissance and based on weak variations in temperature which can be found above buried structures whose thermal properties are different from those of their surroundings.
thermal spall: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: The small shallow rounded pits removed from pottery due to high heat and escaping moisture -- often on rims of cooking pots.
Thermi: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Early Bronze Age settlement on the Aegean island of Lesbos. Excavations revealed five phases of occupation (3000-2750 BC), mainly a settlement of timber houses, later defended by a stone wall. Thermi apparently was settled by Troas, judging from its Troy I-like black pottery. It was destroyed some time before 3000 BC, at approximately the same time as sites such as Troy I in northwest Anatolia and Poliochni on Lemnos. It was later resettled and then destroyed by fire c 13th century BC.
thermography: SYNONYM: thermal prospection
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Non-photographic technique which uses thermal or heat sensors from aircraft to record the temperature of the soil surface. Temperatures can be mapped using thermography to provide a graphic or visual representation of the temperature conditions on the surface of an object or land area. Variations in soil temperature can be the result of the presence of buried structures.
thermoluminescence: SYNONYM: thermoluminescence dating, thermoluminescent dating; TL
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Chronometric method of dating ceramic materials by measuring the stored energy created when they were first fired. It is based on the principle that ceramic material, like other crystalline non-conducting solids, contains small amounts of radioactive impurities such as potassium, uranium, and thorium, which emit alpha and beta particles and gamma rays causing ionizing radiation. This produces electrons and other charge-carriers (holes) which become caught in traps in the crystal lattice. Heating of the pottery causes the electrons and holes to be released from the traps, and they recombine in the form of thermoluminescence. The amount of thermoluminescence from a heated sample is used to determine the number of trapped electrons resulting from the absorption of alpha radiation. The quantity of light emitted will depend on three factors -- the number of flaws in the crystal, the strength of the radioactivity to which it has been exposed, and the duration of exposure. An age determination technique in which the amount of light energy released in a pottery sample during heating gives a measure of the time elapsed since the material was last heated to a critical temperature. The older a piece of pottery, the more light produced. Accuracy for the technique is generally claimed at ?10%. It overlaps with radiocarbon in the time period for which it is useful, spanning 50,000-300,000 years ago, but also has the potential for dating earlier periods. It has much in common with electron spin resonance (ESR).
thermoremnant magnetism: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A magnetic moment induced into an item by heat.
aerial photography: SYNONYM: air photography, aerophotography, aerial reconnaissance
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of photographic observation and survey of the ground from an aircraft, spacecraft, or satellite which provides detailed information about sites and features without excavation. It is most important for locating archaeological sites before destruction of the landscape through building, road construction, or modern agricultural practices. When viewed from the air, sites may be revealed as crop marks, soil marks, shadow marks, or frost marks. For example, the plan of a site, ditches, walls, pits, etc. can be reflected in the way the crops grew (crop marks) or a pattern of dark occupation soil may show against a lighter topsoil or stone from walls may be just under the surface (soil marks). Oblique aerial photos, from lower altitudes, detect shadows created by earthworks and permit more detailed interpretations of known sites (shadow marks). Variations in the amount of frost retained on the ground may indicate the presence of buried archaeological features (frost marks). Though these can sometimes be recognized on the ground by careful fieldwalking and contour planning, much larger areas can be examined from the air and overall patterns will be clearer. The same site may not be susceptible every year to aerial photographs, as local climatic variation affects the nature of the feature fillings; a site may only be seen once in ten or twenty years. The use of false-color infrared photography has increased the versatility of aerial photography and the development of photogrammetry allows the accurate mapping of both archaeological and geographical information. Recording of thermographic and radar images complements photographic methods. Aerial photography has proved to be one of the most successful methods of discovering archaeological sites. Large areas of ground can be covered quickly, and the ground plan of a new site can be plotted from the photographs. Features can be revealed in extraordinary detail by these means. The pioneers of this technique were O.G.S. Crawford and Major Allen in Britain and Père Poidebard in Syria, though its first use goes back to 1906 at Stonehenge.
baths, Roman: SYNONYM: bathhouse
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The Roman baths featuring a combination of steaming, cleaning, and massage appeared wherever the Romans made conquests. In Rome itself the aqueducts fed sumptuous baths such as those of Caracalla, which covered 28 acres (11 hectares). From the 1st century BC onwards, the Romans built establishments called balneae or, later, thermae incorporating suites of rooms at different temperatures. A typical installation would include a tepidarium (warm room, probably without bath), a caldarium (hot, with plunge bath), a frigidarium (cold, also with bath), and an apodyterium (changing-room). Elaborate examples might also include a laconicum (room with dry heat), a swimming bath, an exercise area (palaestra), gardens, and a library. These complexes were important social meeting-points and were not limited to high society. Most large private houses from the 2nd century BC onwards had their own bath suite. The four large series of baths at Rome were built by Titus, Trajan, Caracalla, and Diocletian. Baths existed as early as the 4th century BC.
Behistun: SYNONYM: Bisitun, Bisotun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A rock face on the Kermanshah-Hamadan road in Iran on which Darius I (Darius the Great, reigned 521-485 BC) recorded his victories which gave him the Achaemenid empire in 522-520 BC. The bas-relief -- 400 feet above the road -- shows Darius, under the protection of the god Ahuramazda, receiving his defeated enemies. The inscriptions were carved in the cuneiform script, and repeated in the Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian languages. The rock face below them was then cut back to the vertical to prevent any attempt at defacement. In total, the area covered by the inscriptions and the relief panel were about 25-feet high and 50-feet wide. In 1833, Sir Henry Rawlinson went to Iran and became extremely interested in Persian antiquities and in deciphering the cuneiform writing at Behistun. Between 1835-1847, Rawlinson went through the intense work copying the inscription from harrowing positions above the road. It enabled him subsequently to understand the cuneiform script and to decipher the languages of the inscription. In 1837, he published his translations of the first two paragraphs of the inscription. After having to leave the country because of problems between Iran and Britain, Rawlinson was able to return in 1844 to obtain impressions of the Babylonian script. As a result, his Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun" was published (1846-51) -- containing a complete translation analysis of the grammar and notes. The accomplishment yielded valuable information on the history of ancient Persia and its rulers. With other scholars he succeeded in deciphering the Mesopotamian cuneiform script by 1857. This provided the breakthrough to the decipherment later of other languages in the cuneiform script including Sumerian."
calendrics: CATEGORY: chronology; related field
DEFINITION: The decipherment and study of calendars.
Capsian and Capsian Neolithic: SYNONYM: Capsian industry
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A Mesolithic/Stone Age (8000 BC-2700 BC) cultural complex prominent in inland northern Africa near the present border between Tunisia and Algeria. Its shell midden sites are in the area of the great salt lakes of what is now southern Tunisia, the type site being Jabal al-Maqta'. The tool kit of the Capsian is a classic example of the industries of the late Würm Glacial Period and it is apparently related to the Gravettian stage of Europe's Perigordian industry (which dates from about 17,000 years ago). However, it occurs in Neothermal (postglacial) times and, like its predecessor, the Ibero-Maurusian industry (Oranian industry), the Capsian was a microlithic tool complex. It differed from the Ibero-Maurusian, however, in having a far more varied tool kit with large backed blades, scrapers, backed bladelets, microburins, and burins in its earlier phase and a gradual development of geometric microliths later. These became its leading feature by the 6th millennium BC. Shortly after 5000 BC, pottery and domesticated animals were introduced. Some North African rock paintings are attributed to people of the Capsian industry. The Capsian Neolithic, with pointed-base pottery and a stone industry, lasted from c 6200-5300 BP, in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and the northern Sahara. The name derives from Capsa, the Latin form of Gafsa, a town in south central Tunisia where such artifacts were first discovered. Hunting and snail-collecting seem to have formed the basis of the economy. Human remains from Capsian sites are mostly of Mechta-Afalou type.
chlorite: SYNONYM: steatite, soapstone
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A soft gray, green, or black silicate mineral used for seals and vessels, also called steatite. Chlorite is a common rock-forming mineral in clastic sediments and in hydrothermally altered igneous rocks; chlorites are widespread and important constituents of such metamorphic rocks as green schists or chlorite schists.
chronology: CATEGORY: chronology; technique
DEFINITION: Any method used to order time and to place events in the sequence in which they occurred. A sequential ordering that places cultural entities in temporal, and often spatial, distribution. It involves the collection of dates or successive datings establishing the position in time of a series of phenomena such as the phases of a civilization or the events of the history of a state. A chronology is relative/floating when only the order of a succession of facts is known, but not their dates, and absolute when the opposite is true. For periods or areas for which no textual evidence is available, relative chronologies have to be established and these are mostly based on pottery sequences and typology. Relative chronology is also based on the application of the principles of stratigraphy and cross-dating. The discovery of inscribed monuments and calendars associated with dated astronomical observations contributed to the development of an Egyptian chronology and it has served as a framework -- through cross-dating -- for all other Near Eastern chronologies. Inscribed Egyptian objects found in Near Eastern contexts have allowed the latter to be dated. Absolute chronology is based on scientific methods such as radiocarbon dating, thermoluminescence dating, and archaeomagnetism. Dates are often calibrated with dendrochronological dates. For dates after 1500 BC, an absolute chronology is not likely to change by more than ten years.
chronometric dating: SYNONYM: absolute dating; chronometry
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any technique of dating that relies on chronological measurement such as calendars, radiocarbon dates, etc. and which give the result in calendar years before the present, or B.P. Most of these techniques produce results with a standard deviation, but they have a relationship to the calendar which relative dating techniques do not. Among the most useful chronometric dating techniques are radiocarbon dating, potassium argon dating, and thermoluminescence dating. Dendrochronology, the relationship of dated ancient trees with live trees has no standard deviation and is the most accurate of all, though not universally applicable. Chronometric dating has developed in the last 30 years and has revolutionized archaeology.
Copán: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A ruined ancient Mayan city, in extreme western Honduras near the Guatemalan border, one of the largest and most impressive sites of that civilization. Copán was an important Maya city during the Classic Period (c 300-900 AD), peaking in the 8th century with as many as 20,000 people. The site has stone temples, two large pyramids, several stairways and plazas, and a ball court for tlachtli. Most of these structures center on a raised platform called the Acropolis and are constructed in a locally available greenish volcanic tuff. Copán is particularly known for the ornate stone carving on the buildings and the portrait sculptures on its many stelae. The Hieroglyphic Stairway, which leads to one of the temples, is beautifully carved with 2500 hieroglyphics total on the risers of each of its 63 steps. During the Classic Period, there is evidence that astronomers in Copán calculated the most accurate solar calendar produced by the Maya up to that time. The site's ruins were discovered by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century and rediscovered by American traveler John Lloyd Stephens in 1839, who purchased" the site for $50. Since then much of the beautiful carving has deteriorated but the highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings of his colleague Frederick Catherwood still survive and are a great source of iconographic detail. Restoration work revealed much of Copán's political and dynastic history through the decipherment of hieroglyphic inscriptions on its monuments. A dynasty of at least 16 kings ruled Copán from about 426-822 AD; the Maya had completely abandoned the site by about 1200. Finds date from the Late Prehistoric period (c 300 BC-AD 250."
cuneiform: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: The characteristic wedge-shaped writing of western Asia, used for over 3000 years, emerging in the 4th millennium BC in southern Mesopotamia as a system of accounting during the Uruk period. It consisted of triangular markings pressed on a clay tablet with a split reed. The word itself comes from Latin 'cuneus' meaning wedge-shaped" "wedge". The pictographic script of the Uruk period the oldest known in the world was reduced to angular forms to make it more suitable for impressing in wet clay with a split reed. The nature of the script was very like that of the Egyptians with ideographs phonograms and determinatives. The script was used for a number of languages (Sumerian Akkadian Elamite Hittite Old Persian etc.) even being adapted to serve as an alphabet at Ugarit. The first success in its decipherment was by Georg Grotefend a German philologist in 1802. In inscriptions from Persepolis he recognized the names of Darius and Xerxes and the Old Persian word for 'king'. In 1844-1847 further progress came through the recording and study of Darius's rock inscriptions at Behistun by Henry Rawlinson. He was able to translate the Old Persian version; Westergaard in 1854 tackled the Elamite text and Rawlinson with others cracked the Babylonian in 1857. This was much the most important of the three as it led directly back through the many cuneiform inscriptions at that time coming to light to the first written records those of ancient Sumer. Cuneiform texts have been found in Egypt at el-'Amarna and on various objects of the Persian Period. In the Near East cuneiform tablets from Egypt have been found at Bogazkoy in Anatolia and Kamid el-Loz in Syria. A consonantal alphabet developed at Ugarit which vanished with the town at beginning of 12th c BC; and syllabary script was used solely by Achaemenid Persians to transcribe their language from 6th-4th c BC."
dating: SYNONYM: chronology
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The process by which an archaeologist determines dates for objects, deposits, buildings, etc., in an attempt to situate a given phenomenon in time. Relative dating, in which the order of certain events is determined, must be distinguished from absolute dating, in which figures in solar years (often with some necessary margin of error) can be applied to a particular event. Unless tied to historical records, dating by archaeological methods can only be relative -- such as stratigraphy, typology, cross-dating, and sequence dating. Absolute dating, with some reservation, is provided by dendrochronology, varve dating, thermoluminescence, potassium-argon dating, and, most important presently, radiocarbon dating. Some relative dating can be calibrated by these or by historical methods to give a close approximation to absolute dates -- archaeomagnetism, obsidian hydration dating, and pollen analysis. Still others remain strictly relative -- collagen content, fluorine and nitrogen test, and radiometric assay. Other methods include: coin dating, seriation, and amino-acid racemization. The methods have varying applications, accuracy, range, and cost. Many new techniques are being developed and tested.
dunting: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Cracking that occurs in a fired ware as a result of thermal stresses; cracking that occurs if a ware is cooled too rapidly or that appears on refiring bisque ware through 400-600 degrees Celsius, with the expansion of quartz
electron spin resonance dating: SYNONYM: ESR
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A dating method using the residual effects of electrons' changing energy levels under natural irradiation of alpha, beta, and gamma rays. The technique enables trapped electrons within bone and shell to be measured without the heating that thermoluminescence requires; the number of trapped electrons indicates the age of the specimen. There are a number of factors that may cause errors with the method. Precision is difficult to estimate and varies with the type of sample.
epigraphy: SYNONYM: epigrapher
CATEGORY: branch
DEFINITION: The study of ancient inscriptions and letter forms on buildings, statuary, tablets, and other durable materials and objects (such as wood, bone, pottery, stone). An expert in such studies is an epigrapher or epigraphist. Such texts are often the only surviving records of extinct cultures and chronicle ancient events, beliefs, and lists of kings. Epigraphy encompasses inscriptions from the earliest complex societies to those of modern states. Epigraphy sometimes does not include the study of texts painted on ceramics or written on papyrus or wood, which are regarded as within the studies of ceramics and papyrology, respectively. Epigraphy deals both with the form of the inscriptions, and with their content: study of the form enables assessment of the development of language and the alphabet; their content is, however, usually more important for the light thrown on the social, political, religious, and economic life of the ancient world. The science includes decipherment, translation, explanation, and evaluation of the inscriptions.
fit: SYNONYM: glaze fit
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The dimensional adjustment of a glaze (or slip) to a clay body, specifically with reference to their respective thermal expansions and contractions and resultant stresses, which may cause flaws in the coating
fossil ice wedges: SYNONYM: foliated ground ice, wedge ice
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soil features caused when the ground freezes and contracts, opening up fissures in the permafrost that fill with wedges of ice. The fossil wedges are proof of past cooling of climate and of the depth of permafrost. Foliated ground ice, or wedge ice, is the term for large masses of ice growing in thermal contraction cracks in permafrost.
Fuegian tradition: SYNONYM: Shell Knife culture
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A primitive people inhabiting the South American archipelago of Tierra del Fuego from c 2000 BC. The culture, a coastal tradition of the Alacaluf tribes, was often called the Shell Knife culture. It was based on the exploitation of marine resources and operative on the southern coast and offshore islands of southern Chile. The beginning of the tradition was marked by a change from land-oriented hunting and gathering; bone and stone tool technology persisted well into historic times. The primitive cultures of the Ona and Yámana (Yahgan) of Tierra del Fuego are so similar that anthropologists traditionally group them with the neighboring Chono and Alakaluf of Chile into this one Fuegian culture area". The Ona inhabit the interior forests and depend heavily on hunting guanaco (a small New World camel). The Yámana are canoe-using fishermen and shellfish gatherers. They are all nomadic and are sparsely scattered over the landscape and poor in material culture."
geochronology: SYNONYM: geological dating
CATEGORY: technique; related field
DEFINITION: The study of earth history by correlating archaeological events to the timing and sequencing of geological events. Specifically, it is the dating of archaeological data in association with a geological deposit or formation, such as the dating of Pleistocene human remains in the context of glacial advances and retreats. The term is applied to all absolute and relative dating methods that involve the earth's physical changes, like radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, archaeomagnetism, fluorine testing, obsidian dating, potassium-argon dating, thermoluminescence, and varve dating.
Glozel: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Allier, France, with an assemblage of pottery, clay tablets, bricks, terra-cottas, and glass that has been claimed as evidence of civilization in France prior to Greek and Roman contact. These items have been dismissed as forgeries but some items tested by thermoluminescence indicate a date range of 700 BC-100 AD. The discrepancy between the archaeological and the scientific evidence has yet to be resolved.
Grotefend, Georg Friedrich (1775-1853): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: German language scholar who made the first major breakthrough in the decipherment of the ancient Persian cuneiform script. He presented a paper on his work in 1802, but it was not published and his work largely ignored. He was not particularly versed in Oriental languages, but good at solving puzzles and knowing that the inscriptions dated from about the 5th century BC and were associated with the sculptures of kings, he concluded that the recurrence of certain symbols signified king" and "king of kings." Eventually he was able to connect the names of Darius and Xerxes with the terms of royalty. A third name proved to be that of Hystaspes the governor of Parthia and father of Darius I. Of the 13 symbols he deciphered 9 were correct. He also published works on two ancient Italic dialects Oscan and Umbrian. An account of his work is found in C.W. Ceram's "Gods Graves and Scholars" (1967)."
Halfan: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A Nubian stone industry and culture, named after the settlement of the Wadi Halfa, dating from c 23,000-17,000 BC. Its sites, characterized by tools made on small blades, appear to have been camps of hunters and fishermen.
Hatra: SYNONYM: present day al-Hadr
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient city between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in northern Iraq, founded as a military outpost by the Arsacids (Parthians) during the 1st century BC. It soon became the center of the small state of Araba and an important caravan city. Temples were built for the Sumero-Akkadian god Nergal, to Hermes (Greek), to Atargatis (Aramean), to al-Lat and Shamiya (Arabian), and to Shamash, a sun god. Hatra defied many Roman invasions. It was destroyed by Sassanians c 241 AD. Ruins include town walls gates, a large palace, houses and tombs, with striking stone statues and reliefs, and Aramaic inscriptions.
Hengistbury Head: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Upper Palaeolithic / Creswellian site with flint artifacts with thermoluminescence dates of c 12,500 bp. There is also a nearby Mesolithic site with evidence of flintknapping. The site became important c 100 BC (Iron Age) as a trading center with continental Europe; Roman wine amphorae were among the imports.
hypocaust: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A Roman heating system in which a floor of tile and concrete, sometimes with mosaic, was supported on low tiled pillars to allow the hot air from a furnace to circulate beneath it. Warm air, heated in an outside stokehole, circulated under the raised floor and also often entered room through vents above floor level. The gases escaped up box flue tiles at intervals around the walls, thus also warming them. This heating system in baths (thermae) and houses gave a central-heating effect. Examples are found from about 100 BC onward.
ice wedge: SYNONYM: ice-wedge; foliated ground ice
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Large masses of ice growing in thermal contraction cracks in permafrost. In periglacial conditions, alternating freeze and thaw can lead to the formation of vertical, narrow, and deep wedges of ice in gravels. After melting, these tend to fill with sediment, forming a cast of the ice wedge seen as dark bands, easily confused with manmade features, in aerial photographs. Casts of fossil ice wedges are one of the few true indicators of former permafrost conditions. Fossil ice-wedges of this kind are seen in many sections of sand and gravel deposits in Europe. They have been used to reconstruct the extent of the periglacial zone which developed around the Devensian and Weichselian ice-sheets.
infrared linescan: SYNONYM: IRLS
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Imagery that results from equipment that scans from horizon to horizon to detect and record actual temperature differences (thermal prospection) on continuous videotape.
isotope: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Atoms of the same element that have different atomic masses due to having different numbers of neutrons in the nuclei, but which still have similar chemical properties. Many of these forms of elements with a specific number of electrons (such as carbon 14 or potassium 40) are unstable and decay into different elements, releasing their surplus electrons. Radiocarbon, potassium-argon, fission track, and thermoluminescence dating all rely on this phenomenon in different ways.
Karatepe: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An 8th century BC Neo-Hittite fortified palace on the Ceyhan River in southwestern Anatolia (Turkey), founded by Asitawandas, king of the Danunians c 740 BC. A series of carved reliefs and inscriptions on two monumental gateways tell a great deal about classical Hittite, Assyrian, and Phoenico-Egyptian, and Syro-Hittite. The gateway inscriptions are bilingual Phoenician-Luwian (Hittite) hieroglyphics, which were instrumental in the decipherment of the Luwian writing system and to understanding of the Hittite language. The Assyrians probably destroyed the city in about 700 BC, when the last remaining principalities in the region were subjugated.
Karkarichinkat (Nord and Sud): CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Mounds in the Tilemsi valley of Mali, Africa, occupied by herder-fishermen between c 3900-3300 BP.
Lake Mungo: SYNONYM: Mungo
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A dry lake with an associated lunette in the Willandra Lakes, a complex of former Pleistocene lakes in western New South Wales, Australia. Excavation of the lunette has produced the best authenticated series of radiocarbon dates for the earliest evidence of man's occupation of Australia, and the remains of a cremated human female date to c 26,000 bp, the oldest evidence of cremation in the world. The remains of a man in an extended inhumation covered with red ochre is dated to c 30,000 bp. Stone tools belong to the Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition and there are artifact scatters, freshwater shell middens, and hearths dated by thermoluminescence to 31,400-36,400 years ago. The Willandra Lakes started to dry up c 13,000 BC. The appearance of grinding stones in this period suggest adaptation to wild grain exploitation. Intensive occupation ceased with increasing aridity, although sporadic visits occurred during the Holocene.
Lepsius, Karl Richard (1810-1884): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: German Egyptologist who led the Prussian expedition and survey of Egyptian monuments in 1842-1845. He also worked in Sudan and Palestine, sending some 15,000 antiquities and plaster casts back to Prussia. He published the results of the expedition in a 12-volume work, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien" (1859) which still provides useful information for archaeologists. He is credited with virtually recreating Egyptology as a subject after the premature death of Jean François Champollion doing further work on the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing."
Linear B: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A syllabic script used in Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece from c 1450-1200 (also c 1500-1100) BC. Michael Ventris deciphered it in 1952 as an early form of Greek. It was created at Knossos when the Mycenaeans took control and spread to mainland Greece. It was mainly used at the palace sites of Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns. Most of the Linear B writings are on clay tablets but also on terra-cotta jars that were traded throughout the Aegean region. The writings are administrative / economic in nature and its decipherment has thrown much light on the continuity between Bronze Age and classical Greece. They are from the Late Minoan II in Crete and Mycenaean III A-B on the mainland. It is probable that when the Mycenaeans overran the Minoans they adopted the script used on Crete, Linear A and adapted it for writing the Greek language; many signs were added to the existing Linear A signs.
Lydia: SYNONYM: Lydians
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A small kingdom which appeared in western Anatolia (Turkey) in the 1st millennium BC known to the Assyrians as Luddu. Their land extended east from the Aegean Sea, occupying the Hermus and Cayster river valleys. By about the 7th century BC, Lydia was important in trade between the Aegean and the oriental civilizations. Its capital at Sardis became rich, exploiting the gold of the nearby Pactolus River; the Lydians are said to the originators of gold and silver coins. In the mid-7th century the kingdom was overrun by the Cimmerians, but reemerged powerfully. The kingdom was most powerful under Alyattes (c 619-560 BC), who extended his rule in Ionia. The legendary rich king Croesus (560-546 BC) was ruler when Lydia was finally overcome by the Achaemenids (c. 546-540). Sardis subsequently became the western capital of the Persian empire, linked to Susa by a royal road. The Lydians are known for two achievements in particular: mastery of fine stone masonry, witnessed in the Acropolis wall at Sardis and in the Pyramid Tomb and the Tomb of Gyges in the royal cemetery, and the invention of a true coin currency, which was adopted by both the Greeks and the Persians. The Lydians were a commercial people, who, according to Herodotus, had customs like the Greeks and were the first people to establish permanent retail shops. Sardis was captured by Alexander the Great in 334 BC and became a Greek city.
Magdalenian: SYNONYM: Age of the Reindeer
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The final major European culture of the Upper Paleolithic period, from about 15,000-10,000 years ago; characterized by composite or specialized tools, tailored clothing, and especially geometric and representational cave art (e.g. Altamira) and for beautiful decorative work in bone and ivory (mobiliary art). The people were chiefly fishermen and reindeer hunters; they were the first known people to have used a spear thrower (of reindeer bone and antler) to increase the range, strength, and accuracy. Magdalenian stone tools include small geometrically shaped implements (e.g., triangles, semilunar blades) probably set into bone or antler handles for use, burins (a sort of chisel), scrapers, borers, backed bladelets, and shouldered and leaf-shaped projectile points. Bone was used extensively to make wedges, adzes, hammers, spearheads with link shafts, barbed points and harpoons, eyed needles, jewelry, and hooked rods probably used as spear throwers. They killed animals with spears, snares, and traps and lived in caves, rock shelters, or substantial dwellings in winter and in tents in summer. The name is derived from La Madeleine or Magdalene, the type site in the Dordogne of southwest France. Its center of origin was southwest France and the adjacent parts of Spain, but elements characteristic of the later stages are represented in Britain (Creswell Crags), and eastwards to southwest Germany and Poland. The Magdalenian culture, like that of earlier Upper Palaeolithic communities, was adapted to the cold conditions of the last (Würm) glaciation. The Magdalenian has been divided into six phases; it followed the Solutrean industry and was succeeded by the simplified Azilian. Magdalenian culture disappeared as the cool, near-glacial climate warmed at the end of the Fourth (Würm) Glacial Period (c 10,000 BC), and herd animals became scarce.
magnetic dating: SYNONYM: paleomagnetic dating
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any theoretically chronometric dating technique which uses the thermo-remanent magnetism of certain types of archaeological material. These methods use the known changes have taken place in the direction and intensity of the earth's magnetic field. Magnetic minerals present in clay and rocks each have its own magnetic orientation. When heated to the so-called blocking temperature, the original magnetic orientation of the particles is destroyed, and they will take on the orientation of the earth's magnetic field in a fixed alignment -- which does not alter after cooling. These methods are most suitable for kilns and hearths. Once the direction of the archaeological sample has been determined, it may be possible to date it by fitting it to the secular variation curve established for the local area. There is no universal curve, since not only the earth's main field varies, but there are also local disturbances. Since the dating of the curve has to be constructed through independent dating techniques, and these are not available for every area, there are not established curves for every region. As a dating technique, it is strictly limited to those areas where dated curves have been established. A more recent dating technique using thermo-remanent magnetism is palaeointensity dating (archaeomagnetic intensity dating). The principle is that the thermo-remanent magnetism in burnt clay is proportional to the intensity of the magnetic field acting on the clay as it cools down. The measurement of its intensity, and a comparison with the intensity revealed by reheating in today's magnetic field, gives a ratio for the past and present fields which can be used to establish a curve of variation in the earth's magnetic field intensity. The method promises to be useful since direction in situ is not required and it can therefore be used for pottery and other artifacts as well as hearths and kilns.
magnetic surveying: SYNONYM: electromagnetic surveying
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique for the location of archaeological features adapted from techniques used in geological surveying. It is based on the fact that features with thermo-remanent magnetism, like hearths or kilns, or features with a high humus content, like pits or ditches, and iron objects, distort the earth's magnetic field from the normal. Instruments such as the proton magnetometer or the differential fluxgate gradiometer are used to measure those disturbances, and by plotting the results, a map of the features can be built. The ways in which the different types of feature distort the magnetic field vary, though they can all be picked up on the same instrument. Hematite or magnetic, present in most clays, have a small magnetic effect when unburnt, since the grains point in random directions and cancel each other out. Once heated to about 700? C or more, the grains line up, increasing the magnetic effect and causing an anomaly in the magnetic field. This thermo-remanent magnetism is also the basis for magnetic dating. The presence of modern iron as in wire fences can cause problems with this technique of location; if the area to be surveyed is clearly crossed with power lines or fenced with iron posts, a resistivity survey may be more suitable. The method of surveying used requires a grid to be measured out on the site and readings to be taken at regular intervals. The nature of the site may prevent such a grid being laid out, for instance if it is heavily wooded, and magnetic survey may not be possible on these sites. It is one of the most commonly used geophysical surveying methods.
Marinatos, Spyridon Nikolaou (1901-1974): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Greek archaeologist who came up with the theory that the end of the Minoan civilization in the Aegean could have been caused by the volcano on the island of Thera in 1500 BC. He also discovered the buried Bronze Age port city at Akrotiri on Thera. Among the finds made at the site were the finest frescoes discovered in the Mediterranean region to that time, surpassing even those found at Knossos in Crete. He was the discoverer of the site of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) and the burial ground associated with the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). He wrote Crete and Mycenae" (1959)."
Montu: SYNONYM: Mont, Monthu, Mentu
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: Falcon-headed god of war, usually represented with a headdress consisting of a sun-disc and two plumes. He was the god of the 4th Upper Egyptian nome, whose original capital of Hermonthis (modern Armant) was replaced by Thebes during the 11th Dynasty (2081-1939 BC). The cult is attested in Theban region and major temples from Middle Kingdom to the Roman period. From the 30th dynasty (380-343 BC), the bull had an elaborate cult and important temple complexes at Karnak in Thebes and at Hermonthis, Al-Tud, and Al-Madamud.
Ogdoad: CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: A group of 8 deities or eons (four male-female pairs) associated with Hermopolis, who symbolize the state of the world before creation. The group's composition varies, but its classic form is: Nun and Naunet, primeval waters; Huh and Hauhet, endless space; Kuk and Kauket, darkness; Amun and Amaunet, what is hidden. The priests at Hermopolis Magna, the principal cult-place of Thoth, identified these eight as the primeval actors in a creation myth.
Okhotsk: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A late prehistoric deep-sea fishing culture of the coastal areas of northern and eastern Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurile Islands, Japan. It coexisted with the Satsumon culture from about 800-1300 AD, and then disappeared. The hunter-fishermen also kept pigs and lived in distinctive hexagonal pit houses.
Old Copper Culture: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A series of late Archaic complexes in the upper Great Lakes area of the United States and Canada which settled there approximately 5,000 years ago. This culture of hunters and fishermen did not have pottery and agriculture, but the people mined native copper around Lake Superior and used it to make tools. The metal was worked by hot- and cold-hammering and by annealing. Characteristic copper implements were spear points, knives, awls, and atlatl weights. Its best-known assemblages are from Osceola and Ocanto. Later cultures did not develop metal technology, but reverted to stone use. There is general agreement that 1500 BC represents the terminal date.
palaestra: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Greco-Roman times, an open-air courtyard surrounded by a colonnade (or porticos) and used for wrestling, gymnastics, and military training. This building consisted of a large central sand-covered courtyard surrounded by changing rooms and washrooms. It is from the Greek word for 'area of wrestling' or 'wrestling school'; it was often part of a gymnasium complex which would include a stadium. It also might be connected to thermae.
paleomagnetism: SYNONYM: palaeomagnetism, remanent magnetism; paleo-magnetism, palaeo-magnetism; archaeomagnetism
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The magnetic polarization acquired by the minerals in a rock at the time the rock was deposited or solidified. The permanent magnetism in rocks, resulting from the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field at the time of rock formation in a past geological age. It is the source of information for the paleomagnetic studies of polar wandering and continental drift. The field of paleomagnetism involves techniques for determining the age of rocks by analyzing the magnetic field polarity of certain minerals in the rock and its importance in archaeology lies in its use as a dating method. The ancient orientation and intensity of the earth's magnetic field is preserved by the magnetization of iron oxides in rocks and sediments and archaeological materials (archaeomagnetism). Ancient direction and intensity of the earth's magnetic field may be preserved in three ways: a) thermoremanet magnetism (T.R.M.) works through the alignment of the magnetic domains within iron minerals when heated to above the Curie point and subsequently cooling, b) detrital remanent magnetism works through the alignment of clay particles sinking down slowly through still lake or deep ocean water. A block of sediment is magnetized in the direction of the earth's field at the time when it was deposited., and c) sun-dried bricks as the bricks become magnetized in the current direction and intensity of the earth's field. Using igneous rocks, independently dated by potassium/argon, and kilns, hearths, pots etc. dated archaeologically, it has been possible to reconstruct something of the history of the earth's magnetic field. Palaeomagnetism proper is done by studying reversals in the magnetic field of the Earth, the youngest reversal dating to 700,000 bp. Measurement of the declination and inclination of the magnetic poles as it affects materials of different ages can be used to build regional chronologies. Palaeomagnetic dating has also been successfully applied to lacustrine deposits, deep sea cores, and volcanic rocks.
Philippines: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An archipelago of about 7,100 islands and islets lying about 500 miles (800 km) off the southeastern coast of Asia. A firm archaeological sequence began there c 30,000 years ago, at Tabon Cave on Palawan Island. There are Late Pleistocene stone industries, the spread of a small flake and blade technology after 5000 BC (Holocene), and the arrival and rapid spread of Austronesian-speaking horticulturists after 3000 BC. Rich jar-burial assemblages occur in the islands from about 1000 BC; bronze and iron appear later. Chinese traders visited and lived on the islands from about 1000 AD. Indian culture reached the archipelago during the 14th-16th centuries via Indonesian kingdoms, notably the Java-based kingdom of Majapahit. This is particularly noticeable in Philippine languages and literatures where Sanskrit loanwords and ancient Indian motifs abound. At the beginning of the 15th century Filipinos were primarily shifting cultivators, hunters, and fishermen with animistic beliefs. Islam was introduced later in the same century, followed by Ferdinand Magellan's discovery of the Philippines in 1521.
Rawlinson, General Sir Henry Creswicke (1810-1895): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A British diplomat who was one of a group of scholars whose work on the trilingual inscription at Behistun (Iran) was instrumental in the decipherment of the cuneiform (leading to the decipherment of Old Persian and Akkadian) languages of western Asia. He copied the Behistun inscription, deciphered it, and published the translation of the Persian text in 1851 and of the Babylonian in 1857. Rawlinson also encouraged much archaeological research and excavation in Mesopotamia.
Rosetta Stone: CATEGORY: language; artifact
DEFINITION: A basalt stela discovered at Rosetta, at the western mouth of the Nile, during Napoleon's occupation of Egypt, in 1799. This trilingual inscription on stone, a decree of King Ptolemy V (196 BC), was carved in Greek, Egyptian Demotic, and Egyptian hieroglyphic. It provided Jean-François Champollion with the key to the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, thus paving the way to modern Egyptology. The Rosetta Stone is now in the British Museum.
Taipivai: SYNONYM: Taipivai Valley
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Valley on the island of Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, famous for a novelized account of the life of its inhabitants, Typee" written by Herman Melville in 1846. There are many stone structures including Vahangeku'a and anthropomorphous stone statues -- some of the largest stone structures in the Marquesas. There are also megalithic terraced dance floors (tohua) and temples."
Thoth: SYNONYM: Djehuty
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: Ibis-headed god of ancient Egypt, patron of scribes and learning and later identified with the Greek god Hermes. His main cult centers were Hermopolis Magna and Hermopolis Parva.
Tuna el-Gebel: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site of the necropolis of Hermopolis Magna, including a complex of catacombs for the burial of sacred animals and an associated temple of Thoth, located on the west bank of the Nile, near modern Mallawi in Middle Egypt. There are Late Period/Greco-Roman tombs and underground galleries with burials of ibises and baboons.
Valdivia: CATEGORY: culture; site
DEFINITION: Early Formative period site on Ecuador's coast, and the name of a Formative period culture c 3200 BC. The type-site flourished beginning sometime before 3800 BC and lasting until c 1400 BC. Its pottery is among the oldest in the New World. Radiocarbon dates, stratification of midden deposits, and considerable stylistic variation in the highly distinctive ceramic complex have facilitated the construction of a chronology. The periods are: A: 3200-2300 BC; B: 2300-2000 BC; C: 2000-1500 BC and D: 1500-1400 BC. Characteristically, ceramics have a gray body, are smoothly polished and decorated with incision, rocker stamping, and appliqué. Decoration is typically only on the upper part of the vessel and all vessels are utilitarian rather than ritual. Periods C and D contained some traded sherds from Machalilla. Figurines in stone and ceramic appear after Period B with the ceramics usually portraying stylized nude females often with a distinctive 'page boy' hairstyle. Valdivia sites consist of coastal shell mounds left by fishermen and shellfish collectors, and also villages (Real Alto) of maize farmers.
Ventris, Michael (George Francis) (1922-1956): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British scholar, architect, and linguist trained in code-breaking during war service, who in 1952 deciphered the Linear B script of Minoan and Mycenaean Greece. He showed them to be an early form of Greek, dating from about 1500 to 1200 BC, roughly the period of the Homeric epics. In 1953, he published a historic paper with John Chadwick, Evidence for Greek Dialect in the Mycenaean Archives." Their "Documents in Mycenaean Greek" (1956; rev. ed. 1973) was published a few weeks after Ventris' death in an auto accident and Chadwick's "The Decipherment of Linear B" (1958; 2nd ed. 1968) followed."
Windermere interstadial: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: Interstadial of the Devensian cold stage which occurred c 13,000-11,000 bp. It consisted of a rapid temperature rise to an initial thermal maximum, followed by a slight temperature decline at 12,000 bp. It stabilized until 11,000 bp, when it fell sharply at the start of the Loch Lomond Stadial. The Windermere interstadial may be correlated with Godwin's Pollen Zone II.
Xerxes (c 519-465 BC): SYNONYM: Khshayarsha, Xerxes the Great
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The last of the great Persian kings of the Achaemenid empire, who ruled 486-465 BC, and was the son and successor of Darius I. He is remembered chiefly for his savage destruction of Babylon after a revolt, and for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont (480 BC), with battles at Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. His ultimate defeat spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenid Empire.
Yengema: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Town and cave site in eastern Sierra Leone with one of the few stratified sequences of Palaeolithic and Neolithic stone industries in that country. Crudely flaked picks, choppers, and flake-scrapers; hoe-like tools and backed blades have been found. In another phase, pottery and ground stone tools are found for the first time. Thermoluminescence tests dated the third-phase pottery at c 2000 BC.

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