Archaeology Wordsmith

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Results for monumental:

monumental: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A term describing the more prestigious or public form of a script as distinct from its cursive form.
monumental architecture: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Large buildings such as temples, palaces, and pyramids, readily identifiable in the archaeological record and assume to have been built by means of the collective labor of many people.
Achaemenids: SYNONYM: Achaemenid dynasty, Achaemenid
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The Persian dynasty, descendants of Achaemenes (c. 700 BC), which ruled from Cyrus the Great to Darius III (c 550-331 BC). Cyrus II (559-530 BC) overthrew the Medes empire to found a Persian empire, conquering Lydia, Babylonia, the Iranian plateau, and Palestine. His son, Cambyses II, added Egypt in 525 BC. The throne then passed to Darius, who set up an efficient administration of an empire then extending from the Nile to the Indus. This empire united for the first time all the peoples of the east -- from Thrace and Egypt to the Aral Sea and the Indus Valley -- and had as its capitals Parsargadae, Susa, and Persepolis. At Marathon in 490 BC, Darius failed to conquer the Greeks, as his son Xerxes failed at Salamis in 480. Their successors, notably Artaxerxes, fought to consolidate a waning empire. The Achaemenids were finally overthrown in 332 BC by Alexander the Great. The period is an important one in Iranian civilization. It was marked by contacts between the classical civilizations of Europe and the east and the appearance and spread of Zoroastrianism, at its time the most advanced religion outside Judaism. The Achaemenids' most famous monuments are the work of Darius: his capital of Persepolis, outstanding for its architecture and monumental reliefs, and his trilingual rock-cut inscription at Behistun for the key it gave to the translation of the cuneiform script. Other surviving Achaemenid monuments include the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae and the rock-cut tomb of Darius at Naqsh-i Rustam near Persepolis.
Alaca Hüyük: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell site in north central Turkey, near Boghaz Köy and 150 km east of Ankara, that was occupied in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd millennia BC. Its Chalcolithic and Copper Age phases include a cemetery of 13 extremely rich tombs from c 2500 BC (Early Bronze Age II). The burials were single and double inhumations in rectangular pits, with fine metalwork including copper figurines (thought to be mounts from funeral standards), sun discs, ornaments, weapons, jugs and goblets, diadems, bracelets, and beads. The quantity of gold and copper imply that this was a royal cemetery. The tombs were lined with rough stone and skulls and hooves of animals were hung from the wooden beams as part of the funeral rite. The site was later reoccupied under the Hittites, who erected a monumental gateway with two great stone sphinxes. It has been tentatively identified as the Hittite holy city of Arinna.
Altin-Depe: SYNONYM: Altin-depe
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large Chalcolithic and Bronze Age site in southern Turkmenistan which is similar to Namazga-Depe. The urban phase of the early 2nd millennium BC has a large artisans' quarter where there is evidence for specialized pottery production. The residential quarter has rich grave goods, including jewelry of precious and semi-precious stones and metals and imported materials. There is a complex of monumental structures which are similar to the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, with three main periods of construction. The settlement declined early in the 2nd millennium BC and was abandoned mid-millennium.
Ara Pacis: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A monumental altar in Rome, dedicated in 9 BC, possibly identified with the emperor Augustus.
Athenian pottery: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: Pottery produced in Athens from the Late Geometric period of monumental craters and amphorae through the Hellenistic period. The best known is the figure-decorated pottery of the Archaic and Classical periods that was widely exported along with plain wares.
Bastam: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Urartian settlement in northwest Iran with a citadel of monumental buildings (palaces). Several Urartian texts and sealed bullae kept records of goods stored and traded. Urartian and post-Urartian pottery have been chronologically classified.
Bath: SYNONYM: [Aquae Sulis]
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site of hot mineral springs (120 F [49 C]) which attracted the Romans after their invasion of Britain, who founded Bath as Aquae Sulis, dedicated to the deity Sul (Minerva). From the late 1st century AD onwards the springs became the center for a complex of lavish monumental buildings. These include the Temple of Sulis Minerva and an extensive collection of baths, the most notable being the vaulted Great Bath.
Boghazköy: SYNONYM: Boghaz Keui, ancient Hattusas, Bogazkoy, Boghaz Koy
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of the Hittite capital of Hattusas, excavated by Hugo Winckler in the early 20th century and which yielded thousands of cuneiform tablets from which much of Hittite history was reconstructed. The capital is on a rock citadel near the Halys River in central Turkey and the site had been occupied since the Chalcolithic times. In c 1500 BC, it became the citadel of Hattusas. As the Hittites' power grew, so did their capital, all within a massive defensive wall of stone and mudbrick. Six gateways were decorated with impressive monumental carved reliefs, showing a warrior, lions, and sphinxes. Four temples have been excavated within the walls, each grouped around an open porticoed court. Two buildings housed the archives with over 10,000 inscribed clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform script and the Hittite language. A cemetery close to the city held large numbers of cremation burials, a surprisingly early occurrence of this rite. The city fell at the same time as the empire, c 1200 BC. Little is known of the Chalcolithic or Hittite Old Kingdom phases on the site; excavation has in the main concentrated on the monuments of the New Kingdom city.
Carchemish: SYNONYM: Europus
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient city-state near modern Jarabulus, Syria. The site was a strategic crossing at the Euphrates River for caravans in Syrian, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian trade. The great tell of Carchemish was excavated by David G. Hogarth and later by Sir Leonard Woolley and was first occupied in the Neolithic Period. Halaf ware from the Chalcolithic (5th millennium BC) was found as well as later finds of Uruk-Jamdat Nasr pottery, a product of the southern Euphrates Valley in Sumerian cities of c 3000 BC. There were also tombs from the end of the Early Bronze (c 2300 BC) and the Middle and Late Bronze Age (c 2300-1550; c 1550-1200 BC). Written records concerning Carchemish first appear in the Mari letters -- royal archives of Mari, c 18th century BC. At that time the city was a center for trading wood and shipped Anatolian timber down the Euphrates. The large fortified citadel was important under the empire of the Hittites (14th century BC) and remained so after the fall of the empire, during the period of Syro-Hittite city-states (12th-8th centuries BC). The monumental city gates, temples, and palaces all bore considerable numbers of carved reliefs and inscriptions of the period. The Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions were of great importance in helping to piece together its history down to its annexation by Assyria in 716 BC.
Celtic art: SYNONYM: La Tène art
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An art style of the European Iron Age, c 500 BC, developed presumably by Celtic peoples. It originated on the middle Rhine River, extending to the upper Danube and the Marne. Its finest specimens are from the British Isles in the first century BC and AD. It appears most commonly in bronzework or other metals, weapons and horse gear, eating and drinking vessels, personal ornaments, and monumental stone carvings. It seems likely that the craftsmen worked under the direct patronage of the chieftains. Techniques employed were decoration in relief, engraving, and inlay. Stylistically, Celtic art combines elements taken from the classical world, from the Scythians to the east and from the local earlier Hallstatt Iron Age. The art developed into several styles in continental Europe (Early, Waldalgesheim, Plastic and Sword styles) but came to an end with the Roman occupation. In Ireland, the art style returned after the Roman withdrawal.
Cerro Sechin: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A pre-Columbian temple site in the Casma Valley on the north-central coast of Peru, dating to c 1800-900 BC (Initial Period, pre-Chavín) and known for its unusual large stone sculptures. These carvings are in a style unlike anything else reported in Peru, executed by deep-line incisions of warriors and dignitaries in regalia on dressed and carved stone slabs. Most of the figures represent humans. The site has one of the earliest appearances of monumental art in Mesoamerica.
cultural diffusion: SYNONYM: diffusion
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: In anthropology, the transmission or borrowing of certain culture traits from the group of origin into a foreign group; usually technological elements rather than those of social organization. This term defines the spread of ideas, traits, or people from one area to another -- not necessarily implying the movement of people, since trade and the adoption of new ideas from neighboring cultures are reasonable explanations of diffusion. The diffusion of new ideas can come, however, from the peaceful or warlike expansion of a population into new territory. The theory of diffusion was used in the past to explain the beginning of most new ideas: it was assumed that technological skills such as metalworking, or the building of large monumental structures, could only have begun in one place, whence they diffused to other areas. It is now clear, through the use of new dating techniques, that independent invention was certainly possible and probable for many new ideas.
dolerite: SYNONYM: diabase
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A fine- to medium-grained, dark gray to black intrusive igneous rock with the composition of basalt. It is extremely hard and tough and is commonly quarried for crushed stone (trap). It is used for monumental stone and is one of the dark-colored rocks commercially known as black granite. Diabase is widespread.
ekphora: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: In Greek antiquity, a funeral procession or chariots and mourners. Ekphorai are depicted on ceramic monumental funerary markers in Athens, dating to the 8th century BC.
Erligang phase: SYNONYM: Erh-li-kang
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A stage of the early Bronze Age in North China seen in two strata at Zhengzhou Erligang, classified archaeologically as Middle Shang. The phase preceded the Anyang period (c 1300-1030 BC) and radiocarbon dates have been c 1600-1550 bc. The massive rammed-earth fortification, 118 feet wide at its base and enclosing an area of 1.2 square miles, would have taken 10,000 men more than 12 years to build. Also found were ritual bronzes, including four monumental tetrapods, palace foundations; workshops for bronze casting, pot making, and bone working; burials; and two inscribed fragments of oracle bones. The Erligang phase may correspond to the widest sway of the Shang empire and is known for its highly developed bronze-casting industry. Some Chinese archaeologists call the phase Early Shang.
Gamio, Manual (1883-1960): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Mexican archaeologist, one of the first to work in Mesoamerica and excavate using metric stratigraphy. He carried out a monumental study of the populations of Teotihuacán Valley and set up a ceramic sequence for the Valley of Mexico.
Gordium: SYNONYM: Gordion
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The capital of the Phrygians in the 8th century BC, on the bank of the Sakarya River in central Anatolia (now Turkey). Gordion was surrounded by a massive mud-brick wall and a monumental gateway and was dominated by about 10 important buildings built on the megaron plan, and a palace complex. Outside the city gate was a cemetery of nearly 80 large tumuli, which has yielded rich finds from the 8th-6th centuries BC. The great royal tomb investigated was once identified as King Midas, who allegedly committed suicide when the Cimmerian nomads sacked the city in 685 BC. The tomb also contained inscriptions in the Phrygian script, nine tables and two screens of wood, three bronze cauldrons, 166 other bronze vessels, and 146 bronze fibulae. Traces of linen and woolen textiles were found on the bed, and traces of purple cloth were also found on the throne in another rich tumulus. Occupation of the site continued into Roman times.
grange: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A type of medieval manor house controlling the estates belonging to a monastery. Granges were first created in the 12th century in several countries of western Europe. The farms were run by monks with the assistance of lay servants and their purpose was to produce food for the church as well as for sale in the marketplace. Granges range in form from the elaborate monumental farm complexes of the Loire Valley (Parcay-Meslay), to the elegant Piedmont farms of Renaissance Italy and the hill farms of the Pennines in England.
Great Wall of China: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A monumental building project which created a wall running (with all its branches) about 4,000 miles (6,400 km) west to east from Bohai Bay to a point deep in central Asia, the Tarim Basin. Parts of the vast fortification date from the 4th century BC. In 214 BC, the first emperor of a united China (Shih Huang-ti of the Qin dynasty) connected a number of existing defensive walls into a single system fortified by watchtowers, which served both to guard the rampart and to communicate with the capital, Hsien-yang, by signal -- smoke by day and fire by night. The enemy against whom the Great Wall was built were the Hsiung-nu, the nomadic tribes of the northern steppes. The wall was originally made of masonry and rammed earth and was faced with brick on its eastern portion. It was substantially rebuilt in later times, especially in the 15th and 16th centuries. The basic wall is generally about 30 feet high, and the towers are about 40 feet high.
Guo Moruo (1892-1978): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Important person in Chinese archaeology who used a Marxist interpretation of history in all his work. He produced a monumental study of inscriptions on oracle bones and bronze vessels, Liang Chou chin wen tz'u ta hsi t'u lu k'ao shi"h (1935 new ed. 1957; "Corpus of Inscriptions on Bronzes from the Two Chou Dynasties"). He was the leading authority on Shang bone inscriptions and on bronze from Chou period using these first written texts as a basis for his study of Chinese society. In this work he attempts to demonstrate according to Communist doctrine the "slave society" nature of ancient China. His research work on bronzes from the Chou period carried out at the same time as B. Karlgren's consisted of making a chronological classification of the bronzes based on their inscriptions and used their typology as a secondary procedure. He reconstructed the development of these bronzes and defined the basis on which research being carried out today still rests. After 1949 Guo held many important positions in the People's Republic of China including the presidency of the Chinese Academy of Sciences."
Hazor: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large Palestinian tell site in northern Israel, occupied from the Early Bronze Age till the Hellenistic period. In the Middle Bronze Age, c 1700 BC, it was a large town with a citadel and surrounded by a rampart with sloping plaster ramp, of the type associated with the Hyksos. In c 1220 BC, the Canaanites were driven from the city by the Israelites, reputedly under Joshua. In the 10th century BC, the city was rebuilt by Solomon, who constructed a monumental gateway. This city was destroyed by the Assyrians c 734 (or 732) BC; however, the citadel continued to be used into the Hellenistic period.
hieratic: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A cursive form of the Egyptian hieroglyphs developed for everyday use in handwritten documents. It arose from the use of brush pen on papyrus for business and similar non-monumental purposes, starting at the end of the Early Dynastic Period (c 2686 BC). It was gradually replaced by demotic starting in the 7th century BC, but survived for religious use to the end of paganism in Egypt. The word comes from Greek hieratika sacred". Hieratic signs lost the pictorial character of hieroglyphs and are often joined together. Hieratic was written in one direction only from right to left. In earlier times the lines had run vertically and later about 2000 BC horizontally. Subsequently the papyrus scrolls were written in columns of changing widths. There were ligatures in hieratic so that two but no more than two signs could be written in one stroke. As a consequence of its decreased legibility the spelling of the hieratic script was more rigid than that of hieroglyphic writing. Variations from uniformity at a given time were minor; but during the course of the various periods the spelling developed and changed. As a result hieratic texts do not correspond exactly to contemporary hieroglyphic texts either in the placing of signs or in the spelling of words. Hieratic used diacritical additions to distinguish between two signs that had grown similar to one another because of cursive writing. In the life of the Egyptians hieratic script played a larger role than hieroglyphic writing and was also taught earlier in the schools. The latest hieratic texts are from the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century AD. Hieratic should not be confused with 'cursive hieroglyphs' which were used for most of the Pharaonic period in such religious writings as the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead."
hieroglyphics: SYNONYM: hieroglyphic; hieroglyph
CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A pictorial script used by ancient Egyptians from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC until the end of the 4th century AD. A hieroglyph was a single character or pictorial element used in hieroglyphics. Literally, in Greek, it means 'sacred carved letters'. The script consisted of three basic types of sign: phonograms, logograms, and 'determinatives' arranged in horizontal and vertical lines. The script was used for funerary and monumental inscriptions as well as more strictly religious ones. The script's development seems to have been so rapid that it may have been in some sense an imitation of the earliest writing of Mesopotamia in its Uruk phase. In both scripts three classes of symbol were used, each a single picture or geometric figure. Pictograms or ideograms represented whole words in pictorial form. Phonograms represented the sounds of words, the picture of an object pronounced in the same way as the desired word being used in its place (this was made easier by the fact that the vowels were disregarded). Determinatives told the reader the class of word spelt by the phonograms, necessary where these were ambiguous. Often all three classes of symbol were used in conjunction. No attempt was made in its long history to simplify the system, even when the more cursive forms of it, hieratic and demotic, were introduced. More loosely the term has been applied to other pictographic writing systems, particularly those of Minoan Crete, the Hittites and the Maya. Many of the symbols consist of a conventionalized picture of the idea or object they represent. Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822, through his study of the bilingual inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone and an obelisk from Philae. Some 700 signs were employed.
Hittite: SYNONYM: Hatti, Kheta
CATEGORY: culture; language
DEFINITION: A people of obscure origin who infiltrated Anatolia and the Levant from the north during the later 3rd millennium BC. In the Old Kingdom (c 1750-1450) they established a state in central Turkey with its capital first at Kussara, then at Boghazköy. They overran north Syria c 1600 and pushed on as far as Babylon. Under the empire (1450-1200) a more stable state was built up over most of Anatolia and north Syria, displacing the kingdom of the Mitanni and successfully challenging Assyria and Egypt. The end came quite suddenly in the Late Bronze Age c 1200 BC, notably by movements of the Peoples of the Sea and Anatolian groups from the north. The Hittite outposts in north Syria, however, survived as a chain of Syro-Hittite or neo-Hittite city-states -- Karatepe, Sinjerli, Sakçe, Gözü, Malatya, Atchana, and Carchemish -- down to their final annexation by the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. They are also known for their metal-working. They exploited and traded copper, lead, silver and also iron; indeed, they were among the first peoples to use iron, and for a period maintained a virtual monopoly in the new metal. Their language, Hittite and Hieroglyphic Hittite, is Indo-European, the earliest to be recorded. Hurrian, the language of the Hurri, was non-Indo-European, as of course was the Akkadian much used for commercial and foreign correspondence. The Akkadian cuneiform script was generally used too, though for monumental purposes local hieroglyphs were preferred. The discovery of the Hittite language was the major advance this century in the field of Indo-European languages -- with archives yielding thousands of tablets in many languages. The great period of the empire was 14th-13th centuries BC when a vast amount of material was recorded -- some in the important sister Anatolian languages of Palaic and Luvian.
Huaca La Florida: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large monumental site near Lima, Peru, of the early Initial Period, c 1700 BC. Its construction may have begun in the Late Preceramic, was probably used for only a few centuries and abandoned.
Huasteca: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An area on the northeastern fringe of Mesoamerica in northern Veracruz and Tamaulipas provinces of Mexico and the Maya-speaking group that lived there. The people were hunter-gatherers and the area has an archaeological sequence from the Early Preclassic to the Aztec conquest and Spanish contact. The cultural climax of the Huasteca occurs in the Early Post-Classic. The largest of the Huasteca centers (Las Flores, Tamuin) contain only moderately sized pyramids surrounded by a number of housemounds. The monumental sculpture is of relatively poor quality. The hallmarks of the Huastec culture are structures on a round plan, a black-on-white hard paste pottery, and carved shell ornaments.
independent invention: SYNONYM: parallelism
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A theory that a few of the total mass of cultural traits possessed and shared by the peoples of the world have been invented more than once. The theory maintains the likelihood of new ideas, such as the invention of copper and iron working, or the erection of particular types of monumental building, were invented in more than one place at the same or different times, opposing the theory of diffusion. New chronometric dating techniques have shown the probability of independent invention for at least some of these ideas.
Indus civilization: SYNONYM: Indus Valley civilization, Harrapan civilization
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent, identified in 1921-1992 by its two capitals -- Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro -- both in modern Pakistan. It was also the most extensive of the three earliest civilizations, the other two being Mesopotamia and Egypt. It was one of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, but its origins are obscure. By around 2300 BC, the Indus civilization was fully developed and in trading contact with Sargonid Sumer. Radiocarbon dates from several sites support an origin c 2600 BC, and suggest that by 2000 BC the civilization was in marked decline. The Indus River seems to have played a significant part, as many sites show deposits left by frequent catastrophic floods. Exploitation of the vegetation, particularly for the baking of enormous quantities of brick, caused the decline of the countryside. The final collapse seems to have been due to hostile attack. A few inhumation cemeteries have been found associated with the gridiron-plan cities and there were elaborate drainage systems, also. The site of Mohenjo-Daro had a great bath, assembly hall, and other monumental buildings. There was widespread use of an undeciphered hieroglyphic script and standard weights and measures. The economy was based on mixed agriculture and humped cattle were the most important domestic animals. The pottery was mass-produced and plain. Artistically the finest products were square steatite seals, carved with local or mythical animals and brief inscriptions. The civilization's effect on the later culture and religion of India seems to have been considerable.
Initial Period: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The period of 1800-900 BC marking the introduction of pottery in Andean South America. It was also the time when agriculture and animal husbandry began to be the subsistence base for most cultures in the area. It is one of a seven-period chronological construction used in Peruvian archaeology. Its close is marked by the occurrence of Chavin materials and the abandonment of many of the coastal centers. Many of the traits that make up the Peruvian cultural tradition such as intensive agriculture, the widespread use of textiles, monumental ceremonial architecture, and larger and more numerous population centers, occurred during this period.
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.
Khmer: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The ethnic name of a linguistic group inhabiting Cambodia, southern Vietnam, and parts of Thailand. Late in 6th century AD, they annexed the declining Funan Empire of south Cambodia and extended westwards. The Khmer were linguistically related to the Mon and at the height of their power ruled most of Thailand and southern Laos. The empire had its capital at Angkor in Kampuchea and it was destroyed by the Thais in about 1400 AD. Khmer was one of the most impressive civilizations of southeast Asia, known for spectacular and monumental religious architecture.
Kiev: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An important medieval Russian city, capital of the Ukraine, on the eastern bank of the Dnepr River. In the 10th century, small hamlets were built with sunken-floored workshops, merchant houses, and artisans' dwellings. A fortified town with churches and palaces grew through the 11th centuries. Kiev had developed into an important political and trade center on the route from the Baltic to Byzantium. The influence of Byzantium is apparent on local monumental architecture of the 11th-14th centuries. It was sacked by the Mongols in the 13th century.
kore: SYNONYM: pl. korai
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of freestanding statue of a maiden -- the female counterpart of the kouros, or standing youth -- that appeared with the beginning of Greek monumental sculpture in about 660 BC and remained to the end of the Archaic period in about 500 BC. It evolved from a highly stylized form to a more naturalistic one. The statue was usually draped, carved from marble, and painted in its original form. These are often dedications in sanctuaries and some are found in funeral contexts. Important series were in the temple of Hera on Samos and on the Acropolis in Athens.
kouros: SYNONYM: kore (female); plural kouroi
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A Greek statue of a youth or a standing nude male youth, of the Archaic Period. The large stone figures began to appear in Greece about 615-590 BC It was a funerary marker or dedication in a sanctuary. They are usually larger than lifesize; made of marble, bronze, or alabaster, and could be painted. It is thought to have been influenced by Egyptian sculpture; the first appearance of such monumental stone figures seems to coincide with the reopening of Greek trade with Egypt c 672 BC. The kouros remained a popular form of sculpture until about 460 BC.
La Tène art: SYNONYM: Celtic art
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An art style of the European Iron Age, c 500 BC, developed presumably by Celtic peoples. It originated on the middle Rhine River, extending to the upper Danube and the Marne. Its finest specimens are from the British Isles in the first century BC and AD. It appears most commonly in bronzework or other metals, weapons and horse gear, eating and drinking vessels, personal ornaments, and monumental stone carvings. It seems likely that the craftsmen worked under the direct patronage of the chieftains. Techniques employed were decoration in relief, engraving, and inlay. Stylistically, Celtic art combines elements taken from the classical world, from the Scythians to the east and from the local earlier Hallstatt Iron Age. The art developed into several styles in continental Europe (Early, Waldalgesheim, Plastic and sword styles) but came to an end with the Roman occupation. In Ireland, the art style returned after the Roman withdrawal.
Lepenski Vir: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A hunter-fisher village settlement on the banks of the Danube in Serbia. Trapezoidal houses (often with red plastered floors), stone hearths filled with fish bones and other refuse, and a remarkable group of stone sculptures --- by far the earliest monumental sculpture in Europe -- were part of an advanced Mesolithic economy. Many carved stone human heads were found, often with 'fishy' features. Radiocarbon places it in the 7th millennium BC. The site was later occupied by a Starcevo village. The most significant aspect of Lepenski Vir is the degree of cultural elaboration achieved by sedentary fisher-hunters at a time when agriculture was gradually becoming established in other areas of southeast Europe.
Mahdiya: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The first capital of the Fatimids c 902, who later conquered Egypt (969) and thereafter ruled from Cairo. Mahdiya occupied a narrow peninsula with a double wall and a single imposing entrance, the Sqifa al-Kahla. The other important Fatimid monument is the Mosque of Obeid Allah, built c 912, with a monumental entrance, a courtyard with single arcades on all four sides, and a sanctuary with a T-shaped arrangement of nave and transepts. Its plan anticipates the Fatimid mosque at Ajdabiyah and the mosques of Cairo. Other Fatimid buildings at Mahdiya include part of the palace of Obeid Allah and a naval dockyard.
Malta: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Mediterranean island south of Sicily with a settlement of the impressed ware culture at Skorba dated to c 4900 BC. Further immigrants arrived from Sicily c 3500. These people from c 4000-2400 BC erected a startling and unique series of megalithic temples, some 30 still surviving, of sophisticated plan and construction. They are among the oldest human monuments in the Mediterranean basin. The major temple complexes, most of which contained two or three separate temples, were built in several phases over a long period of time. The temples are built of local limestone in Cyclopean masonry and are characterized by a series of apsidal courts or chambers arranged on either side of a central corridor opening from a monumental facade. The whole structure is enclosed by a solid outer wall and the space between this and the building itself filled with stone and earth rubble. They have a number of installations which are presumably ritual, including altar-like constructions, niches, and porthole openings. The temples are unique in form and construction and are in any case too early to be derived from any east Mediterranean stone architecture. They are now seen as a local development. The people of this time were succeeded by warlike immigrants, possibly from western Greece or Carthage (8th-7th c BC), who dug an urnfield into the ruins of the temples and built villages on naturally defended hilltops; it is to this period that the mysterious 'cart-ruts' belong. The island was finally brought under the control of the Phoenicians in the 9th century BC and conquered by Rome in 218 BC.
mausoleum: SYNONYM: Greek mausoleion
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A storage structure for the dead which was above ground; a large, impressive sepulchral monument. The original mausoleum was the gigantic tomb of Mausolus, ruler of Caria, in southwest Asia Minor, built at Halicarnassus c 353-350 BC. It was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The word later came to be used for any tomb built on a monumental scale, such as Augustus in the Field of Mars and Hadrian on the banks of the Tiber (now the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome). As one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it was famous not only for its vast dimensions, but also for the refinement of its decoration and sculptures. Attributed to the architect Pythius, it seems to have been constructed entirely of white marble, and reached a total height of some 40 meters. It consisted of a massively broad and high plinth, surmounted probably by a temple with Ionic peristyle, topped by a pyramid, and the whole capped with a gigantic chariot-and horse group. Some time before the 15th century, it collapsed due to earthquake damage. The colossal statues identified as those of Mausolus and Artemisia were brought to the British Museum, together with sculpture and frieze details. Probably the most ambitious mausoleum is the white marble Taj Mahal at Agra, in India, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite wife, who died in 1631. Other famous mausoleums are those of Vladimir Lenin and Napoleon III.
Memphis: SYNONYM: 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.
Miletus: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Greek settlement at the mouth of the Meander valley in Turkey (western Anatolia), inhabited from the 2nd millennium BC. By the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, it was an Ionian Greek city, colonizing Black Sea and Egyptian Delta areas in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Miletus played an important role in the founding of the Greek colony of Naukratis in Egypt and founded more than 60 colonies on the shores of the Black Sea, including Abydos, Cyzicus, Sinope, Olbia, and Panticapaeum. Before 500 BC, Miletus was the greatest Greek city in the east. Miletus produced the classical historian Hecateus and the town planner Hippodamus. It was destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC and the new layout reflected Hippodamian planning. The city came under Athenian, Persian, Greek and (in 129 BC) Roman control. Impressive ruins survive nearby of the re-built Hellenistic Greek oracular temple of Apollo and a Roman theater. The harbor mouth was guarded by statues of lions. Subsequently, the harbor silted up and Miletus declined, but occupation continued into the early Byzantine period. In 263 AD, it survived an attack by the Goths and was refurbished by the emperor Diocletian. New Byzantine churches and monumental buildings were eventually erected within its boundaries. In the 10th century, the citadel was destroyed by an earthquake but was again rebuilt over the ancient ruins. The ruins occupy the former peninsula extending northward from the hill of Kalabak Tepe. Only one temple, from the 6th century BC, survives in part on Kalabak Tepe. To the south there are extensive remains of the classical city from the 5th century BC to Roman imperial times. The Hellenistic council house has some of the earliest known examples of true pilasters.
Monte Albán: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A major ceremonial center of the Zapotec people in Oaxaca, Mexico, built around 900 BC on top of an artificially flattened mountain. Monte Albán (I = 900-300 BC) was probably created to serve as the capital of the entire valley, which had previously been divided among several states. It was an immense complex of monumental construction, with a huge plaza (300 x 200 m) dominated by three central mounds. The plaza was flanked on the east and west by temples, pyramids, and platform mounds; on the northern and southern extremities are more complexes of monumental building, including a ball court. There are also underground passageways. By the end of Period I, the city had between 10,000- 20,000 inhabitants living in houses on hill slope terraces around a nucleus of ceremonial and governmental buildings. Hieroglyphic writing was in use, with bar-and-dot numerals, and dates were expressed in terms of the calendar round. More than 300 carved slabs ('danzantes') depict naked and contorted figures who may be captives, and inscriptions definitely recording conquests occur soon afterwards. In Late I/Early II, the city was surrounded by a defense wall. Period I includes the appearance of Grey Ware and Olmec-influenced monumental art. Period II is characterized by contact with Maya lowland centers and later, by the increasing influence of Teotihuacán. Period IIIA (the 3rd-5th centuries AD) is marked by increased contact with Teotihuacán, reflected in pottery (thin orange ware, cylindrical tripod vases), tomb frescoes, Talud-Tablero architecture, and stela inscriptions. Monte Albán reached the height of its power in Period IIIB, 500-900 AD, during which elaborate funerary urns in Grey Ware make their appearance and when the site reached its peak population of 50-60,000 people. Most of the surviving buildings belong to this time. During Monte Albán IV, 900-1521 AD, building ceased. After 900, the centers of power moved elsewhere and Monte Albán was considerably depopulated. It was essentially abandoned. In Period V, Monte Albán was of only secondary importance as a city and a political force. Mixtec art styles make their appearance in the valley and Monte Albán was used as a cemetery, with earlier Zapotec tombs reused for the Mixtec dead. One of the richest discoveries in ancient Mexico was Tomb 7, with over 500 precious offerings in Mixtec style gold and silver ornaments, fine stonework, and a series of bones carved with hieroglyphic and calendrical inscriptions.
mounded tomb: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A type of elite burial used in East Asia built with monumental earthen or stone-piled mounds which contained burial facilities. The burials ranged from wooden chambers, clay enclosures, to brick or stone megalithic chambers. There were round and square mounds and Japan's were keyhole-shaped. The tombs provide the source of data for the Three Kingdoms period of Korea and the Kofun of Japan. One of the earliest mounded tombs of China was that of the First Emperor of Qin, and the Ming tombs are some of the latest. Prestige grave goods are found in all. Haniwa (circle of clay") unglazed terra-cotta cylinders and hollow sculptures were arranged on and around the mounded tombs (kofun) of the Japanese elite dating from the Tumulus period (c 250-552 AD). The first and most common haniwa were barrel-shaped cylinders used to mark the borders of a burial ground. Later in the early 4th century the cylinders were surmounted by sculptural forms such as figures of warriors female attendants dancers birds animals boats military equipment and houses. It is believed that the figures symbolized continued service to the deceased in the other world."
Mundigak: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Tell site near Kandahar in Afghanistan with an important cultural sequence from the 5th-2nd millennia BC. By the later 3rd millennium BC, it was a major urban center with a large colonnaded 'palace' and other monumental structures within a walled citadel. Pottery and other artifacts of that time indicate interaction with Turkmenistan, Baluchistan, and the Early Harappan Indus region. It was closed related to the city of Shahr-I Sikhta, also on the Helmand River but in Iran. It is likely that the wealth of Mundigak, as of Shahr-I Sokhta, was based largely on trade in lapis lazuli and perhaps also copper. The Chalcolithic levels contained mudbrick and black-on-buff painted pottery and had a radiocarbon date of 3400 +/- 300 BC.
Musawwarat es-Sufra: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Meroitic site in Upper Nubia with a colonnaded temple, complex of monumental stone buildings, and elephant pens.
Mycenae: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The chief city of the Mycenaeans of Bronze Age Greece, overlooking the Plain of Argos (Argolid) in the eastern Peloponnese. Inhabited in the Early Helladic period, 2500-1900 BC, it was taken over c 1900 BC by Greek-speaking invaders. After existing as a minor Middle Helladic site, it rose to prominence by the 15th century BC. In the Late Helladic, c 1400-1250 BC, it was surrounded by massive walls of cyclopean masonry, and entered by the monumental Lion Gate. Little remains of the palace on the acropolis, though some houses lower on the slope have survived. Just inside the gate was the Shaft Grave Circle A, with six tombs yielding a great treasure of metalwork of high quality and artistic skill -- weapons, drinking vessels, jewelry, face masks -- and pottery dating to the 16th century BC. Stelae, carved with chariots, hunting scenes, and spirals in relief, stood over the graves. A second shaft grave circle was found outside the city, slightly earlier in date and less rich. Later members of the royal family were buried in the nine great tholos tombs, which include the magnificent Treasury of Atreus. The city escaped the disasters of the 13th century better than the mainland, but Mycenae fell in c 1200 BC, attributed to the Dorians. Mycenae is famous in Homer as home of Agamemnon, leader of Greek heroes at Troy. It emerged from the Dark Ages as a minor town.
Narce: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A settlement site on the Treia gorge near Calcata in Lazio, Italy, surrounded by an extensive necropolis, and probably inhabited from the 12th century BC. Occupation was mainly by Faliscans, an Indo-European Italic group, and it is therefore associated with their centers at Falerii and Capena. The town prospered under Etruscan domination in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Material evidence seems in general to follow a local (Faliscan) cultural sequence. Evidence survives for fortification walls, pit and trench burials, and chamber tombs with monumental doorways. Occupation continued to the 4th-3rd centuries BC.
Navan: SYNONYM: Teltown Hill
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Iron Age royal residence in County Meath, Ireland, with a round house and stockage occupied c 700-100 BC. In c 100 BC, a large circular timber building with banked and ditched enclosure was built. It was later burned and covered by a monumental cairn. The Iron Age occupation is identified with Emhain Macha, ancient royal seat of Ulaid, and the Irish king Tuathal.
Naxos (Greece): CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The largest of the Greek Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea and an important center for the so-called Cycladic culture of the Aegean Early Bronze Age, late 4th-2nd millennium BC. Mycenaean, Protogeometric, and Geometric periods are also well represented. In the period of classical Greece, Naxos has a relatively insignificant political history, and is better known for its wines and was a center of worship of the god Dionysus. Naxos marble was used for the sculpture of monumental figures and the island also supplied the emery with which to polish the marble. The Cycladic period has left numerous graves and examples of the characteristic Cycladic idols. An isolated marble door frame on the Palatia hill is the cella door of a 6th-century BC temple, while near Sangri lies the site of a square temple. For the ancient quarries there is no lack of evidence, particularly for the practice of cutting large statues in situ. There are several unfinished figures, notably a colossal archaic statue, male and with beard -- possibly a representation of Dionysius. During the 6th century BC the tyrant Lygdamis ruled Náxos in alliance with the tyrant Peisistratus of Athens. In 490 the island was captured by the Persians and treated with severity; Náxos deserted Persia in 480, joining the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis and then joining the Delian League. After revolting from the league in 471, Náxos was immediately captured by Athens, which controlled it until 404. In the 8th century, Naxos is said to have combined forces with Chalcis in a colonizing initiative to Sicily, where a colony of the same name was founded. In 1207 AD, a Venetian captured Náxos, initiating the duchy of Náxos.
New Kingdom: CATEGORY: culture; chronology
DEFINITION: A period of Egyptian history comprising the 18th-20th Dynasties, c 1550-1070 BC. It was the period following the expulsion of Asiatic Hyksos rulers and the subsequent reunification by Thutmose I-IV, Amenhotep, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ramesses I-XI. The Egyptian army pushed beyond the traditional frontiers of Egypt into Syria-Palestine. The Theban conquerors established the 18th Dynasty (1550-1295 BC), creating a great empire under a succession the rulers bearing the names Thutmose and Amenhotep. The newly reunified land had a stronger economy, supplemented by resources of empire in Nubia and western Asia. To this period belongs much of the monumental architecture of Egypt. From the beginning of the New Kingdom, temples of the gods became the principal monuments; royal palaces and private houses, which are very little known, were less important. Temples and tombs were stone with relief decoration on their walls and were filled with stone and wooden statuary, inscribed and decorated stelae (freestanding small stone monuments), and, in their inner areas, composite works of art in precious materials.
Ninstints: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Village site on Anthony Island, off British Columbia, Canada, with fine in situ examples of Northwest Coast architecture and monumental art. There are standing superstructures, living floors, and mortuary poles, some dating to the early 1800s. The earliest occupation is dated to 360 AD and the village was abandoned in 1888. It was occupied by the Haida.
Northumbria: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the most important kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, lying north of the Humber River. During its peak period it extended from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, between two west-east lines formed in the north by the Ayrshire coast and the Firth of Forth and in the south by the Ribble/Mersey River and the Humber. It resulted from the union of Deira, with its capital at York, and Bernicia, based on Bamburgh, under Edwin in 622 AD. After the conversion of King Edwin in 626 and the establishment of many major monasteries within the region, Northumbria became a center of missionary activity and a leading center of missionary activity and a leading center for the production of Christian art. In the later 7th-8th centuries, despite political decline, it was the scene of a cultural renaissance, attested by the history of Bede, the illuminated manuscripts of Lindisfarne, etc. Schools of art and monumental architecture also flourished. Archaeologically its most important site is Yeavering, a series of palaces built by Edwin and his successors in northern Northumberland. The cultural life and the political unity of Northumbria were destroyed by the arrival of the Danes.
nymphaeum or nymphaion: SYNONYM: nympheum
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: An ancient Greek and Roman sanctuary consecrated to water nymphs. It was an elaborately decorated public drinking fountain -- a semicircular monumental Classical fountain house. It often had niches filled with sculpture. The nymphs were associated with a range of natural features such as water, mountains, and trees. Nymphaea were often erected near the head of a spring. The nymphaeum served as a sanctuary, a reservoir, and an assembly chamber where weddings were held. The rotunda nymphaeum, common in the Roman period, was borrowed from such Hellenistic structures as the Great Nymphaeum of Ephesus. Nymphaea existed at Corinth, Antioch, and Constantinople; the remains of about 20 have been found in Rome; and others exist as ruins in Asia Minor, Syria, and North Africa. The word 'nymphaeum' was also used in ancient Rome to refer to a bordello and also to the fountain in the atrium of the Christian basilica.
obelisk: SYNONYM: Egyptian tekhen; needle
CATEGORY: artifact; structure
DEFINITION: Ancient Egyptian monolithic monument, consisting of a stone pillar with tapering square section and a pyramid top (pyramidion; Egyptian benbenet). They were erected for religious or monumental purposes and frequently bear carved inscriptions in hieroglyphs. Old Kingdom examples were squat and closely related to the pyramids, both being solar symbols. They were set up in pairs outside the entrances to some Old Kingdom tombs, and outside temples; a single obelisk in east Karnak was the object of a cult. Later ones, such as Cleopatra's Needle, one of a pair erected by Thothmes III at Heliopolis, were much more slender. They were derived ultimately from the ancient benben stone in the temple of the sun-god at Heliopolis. This stone was believed to be that on which the rays of the rising sun first fell, sacred at least by 1st Dynasty (3100-2890 BC). Obelisks were usually cut from hard stone, particularly red granite from Aswan. The largest surviving examples (30 m high, 450 tons) were products of the New Kingdom. The earliest surviving obelisk dates from the reign of Sesostris I (1918-1875 BC) and stands at Heliopolis, where once stood a temple to Re.
opus tessellatum: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Mosaic technique that involves the use of tesserae (small cubes of stone, marble, glass, ceramic, or other hard material) of uniform size applied to a ground to form pictures and ornamental designs. Opus tessellatum was the most commonly used technique in the production of Hellenistic, Roman, early Christian, and Byzantine mosaics. Opus tessellatum came to be used for entire mosaic floors in most areas of the eastern Mediterranean by at least the beginning of the 2nd century BC. The earliest mosaics in opus tessellatum were composed of stone and marble tesserae, but, in the course of the 2nd century, tesserae of colored glass were introduced. In the Hellenistic period (3rd to 1st centuries BC), pictorial mosaics were made in opus tessellatum; more commonly, however, opus tessellatum was reserved for decorative borders surrounding emblemata, or central figural panels executed in opus vermiculatum, a finer mosaic work using much smaller tesserae. In the 1st century AD, figural opus tessellatum was increasingly used to cover whole floors. With the widespread use of monumental wall mosaics, opus tessellatum entirely replaced opus vermiculatum, being much better suited, with its large tesserae and rougher visual effect, for viewing at a distance. Glass tesserae were used almost exclusively for these wall mosaics, and glass opus tessellatum remained the common mosaic technique throughout the Middle Ages.
Orientalizing: SYNONYM: orientalizing
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The period in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, during which Scythian-Iranian Oriental objects with their animalistic motifs were spread and consequently imitated throughout the Mediterranean countries, especially in Greece and Italy. It is also the style of Greek art in that period, a decorative scheme found especially on pottery. The style was probably the result of renewed contact with Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt. It is an art history term also used of various periods and cultures in antiquity when a 'western' production shows evidence for influence from the Near, Middle, or Far East. An example would be this borrowing by Greek Black-Figure painters of numerous abstract, vegetable and animal motifs from Syrian and Phoenician art. From about 650 BC on, the Greeks began to visit Egypt regularly, and their observation of the monumental stone buildings there was the genesis of the ultimate development of monumental architecture and sculpture in Greece. The Egyptians executed in hard stone instead of the limestone, clay, or wood to which the Greeks had been accustomed. The Greeks learned the techniques of handling the harder stone in Egypt, and at home they turned to the fine white marble of the Cyclades islands (Paros, Naxos) for their materials. It was at this time that the first truly monumental examples of Greek sculpture appeared. The period in Greece continued through the 7th century BC and saw the rise of narrative in Greek art.
Palatine: SYNONYM: Palatine Hill
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Principal of the seven hills of ancient Rome, and the favored location in the later Republic and the Empire for magnificent private houses and sumptuous residences of the emperors. It is a four-sided plateau rising 131 feet (40 m) south of the Forum in Rome and 168 feet (51 m) above sea level. It has a circumference of 5,700 feet (1,740 m). The city of Rome was founded on the Palatine, where archaeological discoveries range from prehistoric remains to the ruins of imperial palaces. The modern use of 'palace' is commonly traced back to this period. Tradition said the Palatine Hill was the site of the earliest Roman occupation, associated with mythical Romulus and Remus. Augustus was born on the hill and started a fashion for imperial residence by buying and enlarging the house of Hortensius. This trend was followed with zest by later emperors, and Domitian took over most of the hill for his amazingly extensive Domus Augustiana. Later structures included a special emperor's box overlooking the Circus Maximus, and the Septizonium, a monumental facade built solely to screen the southeast corner of the palace.
peak sanctuary: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Minoan cult location in the mountains of Crete. These sanctuaries had deposits of votive offerings but no monumental architecture.
pedestal: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The base of a structure, especially one supporting a statue or monumental column. It has three parts: the base or foot next to the ground, the dado or die forming the center, and the cornice or surbase moldings at the top. A second architectural definition is the support or foot of a late classic or neoclassical column. The term also refers to any upright column of sediment that is left standing as the surrounding archaeological excavation continues, to reflect the stratigraphy of the site or hold a specific artifact in place.
Pergamum: SYNONYM: Pergamon
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Capital of a Hellenistic kingdom of the same name in Anatolia (Turkey) dating to 283-133 BC. The site is fine example of Hellenistic town planning with buildings terraced up to the palace and the acropolis. There was monumental planning and design and sculpture in baroque style culminating in frieze of Altar of Zeus. In 133 BC, Attalus III bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, who made it the province of Asia. The Attalid kings had invested much of their wealth in Pergamum, making it a center for literature, the arts, and the sciences; their library rivaled Alexandria with 200,000 volumes (many written on parchment). The Attalid dynasty fortress and palace stood on the peak of the hill, while the town itself occupied the lower slopes. Under the Roman Empire the city was situated on the plain below. In the Roman period there was extensive new building and rebuilding. Hadrian restyled the round, domed Temple of Asklepios and built a temple of Trajan.
Persepolis: SYNONYM: 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.
Phoenician: SYNONYM: Phoenicia
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A Semitic people who lived in the coastal area of Lebanon and Syria from about 1000 BC, the cultural heirs of the Canaanites. They flourished as traders from their ports of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. They are crediting with founding Carthage and inventing the alphabet; the Greek, Roman, Arabic and Hebrew alphabets are all derived from the Phoenician. Even after their incorporation into the Babylonian empire in 574 BC, they continued to influence world politics, in the Near East through their fleets, in the west through their powerful colony of Carthage. They also established colonies in Utica, north Africa; Gades in Spain, Motya in Sicily, Nora and Tharros in Sardinia, and other settlements in Malta and Ibiza. Culturally their role as merchants and middlemen was uninterrupted until they were absorbed into the Hellenistic and Roman world. They are reputed to have circumnavigated Africa. They developed the alphabet to assist their commercial activities. They are not well-known archaeologically in their homeland, though there has been some exploration of their major sites; they have left few lasting memorials in the form of great works of art or monumental architecture. The Phoenicians engaged in a series of three Punic Wars with the Romans, which led to their ultimate defeat and incorporation into the Roman world in the 2nd century BC.
preaching cross: SYNONYM: standing cross
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A class of monumental sculpture unique to the British Isles, developed from the 7th century onwards. The tall, tapering cross shaft rested on a plinth or base, and carried a three-armed cross head. Both the cross and the shaft were usually ornamented with Christian figures and other decorative motifs. They may be Celtic interpretations of Mediterranean crosses and Iron Age stelae.
Predionica: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Late Neolithic settlement of the early Vinca culture in southern Serbia. The first of three occupation horizons has a radiocarbon date of c 4330 BC. Monumental fired-clay figurine heads have been discovered which were made by abstract modeling with plastic features reinforced by incised lines.
propylaeum: SYNONYM: pl. propylaea; propylon
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The entrance gate to a classical temenos, temple, or other sacred enclosure; the gateway that stands in front of a pylon. At the Acropolis in Athens, the monumental Propylaia (Propylaeum) was built in 437 BC on the same orientation as the Parthenon. This monumental entrance had various forms generally involving a colonnade (of four columns) positioned in front of an entrance cut into a continuous enclosure wall. The propylaeum may have columns both outside and inside the enclosure wall.
prothesis: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: In Greek antiquity, the lying-in-state of a corpse. It is depicted in pottery scenes and on ceramic monumental funerary markers as having occurred mainly at home, particularly in the 8th century BC.
Pucara: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A major urban center of the Early Intermediate Period, near the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca. The important buildings included a walled sanctuary, monumental U-shaped sunken court surrounded by structures, and walls of dressed stone slabs. The city is best known for its carved stone statues and its polychrome pottery with designs, including the divided eye motif found later at Tiahuanaco. The pottery is typically black-and-yellow on red with color zones separated by incised lines, possibly related to the ceramics of the late Paracas culture. Radiocarbon dates indicate occupation from 200 BC-200 AD. There are subterranean burial vaults. The site was abandoned before the zenith of Huari and the art style is almost certainly a precursor to Tiahuanaco.
pylon: SYNONYM: bekhenet
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A monumental gateway to Egyptian temples or palaces built in stone and usually decorated with relief figures and hieroglyphs. It was the usual entrance from the Middle Kingdom to the Roman period (c 2055 BC-395 AD). The Egyptians made frequent use of them, usually in the form of foreshortened pyramids to mark the entrances of tombs. A pylon consisted of a pair of massifs (massive towers) flanked by a smaller gateway. All the wall faces were inclined; the corners completed with a torus molding and the top with torus and cavetto cornice. The interior of a pylon contained staircases and chambers. Pairs of colossal statues and obelisks were often erected in front of the pylon. Pylons are the largest and least essential parts of a temple; some temples have series of them (e.g. 10 at Karnak). Rituals relating to the sun god were evidently carried out on top of the gateway.
pyramid: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A monumental tomb in the shape of a pentahedron, a square base and four straight sides converging to an apex, built by the ancient Egyptians in stone or brick to cover or contain the burial chamber of a pharaoh. Its origin lay in the mudbrick mastaba of the Archaic Period, which in the Old Kingdom became more elaborate with the use of stone, regularity of shape, and larger size. It evolved from the step pyramid as seen at Sakkara, Dahshur, and Meidum. The pyramid is the central monument in a pyramid complex and was the preferred tomb in the Old and Middle Kingdoms (3rd-12th Dynasties). The largest and most famous is the Giza group and Khufu's is the biggest with a 230 meter long base and original height of 146 meters. The elaborateness of the funerary ritual, witnessed by the mortuary temples attached to all pyramids, had the same purpose, of guaranteeing the eternal well-being of the deceased. This sepulchral chamber having been connected with the upper world by a passage sloping downwards from the north, the graduated structure was regularly built over it, the proportions of the base to the sides being constantly preserved. The building was continued during the lifetime of its destined tenant, and covered and closed immediately upon his death. The construction of the pyramids as early as the 26th century BC was an extraordinary achievement of engineering and architecture. The tradition of the pyramid as a royal tomb was revived by the kings of Napata and Meroe. In Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, and South America, pyramids were used as temple-platforms. There are over 80 pyramids in Egypt and ancient Nubia (Sudan).
Qasr al-Hayr East: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Islamic site in Syria with two fortified buildings and a bathhouse. There are towers and a monumental gate as this was the site of a rural princely complex dating from 710-750 AD, erected by Umayyad princes. An inscription from the mosque, now lost, gives the date 728-729 and refers to the site as a town. Although the principal occupation belongs to the 8th century, Qasr al-Hayr enjoyed revival in the 11th and 12th centuries.
quartzite: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Metamorphic rock based on sandstone and consisting mostly of quartz; it is dense hard rock that fractures concoidally. Flaked tools were made of quartzite when there was no chert or flint and it was important for heavy monumental building stone. Pebbles of it were made into hammerstones and hand axes.
Ramesses or Ramses or Rameses: CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The name of two pharaohs of Egypt of the 19th Dynasty and nine of the 20th Dynasty, therefore the period was called Ramesside. The most important of these rulers were Ramesses I Menpehtyra (1292-1290 BC), Ramesses II Usermaatra Setepenra (or Ramesses the Great) (1279-1213 BC), and Ramesses III Usermaatra Meryamun (1187-1156 BC). Ramesses II's victory at Kadesh, however doubtful, at least stabilized his frontier with the Hittites for many years. He also carried out much temple building within Egypt and Nubia, including his funerary temple at Thebes (Ramesseum). After Ramesses II's marriage to the Hittite king's daughter, his reign saw the florescence of Egyptian art and monumental architecture, most notably at the great temple of Abu Simbel. Ramesses III saved the country by defeating invasions of the Peoples by the Sea and the Libyans c 1170 BC.
Romanesque: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A style of architecture which emerged about 1000 and lasted until about 1150, by which time it had evolved into Gothic. It was hybrid style of architecture and ornament, transitional from the classical Roman to the introduction of the Gothic. It was a combination of horizontal and arched construction and the ornament included natural and fanciful objects. The term also refers to a style of monumental sculpture and painting.
sacellum: SYNONYM: sacred spot
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A term for a small enclosure an altar and consecrated to a divinity. The term also means small monumental chapels within churches.
Soufli: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Aceramic Neolithic-Bronze Age settlement in Thessaly, northern Greece. It had a Larisa phase cremation cemetery and is known for a rare piece of monumental sculpture depicting a more than life-size woman wearing a skirt and necklace.
state: SYNONYM: state-organized society
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A form of social organization characterized by a strong central government, socio-economic class divisions, and a market economy; the most complex form of social organization. Leadership is not based on kinship affiliation, though it may be. States are frequently marked by an armed force and a bureaucracy for recordkeeping. They often have very large populations, have cities and monumental architecture. Such a society retains many chiefdom characteristics in elaborated form, but also includes true political power sanctioned by legitimate force, and social integration through concepts of nationality and citizenship usually defined by territorial boundaries. A distinction can be drawn between primary states, those whose origin is independent of any contact with previously existing states, and secondary states, which arise from influences emanating from already established states. In cultural evolutionist models, it ranks second only to the empire as the most complex societal developmental stage.
stucco: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A fine lime plaster used for covering walls and creating interior architectural elements, which is a mixture of gypsum and glue or white marble and pulverized with plaster of lime and mixed with water. This weather-resistant plaster is used as a wall covering and for decorative features such as moldings, friezes, facades, and cornices. The Maya decorated temples and other monumental architecture with stucco masks and figures. Examples of stuccowork also occur in the Aztec architecture of Mexico and the Muslim architecture of North Africa and Spain. In ancient Greece stucco was applied to both interior and exterior temple walls as early as 1400 BC.
Stukeley, William (1687-1765): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British antiquary and field archaeologist whose surveys of the monumental Neolithic Period-Bronze Age stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury, Wiltshire, led him to elaborate theories relating them to the Druids. His views were widely accepted in the late 18th century and this misconception about the Druid connection has no data to back it up. His extensive antiquarian travels are recorded in Itinerarium Curiosum" (1724 "Observant Itinerary")."
Tiahuanaco: SYNONYM: Tiwanaku
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: Large urban and ceremonial site which dominated the Titicaca Basin and the high Andes of Bolivia from c 100-1250 AD, a major Middle Horizon site and probably the capital of an empire. The central area has principal religious structures on a large rectangular plaza, a large U-shaped mound around a spring, and a monumental Gate of the Sun cut from a single block of stone. The Tiahuanaco people had trade links with the Amazon jungle and the Pacific coast, exporting potatoes, root crops, and llama products. In the 10th century, Tiahuanaco colonies were established on the coasts of southern Peru and northern Chile. Tiahuanaco's distinctive art and architectural styles influenced the central highlands and southern Peru, northern Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. Tiahuanacan influence spread over a wide area of the Central Andes and is especially evident because of its unique ceramics. Typically, pottery was pointed black-on-white on a red polished surface, although later styles employed as many as six colors. Geometric designs were common as well as stylized pumas, condors, and serpents. The kero (a flared-rim beaker) is a characteristic form. Articles of bronze, copper and gold suggest that the city may also have been an important metallurgical center. Iconographic links with Huari to the north are such that a strong economic and cultural bond between the two is assumed. Tiahuanaco and Huari together constitute the Middle Horizon style of the Andes.
Tlatilco: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Pre-Classic village site right just outside present-day Mexico City, dated to c1500-1000 BC, with a cemetery of more than 500 graves. The graves had local artifacts and some of the Olmec style, including figurines showing clothing types, hairstyles, skin decoration, and various occupations. Although there is no monumental stone architecture, low earth pyramids and bottle-shaped pits filled with household refuse indicate permanent residence. Located on an exit point on the western side of the valley, Tlatilco may possibly have been one of a number of stations on an Olmec trade route Veracruz with the raw material sources of western Mexico.
Tula: SYNONYM: Tollán
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The Toltec capital, located in the modern state of Hidalgo, Mexico, then identified as Tollán. Founded on an already existing settlement in c 960 AD, it grew to cover 11 sq. km. The site gained importance c 800 AD after Teotihuacán fell. There was a stepped pyramid on which there was a temple and buildings had colonnaded halls. At its height, there were some 1000 mounds and at least as many low rectangular house mounds, and five ball courts. The monumental civic architecture featured Talud-Tablero architecture. In sculpture, the most diagnostic figures are the Chac Mools, reclining human figures holding offering dishes, and the famous Atlantean statues that supported the roof of Pyramid B. The earliest pre-architectural phases at Tula are characterized by the presence of Coyotlatelco ware, but the dominant ceramic occurring after c1000 is Mazapan ware. Imported Plumbate Ware also occurs frequently. Although the Toltec are associated with the introduction of metallurgy into central Mexico, no metals have been found. Tula was violently destroyed, probably by a Chichimec group, in either 1156 or 1168 AD (depending on how one reads the Calendar date). Although its exact location is not certain, an archaeological site near the contemporary town of Tula in Hidalgo state has been the consistent choice of historians.
Upper Paleolithic: CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: The final part of the Paleolithic period, from about 40,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago. It was characterized by the development of bladed stone tools and regional stone-tool industries (e.g. Perigordian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian of Europe), the hunting of large herd animals, human burials, the appearance of cave paintings and other art forms, and during which modern humans (Cro-Magnon man) replaced the Neanderthals. There were also localized industries in the Old World and the oldest known cultures of the New World. Upper Paleolithic industries exhibit greater complexity, specialization, and variety of tool types and distinctive regional artistic traditions emerged. This includes small sculptures (clay and stone figurines, ivory carvings), monumental paintings, incised designs, and reliefs on the walls of caves.
urban revolution: SYNONYM: Urban Revolution
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A term applied to a sociocultural type or stage of human development. V. Gordon Childe proposed that the criteria for the urban revolution are: (1) cities, or large, dense settlements; (2) the differentiation of the population into specialized occupational groups; (3) social classes, including a ruling stratum exempt from primary subsistence tasks; (4) mechanisms for extracting a social surplus such as taxes or tribute; (5) monumental public buildings and other enterprises; and (6) writing.
Vetulonia: SYNONYM: Etruscan Vetluna
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Principal Etruscan city and, according to traditional sources, one of the confederation of twelve. The original settlement was probably early Iron Age (Villanovan) and it prospered between the 9th-6th centuries BC. There are Villanovan pits, biconical ossuaries (a type of circular tomb with a tumulus), and some monumental tholos-like vaulted examples. The grave goods are often rich, of gold, silver, and particularly bronze. From the Tomba della Pietrera have come the earliest examples of Etruscan stone statuary, which are flat, rectilinear figurines.
Wasit: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Military and commercial city of medieval Iraq, especially important during the Umayyad caliphate (661-750 AD). It was established as a military encampment in 702 on the Tigris River, between Basra and Kufah. A palace and the chief mosque were built and irrigation and cultivation were encouraged. Because of its location on the Tigris, Wasit became a shipbuilding and commercial center. Even after the caliphal capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad, the city remained important. The only standing building is a shrine with a monumental portal flanked by minarets, datable to the 13th century. Excavations revealed a congregational mosque with four periods of construction, the earliest with a large courtyard surrounded on three sides by a single arcade and a sanctuary 19 bays wide and 5 bays deep. Adjoining the mosque was the Dar al Imara, or governor's palace.
white-ground: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: Athenian pottery technique, especially of the 5th century BC, where white slip was applied to the vessel surface and the decoration painted on that. The white-ground lekythoi -- funerary vases with the figures painted in color against a white background -- are the most common shapes employing this technique. It was also used on monumental funerary lekythoi. The white-ground lekythoi are believed to be the most reliable source information about monumental Greek paintings of the Classical period.
Xinzheng: SYNONYM: Hsin-cheng
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Area in central Honan province, China, with an Eastern Zhou (Chou) tomb which was ransacked. More than a hundred bronze ritual vessels and bells said to belong to the find are now divided among museums in Beijing and Taibei. The vessels, of the 8th-6th centuries BC, show a change to more elegant forms, often decorated with an allover pattern of tightly interlaced serpents; vessels may be set about with tigers and dragons modeled in the round and topped with flaring, petaled lids. The name of the site is now attached to these patterns. A group of monumental vessels found at Xinzheng and affiliated with Ch'u bronzes are not of this style.

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