Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for museum:

museum: CATEGORY: structure; term
DEFINITION: An institution that collects, studies, exhibits, and conserves objects for cultural and educational purposes; literally, a temple (or seat) of the Muses. The term was first applied to an establishment founded by Ptolemy I, called Soter, at Alexandria in Egypt, in the late 3rd century BC.
Abu Gurab: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Abu Ghurob
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on the west bank of the Nile between Giza and Saqqara, originally called the Pyramid of Righa" and containing the remains of a sun temple erected by the 5th Dynasty King Nyuserra (2445-2421 BC) whose pyramid is at Abusir just to the south. The building of a sun temple to Ra in addition to a royal pyramid complex was customary in the 5th Dynasty. Abu Gurah is the best preserved of the two surviving examples (Userkaf at Abusir is the other.). Reliefs from the temple were sent to museums in Germany but a number of them were destroyed during World War II."
Abydos, Tablets of: CATEGORY: artifact; language
DEFINITION: Two hieroglyphic inscriptions containing the names of Egyptian kings that were found on the walls in a small temple at Abydos, Egypt. The first tablet has the names of the kings of the 12th and 18th Dynasties and it is now in the British Museum. The second tablet begins with Menes, one of the first kings of Egypt, and has a complete list of the first two dynasties as well as a number of names from the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Dynasties. It was discovered in 1864 by Auguste Mariette, who published the book Abydos" in 1869."
accession: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: An object acquired by a museum or collector as a part of a permanent collection; also, the act of processing and recording an addition to a permanent collection.
alabaster: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Egyptian alabaster
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A term used by Egyptologists for a type of white, semi-transparent or translucent, stone used in statuary, vases, sarcophagi, and architecture. It is a form of limestone (calcium carbonate), sometimes described as travertine. It was used increasingly from the Early Dynastic period for funerary vessels as well as statuary and altars. Alabaster is found in Middle Egypt, a main source being Hatnub, southeast of el-Amarna. The sarcophagi of Seti I (British Museum) is a fine example. An alabaster (also alabastron or alabastrum) is also the name of a small vase or jar for precious perfumes or oils made of this material. It was often globular with a narrow mouth and often without handles.
Alfred Jewel: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An elaborate gold ornament which is an example of 9th century Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship and found at Somerset, England in 1893 (now in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). It consists of an enameled plaque with an oval portrait in different-colored Cloisonné, enhanced with filigree wire and backed by a flat piece of gold engraved with foliate decoration. Engraved around the frame are the Old English words which translate to, 'Alfred ordered me to be made', assumed to be King Alfred.
Amudian: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Amud
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A culture and industry close to the Sea of Galilee near Tiberias, Israel. There are several important caves, including Emireh, the type site of the Emiran, and Zuttiyeh, the type site of the Amudian. These demonstrate the early occurrence of Upper Palaeolithic blades and burins even earlier than the Mousterian and its flake tools. The Amud cave is Mousterian or Emiran and in 1961 the skeletal remains were found of two adults and two children estimated to have lived about 50,000-60,000 years ago (remains held in the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem). They consist of a skeleton of an adult male about 25 years old, a fragment of an adult jaw, and skull fragments of infants. The skeleton has an exceptionally large brain (1800 cc). The remains suggest that they are part of a group known as Near Eastern Neanderthal man. This group represents a mixture of West Asian features similar to those of fossils found in 1957 in Iraq that were estimated to date from about 46,000 years ago and those of the Upper Paleolithic people who lived in southwestern France and the Middle East from about 10,000 to 35,000 years ago. These findings provide more evidence that Neanderthal man was a highly varied species who lived in much of the Northern Hemisphere, except the New World. Amudian material has been recognized at the cave of et-Tabun (Mount Carmel) and at sites like Jabrud, Adlun, and the Abri Zumoffen in the Levant. It has been suggested that the Amudian may have been ancestral to subsequent Upper Palaeolithic industries of the Middle East, hence the name 'pre-Aurignacian' which has sometimes been given to industries of Amudian type.
Andersson, Johan Gunnar (1874-1960): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Swedish geologist who laid the foundation for the study of prehistoric China. In 1921, at a cave near Peking, he demonstrated the presence of prehistoric material in that country. He is remembered for his work on the Yang Shao Neolithic culture (dating between 5000-3000 BC) on the middle Yellow River and the Pan Shan cemeteries further west in Kansu. He also carried out the first excavations (1921-1926) at the Palaeolithic cave site at Choukoutien (Zhoukoudian). Andersson started Sweden's Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
Archéodrome de Beaune: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A museum of reconstructed buildings and experimental archaeology founded in 1978 in Côte d'Or, France. There is a Palaeolithic encampment, a Neolithic house, and Roman siege works.
Ardagh Chalice: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A large, two-handled silver cup decorated with gold, gilt bronze, and enamel, that is one of the finest examples of early Christian art from the British Isles. Discovered in 1868 along with a small bronze cup and four brooches in a potato field in Ardagh, Ireland, the chalice may have been part of the buried loot form a monastery after an Irish or Viking raid. The outside of the bowl is engraved with the Latin names of some of the Apostles. There are similarities between the letters of the inscription and some of the large initials in the Lindisfarne Gospels, which probably dates from about 710-720 AD. Thus, the Ardagh Chalice is thought to date from the first half of the 8th century. The chalice displays exceptional artistic and technical skills applied to a variety of precious materials. So far, its manufacture has not been attributed to a particular workshop but the chalice does have similarities to the celebrated Tara brooch and the Moylough belt-reliquary. It is now housed in the National Museum of Ireland at Dublin.
Ashurbanipal (fl. 7th century BC): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Assurbanipal, Asurbanipal, Assurnasirpal
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The last of the great kings of Assyria (668-627 BC), who established the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East, a huge collection of Assyrian clay tablets in his palace and that of his grandfather, Sennacherib. The library has been extremely valuable in revealing the art, science, and religion of ancient Mesopotamia. Approximately 20,720 tablets and fragments have been preserved in the British Museum. This collection was assembled by royal command, whereby scribes searched for and collected or copied texts of every genre from temple libraries. Theses were added to a core collection of tablets from Ashur, Calah, and Nineveh itself. The major group includes omen texts based on observations of events; on the behavior and features of men, animals, and plants; and on the motions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. There were dictionaries of Sumerian, Akkadian, and other words, all important to the scribal educational system. Ashurbanipal also collected many incantations, prayers, rituals, fables, proverbs, and other canonical" and "extracanonical" texts. The traditional Mesopotamian epics -- such as the stories of Creation Gilgamesh Irra Etana and Anzu -- have survived mainly due to their preservation in Ashurbanipal's library. Handbooks scientific texts and some folk tales show that this library of which only a fraction of the clay tablets has survived was more than a mere reference library. His many brilliant military campaigns served only to hold what had been already won by previous kings though Egypt regained its independence and Elam was only retained by complete devastation."
Balawat: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tell Balawat
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of ancient Imgur-Enlil, east of Mosul in northern Iraq. Excavators have found the palace of Shalmaneser II and a pair of great bronze gates (now in the British Museum). These huge wooden gates were part of a set of three with evidence of the campaigns of Assurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III. They were decorated with horizontal bands of metal 11 inches high, each modeled by a repoussé process, with a double register of narrative scenes. The bronze doors from the Assyrian town portray the course of Shalmaneser's campaigns and undertakings in rows of pictures. Balawat was the country retreat of the Assyrian kings in the first half of the 9th century BC.
Banpo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of an early Yangshao Neolithic village, now a museum at Xi'an, China, in the basin of the confluence of the Yellow River (Huang Ho), the Fen Ho, and Kuei Shui. Radiocarbon dates range from c 4800-4300 BC. The settlement was about 50,000 sq. meters and included a cemetery and pottery kilns outside a ditch that surrounded the residences. Dogs, cattle, sheep, chicken and pigs were domesticated and millet, rice, kaoling, and possibly soybeans grown. The horse and silkworm may also have been raised. Unpainted pottery was cord-marked or stamped, and fine ceremonial" pottery vessels were painted in black or red with some simple geometric patterns and drawings of fish turtles deer and faces. There were some elaborately worked objects in jade as well as everyday objects made from flint bone and groundstone. Sites with similar remains have been excavated at nearby Jiangzhai Baoji Beishouling and Hua Xian Yuanjunmiao. These sites all exhibit the first evidence of food production in China."
Belzoni, Giovanni (1778-1823): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Italian excavator of Egyptian sites, who is known as a picturesque and unscrupulous collector of Egyptian antiques as well as a pioneer in Egyptology. Belzoni sought antiquities both for himself and for the British Consul-General on behalf of the British Museum, whose collection he enhanced enormously. His discoveries were numerous, ranging from at Thebes, the colossal sculpture of the head of Ramses II (the Young Memnon"); in the nearby Valley of the Tombs of Kings the tomb of Seti I and the aragonite sarcophagus (for the Sir John Soane's Museum London). Though he managed to take an obelisk from the Nile island of Philae (Jazirat Filah) near Aswan it was taken from him at gunpoint by agents working for French interests. He explored Elephantine (Jazirat Aswan) and the temple of Edfu (Idfu) cleared the entrance to the great temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel was first to penetrate the pyramid of Khafre at Giza and identified the ruins of the city of Berenice on the Red Sea. His methods were unnecessarily destructive by modern archaeological standards. He died in western Africa as he began a journey to Timbuktu. An account of his adventures was published in the year of his death "Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids Temples Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia" (2 vol. 1820)."
Bharhut: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A village, about 100 miles southwest of Allahabad, India, famous for the ruins of a Buddhist stupa built in the time of Ashoka (c 250 BC). Originally built of brick, it was enlarged during the 2nd century BC and surrounded with a stone railing with four stone gateways (toranas) placed at four cardinal points. An inscription on these gateways assigns the work to King Dhanabhuti in the rule of the Shungas (i.e., before 72 BC). The railing is decorated with scenes from the Jataka stories. The sculptures adorning the shrine are among the earliest and finest examples of the developing style of Buddhist art in India. Discovered in 1873, the stupa's sculptural remains are now mainly preserved in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and in the Municipal Museum (Allahabad).
Blackwater Draw: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: The deeply stratified type site for the Clovis point and Llano complex, located near Clovis, New Mexico, with evidence of occupation from the earliest Paleo-Indian through the Archaic period. Clovis points have been found associated with mammoth bones and Folsom points have been found with bison bones. Also found: Agate Basin points, Cody complex points, a Frederick point, and tools of the Archaic period. Blackwater Draw is also used to evaluate the chronological sequences at other sites. The Blackwater Draw Museum exhibits 12,000-year-old artifacts from the area's archaeological sites.
block statue: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of sculpture introduced in the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC), that represents the subject squatting on the ground with knees drawn up close to the body, under the chin. The arms and legs may be wholly contained within the simple cubic form, with the hands and feet protruding discretely. The 12th-dynasty block statue of Sihathor in the British Museum is the earliest dated example. The block statue of Queen Hetepheres, in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, is also one of the earliest examples of this type.
Boscoreale: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of two villas that were suburbs of Rome, near Pompeii, with important and sumptuous artifacts and painted rooms dating c 40 BC. These include possessions of the great patrician families of Rome, such as paintings illustrating Dionysiac mysteries, jewels, and magnificent gold and silver household furnishings. The cubiculum of one villa at Boscoreale is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of New York City and other items are kept at the Louvre. Many of the rich hoards were accidentally saved by the volcanic catastrophe of 79 AD.
Butser: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An experimental farm and museum in Hampshire, England. Iron Age plant cultivation, animal husbandry, and architecture are tested and studied.
Cairo: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Arabic Al-Qahirah
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The capital of modern Egypt, which has more than 400 registered historical monuments -- the largest number of any African or Middle Eastern city -- dating from 130 AD. The ancient metropolis has stood for more than 1,000 years on the same site. The Pyramids of Giza stand at the southwestern edge of the Cairo metropolis. The Egyptian (National) Museum is in Cairo which specializes in antiquities of the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods. It contains more than 100,000 items, including some 1,700 items from the tomb of Tutankhamen, including the solid-gold mask that covered the pharaoh's head. Other treasures include reliefs, sarcophaguses, papyri, funerary art and the contents of various tombs, jewelry, ornaments of all kinds, and other objects.
Calendar Stone: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A 20-ton, 4-meter wide carved monolith commissioned by the emperor Axayacatl in 1479, which symbolizes the Aztec universe. The populations of central Mexico believed that they were living in the fifth epoch of a series of worlds (or suns) marked by cyclical generation and destruction. The central figure of the stone is this fifth sun, Tonatuih. Surrounding this are four rectangular cartouches containing dates and symbols for the gods Ehecatl, Texcatlipoca, Tlaloc and Chilchihuitlicue who represent the four worlds previously destroyed and the dates of the previous holocausts -- 4 Tiger, 4 Wind, 4 Rain, and 4 Water. The central panel contains the date 4 Ollin (movement) on which the Aztecs showed that they anticipated that their current world would be destroyed by an earthquake. In a series of increasingly larger concentric bands, symbols for the 20 days of the month, precious materials, and certain stars are represented. The outermost band depicts two massive serpents whose heads meet at the stone's base. The Calendar Stone" is in the Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Museum of Anthropology) in Mexico City."
cameo glass: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A Roman artifact of layered, multicolored glass with the effect of a cameo cut from onyx. The Portland Vase in the British Museum is an important example.
Carter, Howard (1874-1939): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British archaeologist who made one of the richest and most celebrated contributions to Egyptology: the discovery in 1922 of the largely intact tomb of King Tutankhamen. At 17, Carter joined a British-sponsored archaeological survey of Egypt. He received his training as an excavator and epigrapher from some of the most important Egyptologists of the late nineteenth century, including Gaston Maspero and Flinders Petrie, with whom he worked at el-Amarna in 1892. He made drawings of the sculptures and inscriptions at the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Thebes and then served as inspector-general of the Egyptian antiquities department. While supervising excavations in the Valley of the Kings in 1902, he discovered the tombs of Hatshepsut and Thutmose IV. Around 1907 he began his association with the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, a collector of antiquities who asked Carter to supervise excavations in the valley. On November 4, 1922, Carter found the first sign of Tutankhamen's tomb, and three days later he reached its sealed entrance. For the next 10 years Carter supervised the removal of its contents, most of which now in the Cairo Museum. His patient and long unrewarded study of the Valley of the Kings brought to light the only unrobbed Egyptian pharaoh's tomb and the richest treasure ever to be discovered.
Caso y Andrade, Alfonso (1896-1970): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Mexican archaeologist and government official who explored the early Oaxacan cultures and who excavated Tomb Seven at Monte Albán, the earliest-known North American necropolis. His discovery and analysis of the burial offerings at Tomb Seven proved that Monte Albán had been occupied by the Mixtec people after they had displaced the Zapotecs before the Spanish conquest. Caso found evidence of five major phases, dating back to the 8th century BC, and established a rough chronology through comparisons with other sites. Caso also deciphered the Mixtec Codices. He made important contributions to regional archaeology and to the interpretation of Mixtec manuscripts, Mexican calendars, and dynastic history in general. He held posts as head of the Department of Archaeology at the National Museum, director of the museum, and director of the National Institute for Indian Affairs.
Christy, Henry (1810-1865): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: English archaeologist and ethnologist who journeyed from Mexico Toltec remains to Hudson's Bay to the caves of southern France and who supported other excavations after a successful banking career. He assisted French archaeologist Edouard Lartet in his investigations of the series of Palaeolithic caves in southwest France, including Laugerie Haute, La Madeleine, Les Eyzies, and Le Moustier. With Christy, Lartet went on to show that the Stone Age comprised successive phases of human culture. Their research was published as Reliquiae Aquitanicae" ("Aquitanian Remains") in 1865-1875 with money left by Christy in his will. Christy left Palaeolithic material to be divided between France and Britain and his trustees presented the rest of the ethnological collection to the British Museum together with money for future acquisitions. The Christy Collection now contains about 30 000 specimens."
Cirencester: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Corinium Dobunnorum
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Gloucestershire, southwest England, where the Romano-British Corinium, the capital of the Dobuni tribe, was located. At the junction of important Roman and British routes, a cavalry fort was erected during 43-70 AD and by the 3rd century the town walls enclosed c100 hectares. Remains within those walls include an amphitheater and many rich villas. Occupation continued well into the Anglo-Saxon period. Excavations have revealed much of the layout of the town and the plan of the forum and basilica, a market hall, shops and houses. Cemetery finds have shown that the skeletons contained high levels of lead, supporting the view that lead poisoning contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire. The town was the largest in Roman Britain after London and was probably a capital in the 4th century. The Corinium Museum houses a Roman collection. Saxons captured the town in 577, and it later became a royal demesne (dominion or territory).
Cividale: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site, Cividale del Friuli, in northeast Italy with fine surviving examples of Lombardic architecture from the 8th century. There is an octagonal baptistery, the chapel (Tempietto) of a nunnery, and the altar of the church of S. Martino. The national archaeological museum contains Gothic and Lombard antiquities.
Colonial Williamsburg: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A restoration of a large section of the early colonial area, which was first settled in 1633 as Middle Plantation. The restoration was begun in 1926 and the more than 3,000 acres of land have nearly 150 major buildings restored or reconstructed. The exhibition buildings, which include the Capitol and Governor's Palace, are furnished as they were in the 18th century, and the entire area is landscaped as it was in colonial times. This living history museum has been reconstructed partly with the aid of archaeological research.
culture area: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Major anthropological subdivisions of the North American continent, characterized by relatively uniform environments and relatively similar cultures. It is a geographical region in which general cultural homogeneity is to be found, defined by ethnographically observed cultural similarities within the area. A culture area is also a geographic area in which one culture prevailed at a given time. This concept was devised as a means of organizing museum data. Examples are the Southwest, the Northwest Coast.
Dahe: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ta-ho
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Neolithic village site, now preserved as a museum, at Zhengzhou in China. Several Yanshao levels are overlaid by Hougang II and Shang remains; radiocarbon dates range from c 3700-3050 BC. The uppermost Yanshao level is a late stage of the Miaodigou I culture; the expected painted pottery is found alongside unpainted pots, including ding and dou shapes, that recall the Huating-Dawendou phase of the Qinglin'gang culture. This pottery may represent the beginnings of a westward movement of east-coast influences that eventually transformed the Yangshao tradition, giving rise to the Hougan II culture.
Dunhuang: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tun-huang
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in northwestern China with many Buddhist sculptures, frescoes, and Mogao grottoes. It was a Chinese frontier outpost at a place where the Silk Route branched before crossing Central Asia. It was established as a Han military commandery in 111 BC and many documents and manuscripts dating from the Han dynasty have been found there. There is a complex of nearly 500 Buddhist cave temples with well-preserved paintings and sculptures. A Buddhist library walled up in a cave around 1035 and rediscovered in 1900 contained thousands of manuscripts written in Chinese and various Central Asian scripts, some with dates ranging from 406-996. Among the material in the British Museum is the oldest extant printed book in the world, a Chinese translation of the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text, dated 868 AD. Many other manuscripts and paintings obtained by Aurel Stein are kept at the British Museum.
Elgin, Lord (1766-1841): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British diplomat known for obtaining permission to remove the marble metopes from the Parthenon in Athens to London. Since 1816 these sculptures, known as the 'Elgin marbles' have been housed in the British Museum. The removal of these sculptures from their source has often been criticized as part of a movement by European social elite to acquire Classical art for decorations and museums.
fieldwork: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: field study
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Any form of archaeological research or exploration carried out in an actual setting in the natural environment -- excavation, surveying, fieldwalking, etc. -- rather than in a laboratory, museum, or other such facility. Some archaeologists call everything they do outdoors 'fieldwork', but others distinguish between fieldwork and excavation. Fieldwork, in the narrow sense, consists of the discovery and recording of archaeological sites and their examination by methods other than the use of the shovel and the trowel.
Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1911-1985): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A Danish archaeologist who wrote An Archaeological History from the Stone Age to the Vikings" (also published as "Danish Prehistoric Monuments" 1971; originally published in Danish 1942) "The Mound People: Danish Bronze-Age Man Preserved" (1974 reissued 1983; originally published in Danish 1970) and "The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved" (1969 reissued 1988; originally published in Danish 1965). His writings focused on the bog bodies of Tollund and Grauballe; he was also Director General of Museums and Antiquities in Denmark."
Graveney Boat: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A well-preserved Anglo-Saxon timber boat found in 1970 in the Graveney marshes in Kent, England. It is the only vessel of this period from the British Isles which has left more than an impression in the soil. Radiocarbon and dendrochronology have effectively dated it to the late 9th century AD. The well-constructed Graveney Boat was a cross-Channel cargo; it has been restored and is in The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
Halicarnassus: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Bodrum
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Greek city on the west coast of Turkey (once Asia Minor), the birthplace of the 5th-century BC historian Herodotus. Formed part of the Delian league, its peak period was as capital city of Mausolus (satrap), who ruled Caria from 377-353 BC. He built walls, public buildings (agora, theater), and the famous Mausoleum (one of the Seven Wonders of Ancient World) as his funerary temple, of which nothing now remains but fragments preserved in the British Museum. Halicarnassus' sack by Alexander The Great in 334 BC is the last major event on record. Virtually all traces of ancient Halicarnassus has now unfortunately disappeared under modern Bodrum. Some sections of the city wall survive, and the site of the mausoleum, the tomb of Mausolus, is known.
Holmes, William Henry (1846-1933): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: American archaeologist who extinguished the more bizarre theories of the origins of humans in North America and who helped establish professional archaeology in the US. Holmes opposed a popular belief that there was a period in New World prehistory comparable to Upper Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) Europe. His 1903 monograph on ceramics laid the foundation for the culture history of the eastern United States. He was curator of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. His other published works include Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities (1919).
Izmir: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Smyrna
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: City on the west coast of Turkey, one of the oldest cities of the Mediterranean world and has been of almost continuous historical importance during the last 5,000 years. Excavations indicate settlement contemporary with that of the first city of Troy, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. Greek settlement is first attested by pottery dating from c 1000 BC. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Greek city was founded by Aeolians but soon was seized by Ionians. By the 7th century, it had massive fortifications and blocks of two-storied houses. Captured by Alyattes of Lydia c 600 BC, it disappeared for about 300 years until it was refounded by either Alexander the Great or his lieutenants in the 4th century BC at a new site on and around Mount Pagus. It soon emerged as one of the principal cities of Asia Minor and was later the center of a civil diocese in the Roman province of Asia, vying with Ephesus and Pergamum for the title first city of Asia." Smyrna was one of the early seats of Christianity. Capital of the province of Samos under the Byzantine emperors Smyrna was taken by the Turkmen Aydin principality in the early 14th century AD. It was annexed to the Ottoman Empire c 1425. Although severely damaged by earthquakes in 1688 and 1778 it remained a prosperous Ottoman port with a large European population. The city's landmarks include the partly excavated remains of its agora and the ancient aqueducts of Kizilçullu. The archaeological museum has a fine collection of local antiquities."
Jazdzewski, Konrad (1908-1985): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Polish archaeologist who worked at Brzesc Kujawski and Leg Piekarski and was director of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography in Lodz.
Kalhu: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kalakh; biblical Calah; modern Nimrud
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of the Black Obelisk, Assyrian monument of King Shalmaneser III (reigned 859-824 BC). It is the most complete Assyrian obelisk yet discovered, decorated with cuneiform inscriptions and reliefs recording military campaigns and other triumphs, including payment of tribute by King Jehu of Israel (reigned 842-815). The 6-foot (1.8-meter) black basalt piece was discovered in 1845 at ancient Kalhu, south of Mosul, Iraq, by Austen Henry Layard and is now in the British Museum. Kalhu was an imperial Assyrian city on the River Tigris with a citadel (Nimrud) and arsenal at Fort Shalmaneser. Middle Assyrian texts found there established the existence of the town in the later 2nd millennium BC. It was made the imperial seat by Assurnasirpal II (883-859 BC). Sargon II (721-705 BC) moved the imperial seat to Khorsabad and after that, Kalhu was a provincial capital. Occupation continued until the Hellenistic period.
Kensington Stone: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A stone slab found on a Minnesota farm in 1898 with an inscription in runes purporting to record the arrival of a party of exploring Vikings. An object of controversy from the start, it is now dismissed as a forgery, despite recent confirmation of the Viking visits to the eastern American coast. This supposed relic of a 14th-century Scandinavian exploration of the interior of North America is a 200-pound slab of graywacke inscribed with runes (medieval Germanic script). The inscription, dated 1362, is purported to be by a group of Norwegian and Swedish explorers from Vinland who visited the Great Lakes area in that year. The stone is housed in a special museum in Alexandria, Minn., and a 26-ton replica stands in nearby Runestone Park.
Layard, Sir Austen Henry (1817-1894): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British excavator and explorer -- one of the earliest in Mesopotamia. His most important discoveries were at Nimrud, which he identified wrongly as Nineveh. The Assyrian winged bulls and reliefs he excavated from the massive palace complexes are now in the British Museum. At Nineveh proper (modern Kuyunjik), he recovered a library of cuneiform tablets from Sennacherib's palace. His book on his finds, Nineveh and its Remains" (1849) ranks as one of the first archaeological bestsellers. He also excavated at Assur Babylon and Nippur."
Les Eyzies: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Village near the center of the Dordogne, southwest France, the site of many Palaeolithic cave and rock shelter sites left by prehistoric man in the limestone zone called the Perigord. The chateau and National Museum contain many important finds and underneath it there is a small Magdalenian and Azilian site, Grotte des Eyzies.
library: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Collection of books used for reading or study, or the building or room in which such a collection is kept. The origin of libraries came in the 3rd millennium BC, when records on clay tablets were stored in a temple in the Babylonian town of Nippur. In the 7th century BC, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal assembled and organized a collection of records, of which some 20,000 tablets and fragments have survived. The first libraries as repositories of books were those of the Greek temples and those established in conjunction with the Greek schools of philosophy in the 4th century BC. Important libraries of the ancient world were those of Aristotle, the great Library of Alexandria with its thousands of papyrus and vellum scrolls, its rival at Pergamum that included many works on parchment, the Bibliotheca Ulpia of Rome, and the Imperial Library at Byzantium set up by Constantine the Great in the 4th century AD. China also has a long tradition of record keeping and book collecting, in private libraries as well as in centralized government libraries. Extant Greek and Roman literary works were preserved alongside the early Christian literature in Constantine's library and, beginning in the 2nd century, in libraries of monasteries. The loss of the Great Library at Alexandria, which was burned to the ground in the late third century AD, was devastating. The Alexandria library had probably been established by Ptolemy I Soter (305-285 BC), who also founded the Museum ('shrine of the Muses'), initially creating both institutions as annexes to his palace. Later in the Ptolemaic period, another large library was created, probably within the Alexandria serapeum, but this too was destroyed in 391 AD.
Lindisfarne Gospel: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: Manuscript illuminated at Lindisfarne in the late 7th or 8th centuries in Hiberno-Saxon style (Celtic-Germanic). It is one of the most splendid Early Christian manuscripts from the British Isles and is housed in the British Museum. It was the first great Anglo-Saxon work of this kind. Attributed to the Northumbrian school, the Lindisfarne Gospels show the fusion of Irish, classical, and Byzantine elements of manuscript illumination.
Loftus, Sir William K. (1821?-1858): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British geologist and one of the early excavators in Mesopotamia. He worked at Susa, Uruk, Ur, Larsa, Nineveh, Nimrud, and other sites in Mesopotamia. The main objective of the excavations was to collect antiquities, some of which were transported back to the British Museum.
London: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Roman Londinium
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Important port and capital town of Roman Britain by about 100 AD, probably replacing the originally intended capital at Clochester. The site, on a previously unoccupied gravel plateau on the north side of the River Thames, was probably chosen as the lowest crossing point at the time of the Roman invasion in 43 AD. Use began as a supply depot and a trading center as it was a convenient starting point for the growing network of Roman roads. Burnt and ravaged by Boudicca in 60-61, the town soon revived, and capital status brought a large forum (Leadenhall Market), governor's palace (Canon Street), and a legionary fort (area of London Wall). Although damaged by fire again in c 125-130, the settlement continued to consolidate its position, and a wall was added to protect it between 183-217. Continuous occupation since the Roman period has prevented much extensive excavation. The Museum of London holds marble heads of Mithras, Serapis, and Minerva from the Mithraeum and the British Museum holds the Tomb of Julius Alpinus Classicianus, procurator of Britain after Boudicca's revolt. A section of wall may be seen in Trinity Place near the Tower of London, and the Mithraeum has been reconstructed to the west of its original site, in front of Temple Court, Queen Victoria Street.
Lower Nubia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The part of the Nile Valley south of the traditional border of Egypt at Aswan as far as the Second Cataract of the Nile River. The region of Lower Nubia, basically between the first and second Nile cataracts, saw one of the earliest phases of state formation in the world when rulers of the A-Group culture, who were buried in a cemetery at Qustul, adopted symbols of kingship similar to those of contemporary kings of Egypt of the Naqadah II-III period. Lower Nubia is now one of the most thoroughly explored archaeological regions of the world. Most of its many temples have been moved, either to higher ground nearby, as happened to Abu Simbel and Philae, or to quite different places, including various foreign museums.
Luristan: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A region of the central Zagros mountains on the border of west-central Iran, where a distinctive bronze-working industry flourished 2600-600 BC. It is characterized by horse trappings, utensils, weapons, jewelry, belt buckles, and ritual and votive objects of bronze -- which became most distinctive around 1000 BC. Scholars believe that they were created either by the Cimmerians, a nomadic people from southern Russia who may have invaded Iran in the 8th century BC, or by such related Indo-European peoples as the early Medes and Persians. The immigrants grafted onto a population of Kassites who had already developed a bronze industry around 2000 BC. Important Luristan sites are Tepe Giyan and Tepe Djamshidi, Tepe Ganj Dareh, Tepe Asiab, Tepe Sarab, Tepe Guran, and especially Tepe Sialk. Many bronzes were placed into museum collections as a result of persistent looting of tombs from the 10th-7th centuries BC. Iron also appears at an early date in the Luristan tombs.
Müller, Sophus (1846-1934): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Danish prehistorian and paleontologist who succeeded Christian Jurgensen Thomsen as Director of the National Museum of Denmark in 1865. In the field, Müller improved the techniques of excavation, particularly in recognizing stratigraphic relationships. Müller developed new techniques of excavation and monument preservation and supported the principle of the influence of Mediterranean civilization on northern Europe. He built detailed typological sequences and cross-dated them by reference to the historical calendars of the Near Eastern civilizations. He was aware of the possibility of variation in culture among contemporary groups and suggested, for instance, that there were several contemporary versions of the Neolithic of northern Europe. During the late 19th century, he discovered the first of the Neolithic battle-ax cultures in Denmark.
Mariette, François Auguste Ferdinand (1821-1881): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: French Egyptologist who excavated many of the major Egyptian sites and monuments and founded the Egyptian Antiquities Service and what was to become the Cairo Museum (National Museum of Egyptian Antiquities). He excavated the Saqqara Serapeum and found the burials of the Apis bulls and the jewels belonging to Rameses II. He also uncovered sites at Giza, Abydos, Thebes, Edfu, Elephantine, and in the Delta. He is buried in sarcophagus in front of Cairo Museum.
Maspero, Gaston Camille Charles (1846-1916): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: French Egyptologist who succeeded August Mariette as Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service and who edited the first 50 volumes of the immense catalog of the collection there. He excavated numerous sites from Saqqara to the Valley of the Kings. At Deir el Bahari (Dayr al-Bahri), he came upon fabulous collection of 40 royal mummies, s, including those of the pharaohs Seti I, Amenhotep I, Thutmose III, and Ramses II, in inscribed sarcophagi, as well as a profusion of decorative and funerary artifacts. Maspero's intensive study of these findings was published in Les Momies royales de Deir-el-Bahari" (1889; "The Royal Mummies of Dayr al-Bahri"). He also published an account of the Nubian monuments threatened by construction of first Aswan Dam. He helped found the Egyptian Museum in 1902. During his second tenure as director general (1899-1914) Maspero regulated excavations tried to prevent illicit trade in antiquities sought to preserve and strengthen monuments and directed the archaeological survey of Nubia. His writings include "Histoire ancienne des peoples de l'Orient classique". (1895-97; "Ancient History of the Peoples of the Classic Orient") "L'Archéologie égyptienne" (1887; "Egyptian Archaeology") "Les Contes populaires de l'Égypte ancienne" (4th ed. 1914; "Popular Tales of Ancient Egypt") and "Causeries d'Égypte" (1907; "New Light on Ancient Egypt")."
mausoleum: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: 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.
Mildenhall: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mildenhall Treasure
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A town in Suffolk, England, famous for the treasure of silver comprising the household silver of a wealthy Roman family near the remains of a 4th-century Roman building. The silver was richly decorated with figured reliefs and the 34 pieces include a large dish depicting the head of Oceanus, ringed by friezes of sea and other deities reveling; two smaller platters with Bacchic scenes; a niello dish with geometric design; a covered bowl with centaurs; goblets; ladles and eight spoons, five with Christian inscriptions. Possibly the owners buried their family plate in the troubled days of the Anglo-Saxon invasions. The collection is now in the British Museum in London.
mosaic: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: mosaic work
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A technique of decoration used mainly on floors or walls involving the setting of small colored fragments of stone, tile, mineral, shell, or glass, each called a tessera (plural tesserae), in a cement or adhesive matrix. Mosaic also refers to a tesselated area, often of complex designs and, possibly, inscriptions. Mosaic floors were made from small squares, triangles, or other regular shapes up to an inch in size. They were laid in cement to form designs, figures of animals, or classical figures representing the seasons, etc. Old limestone would be used for white and various reds, browns, or grays from baked clays. Glass, too, was sometimes incorporated. The earliest known mosaics date from the 8th century BC and are made of pebbles, a technique refined by Greek craftsmen in the 5th century BC. Greek mosaics were simple pebble floors and then became more complex and sophisticated under Macedonian kings. Mosaics are known from Pompeii and Rome, Tivoli, Aquileia, and Ostia -- as well as Africa, Antioch, Sicily, and Britain. Under the Roman Empire, the achievements of the 5th-6th century Byzantine artists at Ravenna are impressive. An excellent collection of mosaics from Pompeii may be seen in the Mueo Nazionale at Naples, and a good selection of Imperial Roman provincial work may be seen at the Museum of Le Bardo, outside modern Tunis, Tunisia. Pre-Columbian American Indians favored mosaics of semiprecious stones such as garnet and turquoise and mother-of-pearl. These were normally used to encrust small objects such as shields, masks, and cult statues. Mosaic as an art form has most in common with painting. It represents a design or image in two dimensions. It is also, like painting, a technique appropriate to large-scale surface decoration.
Narmer (c 3100 BC): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Menes
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: One of the first pharaohs of Egypt, perhaps to be equated with Menes who founded the 1st Dynasty c 3200 BC and mythical founder of Memphis (and united Egypt). He ruled in Upper Egypt in the late Pre-Dynastic Period and is best known from the 'Main Deposit' of ritual objects at Hierakonpolis. The most important record of him, indeed one of the first from Egypt, is a slate palette on which he is shown in the White Crown of Upper Egypt conquering his enemies on one side, and in the Red Crown of Lower Egypt reconstructing the land on the other. The Narmer Palette is in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo. Narmer is thought to have been buried in Tomb B17-18 in the Umm el-Qa'ab royal cemetery at Abydos.
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: NAGPRA
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A 1990 law establishing procedures for protecting and determining disposition of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony that are intentionally excavated or inadvertently discovered on federal or tribal lands. It also establishes procedures for conducting summaries and inventories and repatriating human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony in museum or federal agency collections.
Nemi, Lake: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site in the Alban Hills, near Rome, Italy, where the remains of two ships were found which belonged to the emperor Caligula. These two Roman galleys rested on the lake bottom on the west side and were raided continually, with the ships finally raised in the 1920s. They were pleasure ships of the period of the emperor Caligula, one measuring 210 x 66 ft, the other 233 x 80 ft. Many of the objects found on the ships are in museums in Rome, but the ships unfortunately were burned by the retreating German army on May 31, 1944. Other excavations led to the discovery of the temple, one of the richest in Latium. The remains of the temple precinct -- a large platform, the back of which is formed by a wall of concrete, with niches, resting against the cliffs -- are situated a little above the level of the lake, on the northeast.
Nimrud: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ancient Kalhu, biblical Calah
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Assyrian capital of Kalhu (Calah), founded in 883 BC by Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) over the ruins of an earlier city built by Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 BC) in 13th century BC. It is located by Tigris River, south of modern Mosul (Iraq) in Mesopotamia. It was the third capital city, with Assur and Nineveh, of Assyria. The statues and inscriptions found by Sir Austen Henry Layard was one of the first archaeological discoveries to stir the public imagination. Its wall was some 8 km in circuit, enclosing at one corner a citadel which contained a ziggurat, temples, and palaces. The palaces have yielded the richest finds, enormous stone winged bulls, reliefs, and exquisite carved ivories which once adorned the royal furniture. Another rich collection of ivories was found in the arsenal of Shalmaneser III in the outer town. Some of the ivories show traces of the fire which accompanied the overthrow of the city by the Medes in 612 BC. Unlike many of the cities of Mesopotamia, Nimrud was not a long-lived site occupied from the prehistoric period. Its heyday continued until c 710 BC when the capital was transferred first to Khorsabad and subsequently to Nineveh. Many of the sculptures were brought back to England by Layard and are now in the British Museum.
Oseberg ship: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Important Viking ship burial, discovered in 1903 in south Norway in a peat mound. It was found with most of its timbers intact and its main burial chamber still filled with most of its contents. Among the objects in the chamber were the skeletons of a man (c 850-900 AD), dogs and horses, a chest containing oil lamps and personal items, a wooden bed and a sledge. Now reconstructed in the Oslo Ship Museum, the Oseberg ship is a fine example of a large sophisticated Viking warship. The ship itself was plank-built and had a pronounced keel, a large mast and a beautifully carved stern. It shed much light on everyday life of Vikings.
Oxus Treasure: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A collection of Persian art of the Achaemenidian period (6th-4th century BC) now in the British Museum, London. It was discovered in 1877 on the bank of the Oxus River near the present Afghanistan-Russian border. This large hoard of gold and silver metalwork included a variety of jewelry, ornamental plaques, figurines, chariot models, and vessels. One of the armlets consists of a circular gold band with its two ends meeting in the form of finely worked griffins.
Parian Chronicle: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Marmor Parium
CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A document inscribed on Parian marble in the Attic Greek dialect and containing an outline of Greek history from the reign of Cecrops, legendary king of Athens, c 1582 BC, down to the archonship of Diognetus at Athens (264 BC). The author recorded the dates of festivals and when they were established, the introduction of various kinds of poetry, and the births and deaths of the poets. One large fragment is at the Ashmolean Museum (among the so-called Arundel Marbles), Oxford; another is in the Paros Museum.
Parrot, André (1901-1980): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Mesopotamian archaeologist who worked at Mari, Baalbek, Byblos, Tello, and Larsa. Much of his time was spent at Mari, which dates to 3100 BC, and he was also in government museum service (including director of the Louvre). He wrote a history of Mesopotamian archaeology.
Parthenon: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The famous temple of Athena in the Acropolis at Athens, considered the finest example of the Doric order of architecture. It was built by Ictinus and Callicrates, 447-432 BC, as the centerpiece of Pericles' grand scheme for the Acropolis, under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias, who contributed the great statue of Athena. The material is Pentelic marble (from Mount Pentelikon, north of Athens). Much of the sculptured decoration may be seen in the British Museum, London (the so-called Elgin marbles). After the classical period, the building survived various conversions to the function of church and mosque, until wartime in 1687 when the temple exploded into two ruined halves. Other sculptures from the Parthenon are now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, in Copenhagen, and many are still in Athens.
Peyrony, Denis (1869-1954): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: French prehistorian who discovered the cave art at Font de Gaume, Bernifal, and Teyjat and excavated at La Ferassie and Laugerie Haute. He proposed the Perigordian system and founded the prehistory museum of Les Eyzies. The La Ferassie skeletons are hominid fossils found in a rock shelter gravesite north of Bugue, Dordogne, Fr., by R. Capitan and D. Peyrony between 1909-1921, but not fully reported until 1934. The fossils of La Ferassie are estimated to date from about 60,000 years ago and are associated with the Mousterian stone tool industry.
Phigalian Marbles: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Friezes kept in the British Museum, from the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, at Bassae near ancient Phigalia in Arcadia. There are 23 slabs in high relief, 11 representing the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapithae, and the rest the contest of the Greeks and Amazons. It is attributed to the same period as the Parthenon.
presentation: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The display or marketing of archaeology by the dissemination of research results to colleagues and the public in books, posters, lectures, museum exhibits, etc.
Putnam, Frederic Ward (1839-1915): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, from 1875-1909. He was a leader in the founding of anthropological science in the US. He was important as an archaeologist who classified and described finds and as an administrator and archaeological sponsor. In fieldwork, he depended on scientific techniques for surveying, excavating, drawing cross-sections of excavations, and plotting finds. He did studies of the mounds of the Midwest US and on the antiquity of humans on the continent, which he believed to predate the end of the last glaciation. In 1891, Putnam began organizing the anthropological section of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. That collection became the basis of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. He was the curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History following that and in 1903 he went to the University of California, Berkeley, to organize both the new department of anthropology and the anthropological museum. Putnam published more than 400 zoological and anthropological articles, reports, and notes and was also a founder and the editor of the periodical American Naturalist"."
Quanzhou: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ch'üan-chou
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Late 13th century AD Song dynasty shipwreck at Houzhou, China. It was a 24-meter-long keeled ship with 13 compartments. The acquisition and preservation of this massive artifact was spectacular; it is on display in a Chinese museum.
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.
Roskilde: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A city in Denmark at the head of the Roskilde fjord, which was the former seat of Danish kings (c 1020-1416) and capital of Denmark (until 1443). Underwater excavations have attempted to retrieve a barrier of sunken ships dating to 1000-1050, which was deliberately planned to protect the town from enemy raiders. The ships were reassembled and are now on display in Roskilde Ship Museum. The range of vessels recovered from the fjord includes a knarr, a long-distance sea-going cargo ship built out of pine and oak and propelled by a sail; an oak-built merchant ship; a warship; a ferry or fishing boat; and a Viking longship.
sebbakh: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A term for the deteriorated mud-brick of ancient buildings. It was used as fertilizer by Arab peasants and the practice of digging for it has unearthed many artifacts which are now in museums.
Si Mu Wu fang ding / Ssu Mu Wu: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ssu Mu Wu fang-ting
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A Late Shang bronze ritual vessel, a tetrapod weighing 1,925 pounds (875 kilograms), the largest metal-casting surviving from Chinese antiquity. Late Shang ritual vessels reveal high technological competence and large-scale, labor-intensive metal production. Said to have been found in the Anyang royal cemetery, the vessel is inscribed with a dedication to an empress and dates probably from the 12th century BC. It is now in the Historical Museum, Beijing.
Silchester: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ancient Calleva Atrebatum
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An important Roman-British town which was a node on the Roman road system in Britain, located in Hampshire, England. All that stands now is the impressive wall of the 1st century AD. Within it were a forum, inn, church, four temples, two baths, grid street plan, shops, and houses. An amphitheater existed outside the wall. Most of the antiquities recovered from the site are in the Reading Museum; the local Calleva Museum (1957) illustrates the life of the Roman town.
Smith, Charles Roach (1807-1890): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The founder in 1843 of British Archaeological Association, who gave the British Museum 5,000 items from his collection. He also gave artifacts to a private museum at Strood in Kent and published seven volumes of Collectanea Antiqua (1848-1880).
St. Ninian's Isle: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An islet in the Shetlands with the ruins of a small 12th-century chapel with the finest hoard of Pictish metalwork ever found in Britain. The hoard seems to have been deposited at the end of the 8th century, possibly in response to Viking raids, and included such objects as silver bowls, hanging bowls, spoons, sword pommel, thimble-shaped objects, and penannular brooches. The treasure is strong evidence that the tradition of Pictish metalworking continued into the early Christian era. It is now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Sutton Hoo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Sixth and seventh century AD burial mounds in Suffolk, England, the richest treasure found in British soil. It was the royal cemetery of the Wuffingas, early Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia. The largest of the burial mounds was found to cover a Saxon boat, its form preserved only by the impression left in the sand by its vanished timbers, with their iron bolts still in their original positions. The boat had been propelled by 38 oars; there was no mast. The grave goods include a decorated helmet, sword, and shield; ceremonial whetstone; gold belt buckle; purse and cloak clasps; Millefiori glass; cloisonné garnets; Merovingian gold coins; and Byzantium silver vessels and spoons. It is likely to have been prepared as a cenotaph in honor of Redwald (d. 625). He was the most important East Anglian king. The treasure shows a higher cultural level and wider commercial contacts than had previously been figured for the early Saxon period in England. This type of funerary ritual is known from Migration Period Europe and is described in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The ship and artifacts are now housed in the British Museum.
Tello, Julio César (1880-1947): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Peruvian archaeologist who discovered and studied some of the most important sites in Peru; considered with Max Uhle and Alfred Kroeber to be a founder of Peruvian archaeology. His main contributions were the excavation of the Paracas cemeteries and the study of the Chavín, but he also worked at Pachacamac, Cajamarquilla, Huari, Pacheco, Cerro Blanco, Punkuri, Kotosh, Cerro Sechin, and Ancon. He also identified many cultural groups, including Chavín, Chimu, Huari, and Nazca. Tello founded the National Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology in Lima.
Thomsen, Christian Jurgensen (1788-1865): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Danish antiquary and first curator of the National Museum of Denmark. His main contribution to prehistory was the Three Age system (Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages), first devised in 1819 as a method of classifying the museum collections, but soon recognized as a tool of enormous value in interpreting the prehistoric past. He is considered the first ethnoarchaeologist and also promoted osteological studies and the chemical analysis of pot residue.
Three-Age System: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: three-age sequence, Three Age System
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The division of human prehistory into three successive stages -- Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age -- based on the main type of material used in tools of the period. The system was first formulated by Christian J. Thomsen in 1819 as a means of classifying the collections in the National Museum of Denmark. The scheme became progressively elaborated by dividing the Stone Age into Old and New, the Palaeolithic and Neolithic. A Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic was later added. The further subdivisions Early, Middle, and Late of the Palaeolithic (Lower, Middle, and Upper) were introduced, and a Copper Age was inserted between New Stone and Bronze. The Ages are only developmental stages and some areas skipped one or more of the stages. At first entirely hypothetical, these divisions were later confirmed by archaeological observations. It established the principle that by classifying artifacts, one could produce a chronological ordering.
Turin Papyrus: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Turin Royal Canon, Turin Papyrus of Kings, Turin Canon
CATEGORY: artifact; language
DEFINITION: A hieratic manuscript of the 19th dynasty of Egypt which lists the kings of Egypt from earliest times to the reign of Ramses II (1279-1213 BC), under whom it was written. The papyrus is now in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, in very fragmentary condition, but it is still considered the most detailed and reliable of the existing Egyptian king lists. It lists not only names but also regnal years, months, and days and also divides pharaonic history into dynasties and into three major periods -- Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. It was evidently copied from a more complete original.
Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen (1821-1886): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Danish archaeologist who laid the foundations for the study of prehistory. He was the successor to Christian J. Thomsen at the National Museum at Copenhagen and he applied the Three Age System to stone monuments. He wrote Danmarks Oldtid oplyst ved Oldsager og Gravhøie" ("The Primeval Antiquities of Denmark" 1843) which introduced such other concepts as nomenclature typology and diffusion and discusses the value and principles of prehistoric research. He focused on the study of excavated artifacts particularly in their geographic and stratigraphic contexts. His standards and professionalism put him ahead of his time."
Xanthian Marbles: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Sculptures found at Xanthus, principal city of ancient Lycia (Turkey), now in British Museum. The most remarkable ruins of the city are these huge rock-cut pillar tombs. British archaeologist Sir Charles Fellows sent reliefs and sections of the tombs to the British Museum in the 19th century. The figures are Assyrian in character, not later than 500 BC. Sieges, processions, and figures are shown in profile but with the eyes shown in full. Upon one of the remaining pillar tombs is the longest and most important of inscriptions in the Lycian language.
Xinzheng: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: 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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