Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for pillar:

djed pillar: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: In Egypt, a widely found amulet of roughly cruciform style with at least three crossbars. It seems to have been a fetish from prehistoric times and came to represent the abstract concept of stability. Like the ankh, it was commonly used in friezes and painted inside the base of coffins.
Osirid pillar: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A square pillar with one of its faces carved in the form of a colossal statue of the god Osiris or a dead king. The pillar, most likely in an open court or portico, was not a weight-bearing element. Most are mummiform.
pillar: CATEGORY: structure; feature
DEFINITION: A roof-support column.
pillar crypt: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Minoan architecture, a basement room with one or two pillars. Some were incised with sacred symbols.
pillar-molded bowl: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Style of Roman glass bowl made by casting molten glass in a mould. Early examples are usually brightly colored, but after the 1st century AD most are a bluish-green color.
abacus: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: plural abaci, abacuses
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In architecture, a crowning rectangular block or topmost stone on the cap of a pillar or column capital, providing support to an architrave or arch.
Antequera: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Roman Anticaria, Moorish Madinah Antakira
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a town in Málaga province, in the autonomous community (region) of Andalusia, southern Spain, northwest of Málaga, at the foot of the Sierra del Torcal which is famous for its three Neolithic (Copper Age) chambered tombs (dolmens): the Cuevas de Menga, de Viera, and El Romeral. They are partially cut into the hillside, but each is constructed differently. The Cueva de Menga has a huge orthostat chamber c 5 m wide, 3 m high, and 1.45 m long, roofed by five large capstones supported by three central pillars and drystone walls. Human figures in scenes are carved on its walls. The Cueva de Romeral has a magnificent corbel vault nearly 5 m high, dry-stone tholos, and a passage over 30 m long. The Cuevas de Viera has a long orthostat-lined passage with porthole slabs and a small square chamber. A cemetery of rock-cut tombs of the Bronze Age imitating the tholos form is nearby.
Antonine Column: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An important monument in Rome. It is a lofty pillar ornamented with a series of bas-reliefs sent up in spirals from the base to the summit. The bas-reliefs represent the victories of the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
Ashoka (d 238 BC?): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: also Asoka, Asokan
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The last major emperor of the Mauryan empire of India in the 3rd century BC. He started out as a bloody tyrant, but underwent a spiritual crisis and became a Buddhist, furthering the expansion of that religion throughout India. His reign was c 265-238 BC but has also been given as c 273-232 BC. His kingdom included most of modern Pakistan and India, except the extreme south. Many monuments survive from his period: stupas, rock-cut temples, and commemorative pillars. A series of inscriptions, enshrining Buddhist teaching, survives on rock faces and stone pillars in various parts of the empire.
bît hilani: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: bit hilani
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: An architectural type describing a pillared porch, usually of wood. A bit hilani is a wooden-pillared portico or 1-3 columns at the top of a short flight of steps at the entry to reception suites. At one end of the portico there was a staircase to an upper story, leading to a reception or throne room. There was usually an adjoining staircase to the roof and a varying number of retiring rooms. It was a standard palace unit, first found at the Syrian site of Tell Atchana with a date of mid-2nd millennium BC. It was adopted by the Syro-Hittites and Assyrians. Another fine example of bit hilani is the Kaparu Palace at Tall Halaf.
balk excavation method: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The excavation of an area of a site leaving vertical pillars or walls in place, thus allowing better correlation between excavations with predefined strata.
Baphuon: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Temple mountain built by the Baphuon of Udayadityavarman II (reigned 1050-66 AD) in Angkor, Cambodia, unfortunately almost completely destroyed. It was a vast sandstone monument 480 yards (440 m) long and 140 yards (130 m) wide, approached by a 200-yard (180-m) causeway raised on pillars. Its ground plan shows a fully articulated structure and it was the immediate prototype for the great Angkor Wat. It was, at the time, the most massive artificial mountain of classical Cambodia and the second largest monument after Angkor Wat.
Bedsa: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A rock-cut Buddhist temple in Deccan, India that is dated 1st century BC. Its interior is elaborately decorated and the pillars have vase-shaped bases and bell-shaped capitals surmounted by sculpted human and animal groups. In front of the temple is a facade and a large entrance with decorated pillars.
Beycesultan: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell on the upper Meander River of southwestern Anatolia (western Turkey) which has yielded evidence from the Chalcolithic to Late Bronze Age and of a culture contemporary with the Hittite empire. It is thought to have been the capital of the 2nd-millennium BC state of Arzawa. From the Chalcolithic, there was a cache of sophisticated copper tools and a silver ring, the earliest known use of that metal. Buildings that were religious shrines have been uncovered, almost unknown in Anatolia at those times. Rectangular shrine chambers were arranged in pairs, with ritual installations recalling the Horns of Consecration and Tree, or Pillar, cults of Minoan Crete. A palace building at the same site, dating from the Middle Bronze Age (c 1750 BC), Beycesultan's most prosperous period, had reception rooms at first-floor level, also in the Minoan manner. In common with most other Bronze Age buildings in Anatolia, its walls were composed of a brick-filled timber framework on stone foundations. The private houses of this period at Beycesultan were all built on the megaron plan. The whole settlement and a lower terrace on the river was enclosed by a perimeter wall. The town was violently destroyed and though it was rebuilt, it remained relatively poor into the Late Bronze Age.
block excavation method: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The excavation of an area of a site without leaving intervening walls or pillars, which exposes contiguous areas of floors better than the balk method.
Bodh Gaya: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in northeast India, famous as the scene of the Buddha's enlightenment. It was there, under the bodhi (Bo) tree, that Gautama Buddha (Prince Siddhartha) became the Buddha. Archaeological remains include an Asockan pillar, erected by Emperor Asoka in 249 BC, and a railing surrounding the tree beneath which the Buddha meditated for six years before his enlightenment was erected in the 1st century BC.
Bouqras: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: 7th-millennium BC Pre-Pottery Neolithic village near the River Euphrates in Syria. The first occupation phase had two levels with rectangular mud-brick houses. The next four levels had more solid mud-brick houses, some with plastered floors, benches, and pillars. The economy was based on hunting of wild animals, except in the final phase when sheep and cattle were bred. Sickle blades, pounders, and querns were used for wild or cultivated plants in the first phase. Artifacts include a white ware, made of mixed lime and ash and used to cover baskets, producing watertight vessels. Obsidian occurs in large quantities, indicating extensive trade networks linking Bouqras with the source sites in Anatolia.
Caballo Muerto: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A complex of monuments of the Initial Period and Early Horizon on the north coast of Peru. There are 17 mounds on the Moche Valley site, with the most complex structure at Huaca de los Reyes. It is a multi-level, U-shaped complex decorated with relief friezes, which inside is a series of structures, stairways, pillared halls, and a courtyard.
Chavín de Huántar: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Chavín
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: The area of the great ruin of the earliest highly developed culture in pre-Columbian Peru, which flourished between about 900 and 200 BC and may have originated c 1200 BC. During this time Chavín art spread over the north and central parts of what is now Peru. It is not known whether this was the actual center of origin of the culture and art style. The central building at Chavín de Huántar is a massive temple complex constructed of dressed rectangular stone blocks, with interior galleries and bas-relief carvings on pillars and lintels. The principal motifs of the Chavín style are human, feline, and crocodilian or serpentine figures. Carved stone objects, fantastic pottery that demonstrates the most advanced skill, stone construction, and remarkably sophisticated goldwork have been found. Chavín pottery is known from the decorated types found in the temple and in graves on the northern coast, where it is called Cupisnique. Until the end of the period, the ware was monochrome -- dull red, brown, or gray -- and stonelike. Vessels were massive and heavy and the main forms are open bowls with vertical or slightly expanding sides and flat or gently rounded bases, flasks, and stirrup-spouted bottles. The surface may be modeled in relief or decorated by incision, stamping, brushing, rouletting, or dentate rocker-stamping. Some bowls have deeply incised designs on both the inside and outside faces. Its art style was never surpassed in the complexity of its iconography. The buildings, which show several periods of reconstruction, consist of various temple platforms containing a series of interlinked galleries and chambers on different levels. In the oldest part of the complex is a granite block, the Lanzón, on which is carved a human figure with feline fangs and with snakes in place of hair. Relief carvings in a similar style decorate the lintels, gateways, and cornices at the site, and human and jaguar heads of stone were on the outside wall of one of the platforms. On the coast, where stone is scarce, the highland architecture is replaced by work in adobe. Further south, the Paracas culture shows strong continuing Chavín influence.
chromatography: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique of separating colored substances and analyzing their chemical structure by chromotographic adsorption. Differences in the rate of movement along a liquid or solid column are noted and used for the identification of organic substances. Archaeologically this can be useful for identifying sources, as for amber. There are several methods of chromatography, but particularly used in archaeology are paper and gas. In the former, a solution of the substance to be examined is placed at the end of a piece of filter paper; the end is then dipped into a solvent which moves the constituents of the sample along the paper by capillary action. Different substances reach different points on the filter paper and, by comparison with reference substances, can be identified. Gas chromatography is done by introducing the mixture into a column of material. The mixture is carried through by gases and measurements of the gas coming through over time are made by a gas detector. The use of gas chromatography in the study of amber has shown that different sources produce different chromatograms.
cippus: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. cippi
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A small, low column or pillar of stone, usually rectangular or cylindrical and with moldings at the top and bottom instead of a capital and a base. Often inscribed, it is normally associated with burials or tombs and used as a landmark, memorial, or a sepulchral monument.
column: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In architecture, a cylindrical or slightly tapering support or pillar for some part of a building, usually made of stone or wood. There were classic orders" of columns which had specific shapes for the base shaft and capital which supported the entablature. In Gothic and Norman architecture the column was the pillar or pier supporting an arch. A column may also stay alone as Trajan's Column in Rome. A circuit of columns enclosing an open space in the interior of a building was called a peristyle."
columnar: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Pertaining to prismlike blocks with strong vertical faces but with rounded vertices that give the particles or peds a pillar-like shape.
Entremont: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An important oppidum near Aix-en-Provence, France, a Celto-Ligurian structure built in the third century BC (middle La Tène culture). It was the capital of the Salyes until destroyed by the Romans in the year c 125 BC. Entremont had a sanctuary with sculptured figures and finds include heads and torsos carved in the round, and four-sided limestone pillars with severed human heads and skulls carved in relief. It had ramparts built of large stone blocks, with watch towers, and inside were streets, houses of dry stone, drainage and water systems, all laid out on a rectilinear system.
flute: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A channel or grove running up a pillar or running up the center of a projectile point made of stone. In architecture, a flute resembles half of a flute split longitudinally, with the concave side outwards. In referring to projectile point artifacts, the mark is a distinctive longitudinal groove left on the point after removal of a channel flake. It is characteristic of Folsom and Clovis points.
herm: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A statue in the form of a square stone pillar topped by a bust or head, especially of Hermes.
hilani: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: bit-hilani; bit hilani
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A pillared porch; a structure consisting of a columned portico, a long reception room with an adjoining staircase to the roof, and a varying number of retiring rooms. This architectural unit was much employed by the Syro-Hittites in the early 1st millennium BC, and was copied by the Assyrians. The earliest known examples are from Tell Atchana. A striking example is the Kaparu Palace at Tall Halaf.
hypocaust: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A Roman heating system in which a floor of tile and concrete, sometimes with mosaic, was supported on low tiled pillars to allow the hot air from a furnace to circulate beneath it. Warm air, heated in an outside stokehole, circulated under the raised floor and also often entered room through vents above floor level. The gases escaped up box flue tiles at intervals around the walls, thus also warming them. This heating system in baths (thermae) and houses gave a central-heating effect. Examples are found from about 100 BC onward.
hypostyle hall: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: hypostyle
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In temples, a columned hall or court situated between the sanctuary and the open court behind the pylon. The term comes from the Greek for under pillars". These halls are the outermost and grandest parts of the main structures of temples frequently added after the rest and often exhibit an elaborate symbolism. It was used extensively in ancient Egypt -- the Temple of Amon at Karnak -- and in Persia in the ruins at Persepolis."
kiosk: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A small, open circular temple with supporting pillars, used as a way station for statues of gods during festivals when they left their main temples. The term also applied to the summer palaces of Turkish sultans. The best known examples being that of Senusret I (1965-1920 BC) at Karnak, and that of Trajan (AD 98-117) at Philae. The term is sometimes used for a small sun-shade or pavilion for the use of a king or official.
latte: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Double rows of large stone pillars with capstones that formed the foundation of structures, especially in the Mariana Islands, Micronesia, about 1000 years ago. The latte stones of this area are now thought to have been piles for raised houses, perhaps for chiefs and wealthy men, since the latte sites are relatively few for the reported population. Burials were sometimes placed between the pillars.
Lumbini: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A grove near the southern border of modern-day Nepal, India, where, according to Buddhist legend, Queen Maha Maya stood and gave birth to the future Buddha. Archaeological finds include Northern Black-Polished Ware, which was in use during the period of the Buddha's lifetime. In c 249 BC the emperor Asoka made a pilgrimage to Lumbini and set up a commemorative pillar which still survives. It is still a popular Buddhist pilgrimage place.
Marianas Islands: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An island group in western Micronesia with a sequence starting with settlement around 1500 BC, by island people in Southeast Asia. They made a distinctive red-slipped ware (Marianas Redware Phase), sometimes incised with lime-filled decoration, closely related to Philippine wares. By 800 AD, a plain, unslipped ware was in use, and stone architecture had developed. Parallel rows of upright pillars topped with hemispheric capstones (halege) were erected. The pillars were supports for structures called latte (after which term the culture is named), which may have served as houses or canoe sheds. Each village had from one to several latte structures. Stone and shell tools were used and the betel nut was chewed, as shown by extended burials most often located between the rows of latte.
Marib: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site in northern Yemen on the Wadi Dhana that is associated with Sabaean kingdom of the South Arabian civilization. It was the capital of the kingdom of Saba'. A dam was built across the wadi in the mid-1st millennium BC and used until the mid-1st millennium AD. The temple of Haram Bilqis (Awwam) still stands. The temple of Almaqah, also in Marib, had an unusual shape, that of an ellipse with a major axis about 345 feet long, with a strong wall about 28 feet high, built of fine limestone ashlars. A small temple, in front of which were eight standing pillars, comprises a gallery supported by pillars around a rectangular court; it served as a peristyle to the main temple, in the wall of which it was inserted
megaron: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Megaron
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Aegean (ancient Greece and the Middle East) architecture, a hall consisting basically of a rectangular or apsidal-ended room with the side walls projecting beyond the forward end to form a porch, which may be pillared. There was often a large, round central hearth in the hall and extra rooms at the rear end, between the same side walls. It was usually entered through the shallow porch at the one end. The form is recorded at Troy in the later 4th millennium BC and continued to be used in Turkey until much later. It appears as early as the Sesklo period in Greece but are best known as the great painted halls of Mycenaean princes. This architectural unit formed the main hall of a Mycenaean house or the central block of a Mycenaean palace. It also became an important element in the Classical temple. A typical megaron plan is that of the palace of Nestor at Pylos, where the large main unit apparently served as royal living quarters. It faced onto the usual courtyard, which was entered through a decorative gateway with fluted columns on either side.
mortuary temple: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: An Egyptian temple, located close to a royal tomb, where the mortuary cult of a king was carried out. It was a center for the performance of rites for the benefit of the dead king and a depository for offerings of food, etc. It was originally part of the funerary complex; in the New Kingdom, it came to be separated from the tomb, often by miles. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms (c 2575-2130 BC and 1938-1600 BC) the mortuary temple usually adjoined the pyramid and had an open, pillared court, storerooms, five elongated shrines, and a chapel containing a false door and an offering table. In the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC) the kings were buried in rock-cut tombs, but separate mortuary temples were built nearby. All were provided with a staff of priests and assured of supplies through endowments of estates and lands to ensure religious services and offerings in perpetuity.
obelisk: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: 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.
ogham: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ogam, ogam, Ogham, ogum; Pictish symbol stones
CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A Celtic script used for writing in northwest Europe, probably created in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD, and used for writing Irish and Pictish languages. The alphabet has 20 letters represented by tally marks on either side of or crossing a horizontal baseline. The script is better suited for carving on stone (or possibly wood) than for writing in ink. It is believed to have originated in Ireland or south Wales as a secret script and it spread throughout the Celtic areas for use on memorial stones. It is also found associated with the symbols and carvings of the Picts, who used it till the 9th century. Ogham is used on memorial pillar stones in the Celtic regions of Britain, usually consisting of no more than the name and descent of the dead man. It was often the custom, particularly in the south and west in Wales and Cornwall, to provide a translation in Latin minuscule and this has proved important for the translation and dating of ogham. Of the more than 375 ogham inscriptions known, about 300 are from Ireland.
Palenque: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Maya center in Chiapas, Mexico, which reached its height during the Late Classic, coming into power when Teotihuacán declined. There are inscribed monuments erected between 630-810 AD, after which the site was abandoned. The buildings have fine relief decoration modeled in stucco or carved on limestone panels and they are know for unusual features (pillar and lintel doorways, mansard roofing). A richly furnished tomb of the Classic period was found underneath the pyramid of the Temple of the Inscriptions, equally important to Tutankhamun's in Egypt (jade ornaments, a number of sacrificed retainers, and a massive, elaborately carved sarcophagus). A subterranean vaulted aqueduct joins the central palace complex, with its unique four-story tower, to the eastern terraces where the Temples of the Foliated Cross, the Cross, and the Sun are situated. Palenque was the westernmost of the great Classic Maya sites. Palenque was among the first major centers to suffer in the general Mayan collapse; it was abandoned in 810.
Patna: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ancient Pataliputra
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A city in northeast India, founded as Pataliputra in the 5th century BC by Ajatashatru, king of Magadha. His son Udaya (Udayin) made it the capital of Magadha, which it remained until the 1st century BC. The second Magadha dynasty, the Maurya, ruled in the 3rd and early 2nd centuries BC until the city was sacked in 185 by Indo-Greeks. The Shunga dynasty followed, until about 73 BC. Pataliputra remained a center of learning and in the 4th century AD became the Gupta capital. It declined and was deserted by the 7th century. The city was refounded as Patna in 1541 and again rose to prosperity under the Mughal Empire. Part of the ancient city's rampart (reinforced with timber) and a large pillared hall survive. This hall, with its 80 pillars, has frequently been compared to similar halls found in Achaemenid Persia and it has been suggested that some Achaemenid craftsmen fled to India after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great.
peristyle: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: peristyle court
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The screen of pillars surrounding a temple, forming colonnades along its sides. These colonnades are found on the exterior of buildings, as in the classical Greek temple, and also within the courtyard of a Hellenistic or Roman house. A peristyle court is a court with a roof around the sides supported by rows of columns and an open space in the center. The peristyle of the domus, typified by that of the House of the Vettii at Pompeii, contained the private living quarters of the family; clustered around its colonnaded court were the oecus (reception room), cubiculai (bedrooms), alae (recesses for private talk), and tricliniai (dining rooms)
piazza: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: An open square, especially in Italian towns, often surrounded by buildings. The term is also used for an arcaded and roofed gallery, generally supported by pillars, and forming a vaulted promenade. The term is sometimes applied to the archways of a colonnade.
Pictish symbol stones: CATEGORY: language; artifact
DEFINITION: Pictish symbol stones are a unique class of sculptured monument of the Pictish people in the Post-Roman period. The Picts occupied Scotland north of the Forth and possessed a distinctive culture, seen particularly in their carved symbol stones. The stones are roughly divided into three chronological categories. The Class I stones (5th-7th century) are rough-hewn, undressed blocks or pillars, inscribed with pictorial symbols of spiral creatures, such as fishes and birds. They are also decorated with strange geometric shapes as well as inanimate objects like mirrors and combs, grouped together in various combinations. Class II (8th-10th century) stones are regularly dressed slabs which the same range of carvings but with the addition of new Christian elements and humans in animated scenes. Class III stones (from 9th century) are, in most cases, free-standing crosses decorated with a combination of a distinctive form of interlace as well as some elements of the older motifs. Some bear Ogham inscriptions from which it has recently been shown that three languages were in use, two Celtic and one pre-Indo-European. From these memorial stones, we know something of the Pictish royal succession.
pilaster: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A rectangular column attached to a wall, partly embedded in it, with one-fourth or one-fifth of its thickness projecting. In classical architecture, a pilaster normally observes the form of one of the architectural orders, such as Ionic or Corinthian, and supports roof beams. The anta of ancient Greece was the direct ancestor of the Roman pilaster. In ancient Roman architecture the pilaster gradually became more and more decorative rather than structural. The fourth-story wall of the Colosseum in Rome contains examples of the Roman use of pilasters. These pillar-like structures were also in the inside walls of Anasazi kivas.
saff tomb: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A type of rock-cut tomb of the Theban 11th Dynasty that consisting of a row of openings -- or colonnade -- in the hillside. They were constructed primarily in the el-Tarif area of western Thebes for the local rulers of the 11th Dynasty (Intef I-III, 2125-2055 BC). The term 'saff' (Arabic for 'row') refers to the rows of rock-cut pillars which stood around three sides of a large trapezoidal sunk forecourt, forming the distinctive frontage of each of the tomb chapels. Private saff tombs have also been excavated at Armant and Dendera.
Sanchi: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of three stupas in central India. They are the Great Stupa, Stupa No. 1, an Ashokan foundation enlarged over the centuries; No. 2, with railing decorations of the late Shunga period (c 1st century BC); and No. 3, with its single toran (ceremonial gateway) of the late 1st century BC-1st century AD. Other features of interest include a commemorative pillar erected by the emperor Ashoka (c 265-238 BC); an early Gupta temple (temple No. 17), early 5th century, with a flat roof and pillared portico; and monastic buildings ranging over several centuries. Sanchi sculpture is the early Indian style embellishing the 1st-century-BC gateways of the Buddhist relic mound called the Great Stupa. The region of Sanchi, however, had a continuous artistic history from the 3rd century BC to the 11th century AD.
Sankisa: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ancient Samkashya
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Famous Buddhist pilgrimage center in the upper Ganges Valley, India, where the Buddha is said to have descended from heaven. It was visited by the emperor Asoka in his pilgrimage of 249 BC and retains the commemorative pillar with its elephant capital erected on that occasion.
Sarnath: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site north of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, where, according to tradition, the Buddha first began teaching his followers. The emperor Ashoka visited the site on his pilgrimage of 249 BC and erected a stupa and the famous lion-capital memorial pillar. There is also a small temple, also of the 3rd century BC.
severed head cult: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Some Celtic groups in Iron Age Europe collected the heads of enemies as charms and status symbols. This practice was elevated to the status of a cult among Celto-Ligurain groups in southern France and at sanctuary sites like Entremont, Glanum, and Roquepertuse which have stone statuary associated with the cult. The statuary are of carved stone heads, headless torsos, and pillars carved with severed heads, as well as niches for the display of actual severed heads.
Sinjerli: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Zincirli Höyük, Zincirli, Zenjirli, Senjirli, Zinjerli; ancient Sam'al
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site in the foothills of the Anti-Taurus Mountains, south-central Turkey, of a Late Hittite city-state after the downfall of the Hittite empire (c 1190 BC). It had grown slowly to importance under the Hittites, flourishing after their downfall as the independent state of Sam'al until annexed by the Assyrians in the 7th century BC and then abandoned. Its fortified citadel contained two palaces, each including the architectural unit known as a bit hilani (pillared porch"). Immediately surrounding the citadel was the city itself enclosed by a circular fortification wall topped by 100 towers. The palaces and gateways were freely decorated with the reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Syro-Hittites. The identity with ancient Samal was confirmed by the discovery of a victory inscription of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon from 670 BC."
Split: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Spalatum
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Roman city on the Adriatic coast of Croatia. Remains survive of part of the Roman town, including the nucleus of the old town is built within the Palace of Diocletian, who abdicated the imperial crown in 305 AD (reigned from 285) and lived there until his death in 313. The immense palace has walls 7 feet (2 m) thick and 72 feet (22 m) high on its seaward side and 48 feet (15 m) high on the northern side. Originally it had 16 towers, of which 3 remain, and 4 gates. The walls enclosed colonnaded streets, a vaulted temple, domed Mausoleum, baths, and a residential section. The palace was damaged by the Avars, who in 615 had sacked Salona(e); its inhabitants first fled to the islands but then returned to seek refuge in the palace (c 620), calling the settlement Spalatum. They built their homes within the palace compound, incorporating its walls and pillars. This should be distinguished from Salona, some 6 km inland, which had been the prosperous capital of the Roman imperial province of Dalmatia, and earlier still, capital of native Illyricum.
stela: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: stele, stelae (pl.)
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An upright, freestanding stone monument, often inscribed or carved in relief, and sometimes painted. These pillars or tablets of stone were often used to mark a grave or erected as a monument. Inscriptions may commemorate a victory or a major event, or proclaim a formal decree. Stelae are frequently encountered in Maya and Olmec sites of Mesoamerica (often carved with calendrical and hieroglyphic inscriptions), in the Buddhist civilizations of Asia, and in early Greece. The earliest funerary stelae are from a cemetery of 1st- and 2nd-Dynasty kings at Abydos, and are located in publicly accessible superstructures of the tombs. Commemorative stelae were erected in temples. Votive stelae recorded an individual's veneration of a particular deity(ies).
stela or stele: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. stelae
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An upright, freestanding stone monument, often inscribed or carved in relief, and sometimes painted. These pillars or tablets of stone were often used to mark a grave or erected as a monument. Inscriptions may commemorate a victory or a major event, or proclaim a formal decree. Stelae are frequently encountered in Maya and Olmec sites of Mesoamerica (often carved with calendrical and hieroglyphic inscriptions), in the Buddhist civilizations of Asia, and in early Greece. The earliest funerary stelae are from a cemetery of 1st- and 2nd-Dynasty kings at Abydos, and are located in publicly accessible superstructures of the tombs. Commemorative stelae were erected in temples. Votive stelae recorded an individual's veneration of a particular deity(ies).
talayot: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Talayotic culture
CATEGORY: structure; culture
DEFINITION: Massive dry-stone towers of the Bronze and Iron Age of the Balearic Islands, mainly Majorca and Minorca, c 1000-300 BC. In its oldest and most simple form, a talayot is a round tower built of large stone blocks. It may be solid, or enclose a single cell or chamber roofed by corbelling; there may niches in the wall. In other examples the roof is of flat slabs supported by a central pillar. From c 850 BC, square talayots were also built and some of these have a second chamber above the one on the ground floor. Many later became the center of a small village of dry-stone houses and enclosed by walls of Cyclopean masonry. The architecture shows resemblances to contemporary structures in Sardinia (the nuraghe) and in Corsica. The precise function of talayots is unknown, but they could have been used as lookout towers or as refuges in times of trouble. The tower has also given its name to the local Bronze age culture.
taula: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Bronze Age ritual monument found in the Balearic Islands of Minorca and Majorca from the Talayot culture. A taula may be 4 meters in height, and consists of a horizontal block supported either by a monolithic pillar or a column made of several stones. Often surrounded by a U-shaped enclosure wall, they are thought to have had a cult function.
Uruk: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: biblical Erech, modern Warka; Uruk period
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: One of the greatest city-states of Sumer, northwest of Ur, which flourished at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. It is 250 km south of Bagdad, Iraq. Pottery dating from around 5000 BC has been found there, but the civilization is traditionally dated to c 3800-3100 BC. Uruk's rulers tried to lead Sumer until Ur became more powerful, but Uruk still remained important as a holy city. It was one of the great Sumerian city-states, developing from the 'Ubaid period. It was the site of numerous innovations, the most important being the invention of writing. It lost importance with the rise of Ur, c 2100 BC, but remained occupied till the Parthian period. Archaeologists have found very important structures and deposits of the 4th millennium BC and the site has given its name to the period that succeeded the Ubaid and preceded the Jemdet Nasr period. Uruk was Mesopotamia's -- and the world's -- first true city. There are two large temple complexes -- the Anu sanctuary and the Eanna sanctuary -- both with several successive temple-structures during the Uruk period, including the White Temple in the Anu sanctuary and the Limestone and Pillar Temples in the Eanna sanctuary. A characteristic form of decoration is clay cones with painted tops pressed into the mud plaster -- known as clay cone mosaic. A ziggurat laid out by Ur-Nammu in the Ur III period (late 3rd millennium BC) is by the Eanna sanctuary. The earliest clay tablets appear in late Uruk levels; they are simple labels and lists with pictographic symbols. Tablets from slightly later levels, of the Jemdet Nasr phase, show further developments towards the cuneiform script of the Early Dynastic period. There was also mass-produced wheelmade pottery, cylinder seals, and sophisticated art. Uruk was the home of the epic hero Gilgamesh, now thought to be a real king of the city's first dynasty.
Volterra: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Etruscan Velathri, Roman Vola-terrae, Volaterrae
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Ancient Etruscan city (Velathri) and one of the 12 cities of the Etruscan confederation. It supported Rome during the Second Punic War in 205 BC, acquired Roman citizenship after the civil wars between Gaius Marius and Sulla (81-80 BC), and took the name Volaterrae. Occupation began as early as the Copper Age (Rinal-Done culture), and was established by the Iron Age (c early 1st millennium BC). By the 4th century BC, there was perimeter walling enclosing an extensive area. Volterra is noted for its carved funerary stelae and alabaster urns decorated with mythological scenes. The Roman period itself saw the development of an area to the north of the Etruscan walls, which has left remains of some bath buildings and an Augustan-period theatre. There are also two Etruscan-Roman gateways and circular tombs from the 6th century BC with vaults of concentric rings supported by a central pillar.
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.

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