Archaeology Wordsmith

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Results for prehistory:

prehistory: SYNONYM: prehistoric period
CATEGORY: related field; chronology
DEFINITION: Any period for which there is no documentary evidence and the study of cultures before written history or of more recent cultures lacking formal historical records. In the strict sense, 'history' is an account of the past recovered from written records, but such an account can be prepared from other sources, notably archaeology. The term 'prehistory' was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851 to cover the story of man's development before the appearance of writing. It is succeeded by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to give us a coherent account. Prehistory differs from history in dealing with the activities of a society or culture, not of the individual; it is restricted to the material evidence that has survived.
secondary prehistory: SYNONYM: protohistoric
CATEGORY: chronology; language
DEFINITION: The time when literate people came in contact with and wrote about nonliterate peoples.
Avebury, Lord (formerly Sir John Lubbock) (1834-1913): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British archaeologist whose book Prehistoric Times" (7 editions between 1865-1913) achieved bestseller status. An early convert to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution Lord Avebury popularized prehistory both as a term and a subject. He introduced the words "Palaeolithic" (old) and "Neolithic" (new) thereby expanding the three-age system (Thomsen and Worsaae) to a four-age system dividing the Stone Age into old and new periods. He also interpreted cultural change as evidence of invasion from the east and the development of society as the result of economic advance."
Basin of Mexico: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A basin enclosed by mountains with cultural remains as early as 19,000 BC at Tlapacoya and 15,000 BC at Tlatilco. The Basin contains the current capital, Mexico City, Mexico, the remains of Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, and the cities of Cuicuilco and Teotihuacán. Dry farming, swidden agriculture, chinampas, and irrigation have been used to cultivate the area. Important periods in the area's prehistory were from c 100 BC-650 AD and from 1200-1520 AD, before the Spanish conquest.
Bodrogkeresztur: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a Middle Copper Age cemetery and culture in eastern Hungary, c 3900-3500 BC. It is the type site for an occupation that made Linear Pottery and used metal battle-axes and ax-adzes of shaft-hole type. The cemetery has at least fifty inhumation graves. The Bodrogkeresztur culture represents the first peak of metallurgical development in Hungarian prehistory, defined by large-scale production of gold ornaments and heavy shaft-hole copper tools. The occurrence of Transylvanian gold, Slovakian copper, and flint from Poland suggests long-distance exchanges.
bone: CATEGORY: fauna
DEFINITION: The connective tissues of the body, consisting of crystallite minerals and collagen. After death, the proteins slowly decompose and the remaining mineral is subject to solution in acid soil conditions. Bones are preserved on a wide variety of archaeological sites. From early prehistory, the bones, horns, or antlers of animals man hunted or kept provided him with a vital source of raw material for constructing artifacts. There are many types of bone. There are a variety of relative age determination techniques applicable to bone material, including measurements of the depletion of nitrogen (bone dating) and the accumulation of fluorine and uranium.
Boucher (de Crèvecoeur) de Perthes, Jacques (1788-1868): SYNONYM: Boucher de Perthes
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: French archaeologist and writer who was the first to develop the idea that prehistory could be measured on the basis of periods of geological time. In 1837, in the Somme Valley, he discovered flint hand axes and other stone tools along with the bones of extinct mammals in deposits of the Pleistocene Epoch (or Ice Age, ending about 10,000 years ago). Boucher de Perthes was the first to draw attention to the Stone Age's revolutionary significance, because at the time, 4004 BC was still believed to be the year of the creation. His claims that these objects were the tools of ancient man and that they occurred in association with the bones of extinct animals were ridiculed. In 1859, Boucher de Perthes's conclusions were finally upheld by a group of eminent British scientists, including Charles Lyell, Hugh Falconer, John Preswich, and John Evans, who visited the excavated sites. His archaeological writings include De la Création: essai sur l'origine et la progression des êtres" (1838-41) and "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes" (1847-64)."
Cajamarca: SYNONYM: Cajamarquilla
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient Inca city, the site of the capture, ransom, and execution of the Inca chief Atahuallpa by conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532. In the north Peruvian highlands, Cajamarca developed a strong regional civilization and was a provincial capital, flourishing between 200-1476 AD. Cajamarca pottery is slip-painted with linear running patterns (cursive) or with stylized creatures and animal heads in brownish black over a cream background. The Spanish capture ended the Inca period and Andean prehistory. It was a cultural center during the Early Intermediate period. The cemetery, Nievería has Huari-related artifacts.
Cape Krusenstern: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a national monument on the coast of the Chukchi Sea with a horizontal stratigraphy covering the whole of north Alaskan prehistory. Located on 114 ridges along ancient beach lines, the monument's remarkable archaeological sites illustrate the cultural evolution of the Arctic people, dating back some 4,000 years and continuing to modern Eskimos. There are campsites of 10 successive cultures, beginning with the Denbigh Flint Complex, followed by the Old Whaling culture, then by the Eskimo cultures known as Trails Creek-Chloris, Chloris, Norton, Near Ipiutak, Ipiutak, Birnirk, Western Thule, and late prehistoric. On the terrace behind the beaches were two more phases (Palisades I and II) which go back to c 8000 BC. The stratigraphy is visible as a sequence of strips, roughly parallel to the shoreline, with the oldest, Denbigh, being furthest from the present-day shoreline. This horizontal sequence, in combination with the vertical stratigraphy of Onion Portage, forms the most reliable chronological framework in Western Arctic prehistory.
Cartailhac, Émile (1845-1921): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A French prehistorian sometimes called one of the founders of archaeology in France. He edited the journal Matéreaux pour l'histoire primitive et naturelle de l'homme" and wrote books on French and Mediterranean prehistory including "La Caverne de Font-de-Gaume..." (1910; "The Cave of Font-de-Gaume...") with Henri Breuil. He is best remembered for his long refusal to accept the authenticity of cave art denouncing such archaeologists as Marcellino de Sautuola. After visiting the Spanish site of Altamira with the Abbé Breuil Cartailhac changed his opinion and in 1902 published an article subtitled "Mea culpa d'un sceptique" in which he admitted the antiquity of the cave paintings. He then helped to convince many scholars that cave paintings were indeed genuine and the earliest manifestations of art in the world."
Childe, Vere Gordon (1892-1957): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Australian-born British historian whose study of European prehistory in the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC brought his development of the diffusionist theory which was to explain the relationship between Europe and the Middle East. Childe introduced the concept of the archaeological culture. The Diffusionist view interpreted all major developments in prehistoric Europe in terms of the spread of either people or ideas from the Near East. Childe was professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Edinburgh and then director of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. His many publications include The Dawn of European Civilization (1925; 6th ed., 1957), The Danube in Prehistory (1929), The Bronze Age (1930), Man Makes Himself (1936), What Happened in History (1942), and Society and Knowledge (1956).
dendrochronology: SYNONYM: tree-ring dating
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: An absolute chronometric dating technique for measuring time intervals and dating events and environmental changes by reading and dating the pattern (number and condition) of annual rings formed in the trunks of trees. The results are compared to an established tree-ring sequence for a particular region with consideration to annual fluctuations in rainfall which result in variations in the size of the rings laid down by trees on the outside of their trunks. These variations, given favorable conditions, form a consistent pattern; and sections or cores taken from beams in ruins have been matched to provide a long chronology over large areas. The method is based on the principle that trees add a growth ring for each year of their lives, and that variations in climatic conditions will affect the width of these rings on suitable trees. In a very dry year growth will be restricted, and the ring narrow, while a wet and humid year will produce luxuriant growth and a thick ring. By comparing a complete series of rings from a tree of known date (for example, one still alive) with a series from an earlier, dead tree overlapping in age, ring patterns from the central layers of the recent tree and the outer of the old may show a correlation which allows the dating, in calendar years, of the older tree. The central rings of this older tree may then be compared with the outer rings or a yet older tree, and so on until the dates reach back into prehistory. Problems that arise are when climatic variation and suitable trees (sensitive trees react to climatic changes, complacent trees do not) are not be present to produce any significant and recognizable pattern of variation in the rings. Another problem is that there may be gaps in the sequences of available timber, so that the chronology 'floats', or is not tied in to a calendrical date or living trees: it can only be used for relative dating. Also, the tree-ring key can only go back a certain distance into the past, since the availability of sufficient amounts of timber to construct a sequence obviously decreases. Only in a few areas of the world are there species of trees so long-lived that long chronologies can be built up. This method is especially important in the southwestern United States, Alaska, and Scandinavia, dating back to several thousand years BC in some areas. Dendrochronology is of immense importance for archaeology, especially for its contribution to the refining of radiocarbon dating. Since timber can be dated by radiocarbon, dates may be obtained from dendrochronologically dated trees. It has been shown that the radiocarbon dates diverge increasingly from calendrical dates provided by tree-rings the further back into prehistory they go, the radiocarbon dates being younger than the tree-ring dates. This has allowed the questioning of one of the underlying assumptions of radiocarbon dating, the constancy of the concentration of C14 in the atmosphere. Fluctuations in this concentration have now been shown back as far as dendrochronological sequences go (to c 7000 BC), and thus dating technique is serving the further research on another. In 1929, A.E. Douglass first showed how this method could be used to date archaeological material. The long-living Bristlecone Pine (Pinus aristata) of California has yielded a sequence extending back to c 9000 bp. In Ireland, oak preserved in bogs has produced a floating chronology from c 2850-5950 bp.
Devon Downs: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A limestone shelter in cliffs beside the lower Murray River in South Australia with a deposit rich in faunal material as well as stone and bone tools and dating to c 4000 BC. It was the first systematic archaeological excavation in Australia (1929). Interpretation of the stratigraphy and stone tool sequence at two sites introduced concepts of antiquity and cultural change in Aboriginal prehistory which had previously been denied in Australian anthropology.
Efimenko, Pyotr Petrovich (1884-1969): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A Russian archaeologist who made important contributions to the development of Palaeolithic archaeology, promoting the study of sociological aspects from a Marxist viewpoint. He made the first discovery of a Palaeolithic longhouse (Kostenki) and later published a major work on Palaeolithic prehistory, Primeval Society"."
empathetic method: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The use of personal intuitioin to seek understanding of the inner lives of other people, using the assumption that there is a common structure to human experience. This is used for interpreting prehistory and history by idealists and postprocessualists.
evolution: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A theory of biology about the gradual or rapid change of the form of living organisms throughout time that reflects adaptive change; it is the theory that all forms of life derive from a process of change via natural selection. Its great exponent was Charles Darwin, whose The Origin of Species" appeared in 1859. It had an immediate impact on prehistory and the question of the antiquity of man. The Darwinian idea -- of species generally over-reproducing themselves and only the better-fitted surviving to pass on their superior adaptation to the next generation -- has been modified and amplified in the 20th century by new knowledge of genetics and especially of mutation and re-combination of genes. The newer view is often called Neo-Darwinism. Darwin's work laid the foundations for the study of artifact typology pioneered by such scholars as Pitt-Rivers and Montelius. The idea that the animals and plants of today originated from ancestors of a different kind goes back at least to early Greek philosophers"
floating chronology: CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A chronometrically dated chronology which is not yet tied in to calendar years. A floating chronology is a decipherable record of time that was terminated long ago. The most common floating chronologies occur in dendrochronology where climate affects the growth of rings and sequences are local. Local sequences cannot always be tied to the master sequences established in certain areas from the present day back into prehistory, and therefore the local sequences will 'float' until some link with a known historical date is found. Similarly, in magnetic dating many of the sequences will float until some independently dated sites can be entered on the curve. The term is also used in reference to varve chronologies.
Garstang, Professor John (1876-1956): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British archaeologist prominent in Near Eastern archaeology, including his major excavations at Mersin (Turkey), Sakje Geuzi (Syria), Jericho (Palestine), Meroe (Sudan), Beni Hassan, Esna, and Abydos (Egypt). He made major contributions to the development of Near Eastern prehistory.
Gorodtsov, Vasili Alekseevich (1860-1945): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Russian archaeologist who developed the Bronze Age chronology for Russia, focusing on formal typology. He also wrote syntheses of Russian prehistory and worked at Gontsy, Il'Skaya I, and Timonovka.
Halawa Valley: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A valley on eastern Molokai, Hawaiian Islands, which has been the focus of intensive archaeological research. Major sites include one of the earliest Hawaiian settlements at the valley mouth (c 600-1200), and inside the valley are many irrigated taro terraces which document intensification of cultivation and perhaps political development at a late stage of Hawaiian prehistory (after 1500).
Hane: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Early Eastern Polynesian dune site on Ua Huka Island, Marquesas. It has documented aspects of Marquesan prehistory from initial settlement (c 300 AD) to European contact. It is a crucial site for documenting early human dispersal into Eastern Polynesia.
Hesi, Tell el-: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell site in southern Palestine occupied from the Early Bronze Age, c 2600 BC, to the Hellenistic period/Iron Age. Its excavation by Sir Flinders Petrie and F.J. Bliss were the first stratigraphic excavations in the area, and lent much information on pottery typology and successive building levels. Their work began the establishment of an absolute chronology for Palestinian prehistory, through the discovery of imported, datable Egyptian objects in association with local material.
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).
Integration Period: SYNONYM: Late Period
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The last stage of Ecuadorian prehistory, from about 500 AD to the Inca conquest (1550), characterized by greater cultural uniformity over wider areas. There is evidence for urban centers, class distinction, intensive agriculture, and high quality metallurgy throughout the region. The absorption of Ecuador into the Inca empire was the culmination of this trend. It is part of the chronological continuum -- Formative, Regional Development, Integration -- formulated by Betty Meggers.
ivory: CATEGORY: fauna; artifact
DEFINITION: Material from enlarged teeth (or tusk) of certain mammals and used for various tools and artifacts from the Upper Palaeolithic. The tusks of elephants, mammoths, and walruses have been prized throughout prehistory and history.
Kidder, Alfred Vincent (1885-1963): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A pioneering American archaeologist working in the US southwest. He carried out stratigraphical and seriation excavations, notably of the Pueblo at Pecos, New Mexico, and combined stratigraphy with pottery typology to produce the first synthesis of southwestern prehistory. It has since been refined by dendrochronology, but it still provides the framework. Kidder's research forms the basis of nearly all later studies in the area. He later did archaeological surveys and excavations for the Maya program of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He worked at Kaminaljuyú and Uaxactún. He was hailed for his multidisciplinary approach to archaeology and for changing American archaeology from antiquarianism to scientific discipline.
Lipari: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An acropolis site on Lipari island of the Aeolian Islands off the north coast of Sicily. Occupation started in the Neolithic c 4000 BC, when obsidian was exploited. In the Bronze Age, Lipari became an important trading center. Mycenaean pottery has been found dating to 1500-1250 BC. The remains of Hellenistic buildings indicate its importance in Classical times. The volcanoes have created is one of the finest stratigraphies of archaeological deposits anywhere. Later in prehistory, Lipari remained important because of its strategic position, which allowed communities positioned there to control trade routes through the Straits of Messina and up the west coast of Italy. The site was abandoned some time in the 9th century BC and not reoccupied until the foundation of a Greek settlement by a mixed group of Cnidians and Rhodians in the early 6th century BC.
Marshall, Sir John (1876-1958) (DISPUTED d. 1959): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British archaeologist who worked in India as Director-General of Archaeological Survey in India and who was part of revealing India's long prehistory. He excavated at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro and at sites of the Indus Civilization. He discovered much about the Chalcolithic cultures preceding it. He was also interested in Alexander's campaign and in Graeco-Buddhist monuments at Sanchi, and Taxila.
Melos: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the Cyclades in the Aegean, famous as a major source of obsidian, whose trade brought wealth to the island. It was used extensively for chipped stone implements in Aegean prehistory from as early as the 10th millennium BC. The island, however, was not inhabited until the 4th millennium BC. At Phylakopi three successive settlements were discovered, of roughly Early Cycladic II, Middle Cycladic, and Late Cycladic respectively. They show increasing influence from the Minoans of Crete, so much so that the third is better regarded as a provincial Minoan town than a native Cycladic one. Nevertheless the island maintained close contact with the Greek mainland, and with the collapse of Crete is came fully into the sphere of the Mycenaeans. The classical polis, destroyed by Athens in 416 BC, centered on the fortified acropolis of ancient Melos.
Mesolithic: SYNONYM: mesolithic, Epipaleolithic, Middle Stone Age
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A time period in human history beginning with the retreat of glacial ice c 8500 BC and the changing climatic conditions following it; a development in northwestern Europe that lasted until about 2700 BC. This Middle Stone Age followed the Upper Paleolithic and preceded the Neolithic. It was a period of transition in the early Holocene between the hunter-gatherer existence and the development of farming and pottery production. Glacial flora and fauna were replaced by modern forms and the flint industries are often distinguished by an abundance of microliths. The equipment was designed for fishing and fowling as well as hunting and often included many tiny flints, or microliths, that were set in wooden shafts and hafts, and stone axes or adzes used for woodworking. Forests grew in Europe and people modified their lives accordingly. In the Near East, which remained free of ice sheets, climatic change was less significant than in northern Europe and agriculture was practiced soon after the close of the Pleistocene. In this area the Mesolithic period was short and poorly differentiated. In Britain the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition did not come until around 4000 BC. The dog was domesticated during the Mesolithic. The term is used widely only in European prehistory.
mica: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Any of a group of hydrous potassium, aluminum silicate minerals that occurs in a glittering, scaly form; widely prized for ornament in prehistory.
Micronesia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ethnographic and geographic region comprising the Palau, Marianas, Guam, Nauru, Caroline and Marshall Islands, and Kiribati. The Palaus and Marianas were probably settled from the Philippines after 2000 BC and each has a ceramic sequence throughout prehistory. The eastern groups, mainly atolls, were settled later, perhaps from a Lapita source in Melanesia, and pottery production died out after initial settlement (as in Polynesia). Physically and linguistically, the Micronesians are close cousins to the Polynesians though their Polynesian ancestors appear to have moved through Melanesia rather than Micronesia.
Montelius, Oscar (1843-1921): SYNONYM: Gustav Oscar Augustin Montelius
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Swedish archaeologist who constructed a chronology for prehistoric Europe and who developed typological schemes for the European Neolithic and Bronze Age. He divided European prehistory into numbered periods (four for the Neolithic, five for the Bronze Age) and to these periods he gave absolute dates by extending cross-dating from Egypt across Europe. Montelius believed in the diffusionist view (called ex oriente lux) that all European culture in later prehistoric times was derived from the ancient civilizations of Egypt and the Near East. Still controversial is his theory, the Swedish typology suggesting that material culture and biological life develop through essentially the same kind of evolutionary process. He published Om tidsbestämming inom ronsåldern" (1885; "On Determining the Periods Within the Bronze Age") "The Civilization of Sweden in Heathen Times" (1888) and "Die älteren Kulturperioden in Orient und in Europa" (1903-23; "The Older Cultural Periods in the Orient and Europe")."
Mortillet, Gabriel de (1821-1898): SYNONYM: Mortillet, (Louis-Laurent-Marie) Gabriel de
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: French prehistorian who, after being a student of Edouard Lartet, proposed an alternative to Lartet's Palaeolithic classification scheme. For the palaeontological criteria of Lartet he substituted archaeological ones based on tool forms rather than faunal remains. He extended into prehistory the geological system of periods, or epochs, each characterized by a limited range of type fossils. Each period had 'type names' after a 'type site' where the diagnostic material was well represented -- such as Mousterian, Aurignacian, and Solutrean. By 1869, de Mortillet's scheme for the Stone Age had the following subdivisions: Thenaisian (for the now discredited eoliths), followed by Chellean, Mousterian, Solutrean, Aurignacian, Magdalenian, and (for the Neolithic) Robenhausian, named after a lake village -- though alterations and additions (Acheulian) were made later. With further modifications, this classification was widely adopted and remained the standard terminology for European archaeology until well into the 20th century. De Mortillet saw his epochs as periods of time or as stages of development with a universal validity, and his scheme was basically a refinement of the Three Age System. He did not allow for purely local variants within a single epoch; he divided the Palaeolithic into time periods, not cultures or traditions. This is no longer accepted and de Mortillet's epochs are now thought to represent cultures and to have local validity only. The practice of using type site names, however, proved so useful that it became standard practice. He founded, in 1864, one of the earliest archaeological journals, Matériaux pour l'Histoire positive et philosophique de l'Homme". His classifications were published in "Le Préhistorique: antiquité de l'homme" (1882; "The Prehistoric: Man's Antiquity") and in subsequent revisions."
murus gallicus: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A type of rampart used in Europe during the La Tène Iron Age; coined by Julius Caesar to describe the defenses of the Celtic oppidum of Avaricum (Bourges). The ramparts were made of earth and stone with horizontal timber lacing and held together with iron nails. The spaces of the beams were filled by stone walling. It was often used at great Iron Age hillforts of Europe during prehistory.
Neolithic: SYNONYM: neolithic, New Stone Age
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The period of prehistory when people began to use ground stone tools, cultivate plants, and domesticate livestock but before the use of metal for tools. It is the technical name for the New Stone Age in the Old World following the Mesolithic. In the Neolithic, villages were established, pottery and weaving appeared, and farming began. The Neolithic began about 8000-7000 BC in the Middle East and about 4000-3000 BC in Europe. It was followed by the Bronze Age, which began about 3500-3000 BC in the Middle East and about 2000-1500 BC in Europe. The criteria for defining" the Neolithic has become progressively more difficult to apply as both food production and metalworking took a long time to develop. In Britain the Neolithic has other more specific characteristics: the use of pottery and of ground stone (beside the long-employed flaked stone) and the appearance of construction works like the long barrow causewayed camp and megalithic tomb. Elsewhere however some Mesolithic cultures made use of pottery in Japan for example; and certain so-called pre-pottery Neolithic groups had none as at Jericho. If the term Neolithic is to be retained at all it must be based on the appearance of food production (especially cereal grains) sometimes called the Neolithic revolution commencing in southwest Asia 9000-6000 BC. This might be considered the most important single advance ever made by man since it allowed him to settle permanently in one spot. This in turn encouraged the accumulation of material possessions stimulated trade and by giving a storable surplus of food allowed a larger population and craft specialization. All these were prerequisite to further human progress. The Neolithic was followed by the Mesolithic period the Chalcolithic or the Bronze Age depending on the terminology used in different areas and the nature of the archaeological sequence itself. The Neolithic followed the Paleolithic Period."
New Guinea Highlands: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An area of Oceania which was unknown until the 1930s and whose population is Melanesian speakers of Papuan languages. Its prehistory goes back at least 26,000 years and supported agricultural systems dating back at least 6000 years.
Northwest Riverine tradition: SYNONYM: Plateau tradition
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A series of cultures which reached maturity in the interior of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and in Idaho at the beginning of this millennium. The Columbia-Snake, Fraser-Thompson, and Klamath Rivers run through it and it is where the Old Cordilleran tradition arose. It is characterized by pebble choppers, leaf-shaped flaked stone projectile points, stone hammers, stone bowls, tubular pipes, stone slubs, and fine stone carving. It is an integrative concept created by G.R. Willey in an effort to characterize all of Plateau prehistory between 500-1850 AD.
ochre: SYNONYM: ocher
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: Soft varieties of iron oxide (hematite, limonite, goethite)which were ground and used with other materials in prehistory to make pigment. Ochre occurs naturally and was much used for coloring matter, as in cave art, pottery painting, and personal decoration. Red ochre was certainly used ceremonially to give an impression of life to the corpse during funerary rites. There are many records from the Upper Palaeolithic onwards of ochre staining of skeletons. It was mixed with earth, clay, blood, or grease to make the paint. Ochre was used as crayons or powder in Aurignacian period for paintings on walls of caves or on bone or stone artifacts. It was mainly yellow, brown, black, orange, and red (hematite).
Palau Islands: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An island group and independent republic in western Micronesia, perhaps settled from the Philippines c 2000 BC. Its prehistory includes a continuous pottery sequence to ethnographic times. There are large-scale terraced, horticultural, and defensive hilltop sites. Glass beads and bracelet segments are characteristic artifacts.
Paleolithic: SYNONYM: Palaeolithic
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The more technical name for the Old Stone Age, a division of prehistory covering the time from the first use of stone tools by humans, c 2.5 million years ago, to the retreat of the glacial ice in the northern hemisphere c 10,000-8500 BC. It began in the Pliocene epoch and was followed by the Mesolithic. It is the Old World equivalent, although with a much greater extension back in time, of the paleo-Indian or Early Lithic stage of New World development. The Paleolithic was characterized by the making of chipped or flaked stone tools and weapons and by a hunting and food-gathering way of life. It is usually divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper (or Late) Paleolithic -- mainly based on artifact typology. The subdivisions are characterized this way: Lower Palaeolithic, c 2.5 million - 200,000 BC, the earliest forms of humans (Australopithecus and Homo erectus), and the predominance of core tools of pebble tool, handax, and chopper type; Middle Palaeolithic, c 150,000-40,000 BC, the era of the Neanderthal and the predominance of flake-tool industries (e.g. Mousterian) over most of Eurasia; and Upper Palaeolithic (starting perhaps as early as 38,000 BC-c 10,000 BC), with Homo sapiens sapiens, blade-and-burin industries, and the development of cave art in western Europe. During this stage, man colonized the New World and Australia. The main Palaeolithic cultures of Europe were, in chronological order: 1. Pre-Abbevillian, 2. Abbevillian, 3. Clactonian, 4. Acheulian, 5. Levalloisian, 6. Mousterian, 7. Aurignacian, 8. Solutrean, and 9. Magdalenian. The term was introduced in 1865 by John Lubbock in Prehistoric Times". The Palaeolithic was originally defined by the use of chipped stone tools but later an economic criterion was added and the practice of hunting and gathering is now regarded as a defining characteristic."
Paleolithic or Palaeolithic: SYNONYM: Old Stone Age, paleolithic
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The more technical name for the Old Stone Age, a division of prehistory covering the time from the first use of stone tools by humans, c 2.5 million years ago, to the retreat of the glacial ice in the northern hemisphere c 10,000-8500 BC. It began in the Pliocene epoch and was followed by the Mesolithic. It is the Old World equivalent, although with a much greater extension back in time, of the Paleo-Indian or Early Lithic stage of New World development. The Paleolithic was characterized by the making of chipped or flaked stone tools and weapons and by a hunting and food-gathering way of life. It is usually divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper (or Late) Paleolithic -- mainly based on artifact typology. The subdivisions are characterized this way: Lower Palaeolithic, c 2.5 million - 200,000 BC, the earliest forms of man (Australopithecus and Homo erectus), and the predominance of core tools of pebble tool, handax, and chopper type; Middle Palaeolithic, c 150,000-40,000 BC, the era of Neanderthal man and the predominance of flake-tool industries (e.g. Mousterian) over most of Eurasia; and Upper Palaeolithic (starting perhaps as early as 38,000 BC-c 10,000 BC), with Homo sapiens sapiens, blade-and-burin industries, and the development of cave art in western Europe. During this stage, man colonized the New World and Australia. The main Palaeolithic cultures of Europe were, in chronological order: 1. Pre-Abbevillian, 2. Abbevillian, 3. Clactonian, 4. Acheulian, 5. Levalloisian, 6. Mousterian, 7. Aurignacian, 8. Solutrean, and 9. Magdalenian. The term was introduced in 1865 by John Lubbock in Prehistoric Times". The Palaeolithic was originally defined by the use of chipped stone tools but later an economic criterion was added and the practice of hunting and gathering is now regarded as a defining characteristic."
Pantelleria: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Small island in the central Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia. A fortified Neolithic village c 3000 BC has been excavated, with remains of huts, pottery, and obsidian tools. Of volcanic origin, it has a source of obsidian which was exploited in prehistory. There are tombs, known as sesi, similar to the nuraghi of Sardinia, comprising rough lava towers with sepulchral chambers in them. After a considerable interval of no habitation, the Phoenicians established a trading station there in the 7th century BC. Later controlled by the Carthaginians, it was occupied by the Romans in 217 BC. Under the Roman Empire it served as a place of banishment.
Pecos classification: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A.V. Kidder's classification of Southwestern prehistory based on his Pecos excavation; a culture stage sequence devised at the first Pecos Conference of 1927 in an attempt to organize prehistoric material of the American Southwest. It is now restricted to the Anasazi tradition, including Basketmaker I-III and Pueblo I-V. Architecture and ceramics define the stages.
Pecos, New Mexico: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Anasazi pueblo in the American Southwest that was occupied for much of the past 2000 years. It provided the first stratigraphic sequence for American Southwest prehistory as a result of A.V. Kidder's excavations.
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.
Piette, Edouard (1827-1906): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: French prehistorian who excavated many caves in the Pyrenees and was the first to recognize the Azilian culture, bridging the gap between the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. He was a pioneer in accepting the authenticity of Altamira's art and worked at Le Mas D'Azil and Brassempouy. He amassed the greatest collection of Palaeolithic portable art for the French government. He was the author of various classificatory schemes for prehistory, subdividing the Palaeolithic period into three, the Amydgalithic, Niphetic and Glyptic periods (approximately equivalent to the Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic), but this system was never very widely adopted.
protohistory: SYNONYM: protohistoric era, protohistoric period
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: The period in any area following prehistory and preceding the appearance of coherent history derived from written records. It is a transitional time period between prehistory and recorded history, for which both archaeological and historical data are employed. There are several more detailed definitions, such as 1) a time when non-literate aboriginal peoples had access to European goods but had not had face-to-face contact; 2) periods during which historical documentation is fragmentary or not directly from the society being studied; and 3) the period of 1250-1519 AD in Mesoamerica, which followed the Postclassic and ends just before the Spanish conquest (there are historic documents for this period).
quinoa: CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: A pigweed (Chenopodium quinoa) of the high Andes whose seeds are ground and widely used as food in Peru. It was cultivated at high elevations in Andean prehistory.
Sahul Shelf: SYNONYM: Sahul shelf
CATEGORY: geography
DEFINITION: The shallow ocean shelf between Australia and New Guinea, at its narrowest under the present Torres Strait; the continental shelf which comprises Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. The shelf was exposed as dry land at periods of low sea-level in the Pleistocene, and New Guinea and Australia share a linked prehistory until the Torres Strait was finally drowned between 6000-4500 BC.
Samoa: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A major island group in the south-central Pacific Ocean about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) northeast of New Zealand. American Samoa, a dependency of the United States, consists of the six islands. Western Samoa, an independent nation, consists of the nine islands. The islands were settled by Lapita colonists in the late 2nd millennium BC. There is a pottery sequence through the 1st millennium BC, after which pottery manufacture ceases. On the evidence of adze typology, Samoa may have been the source of the first settlers to penetrate eastern Polynesia, perhaps to the Marquesas, in the early 1st millennium AD. The last 1500 years of Samoan prehistory are associated with above-ground monuments, including earthwork forts, earth or stone houses, god-house platforms, and agricultural terraces.
Sankalia, H.D. (1908- ): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Indian archaeologist whose field work and publications have been important to the development of Indian archaeology. Comprehensive surveys and research papers, especially on the prehistory of the Deccan, include Archaeology in Rajasthan" (1988) "Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology of Gujarat" (1987) "The University of Nalanda" (1972) which recounts the history of one of the most important Buddhist monastic establishments."
Sautuola, Marcellino Sanz de (1831-1888): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Spanish amateur geologist and archaeologist who excavated Altamira Cave, near Santillana, in northern Spain, which contains the earliest known (c 13,000-20,000 BC) examples of Stone Age painting. The colored ceiling paintings in a side cavern, which came to be regarded as the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory" were the most spectacular. Sautuola had accurate drawings of the paintings prepared and published a book in 1880. He was unable to persuade scholars of the paintings' authenticity and died dishonored and bitter. Not until other similar paintings had been found in southwestern France (1895-1901) was Sautuola's contribution finally vindicated. "
Tószeg: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tell near Szolnok on the River Tisza in eastern Hungary with a defining sequence for the Early Bronze Age of the region. The succession begins with the Neolithic Tisza culture, followed by the Copper Age Tiszapolgár culture, then the Bronze Age cultures of Nagyrév (Tószeg A), Hatvan (Tószeg B), and Füzesabony (Tószeg C and D). The site provides one of the most important stratigraphies in European prehistory; the settlement layers provide the Nagyrév-Hatvan-Füzesabony sequence of 1800-1300 BC.
Taiwan: SYNONYM: Formosa
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Island 100 miles (160 km) off the southeast coast of the China mainland. Taiwan had a native aboriginal population of Malayo-Polynesian ancestry and it occupies an important position in the prehistory of Southeast Asia. Evidence for pre-Neolithic settlement is from c 3500 BC, followed by a Neolithic culture (Ta-p'en-k'eng culture). That culture had cord-marked pottery and was related to contemporary rice-cultivating cultures on the adjacent mainland. Linguistically, it represents the earliest recognizable phase of Austronesian language in the islands Southeast Asia. Later Taiwan Neolithic cultures also show close connections with south China and the Philippines. Major Chinese settlement of the island did not occur until the 17th century AD.
Temple Mound Period: SYNONYM: Mississippian
CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: Time period from c 800 AD to European colonization when Native Americans of the Mississippian tradition built large flat-topped earthen structures (platform mounds) designed to function as artificial mountains elevating their temples above the landscape. This period followed the Burial Mound period and is the most recent period of a chronological construction relating to the whole of eastern North American prehistory (formulated by J.A. Ford and Godon Willey). The periods are: Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Burial Mound, and Temple Mound. The Temple Mound period is divided into two sub-periods: Temple Mound I (800-1200 AD), the establishment and rise of the Mississippian Tradition; and Temple Mound II (1200-1700 AD), the peak and then demise of the Mississippian.
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: SYNONYM: 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.
vase support: SYNONYM: vase-support
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A pottery vessel with a hollow cylindrical base which supports a dishlike upper surface; the name for a pottery pedestal or ring made to support round-based pottery which could not stand by itself on a flat surface. The term is used especially in European prehistory to describe highly decorated incised examples from the French Middle Neolithic Chasséen culture.
whistle: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Simple musical instrument comprising a hollow tube, often of bone or wood, down which air can be blown; one or more holes in the side of the tube can be covered and uncovered with the fingers to alter the flow of air and thus produce a range of different sounds. When the holes are placed at proportioned intervals, a simple chromatic scale can be produced. Some of the earliest examples known include the hollowed femur of a cave bear with three holes, one in the posterior surface and two in the anterior, from an Upper Palaeolithic context in the Istállóskö Cave, Hungary. It provides a musical range Aiii, Biii, Biii, Eiii. The basic design involving a hollowed bone provided with holes is represented throughout later prehistory by many examples from findspots scattered widely across Europe. Also, a small tube in which there is a fixed constriction such that when blown a shrill sound is produced. The earliest examples, perhaps decoy whistles, are from Upper Palaeolithic occupation sites in France and parts of central Europe. All are made from reindeer phalanges pierced on one surface.
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."

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