Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for silhouette:

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silhouette
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A stain or shadow left in soils under certain environmental conditions by organic or other objects. Silhouettes of timber, for example the shadow of a post in a posthole, are relatively common. Where the soil is too acid to preserve bone, the mineral component of bone may result in an iron manganese stain which frequently has the shape of a skeleton.

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Attic black-figure ware
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Type of pottery manufactured in the Attica region of southern Greece from about 720 BC. Vase-painters in Athens and Corinth developed a characteristic style of decoration in which one or more friezes of human and animal figures are presented in silhouette in black against a red ground. The delineation of the figures is sometimes heightened by the use of incised lines and the addition of white or purple coloring agents. Around 530 BC the style was replaced by its inverse:
black-figure
SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: black-figure ware; black-figured (adj.)
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A type of Greek pottery that originated in Corinth c 700 BC and was popular until red-figure pottery, its inverse, began c 530 BC. This style consisted of pottery with one or more bands of human and animal figures are silhouetted in black against the tan or red ground. The red color is probably taken when the pot is fired. The delineation of the figures was often heightened by the use of incised lines and the addition of white or purple coloring. The figures and ornamentation were drawn on the natural clay surface of a vase in glossy black pigment; the finishing details were incised into the black. The first significant use of the black-figure technique was on the Proto- Corinthian style pottery developed in Corinth in the first half of the 7th century BC. The Corinthian painter's primary ornamental device was the animal frieze. The Athenians, who began to use the technique at the end of the 7th century BC, retained the Corinthian use of animal friezes for decoration until c 550 BC, when the great Attic painters developed narrative scene decoration and perfected the black-figure style. There were also studios producing black-figure ware in Sparta and eastern Greece.
characteristic points
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Points on the contours of a vessel silhouette or vertical section marking angles (corner points) or curvature (inflection points), used in one system of classifying vessel shapes
complex shape
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A vessel shape that in silhouette is marked by two or more characteristic points of inflection, or changes in curvature, or by both corner and inflection points
composite shape
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A vessel shape that in silhouette is marked by characteristic points of angles or corners and lacks inflection points
Corinthian pottery
CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: A widely distributed pottery made at Corinth and found throughout the Mediterranean, from the late 7th century BC until the mid-6th century BC. This important stage of vase painting included naturalistic" designs of animals maenads and satyrs and the invention of black-figure technique and some new shapes such as the aryballos and alabastron. Proto-Corinthian pottery most of which is miniature in size was the first to be decorated in the black-figure painting technique: figure silhouettes drawn in black and filled in with incised details."
Gargas
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cave in southern France (Hautes-Pyrénées) containing important examples of Late Paleolithic mural art, paintings, and engravings dating from the Aurignacian Period, the oldest phase of European Stone Age art. The site was first known for its Ice Age fauna. There are approximately 150 engravings of animals and 250 red or black hand prints. A curious feature of these silhouettes is that many are representations of mutilated hands with one or more finger joints missing, most frequently the last two joints of the last four fingers. The significance of the hand prints and the missing fingers is unknown. The cave was occupied from at least the Middle Palaeolithic and the animal engravings are attributed to the Gravettian.
outline
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A key and obvious diagnostic feature is the outline or silhouette of the implement. The outline is the two dimensional image perceived when viewing the outer perimeter of an artifact with a blade face towards the viewer. Some projectile point types have distinctive outlines and can be accurately identified by this singular feature.

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