Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for tribe:

Nordic tribes: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Peoples from the Baltic who arrived in Britain in Neolithic times, who originated from southern Russia. They settled in western areas of England and were one of the two main Neolithic groups.
tribe: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: An egalitarian society generally comprised of a centrally organized group of bands. Its kinship is more complex than that of the band, and its economy is often agricultural rather than foraging, though they also include nomadic pastoral groups whose economy is based on exploitation of livestock. Individual communities tend to be integrated into the larger society through kinship ties. Political dominance gained through achieved leadership. Tribes may be aggregated into higher-order clusters, called nations.
Anasazi: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A major cultural tradition of canyon dwellers found in southwestern United States between 100-1600 AD -- mainly in the four corners area of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah, and southwestern Colorado. These Native Americans began settlements with the cultivation of maize. Pottery was unknown at the beginning, but basketry was well developed, hence the name Basket Maker" is given to these early stages. By the sixth century there were large villages of pit houses with farming and pottery and it evolved into the full Anasazi tradition. The first pueblos and kivas were constructed and fine painted pottery made. The next few centuries (the Pueblo I-III periods) were a time of expansion during which some of the most famous towns were founded (Chaco Canyon) and fine polychrome wares produced. At this time the Mogollon people to the south adopted the Anasazi way of life and their Hohokam neighbors were also influenced perhaps suggesting that the Anasazi actually migrated to these areas. In such an arid environment farming was always vulnerable to fluctuations in climate and rainfall and these factors caused considerable population movement and relocation of settlements during 11th-13th centuries with the virtual abandonment of Chaco Canyon in 1150 and the plateau heartland by 1300. From 1300 until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century the Anasazi culture and population dwindled and the homeland in northern Arizona was abandoned. Then with the encroachment of nomadic Apache and Navajo tribes and with the arrival of Europeans from the south and east Anasazi territory decreased further. However some pueblos have continued to be occupied until the present day. The generally accepted chronological framework of three Basketmaker and five Pueblo stages was first proposed at the 1927 Pecos Conference. Although exact links are uncertain it is clear that modern Pueblo Indian people are descended from Anasazi ancestors. The name Anasazi is derived from a Navajo word meaning "enemy ancestors" or "early ancestors" or "old people"."
Aosta: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Augusta Praetoria
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Roman colony and stronghold of the Salassi that lies at the foot of the Italian Alps. The Romans subdued a Celtic tribe in 25 BC and Augustus founded a Roman town (Augusta Praetoria) there in 24 BC. The remains of the rectangular circuit of walls, gates, forum, theater, amphitheater, and an Augustan triumphal arch are on the site.
Aramaean: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: (fr Greek Aramaios, Syria") adj. Aramaic"
CATEGORY: culture; language
DEFINITION: A branch of the confederacy of Semite tribes who moved out of the Syrian desert and who conquered the Canaanites and established themselves in their own series city-states in c 16-12 BC. The foremost of these states was Aram of Damascus, a large region of northern Syria, which was occupied between the 11th-8th centuries BC, and also Bit-Adini, Aram Naharaim, and Sam'al (Sinjerli). In the same period some of these tribes seized large tracts of Mesopotamia. By the 9th century BC, the whole area from Babylon to the Mediterranean coast was occupied by the Aramaean tribes known collectively as Kaldu (also Kashdu), the biblical Chaldeans. Assyria, nearly encircled, attacked the armies of the Aramaeans and one by one the states collapsed under the domination of Assyria in the succeeding centuries. The destruction of Hamath by Sargon II of Assyria in 720 marked the end of the Aramaean kingdoms of the west. Those Aramaeans along the lower Tigris River remained independent somewhat longer and in 626 BC, a Chaldean general (Nabopolassar) proclaimed himself king of Babylon and joined with the Medes and Scythians to overthrow Assyria. Thereon in the Chaldean empire, the Chaldeans, Aramaeans, and Babylonians became one group. Their North Semitic language, Aramaic, became the international language of the Near East by the 8th century BC, replacing Akkadian. Aramaic was written in the Phoenician script and was the diplomatic and vernacular speech of the Holy Land during the time of Christ. It was replaced by Arabic after the Arab Conquest, but is still spoken in some remote villages of Syria. In the Old Testament the Aramaeans are represented as being related to the Hebrews and living in northern Syria around Harran from about the 16th century BC. Few specifically Aramaic objects have been uncovered by archaeologists.
Armorican coin: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Collective name for coinage issued by a range of tribes living in Brittany during the early 1st century BC, including the Coriosolites, Baiocasses, Redones, Unelli, and Osismii.
Autun: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Augustodunum
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Augustan Roman city in central France whose remains include city walls with two Augustan gates, a theater, and a temple of Janus. It was a fortified town built for Augustus in the last decade BC as a replacement capital for the Celtic tribe of the Aedui. The city was also known as a center of learning and for its schools of rhetoric. The city was ruined when it supported Claudius II in 269 AD.
Aztec: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mexica, Tenochcas
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The last pre-Columbian civilization to enter the Valley of Mexico after the collapse of the Toltec civilization in c 12 AD, who built a magnificent capital at Tenochtitlán and were later conquered by the Spaniards (1521). They called themselves the Mexica or Tenochca and were the dominant political group of the Late Post-Classic Period. The people spoke Nahuatl. Their origin is obscure, partly because of the deliberate destruction of their own records, but tradition says that in 1193 AD the last of seven Chichimec tribes left Aztlan , a mythical birthplace somewhere north or west of Mexico, and filtered south. For a while they lived around Lake Texococo, but in 1345 they were allowed to found Tenochtitlán (under present-day Mexico City) on some unoccupied islands. By 1428 Tenochtitlán, Texococo, and Tlacopan formed an independent state which controlled most of present-day Mexico from the desert zone in the north to Oaxaca in the south, with extensions as far as the Guatemalan border -- all through military expansion. By inclination and training the Aztecs were militaristic, and a person's status depended on his success as a warrior. The chief god of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, was a war god who required the blood of sacrificial victims, and only constant warfare supplied the altar of the god. Human sacrifice was necessary also to ensure the daily rising of the sun. Other major deities were Huitzilpotchtli (the warrior god and chief deity of Tenochtitlan), Texcatlipoca (god of night, death and destruction), Xipe Totec (god of spring and renewal), and Quetzacoatl, the plumed serpent (god of self-sacrifice and inventor of agriculture and the calendar). Tenochtitlán became a great imperial city, so large that it could not be self-sufficient but had to rely on tributes from its provinces. Luxury goods and necessities were brought to the city, and craftsmen produced jewelry, turquoise mosaics, featherwork, and carved stone. Mold-made clay figurines were common, and the black-on-orange pottery was decorated with geometrical designs and stylized creatures. Little architecture or painting survived the Spanish conquest of 1521. Copies of several books have been preserved (as the Dresden Codex). Aztec society was set in a clearly defined hierarchical class system. At the top was the ruling class (pipil) from whom and by whom the emperors were chosen. The mass of the population were freeman (machuale) and under them were the serfs (mayeques) and then at the bottom the slaves. Most people were of the landholding group called the calpulli, which had its own internal hierarchy. Change of social class was possible through state service in the military and sometimes through merchant activity. The merchants (pochteca) served as early-reconnaissance and espionage groups. The arrival of the Spaniards and the fall of Tenochtitlán after a 90-day siege marked the end of Aztec dominance.
band: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A term in cultural anthropology describing the simplest type of human social organization consisting of a small number of nuclear families (30-50 people) who are informally organized for subsistence and security purposes. Bands are egalitarian and based mainly on kinship and marriage and the division of labor is based on age and sex. Bands may also be integrated into a larger community, usually called a tribe. Bands exist in sparsely populated areas and use primitive technologies (and are often hunters and gatherers) -- ranging from the desert-dwelling Australian Aborigines, the Pygmies of the Congo rain forests, and the Kaska Indians of the Yukon. Bands often moved seasonally to exploit wild (undomesticated) food resources.
Bede the Venerable, Saint (672/3-735 AD): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Baeda, Beda
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Anglo-Saxon theologian, historian, and chronologist who is known for his prolific writings, including Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People") an important source for the history of the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. Divided into five books it recorded (in Latin) events in Britain from the raids by Julius Caesar (55-54 BC) to the arrival in Kent (AD 597) of St. Augustine. For his sources Bede claimed the authority of ancient letters the "traditions of our forefathers and his own knowledge of contemporary events.
Bibracte: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: modern Mont Beurvray
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Iron Age Gallic town and oppidum in central France. It was the capital of the Aedui tribe at the time of Caesar and the site where he defeated the Helvetii tribe, the climax of his first campaign in Gaul (58 BC). Augustus moved the inhabitants to his new town Augustodunum (Autun), about 30 km away, in 12 BC. Excavations in the 19th century revealed remains of both the Iron age settlement and the Roman period, including a large temple, houses, and metalworking workshops. Imported objects such as coins, amphorae, black and red glaze pottery dating to before the Roman conquest have been found, indicating that Bibracte was a major trading and production center in the late Iron Age.
Boudicca (d. AD 60): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Boadicea
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Ancient British queen of the Iceni tribe or Norfolk who led a revolt against Roman rule in 60 AD. After suffering many cruelties to her family, herself, and her tribe at the hands of the Romans, Boudicca raised a rebellion throughout East Anglia. They burned Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St. Albans), the mart of Londinium (London), and several military posts; massacred approximately 70,000 Romans and pro-Roman Britons; and destroyed the Roman 9th Legion. The Roman governor Paulinus regained the province in a battle during which 80,000 of the rebelling tribesmen were killed and after which Boudicca took poison or died of shock.
Brno: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The traditional capital of Moravia in the southeastern Czech Republic, which was inhabited in prehistoric times according to archaeological evidence. Important sites surround and are in the town, including a burial covered in red ochre, mammoth tusks, and ornaments, which has proven to be one of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic burials known. Traces of Neanderthal man were found in a cave called Svéduv stul (Swedish Table") and a camping ground of the Cro-Magnon mammoth hunters (30 000 BC) was discovered at Dolní Vestonice 20 miles (30 km) south. There are also traces of Celts and other tribes and many Slav settlements from the 5th and 6th centuries."
Cassivellaunus (fl. 1st century BC): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Cassivelaunus
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: A powerful British chieftain who was defeated by Julius Caesar during Caesar's second raid of Britain in 54 BC. Cassivellaunus is the first man in England whose name we know and he led his tribe, the Catuvellauni, a group of Belgic invaders from the River Marne area. He used guerrilla tactics and chariot warfare successfully until Caesar captured the fortified settlement, identified as present-day Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire. Cassivellaunus agreed to provide hostages and pay an annual tribute to Rome, but there is no evidence that he kept these promises. His son was Cunobelin, the Cymbeline" written about by Shakespeare."
Chaldea: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Chaldaea; Chaldaeans
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A land in southern Babylonia (modern southern Iraq) frequently mentioned in the Old Testament and first described by Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 884/883-859 BC). Its more important rulers were Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, and Nabonidus, who ruled an empire from the Persian Gulf between the Arabian desert and the Euphrates delta. Nabopolassar in 625 became king of Babylon and inaugurated a Chaldean dynasty that lasted until the Persian invasion of 539 BC. The prestige of his successors, Nebuchadrezzar II (reigned 605-562) and Nabonidus (reigned 556-539), was such that Chaldean" became synonymous with "Babylonian" and Chaldea replaced Assyria as the main power in the Near East. "Chaldean" also was used by several ancient authors to denote the priests and other persons educated in the classical Babylonian astronomy and astrology and to the Aramaean tribe named for Kaldu which first settled in this area in the 10th century BC."
Champa: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An ancient kingdom formed in 192 AD, during the breakup of the Han dynasty of China, corresponding roughly to present central Vietnam. Although the territory was at first inhabited mainly by wild tribes which struggled with the Chinese colonies in Tonkin, it gradually came under Indian cultural influence. Champa artifacts include well-developed sculpture and reliefs from the 7th century and impressive architecture from the 9th century. The kingdom was slowly absorbed into Vietnam and by the end of the 17th century had ceased to exist.
Chartres: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A city in northern France which is the site of an important pilgrimage church since the Carolingian period (mid-13th century). Chartres was named after a Celtic tribe, the Canutes, who made it their principal Druidic center. It was attacked several times by the Normans and was burned by them in 858. A series of fires destroyed Notre-Dame, but after 1145 it was reconstructed as one of Europe's greatest Gothic cathedrals.
Chichén Itzá: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a ruined ancient Mayan city in south-central Yucatán state, Mexico. Chichén Itzá was founded in about the 6th century AD, presumably by Mayan peoples of the Yucatán Peninsula who had occupied the region since Pre-Classic, or Formative, Period times (1500 BC-AD 300). The only source of water in the region is from wells (Mayan cenotes) formed by the collapse of portions of the limestone formation of the area. Two big cenotes on the site made it a suitable place for the city and gave it its name, from chi (mouths") chen ("wells") and Itzá the name of the tribe that settled there. There are traces of early occupation at the site but the oldest surviving buildings are in the Puuc style of the 8th-early 10th centuries. In the 10th century after the collapse of the Maya cities of the southern lowlands Chichén Itzá was invaded -- probably by the Toltecs. New buildings have their closest parallels at Tula and offerings thrown into the Sacred Cenote or Well of Sacrifice show widespread trade contacts. Chichén Itzá was the dominant power in Yucatan until about 1200 when it was superseded by Mayapán. At the center of the site is the Castillo or temple-Pyramid of Kulkulkan the Maya equivalent of Quetzacóatl; this is linked by a causeway to the nearby Sacred Cenote. Other major structures include the Temple of the Warriors (in front of which stands a Chacmool) large 'dance platforms' the Group of a Thousand Columns the Temple of the Jaguars and the largest Ball Court in Mesoamerica. Bas-relief carvings on a massive skull rack (tzompantli) shows the Ball Game to be associated with scenes of sacrifice. Relief carvings with themes of conquest and violence about and representations of Maya warriors submitting to Toltec warriors have been found on gold discs recovered from the Sacred Cenote."
Chichimec: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A collective name applied to various barbarian tribes who invaded the valley of central Mexico from the northwest from c 7th-13th century AD in periodic waves and migrations. The Aztec, or Mexica, were one of the competing Chichimec tribes. Some of these groups, who may have been farmers, may have entered the Valley of Mexico after the fall of Teotihuacán, and there is a Chicimec constituent in Toltec culture. The Chichimec period proper, however, begins after the destruction of Tula and the decline of Toltec influence in about 1200 AD. In 1224, a band of Náhuatl-speaking Chichimecs entered the northern part of the Valley and established a kingdom at Tenayuca. After their arrival the barbarians settled down again to farming life, became civilized, and were eventually absorbed into the Aztec confederation. In the north, some independent Chichimecs maintained their nomadic and hunting way of life until the Spanish conquest. The Chichimecs are also associated with the introduction of the bow and arrow into the Valley of Mexico. Their language, also called Chichimec, is of the Oto-Pamean language stock.
Chin Dynasty: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Jin, Juchen, Jurchen, Ju-Chen, Ruzhen, Jurched, Jurchid
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A Chinese dynasty (AD 1115-1234) founded by the Jurchen tribes of Manchuria, who were formerly vassals of the Khitans or Liao dynasty (AD 916-1125). They overran most of northern China and captured the Sung capital of K'ai-feng, forcing the Chinese to move their capital south to Hang-chou in 1126. The empire covered much of Inner Asia and all of North China.
circumpolar cultures: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Arctic Stone Age
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A group of related cultures in the most northerly (Arctic) regions of Europe, including Siberia, and North America. These peoples lived north of the region where settled farming life was possible. Although contemporary with Neolithic and Bronze Age communities farther south, the circumpolar tribes remained semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers. They adopted pottery from the farming peoples and their trade connections, making egg-shaped bowls with pitted or comb-stamped decoration. Characteristic tools were hunting and woodworking equipment, often of ground slate. Rock carvings and artifacts attest the use of skin boats, skis, and sledges which suggest long-distance trade -- especially of amber. The sites and cemeteries are usually close to water. Fishing was an important activity and they exploited food sources such as elk, reindeer, and seal.
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).
Civita Castellana: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Falerii
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site near Rome, originally the capital of the Faliscans, the 9th-century-BC Falerii Veteres. It was reputedly founded by the Pelasgians from Argos. The Faliscans were a tribe belonging to the Etruscan confederation against Rome. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 395 BC and again in 241 BC. Faliscan vases have been found in its rich necropolis.
clan: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A group or tribe of persons from one common family, united by a chieftain. A clan develops for social and security reasons and membership of a clan is defined in terms of actual or purported descent from a common ancestor. The descent is unilineal -- i.e., derived only through the male (patriclan) or the female (matriclan). Normally, but not always, the clans are exogamous, marriage within the clan being forbidden and regarded as incest. Clans may segment into subclans or lineages.
cliff dwelling: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The apartment houses" of masonry built by the Pueblo/Anasazi people of the American Southwest during Pueblo III times or Classic Pueblo located in rock shelters on the sides of canyon walls. These prehistoric houses were built along the sides or under the overhangs of cliffs primarily in the Four Corners area where the states of Arizona New Mexico Colorado and Utah meet. Mesa Verde National Park's Cliff Palace (CO) and Pueblo Bonito (NM) had about 200-800 rooms each. After this period the Pueblo/Anasazi moved farther south and built the pueblo villages that they still inhabit. When the ancestors of the Pueblo/Anasazi people became sedentary and began to cultivate corn they also began to build circular pits as storage bins. When the bins were later reinforced with stone walls and covered with roofs some people began to use the enclosures as houses. Their use of hand-hewn stone building blocks and adobe mortar was unexcelled even in later buildings. Ceilings were built by laying two or more large crossbeams and placing on them a solid line of laths made of smaller branches. The layers were then plastered over with the adobe mixture. Some of the structures were several stories high creating a row of terraces that gives the structure the appearance of a ziggurat (ancient Babylonian temple tower). The rooms were about 10 x 20 feet (3 by 6 meters). Ground-floor rooms were entered by ladder through a hole in the ceiling; rooms on upper floors could be entered both by doorways from adjoining rooms and by a hole in the ceiling. Each community had two or more kivas or ceremonial rooms. The Pueblo/Anasazi began to build these cliff dwellings around 1000 AD. The cliffs offered natural protection against attack and many smaller communities combined to form the large towns in the cliffs. Toward the end of the 13th century the cliff dwellings were deserted by the inhabitants. Two factors were involved: a severe drought between 1272- 1299 and possibly internal turmoil between tribes. Smaller pueblos were created in the south near better water sources."
Dalmatia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Roman province on the east coast of the Adriatic, roughly corresponding to modern Yugoslavia. The Roman expansion began c mid-2nd century BC and ended around the 9th century AD when it became the province of Illyricum. The fall of the Dalmatian capital, Delminium, in 155 brought Roman civilization to the country. On the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Dalmatia fell under the power of Odoacer in 481 and later under that of Theodoric. It was a battlefield during the wars between the Goths and the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and valuable to Rome for its mineral deposits, land routes and harbors, and legendary soldiers. Illyricum was soon subdivided into two provinces, known by the Flavian period as Dalmatia and Pannonia. The name Dalmatia probably comes from the name of an Illyrian tribe, the Delmata, an Indo-European people who overran the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula beginning about 1000 BC.
Dian kingdom: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tien
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A Bronze Age culture and barbarian kingdom in southwest China centered on Lake Dian in Yunnan province. According to Chinese sources, the Dian royal house traced its descent from a Chu general who invaded Yunnan in the late 4th century BC and remained to rule the local tribes. In 109 BC, Dian surrendered to Han armies; a generation later the kingdom was destroyed after a revolt. The highly distinctive culture is known mainly from cemetery sites, especially Shizhaishan where the burials date from the Han occupation. Earlier burials of the period c 600-300 BC have been excavated at Dapona and Wanjiaba. Many of the objects unearthed at Shizhaishan were imports from China: coins, mirrors, belt hooks, silk, crossbow mechanisms, and a gold seal from the Han court that reads 'Seal of the King of Dian'. Other finds seem to be local adaptations of prototypes originating in the state of Chu. There was active trade with the southern Zhou states of Shu and Ba before the Han Dynasty.
Doric order: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: doric, Doric style, Doric column
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A style of architecture used on mainland Greece and in the western Mediterranean with the plainest of capitals and a simple column with no pedestal or base and a distinctive echinus and abacus. The order was distinguished by being the earliest and simplest. The fluted columns had a diameter-to-height ratio of one-to-eight and the frieze was alternating triglyphs (triple groove) and metopes (brow). It was named after the tribe of the Dorians.
Eastern Chin Dynasty: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A phase of the Chin dynasty; the ruling house of Chinese origin controlling southeastern China from 317-420 AD when northern China was under rule of Turkic tribes. There are numerous tombs and Yueh Ware. It was one of the Six Dynasties of China.
egalitarian society: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Collective term for bands and tribes, societies in which all members have equal access to basic resources. Leadership is situational and attainable by achievement within the confines of age and sex.
endogamy: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The practice of marrying a person within one's own social unit, such as a clan or tribe.
Eskimo: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Inuit
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The aboriginal cultural group of the Arctic regions of North America, which evolved between 2000-100 BC. The Eskimo way of life and the distinctive tool types can be traced back into the Arctic Small Tool tradition. Other traits seem to have been adopted by the Alaskan Eskimos from the Siberian tribes. The group is characterized by uniformity in culture, language, and physical sock. The Eskimo call themselves Inuit, because 'Eskimo' is a derogatory Algonquin word meaning 'eater of raw flesh'.
Fishbourne: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Roman site in Sussex, England, best known for the palace/villa of Cogidubnus of the 1st century AD. The site began as a coastal depot with granaries and was replaced by a residential area and then extensive building. The palace, built in c 70-75 AD, was one of the most lavish of the time in the empire, with a formal garden court, suites of mosaic-floored rooms, stucco moldings, painted wall plaster, and a complete set of baths. Cogidubnus was the British king of the tribe of the Regni. The site lies near to Chichester, which was first a fort and then Civitas capital of the Regni. Alterations and rebuilding took place during the 2nd century, after the death of Cogidubnus, and sometime in the late 3rd-early 4th centuries there was a fire that caused unrepairable damage.
Fuegian tradition: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Shell Knife culture
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A primitive people inhabiting the South American archipelago of Tierra del Fuego from c 2000 BC. The culture, a coastal tradition of the Alacaluf tribes, was often called the Shell Knife culture. It was based on the exploitation of marine resources and operative on the southern coast and offshore islands of southern Chile. The beginning of the tradition was marked by a change from land-oriented hunting and gathering; bone and stone tool technology persisted well into historic times. The primitive cultures of the Ona and Yámana (Yahgan) of Tierra del Fuego are so similar that anthropologists traditionally group them with the neighboring Chono and Alakaluf of Chile into this one Fuegian culture area". The Ona inhabit the interior forests and depend heavily on hunting guanaco (a small New World camel). The Yámana are canoe-using fishermen and shellfish gatherers. They are all nomadic and are sparsely scattered over the landscape and poor in material culture."
Gaul: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Gallia
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Roman province formed by modern-day France and parts of Belgium, western Germany, northern Italy, and Switzerland. Cities were Nimes, Autun, Arles, Orange, Trier, and Frejus. Caesar's conquests (58-51 BC) and Augustus's organization (30 BC-14 AD) resulted in four Gallic provinces: southern or 'senatorial' Narbonensis, the 'imperial' Aquitania, Lugdunensis, and Belgica. The region was inhabited by the ancient Gauls, a Celtic race, who lived in an agricultural society were divided into several tribes ruled by a landed class.
Gniezno: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An early medieval town of western Poland, established during the 960s when Mieszko I united bands of Slavic tribes to form the Polish state. Excavations have been carried out on the earliest timber fortress. The old town has many buildings, including the cathedral which has 12th-century carved bronze doors. By the 10th century, the town had become a key center of the early Polish state.
Gothic: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A style of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music characteristic of the second of western and central Europe during the Middle Ages. Gothic art evolved from Romanesque art and lasted from the mid-12th century to as late as the end of the 16th century in some areas. The term Gothic was alluded to the barbarian Gothic tribes that had destroyed the Roman Empire and its classical culture in the 5th century AD. It was a slightly derogatory term until the 19th century.
Great Wall of China: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A monumental building project which created a wall running (with all its branches) about 4,000 miles (6,400 km) west to east from Bohai Bay to a point deep in central Asia, the Tarim Basin. Parts of the vast fortification date from the 4th century BC. In 214 BC, the first emperor of a united China (Shih Huang-ti of the Qin dynasty) connected a number of existing defensive walls into a single system fortified by watchtowers, which served both to guard the rampart and to communicate with the capital, Hsien-yang, by signal -- smoke by day and fire by night. The enemy against whom the Great Wall was built were the Hsiung-nu, the nomadic tribes of the northern steppes. The wall was originally made of masonry and rammed earth and was faced with brick on its eastern portion. It was substantially rebuilt in later times, especially in the 15th and 16th centuries. The basic wall is generally about 30 feet high, and the towers are about 40 feet high.
Guti: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Gutians
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A 3rd millennium BC tribe of the Zagros Mountains which invaded Mesopotamia c 2230 BC and brought the downfall of the Akkadian empire. Their original home was probably Luristan or Hammadan. The Gutian, or post-Akkadian, period in Mesopotamia was a time of political fragmentation (there is evidence of independent rulers in various parts of Babylonia, such as Gudea at Lagash) and it only lasted for about 40 years (till c 2130 BC) before the people of Ur-Nammu (Uruk) took over the region. The Guti, from their home in the Zagros, continued to menace the subsequent dynasties and kingdoms, but they were never able to take control of southern Mesopotamia again.
Huns: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A nomadic pastoralist people who invaded southeastern Europe c 370 AD and over the next 70 years built up an enormous empire there and in central Europe. Originating from beyond the Volga River after the middle of the 4th century, they first overran the Alani, who occupied the plains between the Volga and the Don rivers, and then quickly overthrew the empire of the Ostrogoths between the Don and the Dnestr. Around 376 AD they defeated the Visigoths living in what is now approximately Romania and then became one of the many 'barbarian' tribes who threatened the Roman empire during the 4th and 5th centuries. There is little archaeological evidence attributed to the Huns, but they are remembered in the literature as being fearsome and bloodthirsty. During the 5th century, the Romans adopted a policy of employing 'barbarian' mercenaries to defend the empire against potential invaders, so the Huns were used to defend eastern Gaul from the Burgundians. The most notable period for the Huns was under their leader Attila, who invaded Gaul in 451. Visigothic and Roman forces joined to defeat Attila near Troyes, and after Attila's death the Huns were never again a major force in European history.
Hyksos: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Heka Khaswt, Hycsos, Poimenes, Mentiou Sati, Asian Shepherds, Scourges
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A nomadic desert tribe of Palestine whose name means rulers of foreign lands" and who infiltrated Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period (1800-1650 BC). They infiltrated the Eastern Delta during the Middle Kingdom and from 1630 to 1521 BC they dominated the Nile Valley from their capital of Avaris in the Delta. They became powerful enough to form the 15th Dynasty; traditionally they also formed the 16th Dynasty. Their breaking of Egyptian isolation opened the way for the flowering of culture in the New Kingdom which immediately followed their expulsion by Ahmose. Ahmose was the founder of the 18th Dynasty and the end of the Hyksos rule marked the beginning of the New Kingdom. The Hyksos were responsible for the introduction of the horse and chariot and perhaps the upright loom olive and pomegranate. They made improved battle axes and fortification techniques. The name Hyksos was used by the Egyptian historian Manetho (fl 300 BC) who according to the Jewish historian Josephus (fl 1st century AD) translated the word as "king-shepherds" or "captive shepherds.""
Illyria: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A location described in classical writing, inhabited from about the 10th century BC by the Illyrians, consisting of the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula. West of the Vardar and Morava valleys, south of the Roman province of Pannonia and west of Moesia, at its height Illyria extended from the Danube River southward to the Adriatic Sea and from there eastward to the Sar Mountains. The Illyrians, descendants of the Hallstatt culture, were divided into tribes, each a self-governing community with a council of elders and a chosen leader. The last and best-known Illyrian kingdom had its capital at Scodra (modern Shkodër, Albania). One of its most important rulers was King Agron (second half of the 3rd century BC), who, in alliance with Demetrius II of Macedonia, defeated the Aetolians (231).
Inca: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: South American Indians who, at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1532, ruled an empire that extended along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of modern Ecuador to the Maule River in central Chile. The Inca established their capital at Cuzco (Peru) in the 12th century. They began their conquests in the early 15th century and within 100 years had gained control of an Andean population of about 12,000,000 people. These Quechua-speaking tribes' origins are uncertain. Their vast empire had a centralized organization and at its head was the ruler, 'Son of the Sun', worshipped as a god in his own lifetime. As a divine king he was above the law, and as a despotic ruler he was very much the political head of the state. Administration was in the hands of officials drawn from the Inca nobility and from the chiefs of conquered tribes. An efficient road system, along which relays of messengers could travel 250 km in a day, ensured that Cuzco was kept informed of developments all over the empire. These same roads allowed Inca forces to be quickly moved into any province which showed signs of rebellion. This centralization was both the strength and the weakness of the Inca state. The unifying force was the ruler in person, and the death of Huayna Capac precipitated a crisis. Civil war broke out when two of his sons, Huascar and Atahuallpa, disputed the succession. Atahuallpa won the war, but before he could consolidate his position he was seized and murdered by Francisco Pizarro's Spaniards in 1532. Without a leader the Inca system could not function. Most of the empire was quickly brought under Spanish control, but an independent Inca group held out in the Urubamba valley until 1572. Viracocha Inca was the creator, culture hero, and supreme deity of the Inca, but the religion embraced a pantheon of gods of nature. The most actively worshipped were the sun and, by extension, the emperor, who was considered the son of the sun. The Temple of the Sun, built at the pre-Incan ceremonial center of Pachacamac suggests some incorporation of earlier religions. Archaeologically, the Inca culture is characterized by fine quality stone masonry, agricultural terraces, mass-produced and standardized pottery forms (aryballus), and metal objects. The considerable architectural skill of the Inca is reflected in Cyclopean masonry, although many buildings were constructed using rectangular dressed stone blocks as well as adobe. The basic dwelling-unit was a cluster of single rooms arranged around a rectangular courtyard and was most often enclosed by a wall. Writing was unknown, but the quipu was used for keeping records. Agriculture was based on plant foods, especially potato, manioc, quinoa, and maize. Domesticated animals included dog, llama, cava (guinea pig), and alpaca. Fine textiles were woven using a simple backstrap loom. The civilization was the largest and most powerful political unit in all the prehistoric America. It has been argued that the whole of Inca achievement relied heavily on a variety of political, societal and religious infrastructures already in place before their ascendancy.
Iroquois: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family -- the Cayuga, Cherokee, Huron, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, or Tuscarora. The Iroquois occupied territory around Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Erie, in present-day New York state and Pennsylvania and southern Ontario and Quebec. It was a very important culture, dating from the middle of this millennium. The people lived in long houses, practiced agriculture, fished, hunted, and engaged in much warfare.
Kaya: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A confederation of polities (tribal league) on the southern Korean coast formed before the 3rd century AD. The Kaya confederation developed trade largely by sea with the Chinese capital at Lo-yang and with Wae, Japan. The people of Kaya are thought to have been closely related to the tribes that crossed over from Korea to Japan a century or two before this period, and Kaya frequently sought aid from the Japanese in its feuds with its larger Korean neighbors (Silla, Paekche). There are cist burials or mounded tombs containing multiple cist burials. Artifacts include gray stoneware, the first made in Korea, which preceded the Sue ware of Japan. The Kaya people invented a unique musical instrument, the kayagum. Silla subjugated the confederation between the years of 532-562.
Kingsborough, Lord (1795-1837): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: An English nobleman who published the Dresden Codex in Antiquities of Mexico" (1830-1848). He erroneously attributed the codex to the Aztecs. His mission had been to prove that the civilized peoples of Mexico and Central America descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel."
kula ring: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A system of ceremonial, non-competitive, exchange practiced in Melanesia to establish and reinforce alliances. This exchange system began among the people of the Trobriand Islands of southeast Melanesia, in which permanent contractual partners trade traditional valuables following an established ceremonial pattern and trade route. In this system, described by the British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, only two kinds of articles, traveling in opposite directions around a rough geographical 'ring' several hundred miles in circumference, were exchanged. These were red shell necklaces and white shell bracelets. Kula objects, which sometimes had names and histories attached, were not owned in order to be used but rather to acquire prestige and rank. Malinowski's study of this system was influential in shaping the anthropological concept of reciprocal exchange. The partnerships between men, involving mutual duties and obligations, were permanent and lifelong. The network of relationships based on the kula served to link many tribes by providing allies and communication of material and nonmaterial cultural elements to distant areas.
Kushan: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kusana
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A ruling line descended from the Yüeh-chih, a people that ruled over most of the northern Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia during the first three centuries of the Christian era. It began as a nomadic tribe in the 2nd century BC. Under Kaniska I (fl 1st century AD) and his successors, the Kushan kingdom reached its height. It was considered one of the four great Eurasian powers of its time (the others being China, Rome, and Parthia). The Kushans were instrumental in spreading Buddhism in Central Asia and China and in developing Mahayana Buddhism and the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art. The Kushans became affluent through trade, particularly with Rome. After the rise of the Sasanian dynasty in Iran and of local powers in northern India, Kushan rule declined.
Liao Dynasty: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A dynasty formed by the nomadic Khitan tribes (907-1125) in much of present-day Manchuria (Northeast Provinces) and Mongolia and the northeastern corner of China proper. There were elaborate chambered tombs.
Lombards: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A tribe of Germanic descent who conquered northern Italy in the late 6th and early 7th centuries. The region was weak from the gothic wars and vulnerable by the death of the Emperor Justinian (565). Having swept through Venice, Milan, Tuscany, and Benevento, King Alboin established Pavia, on the Ticino River, as the capital of the newly created Lombard kingdom in 572. Although their territorial expansion extended as far south as Benevento, the Lombards never managed to gain complete control of the peninsula. Many major Byzantine cities fell to them but the Eastern Empire maintained a firm hold in the coastal ports of Ravenna and Venice. The Lombards' impact was considerable and they imposed distinct cultural traditions on Italy's decaying classical past. They made rich inlaid gold jewelry, fine sculpture, and created new architectural design which played a significant part in the development of the Romanesque style. The Lombard settlement seems to have been largely to the north of the Po River, the area with the majority of Lombard place-names and Germanic-style archaeological finds, mainly from cemetery sites. The Lombard language seems to have disappeared by the 8th century, leaving few loanwords in the Italian language. When the Franks invaded, Lombards and Romans moved together still more as a conquered, by now Italian people.
longhouse / long house: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Neolithic times, an elongated (oblong) wooden post house that appeared in central Europe with the first farming communities within the Early Neolithic Bandkeramik cultures, about 4500-3000 BC, as well as the later Iron Age, about 100 BC-500 AD, of north-central Europe. It also applies to the Late Woodland cultures of northeast North America, about 1300-1600 AD, especially the Iroquois and Huron. Life in the longhouse had ended by 1800, but the meeting room of the contemporary tribe continues to be called the longhouse. In North American antiquity, longhouses were divided into living quarters for a number of groups. In Europe, structures may have been multipurpose buildings for dwellings and livestock stables. Among the most famous are those of the Linear Pottery culture, which reach lengths of up to 40 meters. Archaeologically, the two halves of the long house are often distinguished by the existence of a hearth in the living quarters, a central drain, and sometimes stalls in the byre. The purpose of the European long house was to keep stock during the wet winter months, and at the same time to provide dwelling for the farmers. In Upper Palaeolithic times, the long house was an elongated above-ground structure of up to 100 meters in length, with a central series of hearths. The walls and roofing were probably supported by wooden poles and large mammal bones. Remains of these have been found in Kostenki, Pushkari, and Avdeevo.
Lucania: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Area of ancient Italy south of Campania and next to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was comprised of several Greek colonies, including Paestum. This ancient territorial division of southern Italy corresponds to most of the modern region of Basilicata, with much of the province of Salerno and part of that of Cosenza. Before its conquest by the Lucanians, a Samnite tribe, about the mid-5th century BC, it formed part of the Greek-dominated region of Oenotria. Recent discoveries include the elaborately painted graves at Paestum, a city taken by the Lucanians about 400. Although they allied with Rome in 298, the Lucanians opposed and were defeated by Rome in the Pyrrhic War (280-275), the Second Punic War (218-201), and the Social War (90-88).
Maoris: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The descendants of the Polynesians who settled in New Zealand, arriving about 900 AD from central Polynesia, possibly from the Cook or Society Islands. The traditional Maori social organization consists of members of each tribe (iwi) who recognized a common ancestry and common allegiance to a chief or chiefs (ariki). The most important social groups were the hapuu (subtribe), the primary landholding group and the one within which marriage was preferred, and the extended family (whaanau).
menhir: CATEGORY: structure; artifact
DEFINITION: A single, vertical standing stone; any prehistoric structure consisting of a tall, upright megalith (huge stone). The name is from the Old Breton men, meaning stone" and hir meaning "long". Menhirs occur in all parts of the world where megalithic monuments are known but they are particularly profuse in prehistoric Europe. Menhirs are difficult to date but in Ireland and southwest England a few examples mark burials dating from the Neolithic to the Middle or Late Bronze Age. A similar or slightly earlier date is attested for some of the Breton menhirs. In all these areas a few of the stones bear cup marks. Such a megalith is often isolated erected by a family or tribe as a memorial stone for some deceased hero or some great event. It may have been a religious object for worship like the American Indian totem pole. Other are associated with dolmens tumuli and circles of stones. Menhirs may occur singly in rows (alignments) or in enclosures (stone circles). Anthropomorphic examples are known as statue-menhirs."
Mercia: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the kingdoms of central Anglo-Saxon England; it held a position of dominance for much of the period from the mid-7th to the early 9th century. Mercia originally comprised the border areas (modern Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and northern West Midlands and Warwickshire) that lay between the districts of Anglo-Saxon settlement and the Celtic tribes they had driven to the west. It later absorbed the Hwicce territory (the rest of West Midlands and Warwickshire, eastern Hereford and Worcester, and Gloucestershire) and spread also into what was later Cheshire, Salop, and western Hereford and Worcester. Mercia eventually came to denote an area bounded by the frontiers of Wales, the River Humber, East Anglia, and the River Thames. Its most famous kings were Penda (632-654), Aethelbald (reigned 716-757), and Offa (757-796). During this time the important Mercian School of manuscript illumination and sculpture developed. Thereafter it declined and disappeared under the encroachments of the Danes and of Wessex.
Middle Missouri Tradition: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Plains Village Indian
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: One of three broad cultural traditions (along with Central Plains and Coalescent) which constitute the Plains Village Indian or Plains Village Pattern of c 1000-1500 AD. There were many permanent farming village sites along the central Missouri River trench in North and South Dakota. The culture is characterized by a specially developed strain of cold-resistant, quick-maturing maize, by the bison scapula hoe, and by permanent dwellings in the form of the semisubterranean timber-and-earth lodge. Often palisaded and constructed on high promontories overlooking a river, villages of over 100 dwellings are quite common. Ceramics, though Woodland derived, bear evidence of some Mississippian influence, such as shell tempering. The tradition disappeared, due to drought and/or alien incursions, by 1500. Historic tribes such as the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa are thought to be the cultural heirs to the tradition.
Midwestern Taxonomic System: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: midwestern taxonomic system; McKern taxonomic system
CATEGORY: term; technique
DEFINITION: A hierarchical framework devised by William McKern in 1939 to systematize historical sequences in the Great Plains area of the United States, using the general principle of similarities between artifact assemblages. It was used to organize artifacts and sites in North America before World War II and is still in widespread use in modified form. One occupational unit of a particular culture was called a component. Related components were grouped into a focus, representing a culture unit approximating a tribe. Related foci constituted a pattern, and related patterns constituted a base, the highest level in the system. Classification was based strictly on similarities between compared units without regard to their respective ages. Many of the names of cultures are still called foci and the standard definition of a component is a single unit of occupation. Most units formerly called foci are now called phases, which have temporal as well as descriptive meaning.
Milan: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Mediolanum
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A city founded by the Gauls about the year 600 BC as Mediolanum, which became the capital of a Celtic tribe known as the Insubres. At the time of the Roman conquest, 222 BC, Mediolanum, was already one of the most powerful cities of the region on the Roman side of the Alps known as Cisalpine Gaul. Under the emperor Augustus, it became a part of the 11th region of Italy, acquiring increasing prestige and economic power until it became the second city of the Western Roman Empire behind Rome itself. In the 3rd century AD, following the division of the empire by Diocletian, it was the residence and main administrative center for one of the two emperors. Constantine the Great declared it the seat of the Vicar of Italy. In the year 452, Attila the Hun devastated the city, and in 539 the Goths destroyed it. The city sprung back to life by the second half of the 10th century. It was the principal road center of northern Italy and is the site of the imperial palace, Augustan and later walls, theater, amphitheater, circus, Constantinian baths, and early churches.
multilinear cultural evolution: CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A theory of cultural evolution that sees each human culture evolving in its own way by adaptation to diverse environments. It is sometimes divided into four broad stages of evolving of social organization: band, tribe, chiefdom, and state-organized society. It is often defined by these four general levels of complexity rather than seeing all societies as pursuing a single course.
municipium: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: plural municipia
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A Roman term of political classification, for a community incorporated into the Roman state after the dissolution of the Latin League. Initially, inhabitants of these municipalities were considered Roman citizens without voting rights. As the Italian provinces were incorporated into the Roman state, residents of the municipia were registered in the tribes and accorded full political rights. These cities maintained a certain amount of autonomy and were permitted to have their own governments; there was a uniform pattern of local government under four magistrates. However, the municipia remained under the jurisdiction of Rome in matters of foreign policy, and they supplied Rome with troops and were not permitted to mint money. By the 1st century BC, all Latin and Italian communities became municipia. Later, municipium status was granted widely in the western provinces.
Náhuatl: CATEGORY: language
DEFINITION: A Uto-Aztecan language; the language spoken by the Aztecs and many other Mexican tribes. Related languages are disturbed sporadically from the northwestern United States to Panama. Still widely spoken in the Basin of Mexico, it is the source of a number of words current in the English language, such as tomato and chocolate. It is also the source of the widely used New World term for spear thrower, atlatl. Groups speaking Nahuatl migrated into Mesoamerica from its northern frontier, Gran Chichimec.
Northwest microblade tradition: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An interior sub-Arctic cultural sequence of Alaska, Yukon, and Northwest Territories of Canada, dating from c 6500-3500 BC, though in western Canada it survived until c 1000 BC. It is characterized by small stone blades, burins, bifacial knives, and lanceolate projectile points. It is possible that the Athabascan population of interior western sub-Arctic may have started arriving in North America considerably earlier than the Eskimos. The Athabascans, the historical tribes of the Denetasiro tradition, were specialized fishers, hunters, and trappers in the forests of the Northwest. It is the first construct assimilating all the northwestern interior microblade industries into one culture unit.
Numidia: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Under the Roman Republic and Empire, a part of Africa north of the Sahara, the boundaries of which at times corresponded roughly with those of modern Algeria and western part of Tunisia, excluding the area of Carthage. Its earliest inhabitants were divided into tribes and clans and were racially indistinguishable from the other Berber inhabitants of early North Africa. From the 6th century BC, points along the coast were occupied by the Carthaginians, who by the 3rd century BC had expanded into the interior as far as Theveste (Tébessa). Numidians were frequently found in the Carthaginian armies by that time. Their leader, Maninissa (240-148 BC), was largely responsible for the spread of Phoenician culture into this area, and who by skillful management of his link with Rome was able to bring greatly increased prosperity and stability to his community. After 146 BC, thousands of Carthaginians fled to Numidia after the destruction of Carthage. This kingdom, formed by nomads, was converted into a Roman province (Africa Nova) in 46 BC and its chief city was Cirta. Numidia seems to have grown wine and olives very successfully on the plain, and horses and sheep were reared on higher ground. Caesar formed a new province, Africa Nova, from Numidian territory, and Augustus united Africa Nova (New Africa") with Africa Vetus ("Old Africa the province surrounding Carthage); but a separate province of Numidia was formally created by Septimius Severus. There are remains at Lambaesis, Timgad, and Theveste.
Olynthus: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Ancient city of northern Greece, captured and destroyed by Philip of Macedon in 348 BC. Some late Neolithic settlement is followed after a gap by Iron Age occupation by Thracian tribes, perhaps from about 1000 BC. The 5th-4th centuries BC saw the classical Greek town caught up in alliances, misalliances, intrigues and wars. The town, from c 430 BC, had a road system and Hippodamian-planned house blocks. Many of the houses show an internal courtyard, sometimes colonnaded, and a south-facing dining room. In some cases, a second story is reached by a wooden staircase from the courtyard. The roof is typically pitched and tiled. There are important examples of pebble mosaic floors, some with mythological scenes, and of a bathroom with pottery tub. Inscriptional evidence from the houses gives information of their sale, rental, and mortgage. The houses have also produced several coin hoards. It also provides a terminus ante quem for the development of black-glossed pottery.
Opole: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A series of centralized territories and the name of a city and province in southwestern Poland. Opole the city began as the home of the Slavic Opolanie tribe; the earliest mention of it was in the 9th century. In 1202 it became the capital of the Opole principality, which included the entire Upper Silesia region. The town passed to Bohemia (1327), the Habsburgs (16th century), and Prussia (1742) and was returned to Poland in 1945. Each Opoles' as a territory was dominated by a fortified timber citadel which often had large and complex defenses; examples are at Leczyic and Szeligi.
Orange: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Roman Arausio
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A colonia in southern France, established under Augustus' rule (27 BC-14 AD) which became a prosperous city. In the pre-Roman period, the area was occupied by rich, powerful Celtic tribes who appreciated its strategic position on the Rhône River. The semicircular theater, probably built during the reign of Augustus, is the best preserved of its kind. The tiered benches, which rise on the slopes of a slight hill, originally seated 1100. The magnificent wall at the back of the theater is 334 feet (102 m) long and 124 feet (38 m) high. An imposing statue of Augustus, about 12 feet (3.7 m) high, stands in the wall's central niche. Orange also has the Triumphal Arch of Tiberius (c 20 AD) that is one of the largest built by the Romans; standing c 61 feet (19 m) high, its sculptures show the victories of Julius Caesar. A lime kiln near the theater has produced fragments which document various local land surveys and, in particular, describe the terms of confiscation and redistribution that were applied at the time of the original founding of the colonia. In the 5th century, Arausio was pillaged by the Visigoths.
Ordos: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Northern Zone
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The desert region in the northward loop of the Yellow River (Huang Ho) in northern China, the location of the Palaeolithic Ordos culture. From 8th century BC, the region was inhabited by seminomadic tribes, among them the Hsiung-Nu, threatening the Chou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. Broad bronze daggers, curved knives, pole finials, harness ornaments, and animal-style bronze belt plaques are characteristic of the 1st millennium BC ('the Ordos bronzes'). The pictorial or narrative compositions common among these plaques, many including human figures, are typical also of Sarmatian metalwork. The distinctive metal culture of the Ordos reaches back as far as the latter part of the 2nd millennium BC, a date fixed by the discovery at Anyang of knives with animal-head pommels closely related to Ordos types. Owing to its position on the northern frontier of China, the Ordos was probably the main channel by which Chinese influences were transmitted to the steppes; it was also the route by which foreign elements reached China, especially during Eastern Chou and Han dynasties. An Upper Palaeolithic site (Sjara Osso Gol) yielded a microlithic industry. In the 1970s and '80s, Chinese scientists unearthed more than 20 human fossils from 30,000-60,000 years old at Hsiao-ch'iao-pan in the Sjara-Osso River valley. The terms Ordos man and Ordosian culture are applied to their findings. The area is now referred to as the Northern Zone.
Parisi: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: An Iron Age tribe of invaders from the River Seine who settled in Yorkshire, England, about 250 BC. They brought La Tène culture, a warrior aristocracy, the use of chariots, and weapons of war. They had poor pottery, indicating few women. Many prehistoric remains have been discovered in Yorkshire, the most prominent being the hillforts. The Romans found the region inhabited by the Brigantes and, in the eastern portion, by the Parisi. The Romans established control over the region in the 1st century AD.
Patayan: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Hakataya; Patayan Division
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Culture of lower Colorado River, northwestern Arizona, occupying the area by 100 AD until 1500 AD -- a division of the Hakataya Culture. These people of Yuman speech included the tribes of Hazasupai, Mojave, and Walapai. They had three provinces: Cerbat, Prescott, and Cohonina. They farmed alluvial flood plains, hunted and gathered foods. Between 1000-1500, pottery spread over much wider area and was influenced by Hohokam; the vessels had red-on-buff designs and stucco finishing.
Peoples of the Sea: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Sea People(s), Peoples of the Islands in the Midst of the Sea
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Any of the groups of aggressive seafarers who invaded eastern Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, and Egypt toward the end of the Bronze Age, especially in the 13th century BC. They are considered responsible for the destruction of the Hittite Empire, among others. Because of the abrupt break in ancient Near Eastern records as a result of the invasions, the precise extent and origin of the upheavals remain uncertain. Principal evidence is based on Egyptian texts and illustrations; other important information comes from Hittite sources and from archaeological data. The peoples were of mixed origin and tentative identifications of the people are: Pulesati/Pelset/Peleset = Philistines; Luka/Lukka = Lycians; Akawasha/Ahhiyawa/Ekwesh = Achaeans; Danuna = Danaoi; Sherden/Sherdana/Shardana = Sardinians; Shekelesh/Sicels/Sikels/Siculi = Sicilians; Tursha/Tyrsi/Teresh/Tyrrhenians (Tyrsenoi) = Etruscans. The Philistines, who perhaps came from Crete, were the only major tribe of the Sea Peoples to settle permanently in Palestine.
road: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A traveled way on which people, animals, or wheeled vehicles move. The earliest roads developed from the paths and trails of prehistoric peoples; their construction was concurrent with the appearance of wheeled vehicles, which was probably in the area between the Caucasus Mountains and the Persian Gulf sometime before 3000 BC. Road systems were developed that connected the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt and facilitated trade. The first major road was the Persian Royal Road, which extended from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea over a distance of 1,775 miles (2,857 km) and was used from about 3500-300 BC. Originally made for the use of troops and their supplies, were eventually much used by the civilian population for the carriage of goods. This encouraged free trade, helped the advance of civilization, and the subjugation and unification of the tribes. Early roads were about 20 feet wide and had ditches along both sides for drainage purposes. Large stones were laid on the foundation, then smaller ones, or gravel, on top. Traffic and weather blended the road material and helped to form the surface. Stone kerbs were made to hold the road surface together and sometimes a line of stone was laid in the middle too, to help in the binding. The Romans were the first to construct roads scientifically. Their roads were characteristically straight, and the best ones were composed of a graded soil foundation that was topped by four layers: a bedding of sand or mortar; rows of large, flat stones; a thin layer of gravel mixed with lime; and a thin wearing surface of flintlike lava. Roman roads varied in thickness from 3-5 feet, and their design remained the most sophisticated until the modern road-building technology in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Along the Roman roads were rest houses / mansiones and horse-changing stations / mutationes.
Saintonge ware: CATEGORY: ceramics; culture
DEFINITION: Major pottery industry in the region of Saintes in western France from the 13th century until recent times. The best-known of these wares are the tall jugs with polychrome glazed decoration which appear to have been traded with western French wine to the English. The jugs exported were only one of the variety of wares made at centers like La Chapelle des Pots, where kilns and workshops have been excavated. Saintonge was originally the territory inhabited by the Santones, a Gallic tribe.
Sakas: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Iranian steppe people from central Asia organized into a confederacy which, like that of the Scythians (to whom they were related), brought together tribes of agriculturists and of nomadic herdsmen. They took part in the great movement of peoples which swept away the Greek kingdom of Bactria in the mid-2nd century BC. After being repulsed by the Parthians, the Sakas settled in Drangiana (Seistan) and in the Indus Valley. They also held Kandahar for a short time.
Sarmatian: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains between the 6th-4th century BC and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans. These nomadic tribes were related to Scythians and became a political and cultural force whose influence extended into central Asia and Transcaucasia, as well as into western Europe where the Sarmatians challenged the Romans before themselves being driven back by the Huns c 370 AD. Sarmatian art was strongly geometric, floral, and richly colored. They made jewelry in the form of rings, bracelets, diadems, brooches, gold plaques, buckles, buttons, and mounts and exceptional metalwork was found in the tombs, including gold openwork plaques, bronze bracelets, spears, swords, gold-handled knives, and gold jewelry and cups. The Sarmatians were also very experienced in horsemanship and warfare.
Shamshi-Adad I (c 1813-1781 BC): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The first of the great rulers of Assyria, who started with a tribe near Mari on the Euphrates River. He created an empire in northern Mesopotamia from the middle Euphrates to the mountains in the east. His capitals were at Assur and Shubat-Enlil. His sons, Ekallatum and Mari, acted as governors -- but could not maintain the empire after Shamshi-Adad's death. The remains of Shamshi-Adad's palace were partially excavated, with the most important find at the site being an archive of royal correspondence preserved on more than 1,000 cuneiform tablets. The archives consist mostly of financial and administrative records, with some diplomatic correspondence between the ruler of Shubat-Enlil and neighboring kings. They complement the archives found at the site of the ancient city of Mari in the great palace of Zimrilim.
siapapu: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A small hole in the floor of the kiva, which served as the symbolic place of origin of the tribe for Puebloan/Anasazi peoples.
sinew frayer: CATEGORY: lithics
DEFINITION: A tool similar in shape to a scraper but with serrated edges, which may have been the forerunner of the saw. Primitive tribes today use similar stones to stroke sinews into fibers for sewing.
sistrum: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: seistron
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Ancient Egyptian percussion instrument, a rattle consisting of a wood, metal, or clay frame set loosely with crossbars (often hung with jingles) that sound when the instrument is shaken. A handle is attached to the frame. It was sacred to Hathor and used in ceremonial worship of Isis and at funerals. Open-topped, U-shaped sistrums existed by 2500 BC in Sumer. They are still used in Coptic and Ethiopian churches, in western Africa, among two Native American tribes, and in Malaysia and Melanesia.
Slav: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Term used for the ethnic groups speaking related languages in eastern Europe during the second half of the 1st millennium AD. They inhabited an area concentrated in modern Poland, and by the early Middle Ages they were considered a distinct cultural group. The origins of the Slavs are obscure, though they seem to derive from the Iron Age tribes indigenous to the Oder-Vistula area. Prehistorically, the original habitat of the Slavs was Asia, from which they migrated in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC to populate parts of eastern Europe. Subsequently, these European lands of the Slavs were crossed or settled by many peoples forced by economic conditions to migrate. State-level polities began in Greater Moravia in the 9th century AD and in Poland in the 10th century. They are principally defined by linguistic and place-name evidence rather than by historical or archaeological remains. The gród or hrad (castle") was the stronghold of Slav communities. It is the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe residing also across northern Asia to the Pacific Ocean. Slavic languages belong to the Indo-European family. Customarily Slavs are subdivided into east Slavs (Russians Ukrainians and Belarusians) west Slavs (Poles Czechs Slovaks and Wends or Sorbs) and south Slavs (Serbs Croats Slovenes and Macedonians)."
speculum: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: speculum alloy
CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: An alloy of antiquity made of copper and tin containing more than 30% tin. Speculum is hard and brittle due to the formation of intermetallic compounds. It was principally used for certain coins amongst the Celtic tribes of central and western Europe and for mirrors. The back of the mirrors were decorated with beautiful engraved or enchased designs.
Stanwick: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Largest late Iron Age earthwork fortification in Britain, in Richmond, Yorkshire, once called the largest 'hillfort'. It was constructed in the 1st century AD, probably in three phases. Phase I was a hillfort, which was partly demolished in Phase II (c 50-60) when a larger enclosure was added at the north. In Phase III (c 72), it was greatly enlarge to enclose the south side. Stanwick was probably a center of the Celtic Brigantes, an Iron Age tribe which always had a strong anti-Roman faction and was in rebellion between 50-70 AD. A hoard of Celtic metal objects, mainly chariot gear of the 1st century AD, was found close to the earthworks. The whole complex may have been designed to protect not only the people, but also the livestock -- including horses -- of a basically pastoralist economy. Some time between 69-72, Stanwick fell to the Romans and the site was abandoned. It is now thought to be an enclosed private estate or demesne containing residential compounds.
Tlaloc: CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: Mesoamerican rain and fertility god, usually depicted wearing a fringed mouth-mask or a spectacle-shaped frame round his eyes, recognized this way in the art of the Aztec people of Teotihuacán. Under various names Tlaloc was worshipped by other of the Mexican tribes: Chac (Lowland Maya), Tajin (Totonacs) and Cocijo (Zapotecs). Images of Tlaloc occur in many contexts over a considerable period of time, e.g. at Copán, Monte Alban, Kaminaljuyu and Chichen Itza. During the Classic Period his image appears on pottery, wall painting, and architecture.
tohua: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: In the Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, the large rectangular ceremonial plaza -- flat areas surrounded by raised platforms. The grounds were used for ceremonies and daily social gatherings. This complex of structures, often 600 feet (200 meters) or more in length, was generally built upon a huge artificial terrace carved out of a slope. Surrounding the plaza atop the terrace were the houses of the tribal chiefs and priests, temples and other sacred structures, and long sheds for spectators. At one end, there was usually a temple with a sacred banyan tree in which were suspended the packaged bones of the illustrious dead of the tribe. A large example is Vahangeku'a in Taipivai Valley.
Toltec: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Important Mesoamerican people of composite origin -- a mixture of Chichimec tribes and more advanced groups from Puebla and the Gulf Coast -- which controlled central Mexico from 900-1100 AD. After absorbing civilized peoples in the Valley of Mexico, the Toltecs produced a warrior-dominated society, worshipped of tribal god Tezcatlipoca, and put emphasis on human sacrifice. In the 10th century, they established their capital at Tula, north of modern Mexico City. The Toltec state ended in the departure of the Quetzalcoatl faction in 987 AD. After conquering many Maya cities, this faction established itself at Chichen Itza and transported its architectural style but incorporated Maya features. This group of Toltecs was ousted about 300 years later. Evidence of Toltec influence (e.g. Mazapan ware, metallurgy, imported Plumbate ware, massive architectonic decoration) has been found at many sites, including Chichen Itza, Xochicalco, and Cholula. Numerous fragmented Toltec groups seem to have survived in central Mexico after the destruction of their capital and their prestige caused many Post-Classic groups to claim them as ancestors, most notably the Aztec.
totem: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Any object from the natural world, usually an animal, with which a particular clan or tribe considers itself to have a special association or even blood relationship. It is also the term for a representation of such in an emblem or badge or a group of people within a Native American nation who share the same totem.
Trier: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Augusta Treviroum; Roman Augusta Treverorum; Trèves
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Principal Roman city of northeast Gaul, first the capital of Treveri, a Celto-Germanic tribe. It became the chief city of the Roman province of Belgica in the 2nd century AD and was adopted by Constantius and Constantine in the 4th century AD as an imperial capital. The city's strategic position at a crossroads contributed to its rapid rise as a commercial and administrative center. Remains include an amphitheater (c 100 AD), Constantinian basilica, baths, and Porta Nigra (ornate late Roman gateway). Trier has more preserved Roman monuments than any other German city. A mint was in use from about 296 AD.
Umayyad: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Omayyad
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The first great Muslim dynasty of Arab leaders (caliphs) to rule the Empire of the Caliphate, 661-750 AD, descended from a Meccan merchant who became a prominent administrator under the Prophet Muhammad. Headed by Abu Sufyan, the Umayyads were a tribe centered in Mecca who initially resisted Islam but finally converted in 627. In the first Muslim civil war (656-661) Abu Sufyan's son Mu'awiyah emerged victorious over 'Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law and fourth caliph; Mu'awiyah then established himself as the first Umayyad caliph. The Umayyads were supplanted by the Abbasids in 750.
Venosa: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A town in southern Italy that has a Lower Palaeolithic site with a hand axe or Acheulian level overlying one with abundant sidescapers (evolved Clactonian, Tayacian or Charentian?). Originally a settlement of the Lucanians (an ancient Italic tribe), it was taken by the Romans after the Samnite Wars (291 BC). Its position on the Appian Way made it an important Roman garrison town. The poet Horace was born there, and many of his poems mention it.
Verona: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: City in northern Italy at the foot of the Lessini Mountains on the River Adige. The city was founded by an ancient tribe (possibly the Euganei or Raeti) and was later occupied by the Gallic Cenomani. It became a Roman colony in 89 BC and rapidly rose in importance because it was at the junction of main roads between Italy and northern Europe. There are two large gateways dating from 1st century AD, a theater, and the Arena, the third-largest surviving Roman amphitheater.

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