Archaeology Wordsmith

Results for ulu:

acisculus: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A small pick used stone-cutters and masons in early Roman times.
annuli: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: sing. Annulus
CATEGORY: measure
DEFINITION: Annual growth rings or increments in mollusk shell, fish vertebrae, tooth cementum, or wood.
barrow: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: burial mound; tumulus; burial cairn
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A round or elongated mound of earth or stones used in early times to cover one or more burials; a grave mound. The mound is often surrounded by a ditch, and the burials may be contained within a cist, mortuary enclosure, mortuary house, or chamber tomb. There are two types, the long (elongated) and the round barrow (also known as tumuli). The former were built in the Late Stone Age, the latter in the Bronze Age, though burial under a round mound was occasionally practiced during the Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Viking periods.. The long barrow was a tribal or family burial vault built of stone slabs, some weighing many tons, and covered with earth or stones. The large, round barrows were often communal. They are often found in prehistoric sites in Britain -- earthen (or unchambered) long barrows from the Early and Middle Neolithic (Windmill Hill Culture). Other long barrows were constructed over megalithic tombs of gallery grave types. Most of the British round barrows incorporate circles of stakes. Bowl barrows --- simple round mounds, often surrounded by a ditch --- were the most common form, used throughout the Bronze Age and sporadically also in the Iron Age. The Wessex Culture of the southern English Early Bronze Age was characterized by special types of barrows: bell, disk, saucer, and pond barrows. Bell barrows have relatively small mounds and a berm or gap between the mound and the ditch; disk barrows are very small mounds in the center of a circular open space, surrounded by a ditch; saucer barrows are low disk-like mounds occupying the entire space up to the ditch; while the oddly named pond barrows are not mounds at all, but circular dish-shaped enclosures surrounded by an external bank. The related term 'cairn' is used to describe a mound constructed exclusively of stone. Barrow burials occur also in Roman and post-Roman times: one of the most famous of all barrows in Britain is that covering the Anglo-Saxon boat burial at Sutton Hoo.
cestrum: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: viriculum
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of ivory graver used in encaustic painting on ivory, with one pointed end.
cubiculum: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: In Roman architecture, the bedchamber of a house. The term also refers to a chamber in a catacomb used for rites of the dead.
Gura Baciului: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Early Neolithic site of the Cris culture of Transylvania that is similar to Karanovo I, Sesklo, and Anza settlements. Obsidian from Hungarian sources is a major component of the lithic assemblage.
Kas: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kas-Ulu Burun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site of a Bronze Age shipwreck off Cap Uluburun, Turkey, which was probably going to the Aegean when it sank in the 14th century BC. Objects found in 1982 in the shipwreck include the first known gold scarab of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. Other items are copper, tin and glass ingots, bronze tools and weapons, jewelry for the Near East, Egypt, and the Aegean; and pottery from Cyprus, Canaan, and Mycenae. The ship's contents reveal a tight web of interconnections in the later 14th century among Mycenaean Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Africa.
Kofun: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Great Burial Period, Tumulus Period
CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: The name of the protohistoric tomb period of Japan, 300-710 AD, and the type of tumulus used for the burials. . Large tombs were built which were covered with artificial hillocks about 8 meters high, with burial chambers about 2 meters underneath the top surface. The burial chamber, enclosed with stones, contained coffins and various funerary offerings. The period when tombs of this kind were built in abundance was characterized by Haji ware and Sue ware. It is divided into Early, 4th century; Middle, 5th century; and Late, late 5th-7th centuries. The Kofun period falls between the Yayoi period and the fully historic Nara period and partially overlaps the Asuka and Hakuho periods of art historians. In their writings, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki texts, the culture was explained. Early kofun were built by modifying natural hills, as were Late Yayoi burial mounds. Haji pottery, used throughout the Kofun period, is very similar to Yayoi pottery and farmers lived in the same kinds of houses, using very similar tools. Technical advances over the yayoi period include irrigation canals and dams. There were also silversmiths who made the ornaments deposited in kofun and professional potters began making Sue pottery in the 5th century. Those in the fertile and well-protected Yamato Basin actively sought new technical and administrative skills on the continent and thus artisans came to make new kinds of pottery, ornaments, and weapons. Yamato leaders gained control over much of Japan in the 7th century and moved the capital to Heijo in 710. The magnificent kofun tombs indicate that the Yamato court based in the Yamato area (the present Nara prefecture) succeeded in bringing almost the whole of Japan under its control.
Kulupuari: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site on the Kikori River, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea, with the earliest evidence of sago palm exploitation and coastal trading before 1300 bp.
loculus: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: In Roman antiquity, a small chamber or cell in an ancient tomb for the reception of a body or urn. It was generally made of stone.
oculus: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: The central opening at the top of a dome, such as in the Pantheon at Roman. The term is also used for a small window that is circular or oval in shape, such as an oeil-de-boeuf window. A third meaning is a decorative and religious motif symbolizing an eye, consisting of paired circles or spirals, as on the Spanish symbolkeramik. The design was widespread in western Europe in the 4th-3rd millennium BC. It occurs in the Spanish Copper Age, for instance at Los Millares, and is also found in Ireland and northern Europe in the late Neolithic. The capital of every Ionic column features a characteristic pair of volutes, or spiral scrolls, at the center of each of which is an eye, or disk, is also known as an oculus.
poculum: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A Roman cup or glass for drinking, distinct from the crater for mixing, and the cyathus for drawing wine from a bowl.
Pulumelei: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site of a massive stone platform, 50 x 60 meters x 12 meters high, on Savai'i Island, Samoa. The Pulemelei is perhaps the largest surviving man-made stone structure in Polynesia and it may once have supported a large community house or temple. The site is undated, but probably postdates 1000 AD.
Sarmizegethusa: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Gradistea Muncelului; Varhély
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Late Iron Age town of eastern Rumania, seat of the Dacian state founded by Burebistas in the 1st century BC. A hilltop citadel is next to a sanctuary area with several shrines and temples. Bronze and iron products and pottery were made in an industrial area. In 101, Trajan led an invasion of Dacia (First Dacian War). The capital of Sarmizegethusa was captured, and Decebalus was forced in 102 to accept Roman occupation garrisons. In 105, Decebalus defeated the occupation forces and invaded Moesia (Second Dacian War). But, after Trajan seized Sarmizegethusa a second time (106), the defeated king committed suicide, and in 107 Dacia became a Roman province.
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.
spiculum: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. spicula
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: The barbed head of an iron arrow or lance.
tumulus: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. tumuli
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A mound of earth or stones built over a burial -- most often a large, circular tomb. Tumuli were used for the burial chambers of Etruscan aristocrats in the Archaic period (6th-5th centuries BC), also in the Bronze Age, and later revived by the Roman emperors Augustus and Hadrian.
Tumulus culture: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Tumulus Bronze Age, Tumulus period
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A Middle Bronze Age culture of the central Danube region in Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Bavaria, with burials beneath round barrows, dating c 1500-1200 BC. The heartland of the Tumulus culture was Bavaria, Württemberg, and the area previously occupied by the Unetice culture, but distribution extended into north Germany and west as far as Alsace. With the introduction of urnfield burial, the Tumulus culture and the Middle Bronze Age came to an end. It is defined mainly by the dominant burial rite of inhumation beneath a burial mound, as well as a number of characteristic bronze types, found both in the burials and in hoards. It continued earlier trends in ceramics and metalwork, though more elaborate in form and decoration.
tutulus: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A circular bronze ornament worn at the waist by women during the Danish Bronze Age
ulu: CATEGORY: lithics
DEFINITION: A transverse-bladed Arctic knife, crescent-shaped and usually of slate. The blade of the knife is the lower element of an inverted T and the handle is the vertical upright element.
Ulu Leang: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Important rock shelter in the Maros region of southern Sulawesi, Indonesia, with a sequence c 8000-6000 BC in the early Holocene. It illustrates the development of the Toalian microlithic industry, with flake and bone tools.
Uluzzo, Uluzzian: CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A lithic industry in Palaeolithic caves and open-air sites around the bay of Uluzzo, in Apulia, southern Italy. The most important is Grotta Cavallo, with a series of Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic levels. The earliest Upper Palaeolithic levels are called the Uluzzian (c 33,000 bp) and include scrapers, denticulates, small curved backed points, and crescents. It occurred after the final Mousterian and was contemporary with early Aurignacian.
Valea Lupului: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large settlement site of the Late Neolithic Cucuteni culture, Moldavia, Rumania, with a radiocarbon date c 2750 BC. The single phase occupation produced domestic assemblages of the Cucuteni B3 phase.
Valley of the Kings: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Biban el-Muluk
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Rocky valley in the western desert opposite Thebes and just west of Luxor, on the Nile in Upper Egypt, which was chosen as the royal cemetery during the New Kingdom. From 1580 BC, the tombs of the pharaohs were cut in the limestone of its walls. It actually consists of two separate valleys: the eastern valley is main cemetery of 18th-20th Dynasties while the Western (Cemetery of Monkeys/Apes) has only four tombs: Amenhotep III, Ay, and two others uninscribed (KV24-25). There are 62 total. One of the main features of the royal tombs at the Valley of the Kings was their separation from the mortuary temples which were built some distance away, in a long line at the edge of the desert. The discovery of the unspoiled tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 revealed for the first time just how lavishly these tombs were equipped.
Barbar: CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: A site and culture of northern Bahrain with a sequence of square temples built on an oval platform, dating from the late 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BC. The culture had distinctive pottery and seals and included sites at Qal'at al Bahrain, Bahrain Tumulus Fields, and others from Failaka to Qatar.
Boscoreale: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of two villas that were suburbs of Rome, near Pompeii, with important and sumptuous artifacts and painted rooms dating c 40 BC. These include possessions of the great patrician families of Rome, such as paintings illustrating Dionysiac mysteries, jewels, and magnificent gold and silver household furnishings. The cubiculum of one villa at Boscoreale is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of New York City and other items are kept at the Louvre. Many of the rich hoards were accidentally saved by the volcanic catastrophe of 79 AD.
bronze: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: An alloy of copper and tin that is harder than copper. Bronze was made before 3000 BC, though it was not used in tools and weapons for some time. Tin added to copper made casting easier and the edges of tools and weapons harder. The proportions of copper and tin varied widely (67-95 percent copper in surviving artifacts) and the addition of zinc, nickel, lead, arsenic, or antimony is also known. Adding tin to copper makes casting easier and the edges of tools and weapons harder. The main disadvantage was the comparative scarcity of tin. A higher percentage of tin produces potin or speculum. The Bronze Age of the Three Age System began in Eurasia when it replaced copper as the main material for tools and weapons. It was then replaced by the more common and efficient iron, but was still used for decorative purposes. Modern bronze also contains zinc and lead.
burial mound: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A large artificial hill of earth and stones built or placed over the remains of the dead at the time of burial. In England the equivalent term is barrow; in Scotland, cairn; and in Europe and elsewhere, tumulus. In western Europe and the British Isles, burial cairns and barrows date primarily from the Neolithic Period and Early Bronze Age (4000 BC-600 AD).
calendar: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: calendrics
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A cyclical system of measuring the passage of time. The day is the fundamental unit of computation in any calendar. Most ancient civilizations (and perhaps some non-literate prehistoric societies) developed calendrical systems to mark the passage of time and various methods have been employed by different peoples. Where these were both carefully calculated and written down, as in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica, they are of considerable assistance to archaeologists for dating purposes. In the Americas, the origins of calendrics are still obscure, but evidence from Monte Albán suggests that the 52-year Calendar Round was known by the 6th century BC. The Long Count system was in use by c 1st century BC if not before. Ancient Near Eastern calendars varied from city to city and from period to period. In most cities the year started in the spring and was divided into 12 or 13 months. In some places the months were of fixed length; in others they were lunar months starting at the first sighting of the crescent of the new moon. As there are more than 12 lunar months in a solar year additional, or intercalary, months were included so that every third year contained 13 months. The earliest Egyptian calendars were based on lunar observations combined with the annual cycle of the Nile inundation, measured with nilometers. On this basis, the Egyptians divided the year into 12 months and three seasons: akhet (inundation), peret (spring/ crops), and shemu (harvest). The Egyptians had 30-day months and 5 intercalary days in their solar or civil calendar. For agricultural purposes and for determining religious festivals, they used a different calendar based on observations of Sirius, the dog star. The calendar in use in ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant was lunar, based on 12 months of 30 days each. This produced a year of only 354 days, about 11-1/4 days short of the true solar year; the necessary correction was made by the addition of seven months over a period of 19 years. This type of calendar is still used in both Judaism and Islam for religious purposes, though many countries now also employ the Gregorian solar calendar for secular purposes. The origin of the calendric system in general use today -- the Gregorian calendar -- can be traced back to the Roman republican calendar, which is thought to have been introduced by the fifth king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus (616-579 BC). This calendar was likely derived from an earlier Roman calendar -- a lunar system of 10 months -- that was supposedly devised about 738 BC by Romulus, the founder of Rome. In the year 46 BC, Julius Caesar corrected the calendar by having a year of 445 days (known as the ultimus annus confusionis' or 'the last year of the muddled reckoning'). He then adapted the Egyptian solar calendar for Roman use, inserting extra days in the shorter months to bring the total up to 365, with the addition of a single day between the 23rd and 24th February in leap years. This calendar, known as the Julian Calendar, remained in use until the time of Gregory XIII in 1582, who made a further correction (of eleven days) and instituted the calendar which is in general use today. Very useful to Mesoamerican archaeologists is the Maya Long Count or Initial Series, which was a means of recording absolute time. Its starting date of 3113 BC (using the Goodman-Thompson-Martinex correlation) marks some mythical event in Maya history and itself stands at the beginning of a cycle 13 Baktuns long. A Baktun at 144,000 days in the largest unit of time in the calendar and is further divided into smaller units: the Katun (7200 days); the Tun (360 days); the Uninal (20 days) and the Kin (a single days). Thus Long Count dates are expressed in terms of these units in a five place notation. Therefore the date 9.18.0.0.0. indicates the passage of 9 x 144,000 plus 18 x 7200 days since the initial date of 3113 BC. In cultural contexts, however, the dates are inscribed as a series of hieroglyphs which incorporate numeration via bars (units of five) and dots (units of one). Short count dating replaced the Long Count after 900 AD and the Katun replaced the Baktun as the largest unit. It is less precise, however.
Capitolium: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Capitoline
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The principal hill at Rome and the one which acted as its religious center. The hill was the fortress and asylum of Romulus's Rome. The northern peak was the site of the Temple of Juno Moneta and the citadel. The southern crest, sacred to Jupiter, became, in 509 BC, the site of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the largest temple in central Italy. The Roman Senate held its first meeting every year because of the divine guidance" it received at the site."
Carchemish: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Europus
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient city-state near modern Jarabulus, Syria. The site was a strategic crossing at the Euphrates River for caravans in Syrian, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian trade. The great tell of Carchemish was excavated by David G. Hogarth and later by Sir Leonard Woolley and was first occupied in the Neolithic Period. Halaf ware from the Chalcolithic (5th millennium BC) was found as well as later finds of Uruk-Jamdat Nasr pottery, a product of the southern Euphrates Valley in Sumerian cities of c 3000 BC. There were also tombs from the end of the Early Bronze (c 2300 BC) and the Middle and Late Bronze Age (c 2300-1550; c 1550-1200 BC). Written records concerning Carchemish first appear in the Mari letters -- royal archives of Mari, c 18th century BC. At that time the city was a center for trading wood and shipped Anatolian timber down the Euphrates. The large fortified citadel was important under the empire of the Hittites (14th century BC) and remained so after the fall of the empire, during the period of Syro-Hittite city-states (12th-8th centuries BC). The monumental city gates, temples, and palaces all bore considerable numbers of carved reliefs and inscriptions of the period. The Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions were of great importance in helping to piece together its history down to its annexation by Assyria in 716 BC.
Cholula: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the great cities and religious centers of ancient Mexico, first occupied c 800-300 BC. Cholulu, Nahuatl for place of springs" was a town dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl and is known for its many domed churches which the Spanish built on top of the natives' temples. Cholula was a major center of the pre-conquest Mesoamerican Indian culture as far back as the Early Classic period (100-600 AD) and reached its maximum growth in the Late Classic period (900-1200). It came within the orbit of the Teotihuacán civilization during which time a major pyramid was built and then enlarged three times to produce the largest pyramid in Mesoamerica (177 ft or 55 m high). Tunneling has revealed the older pyramids nesting inside the final version. Around 1300 AD Cholula became a center of the Mexteca-Puebla culture. Cholula polychrome wares were highly prized by the Aztecs. When the Spaniards reached Cholula they found a splendid city dominated by the ruins of the Great Pyramid. The Cholulans who were makers and traders of textiles and pottery were Nahuatl speakers and at the time of the conquest owed a nominal allegiance to Montezuma. It was one of the independent Post-Classic centers to survive after the fall of Teothihuacan."
Dendra: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Dhendra
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Bronze Age cemetery in Greece with a Middle Helladic tumulus, Mycenaean tholos tomb (15th-14th centuries BC), and rich chamber tombs. The associated settlement may be the Mycenaean citadel of Midea.
dolmen deity: CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A symbol of mysterious personage or divinity who peers from megalithic and rock-cut tombs of western Europe. She is sometimes represented by nothing but a pair of eyes or eyebrows, the oculus motif. Breasts and necklaces are female attributes often given. The most detailed representation is on the French statue Menhir.
dowsing: CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A technique for discovering buried features or materials by the use of a Y-shaped hazel wand or bimetal strip -- a practice similar to water divining. Supposedly the location of subsurface features may take place by employing a twig, copper rod, pendulum and observing the discontinuous movements of these instruments"."
Duvanli: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A tumulus cemetery in Thrace (modern Bulgaria) of the 5th century BC, with imported Athenian pottery and items of Greek gold-figured silver plate.
Egtved: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Middle Bronze Age burial in east Jutland, Denmark in an oak tree trunk coffin under a circular tumulus. The cremated bones of a child were also in the coffin with a woman's body, clothing, and bronze ornaments preserved by waterlogged conditions. She was wearing a woolen jacket and skirt and was covered by an ox-hide shroud; bronze bracelets and a bronze belt disc also survived. The grave also contained a birch-bark box containing an awl and a hairnet.
Gokstad Ship: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Viking ship unearthed in Sandefjord in 1880 under a large tumulus on the Oslo Fjord, Norway. Much of its original timber was preserved by the clay in which it was set. In the middle of the ship, a special platform had been constructed to hold the funerary chamber, which contained the skeleton of a man (possibly King Olaf of Vestfold who died in 890) surrounded by weapons, slaughtered animals, and other objects. The ship is the ultimate Viking war machine -- a slender oak-built vessel made for strength and speed, propelled by a large square sail and 16 pairs of oars. It would have been equally navigable in open seas or in shallow inland waters; in 1893 a replica successfully crossed the Atlantic.
Gordium: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Gordion
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The capital of the Phrygians in the 8th century BC, on the bank of the Sakarya River in central Anatolia (now Turkey). Gordion was surrounded by a massive mud-brick wall and a monumental gateway and was dominated by about 10 important buildings built on the megaron plan, and a palace complex. Outside the city gate was a cemetery of nearly 80 large tumuli, which has yielded rich finds from the 8th-6th centuries BC. The great royal tomb investigated was once identified as King Midas, who allegedly committed suicide when the Cimmerian nomads sacked the city in 685 BC. The tomb also contained inscriptions in the Phrygian script, nine tables and two screens of wood, three bronze cauldrons, 166 other bronze vessels, and 146 bronze fibulae. Traces of linen and woolen textiles were found on the bed, and traces of purple cloth were also found on the throne in another rich tumulus. Occupation of the site continued into Roman times.
Haguenau: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Bronze Age and Iron Age cemetery of burial mounds in Bas-Rhin, France. The richest mounds date to c 1500-1350 BC when the area was under the influence of the Tumulus culture of southern Germany. There were heavy palstaves and pottery with geometric excised decoration.
Haji: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: haji
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An unglazed Japanese earthenware, developed in the Tumulus/Kofun period of the 4th century AD, derived from the Yayoi tradition and influenced by Sue-ware shapes in the 5th century. Early Haji pottery is characterized by the appearance of ceremonial vessels that are homogenous throughout a wide area, along with domestic vessels made in local styles. After the wheel-made, kiln-fired Sue pottery was introduced in the 5th century, only domestic vessels were made in Hajii ware, and from the 8th century onwards Hajii pottery, too, was made on the potter's wheel. A rust-red earthenware, Haji ware is baked in oxidizing fires. Shapes unknown to the Yayoi culture appeared in Haji ware, however, such as small, globular jars and wide-rimmed pots. Although the surfaces of Haji pieces are finely finished, both their form and firing lack the refinement of Yayoi pottery.
Haji / haji: CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: An unglazed Japanese earthenware, developed in the Tumulus/Kofun period of the 4th century AD, derived from the Yayoi tradition and influenced by Sue-ware shapes in the 5th century. Early Haji pottery is characterized by the appearance of ceremonial vessels that are homogenous throughout a wide area, along with domestic vessels made in local styles. After the wheel-made, kiln-fired Sue pottery was introduced in the 5th century, only domestic vessels were made in Hajii ware, and from the 8th century onwards Hajii pottery, too, was made on the potter's wheel. A rust-red earthenware, Haji ware is baked in oxidizing fires. Shapes unknown to the Yayoi culture appeared in Haji ware, however, such as small, globular jars and wide-rimmed pots. Although the surfaces of Haji pieces are finely finished, both their form and firing lack the refinement of Yayoi pottery.
Heuneburg, The: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Early Iron Age fortified site and hillfort of the Hallstatt period on the upper Danube in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The site was the center of the dominant Celtic chiefdom in southwest Germany c 600-500 BC. Wine amphorae and Attic Black-Figure pottery were imported from the Greek city of Massalia, demonstrating Heuneburg's wealth. There are nearby princely burials of the same date, including the rich Hohmichele tumulus. This covered a timber mortuary house containing the body of an archer accompanied by a wooden wagon and precious offerings. The site has five main building phases, the most remarkable of which was the second, when the traditional timber-framed construction was replaced by a Greek type of construction, with a bastioned wall built of mud-brick on stone foundations.
Hochdorf: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Iron Age tumulus in Baden-Würtetemberg, Germany, from the 6th century BC (late Hallstatt). One burial chamber had very rich grave goods, including Mediterranean materials, a Greek bronze cauldron, gold-covered shoes, and bronze couch.
Inariyama: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A keyhole-shaped kofun (tumulus) in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. There are at least three other kofun by the same name in different parts of Japan. The one in Saitama has two moats around a mound. An X-ray examination revealed an inscription with 115 characters on an iron sword. It referred to a person called Wakatakeru, who is likely to be Emperatro Yuraku of the Yamato court, and a date of 471/531.
Kernonen: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A burial mound of the Armorican Early Bronze Age Tumulus Culture c 2000-2500 BC in Finistère, France. The circular stone cairn covered a rectangular dry-stone chamber. Grave goods include fine flaked flint arrowheads, amber beads, bronze axes and daggers, and wooden hilts decorated with gold nails.
Klein Aspergle: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a rich Celtic burial of the early La Tène period in Ludwigsburg, Würtemberg, Germany. Funerary offerings included an Etruscan bronze vessel, a native copy of an Etruscan beaked flagon, gold mounts for a pair of drinking horns, and two imported Attic cups dated around 450 BC. In the same village is a slightly earlier tumulus burial, of the late Hallstatt D period, with imported ivories (including a sphinx) as well as bronzes.
Knovíz culture: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Knovís
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A Bronze Age urnfield culture of Bohemia, Thuringia, and Bavaria, following the decline of the Tumulus Bronze Age, c 1400-900 BC. Except for the burial rite, the Knovíz culture is similar to that of the neighboring Milavce group. The Knoviz group is one of the exceptions to the normal urnfield rite in that inhumation is more frequent than cremation burial. Few large settlement sites are known, the bulk of material deriving from small farmsteads with pits and post-holes and cemeteries. Hengiform monuments and horseshoe-shaped enclosures are occasionally associated with Knoviz pottery. The vessel form is the Etagengefass, with a large bulging body and a smaller bottomless pot fused on top of it to form the neck.
Koszider: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kosziderpadlás
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Three large hoards found at Dunapentele-Kosziderpadlá, on the Danube south of Budapest, Hungary. The contents were characteristic of an early phase of the Tumulus culture of the (Early) Bronze Age and serve to document the expansion of that culture (Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany) c 1400 BC. Similar hoards with ivy-leaf pendants, spiral anklets with rolled ends, shaft-hole battle-axes decorated with spiral and geometric patterns, belt plates, flanged axes, palstaves, solid-hilted daggers, socketed axes, and tanged sickles have been found in east-central Europe from the Baltic to the Sea of Azov, and mark the Koszider horizon throughout the region.
kurgan: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: The Russian word for a burial mound (barrow or tumulus) covering a pit grave, mortuary house, or catacomb grave. It is mainly connected with Eneolithic and Bronze Age burial practices. The earliest kurgans appeared during the 4th millennium BC among the Copper Age peoples of the Caucasus, and soon afterwards in the south Russian steppe and the Ukraine. Shortly after 3200 BC, the kurgan cultures began influencing most of the east, central, and northern Europe. The local Late Neolithic and Copper Age communities adopted such new traits as globular amphora vessels, corded ware, asymmetrical stone battle-axes, domesticated horses, and burial of a single body (often sprinkled with ochre) in a pit or mortuary house, covered by a barrow. After c 2500 BC, several regional kurgan-derived cultures can be recognized. In Russia, the kurgan tradition persisted late and was still practiced by the historical Scythians and Sarmatians of the steppe zone. Three forms of kurgan burial can be identified: Yamnaya (pit-grave) burial, dated c 2400-1800 BC; Katakombnaja (catacomb-grave) burial, dated c 2300-1800 BC; and Srubnaya (timber grave) burial, dated c1600-900 BC.
Kurru, el-: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kurru
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in Upper Nubia with a royal necropolis of the Napatan period, c late 9th-mid-7th centuries BC. The site was first used from c 1000 BC onwards for the tumulus burials of the rulers of the kingdom of Kush (Kerma culture). These were replaced by steep-sided pyramids after the conquest of Egypt by the Napatan kings.
Leang Burung: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Rock shelter site in southwestern Sulawesi, Indonesia with deposits postdating Ulu Leang. Shelter I has produced a late Toalian assemblage with microliths, Maros points, and pottery dating to the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. However, Shelter 2 produced a much older stone tool assemblage, late Pleistocene, with possible early Australian and also Levalloisian technological affinities, dating back to c 30,000-17,000 BC.
Lefkandi: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Important settlement site on Euboea, an island in the Aegean, occupied from the later 3rd millennium till the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Early levels have Anatolian-type pottery. At Toumba there is an artificial tumulus covering an apsidal structure which is surrounded by a peristyle of wooden columns, c 1000 BC. The rich burial of a man and woman may have been a shrine for a hero cult. Artifacts link this site to the eastern Mediterranean: the large bronze vessel in which the man's ashes were deposited came from Cyprus, and the gold items buried with the woman are of sophisticated workmanship. Remains of horses were found as well; the animals had been buried with their snaffle bits. The grave was within a large collapsed house, whose form anticipates that of the Greek temples two centuries later. This burial and finds at other cemeteries further attest contacts between Egypt and Cyprus between 1000-800 BC.
Leki Male: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A complex of tumulus burials of the Unetice culture of southern Poland. The central burials are in stone cists with wood ceilings, covered with stone. Grave goods include bronze axes, daggers, and halberds; gold ornaments, amber ornaments, and pottery. These are similar to burials of the Wessex culture.
level: CATEGORY: tool; term
DEFINITION: An instrument used in surveying which takes vertical measurements and which is much used in excavation for the recording of site contours and accurate depths of features, especially for making maps and identifying the location of artifacts. There are several types of leveling instrument, the Y or dumpy level, the tilting level, and the self-leveling level. Each consists of a telescope fitted with a spirit level and, generally, mounted on a tripod. It is used in conjunction with a graduated rod placed at the point to be measured and sighted through the telescope. The theodolite (q.v.), or transit, is used to measure horizontal and vertical angles; it may be used also for leveling. The differences between the types are in the ease of leveling: the first has a single spirit level for the whole instrument, the second a separate spirit level for spindle and telescope with a tilting mechanism and adjustable screw on the telescope, and the third an optical part operated by a pendulum so that the line of sight is always horizontal. Having established a datum point, the instrument is sighted on a leveling staff or rod which is marked in a graduated scale, metric, or imperial. The difference in level between the telescope and the base of the rod can be read off on this scale, and the result subtracted from the height of the level itself above ground; the final figure gives the real height, or depth, of the feature above or below the ground at instrument point. Subtracting the stadia rod reading from the height of the level above the ground surface gives the difference in height between ground surface at the instrument station and the ground surface at the datum point. A series of levels taken across a site will give contours, while excavated features and small finds can be leveled in with greater accuracy than with tapes from a hypothetical ground surface. The term is also used to refer to the actual height measurements taken with such an instrument. More generally, archaeologists often use the term 'level' interchangeably with layer. In excavations the remains are divided into levels that contain the buildings and objects belonging to a phase.
Loyang: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Lo-yang; Luoyang; formerly Honan-Fu; Honan
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Ancient city in northwestern Honan province, China, near the south bank of the Yellow River. It was important in history as the capital of nine ruling dynasties and as a Buddhist center. Lo-yang is divided into an east town and a west town. Lo-i (modern Lo-yang) was founded at the beginning of the Chou dynasty (late 12th century BC), near the present west town, as the residence of the imperial kings. It became the Chou capital in 771 BC, following the loss of Tsung Chou in Shensi, and was later moved to a site northeast of the present east town; it was named Lo-yang because it was north (yang) of the Lo River, and its ruins are now distinguished as the ancient city of Lo-yang. Traces of its rammed earth walls and one of its cemeteries of pit graves have been found. Bronzes and pottery recovered from some 270 tombs excavated at Luoyang Zhongzhoulu supply a valuable artifact sequence, spanning the entire Eastern Chou period. Particularly rich finds from Jincun, just northeast of the modern city, belong to the latter part of Eastern Chou; lesser tombs from the end of Eastern Chou and the Han period have been excavated at Shaogou. During the Qin and Western Han dynasties the capital returned to Shaanxi, but Luoyang was again the capital during the Eastern Han dynasty and, for the last time, from 494-535 AD, when the Northern Wei emperors ruled there. It finally fell to the Ch'in in 256.
magatama: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: kogok
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Term meaning curved bead /jewel" a jade or jasper pendant made since the Neolithic but especially during the Jomon Yayoi and Kofun periods. These comma-shaped beads (with a perforation at the thick end) have been found in 4th-7th century AD tombs in Korea and Japan. They purportedly had magic properties. In the Tumulus/Kofun period (3rd-6th centuries) of Japan it was an imperial emblem. Many of these beads decorated the gold crowns of Silla (Korea). Its form may derive from prehistoric animal-tooth pendants."
Milavce: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Milavec
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: The type site of a southeastern Bohemian culture stemming from the Tumulus Bronze Age but showing elements of the new urnfield rite. This Middle Bronze Age site was related to Knoviz and most of the cremations were urnless except for one richly furnished grave with ashes in a wheeled cauldron of cast bronze.
Mont Lassois: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Iron Age hillfort in Cote-d'Or, France, on a route from the River Seine to the Mediterranean. Occupation is dated to the 6th century BC (Hallstatt D), the residence of a Celtic chieftain. The hillfort of Vix seems to have been the center of political authority and extensive trade relations. The rich Celtic and Greek artifacts found there, including Massiliote wine amphorae and Attic black figure ware, as well as those from the nearby tumulus burials near the villages of Vix and Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine, indicate trade between the Celts and the Greeks.
mounded tomb: CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A type of elite burial used in East Asia built with monumental earthen or stone-piled mounds which contained burial facilities. The burials ranged from wooden chambers, clay enclosures, to brick or stone megalithic chambers. There were round and square mounds and Japan's were keyhole-shaped. The tombs provide the source of data for the Three Kingdoms period of Korea and the Kofun of Japan. One of the earliest mounded tombs of China was that of the First Emperor of Qin, and the Ming tombs are some of the latest. Prestige grave goods are found in all. Haniwa (circle of clay") unglazed terra-cotta cylinders and hollow sculptures were arranged on and around the mounded tombs (kofun) of the Japanese elite dating from the Tumulus period (c 250-552 AD). The first and most common haniwa were barrel-shaped cylinders used to mark the borders of a burial ground. Later in the early 4th century the cylinders were surmounted by sculptural forms such as figures of warriors female attendants dancers birds animals boats military equipment and houses. It is believed that the figures symbolized continued service to the deceased in the other world."
Namazga-depe: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Large Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement in southern Turkmenia (western Central Asia) on the north slope of Kopet Dagh. The Namazga phases I-III are assigned to the Chalcolithic period, while Namazga IV and V belong to the Bronze Age -- the Eneolithic (c 4800-3000 BC) and Bronze Age (c 3000-1500 BC); the sequence covers Anau IA Neolithic to the beginning of the Iron Age. The site was urban in character with a high population concentration and separate artisans' quarters, producing evidence of specialist production of bronze, gold, and silver goods, and wheelmade, kiln-fired pottery. The 'proto-civilization' of southern Turkmenia in the later 3rd millennium BC was characterized by two large towns -- Namazga-depe and Altin-Depe -- and a number of smaller settlements such as Ulug-depe. Other features include a wide-ranging trade network and an incipient writing system with repetitive symbols incised on flat clay figurines. This civilization never reached the levels achieved by the fully fledged civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. There was a marked decline in the early 2nd millennium BC, possibly due to environmental changes, and a collapse in its final 'tower' phase in the late 3rd or early 2nd millennium BC. Altin-depe was abandoned while Namazga-depe survived only as a small village.
Nintoku: CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: The 17th emperor of Japan (5th century AD) and the name of the keyhole-shaped mounded tomb, the largest in Japan, used as his mausoleum in Osaka Prefecture. It is the largest tomb of the Tumulus period, a 5th-century structure is surrounded by three moats and occupying some 80 acres (32 hectares).
Nové Kosariská: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Early Iron Age complex of tumuli near Bratislava, Slovakia, dated to the Hallstatt C and D periods. The tumuli have elaborate central timber-lined chambers with cremation burials in different vessels -- 20-80 per tumulus.
Palatine: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Palatine Hill
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Principal of the seven hills of ancient Rome, and the favored location in the later Republic and the Empire for magnificent private houses and sumptuous residences of the emperors. It is a four-sided plateau rising 131 feet (40 m) south of the Forum in Rome and 168 feet (51 m) above sea level. It has a circumference of 5,700 feet (1,740 m). The city of Rome was founded on the Palatine, where archaeological discoveries range from prehistoric remains to the ruins of imperial palaces. The modern use of 'palace' is commonly traced back to this period. Tradition said the Palatine Hill was the site of the earliest Roman occupation, associated with mythical Romulus and Remus. Augustus was born on the hill and started a fashion for imperial residence by buying and enlarging the house of Hortensius. This trend was followed with zest by later emperors, and Domitian took over most of the hill for his amazingly extensive Domus Augustiana. Later structures included a special emperor's box overlooking the Circus Maximus, and the Septizonium, a monumental facade built solely to screen the southeast corner of the palace.
potin: CATEGORY: geology
DEFINITION: A bronze alloy with a high tin content, between standard bronze and speculum. It was used particularly for a type of coinage current in western Europe and in India in the first centuries BC and AD with a tin content between 7-27%.
Takamatsuzuka: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Mounded tomb (tumulus) of the Kofun period which is about 18 m in diameter and 5 m high, dating to the 7th century AD in Nara Prefecture, Japan. Excavation revealed paintings of human and mythological figures and celestial bodies, and murals of Chinese directional symbols, on the walls and the ceiling of the burial chamber. Close similarities to the Tang are seen and a Tang mirror and some gold- and silver-plated ornaments have been found.
Timur (1336-1405): SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Timour, Timur Lenk, Timurlenk, Tamerlane, Tamburlaine
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Turkic/Mongol conqueror who made Samarkand the capital of a vast nomad empire extending from Mongolia to the Mediterranean, but centered on Iran, Afghanistan, and Soviet central Asia. Many Timurid monuments, built by Timur himself and his grandson, Ulugbek, still survive in Samarkand. The monuments are covered in azure, turquoise, gold, and alabaster mosaics and are dominated by the great cathedral mosque and his mausoleum, the Gur-e Amir. Of Islamic faith, he is remembered for his barbarous conquests and the cultural achievements of his dynasty.
Urnfield period: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Urnfield period; Urnfield; Urn culture, Urnfield complex
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A widespread group of related Bronze Age cultures practicing burial by cremation in pottery urns, at first in central and eastern Europe and later spreading to northern and western Europe. Such funerary urns were buried in a cemetery of urns (urnfields) and the practice dates from c 1300 BC to c 750 BC. Other features of the Urnfield period include copper-mining, sheet bronze metalworking, and fortified settlements. At the start of the Iron Age, inhumation once again became the dominant form of burial in many areas. A small pot with holes in it is often found interred with the urn, which may have been the ritual fire igniter or an incense burner. The Urnfield cultures succeeded the Tumulus culture in central Europe and developed into the Hallstatt Iron Age culture.
Vergina: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Royal capital of Macedonia in northern Greece with a tumulus cemetery of the Early Iron Age. A pair of royal tombs from the fourth century BC contained many objects of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, several wall frescoes, and two caskets of human bones, which may be the remains of the parents of Alexander III, Philip II and his fourth wife Olympias.
Vetulonia: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Etruscan Vetluna
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Principal Etruscan city and, according to traditional sources, one of the confederation of twelve. The original settlement was probably early Iron Age (Villanovan) and it prospered between the 9th-6th centuries BC. There are Villanovan pits, biconical ossuaries (a type of circular tomb with a tumulus), and some monumental tholos-like vaulted examples. The grave goods are often rich, of gold, silver, and particularly bronze. From the Tomba della Pietrera have come the earliest examples of Etruscan stone statuary, which are flat, rectilinear figurines.
Wessex culture: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Wessex Culture
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Early Bronze Age culture of southern England with cemeteries of found barrows of special types (bell, disc and saucer barrows and enclosures strangely labeled 'pond barrows') c 2650-1400 BC. It developed from the Beaker tradition and was closely related to the Armorican Tumulus Culture. The Wessex I period, c 2650-2000 BC, is associated with the major rebuilding of Stonehenge (III). There are rich grave goods, including bronze daggers and axes, amber and shale beads and buttons, copper and gold. The pottery is mainly incense cups and the first collared urns. In the Wessex II period, c 1650-1400 BC, cremation replaced inhumation and there are faience beads. Bronze was normal in Wessex II, and contained up to 17 percent tin. They had contacts with Egypt, Mycenae, and Crete. Unfortunately no settlements of the Wessex culture are known.
Yamato: CATEGORY: culture; site
DEFINITION: The name of a former province in Nara Prefecture, Japan, an emergent state of the Kofun period (2nd-5th centuries AD). When the Tang administrative system of China was adopted in the late 7th century AD, Yamato was made into the Ritsuryo state. The old Yamato Province is rich in archaeological remains of the Yayoi, Kofun, and early historical periods. The period is commonly called the Tumulus, or Tomb, period from the presence of large burial mounds (kofun), its most common archaeological feature. It is from the very construction of the tombs themselves, from an examination of the grave goods, as well as from increasingly reliable written sources both domestic and foreign that a picture of the Yamato kingdom has emerged.

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