Categories - Archaeologs

Ancient Pottery

Sacred Ceremonies

Ancient Languages

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Uaxactun

archaeologsOthers

Button

Small, usually disklike, pieces of bone, metal, stone, or other solid material that have holes or a shank through which they are sewn on to garments. Buttons are used to fasten or close a garment and are sometimes purely decorative. They are known from the Copper Age onwards in Europe, developing...

Butteris

A farrier’s tool for paring a horse’s hoof.

Butt Beaker

A tall beaker shaped like a butt or barrel, with a small, everted rim and body usually decorated with cordons, rouletting, latticing, etc. Dated mid 1st century bc through to 1st century ad in Gallo-Belgicia and Britain.

Butcher Marks

Marks made on animal bone by stone tools during butchering. These marks are used to associate humans with animal remains for a relative date. The marks are classified according to form and function as cut marks, chop marks, and scrapes. [chop marks, cut marks, scrapes]

Butcher Marks

archaeologsTools

Burnt Flint

Flint that has been burnt. It is not necessarily worked.

Burnish

A polish given to the surface of an artifact, either to improve its appearance and make it more valuable or to compact it (as with clay) to make it less porous. A pot is polished, often using a spatula of wood or bone, while it is still in a leathery “green” state, i.e., before firing. After firi...

Burin Facet

Scar formed by the detachment of a burin spall.

Burin Adze

A term sometimes used by Australian archaeologists for flake scrapers, hafted for woodworking, which are not Tula adzes. [flake scraper, non-tula adze]

Burin

A specialized engraving tool with a chipped flint or stone shaft that was cut or ground diagonally downward to form a diamond-shaped point at the tip. The angle of the point affected the width and depth of the engraved lines. The shaft of the tool was fixed in a flat handle that could be held clo...

Burial Mound Period

Penultimate period of eastern North American prehistoric chronology, from 1000 bc to ad 700. Formulated in 1941 by J. A. Ford and Godon Willey, the total chronology, from early to late, is Paleoindian, Archaic, Burial Mound, and Temple Mound. The Burial Mound I period (1000-300 bc ) covers the tr...

Bunt

A blunted projectile point intended to stun rather than to inflect a bleeding wound; sometimes difficult to distinguished from hafted scrapers.

Bulla

A hollow lump of clay made as an Etruscan ornamental pendant or in the Near East as a container for tokens representing goods traded. A bulla was round or oval and often was decorated with filigree or granulation decorating on the edges or seal impressions. There was a removable loop from which t...

Bulbar Surface

1. Surface upon which the bulb of percussion occurs. 2. Another term for the entire ventral surface of an artifact.

Bulbar Scar

İrregularly shaped scar on the bulb of percussion of a struck flint flake. It marks the place where a small piece of flint is dislodged during fracture. The bulbar surface is the surface upon which the bulb of percussion occurs. This fracture pattern is evident by a bruised striking platform at t...

Bulb Of Percussion

İn flintmaking, a swelling or bulb left on the surface of a blade or flake directly below the point of impact on the striking platform - that is, a swelling on a flake or blade at the point where it has been struck to detach it from a core. On the flake or blade struck off there is a rounded, sli...

Buddhagupta Stone

A Sanskrit language inscription of c. 5th century ad from western Malaysia, due to trade by Buddhists of Southeast Asia. Related inscriptions have been found in Borneo and Brunei.

EnglishAncient Languages

Budares

Large ceramic griddles used for toasting manioc flour in Central and South America.

Bucranium

İn Roman times, an ox skull that was carved in relief and was part of the decoration of a building.

Buckley Earthenware

C. 1720-1775, North Wales. The body of this earthenware is quite coarse because of the combination of two different types of clay in the process. The ware is made of layers of pink-firing and yellow clays. The combination of the two clays served to make the poor clays more workable. The ware is d...

EnglishAncient Pottery

Buckle

A flat rectangular or oval frame with a hinged pin, used for joining the ends of a belt or strap.

Bucket Urn

Type of large Middle Bronze Age pot of the Deverel- Rimbury ceramic tradition of southern Britain c. 1500 bc through to 1200 bc . Bucket urns are plain with some applied cordons, have straight slightly sloping sides, wider at the top than the bottom. They were used on domestic sites for storage a...

Bucket Urn

archaeologsTools

Bucket

A cylindrical open container with a handle, used to carry liquids.

Bucchero

A fine gray pottery, with a black or gray shiny surface, which was produced principally in Greek-speaking or Etruscan areas between the 8th and 5th centuries bc . Shapes and decoration styles varied greatly - incised, stamped, and applied techniques were employed. This earthenware pottery was com...

Bubalus Period

The earliest phase of rock art in northern Africa, between 12,000 and 8000 bc , in which large-scale carvings of animals appeared. These early engravings - in southern Oran, Algeria, and Libya - reflect a hunting economy based on the now-extinct giant buffalo Homoioceras antiquus or Bubalus antiq...

Brownware

A brown-glazed earthenware; pottery that fires to a brown or reddish color.

EnglishAncient Pottery

Brooch

An ornamental pin or piece of decorative metalwork attached by a pin, that was either a fastener or ornament; they are found from c. 1400 bc . Brooches developed from the Roman fibula, which was similar to a safety pin, and were first made at La Tene on Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland. Their styles v...

Bronze Mirror

Any of the smooth-faced bronze disks of eastern Asia in the late 2nd millennium bc . These cast-decorated items became important to the Han dynasty elite in China. In Korea and Japan they were used for rituals or ceremonies.

EnglishArtifacts, Tools

Bronze Age

Second age of the Three Age System, beginning about 40003000 bc in the Middle East and about 2000-1500 bc in Europe. It followed the Stone Age and preceded the Iron Age and was defined by a shift from stone tools and weapons to the use of bronze. During this time civilization based on agriculture...

Bronze

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% copper in s...

Britannia Metal

A silvery alloy consisting of tin with about 5-15% antimony and usually some copper, lead, or zinc.

Briquetage

Thick-walled, very coarse ceramic material used for making evaporation vessels used in saltmaking from the mid 2nd millennium bc through to medieval times in northern Europe. [VCP, very coarse pottery]

Bridle

Headgear for a horse, usually consisting of a series of buckled straps and a mouthpiece by which the horse is controlled. A bridle bit is a metal mouthpiece used to control an animal, usually used on a horse.

Brick-Relief

A technique of sculpture with subjects in bas-relief on a brick surface or wall.

Brick

An important building material of individual blocks of clay or mud, some with tempering of sand or straw. Bricks, which are not always rectangular, may be baked in a kiln to terra cotta or sun-dried; the latter are referred to as mud bricks or adobes. The chief building material throughout the Ne...

Breton Arrowhead

A type of barbed and tanged arrowhead, highly symmetrical in form, with slightly concave or convex sides and flared barbs and the tang the same length as the barbs. It is characteristic of the Early Bronze Age in northern France and southern Britain.

Breastplate

A piece of armor covering the chest.

Break

Evidence of accidental damage to a stone tool that resulted in the loss of an appreciable part of an artifact (usually the distal or proximal part) and altered its length, width, or shape.

Brazing

A method of joining one piece of metal to another by making both red hot so that the metal fuses.

Brass

General name for alloys of copper with zinc or tin, with the proportions about 70-90% copper and 10-30% of the other base metal. It is possible that due to difficulties in introducing the zinc ore calamine into the melt, brass appeared later in use than bronze (copper and tin) and other copper al...

Branding Iron

A heated iron used to label, burn, or mark animals, slaves, criminals, etc.

Bradshaw Figures

Small, red, painted figures in scenes of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, named for Joseph Bradshaw who discovered them.

Bradawl

A small tool that pierces material, with a flat cutting edge.

Bracteate

A coin, medal, dish, or ornament made of thin, beaten metal - usually gold or silver. These items were often disk-shaped, hollow on the underside and convex on the upper.

Bracer

A wristguard used in archery, fencing, and other sports.

Bracelet

An ornamental band or chain worn on the wrist or arm.

Box Tile

A baked clay tile shaped like a rectangular box, open at both ends, used for flues. [box flue tile] the abbreviation for “before present,” used especially in radiocarbon dating. The fixed reference date for before present has been established as ad 1950. Thus, 4250 bp would mean 4250 years prior ...

Box Flue

A brick of four terra cotta tiles that were joined together to conduct the furnace-heated air of a Roman (hypocaust) heating system. The tiles were joined at the edges and open at the top and the bottom. The air was directed through them up the walls to escape at the eaves. The exposed faces of t...

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