Benfica

Location near Luanda on the coast of Angola where chipped stone artefacts are associated with pottery apparently of Early Iron Age type, in a context dated to the 2nd century ad. This is one of very few dated occurrences of this period yet known from Angola.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bells

China. Chinese bells of the Shang and Zhou dynasties have two peculiarities: they seldom have clappers — they are struck on the outside with a mallet — and they are not round but have a pointed-oval cross-section. The cusped cross-section, known from the earliest examples (a small and primitive b...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bells

Bel’Kachi I

An important settlement site on the Aldan River in central Siberia, occupied during the Neolithic (defined by the use of pottery, rather than the practice of farming). The lowest level has a radiocarbon date of <4020 bc (c4920 bc), which is the earliest date for pottery in Siberia, for a hand-mou...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bel’Kachi I

Beijing

[Pei-ching, Peking], Present-day capital of China, The Shang civilization reached this area in the early part of the dynasty; a grave of about the 14th century bc at Pinggu Liujiahe contained bronze ritual vessels and a bronze axe with a blade of forged meteoritic iron. Many early Zhou finds have...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Beidha

Natufian and Aceramic Neolithic site near Petra in southern Jordan. It was first occupied for a short period as a semipermanent camp in the Early Natufian period. The community of this time lived off ibex and goat; 75 per cent of the goats were immature animals, suggesting that selective hunting ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Begram

A site in Afghanistan, confidently identified as Kapisa, the capital of several Indo-Greek rulers in the 3rd — 2nd centuries BC, a summer residence of the Kushan Kings (1st century BC to 3rd century ad) and an important town on the caravan route between India and the West. Excavations in the so-c...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Beersheba

A Palestinian site in southern Israel, which formed one of the desert frontier posts. The earliest occupation belongs to the 12th and 11th centuries bc, but the first town belonged to the period of the United Monarchy (10th century). The only phase which has been excavated on any scale is Stratum...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bataiimo

One of the very few later prehistoric settlement sites so far investigated in the Central African Republic, dated to early in the 1st millennium ad. Artefacts of chipped and ground stone were recovered, but although no trace of metal was found, the possibility remains that Bataiimo was in fact an...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Bataiimo

Banbhore

Standing among desolate salt flats on a former mouth of the Indus and the only major site in a sparsely populated region, Banbhore is plausibly identified as Daibal, the first town in Sind to fall to the Moslems, in 712. Excavations revealed that occupation began in the Scytho-Parthian period (1s...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Banbhore

Babylonia

Geographically, Babylonia refers to southern Mesopotamia, the southern part of modem Iraq, lying between Baghdad and the Gulf. Babylonia is a flat alluvial plain formed by the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which made this arid region one of the richest agricultural areas of the ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Regions, Place Names

Azmak

[Asmaska Moghila]. A tell site of the Bulgarian Neolithic and Copper Age, located near Stara Zagora in south Bulgaria. In the 7.5-metre stratigraphy, five settlement horizons were distinguished by the excavator, G. Georgiev: five building levels of the early Neolithic Karanovo I culture, one buil...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Azmak

Ayutthaya

[Ayut’ia, Ayuthya, Ayudhaj. A city in southern central Thailand, about 75 km north of Bangkok, founded in 1350 by king Ràmàdhipati to unify the countries of Syàm (Sukhothai) and Lavo (Lopburi). It became the capital of the powerful Thai kingdom of the same name for more than four centuries until ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ayampitin

An open camp-site in the province of Cordoba in northwest Argentina containing evidence which implies a transition from generalized big game hunting to a more specialized, regionally oriented hunting and gathering economy. The assemblage contains lithic hunting tools and toolmanufacturing debris ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Avebury

[Sir John Lubbock] (18341913). Distinguished British archaeologist, whose book Prehistoric Times, first published in 1865, went into seven editions, the last in 1913, and achieved wide popularity. He was an early convert to Darwin’s theory of evolution and the acceptance of the antiquity of man. ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Avebury

Henge in Wiltshire, one of the most impressive British Neolithic monuments. It consists of a large bank with internal ditch (1.2 km long) with four entrances. Inside the ditch was set a circle of 98 sarsen stones, weighing as much as 40 tonnes each. In the central area were two smaller stone circ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Atranjikhera

Settlement site in Uttar Pradesh in northern India with a series of occupation levels. The earliest level had Ochre-coloured pottery; this was succeeded by a level with Black and Red ware, which was itself followed by a series of layers with Painted Grey ware, which also produced iron tools and w...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Argos

City in the northeast Pelopponese, Greece. Ancient Argos, which is mostly covered by the modem city, lay a few miles inland on the Argive plain, overlooked by two hills, the Larissa and the Aspis, both of which show early traces of use as a fortified centre or acropolis. The city is clearly of ce...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Argissa

An important Neolithic settlement site in Thessaly, Northern Greece, which has yielded much evidence of the Aceramic Neolithic period. Wheat, barley, lentils and millet were cultivated and sheep, goats, pigs and cattle kept. Houses with timber frames supporting mud walls have been dated before 60...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

‘Aqrab

Tell site in the area of the Diyala River in Iraq east of Baghdad, excav ated by the Oriental Institute of Chicago University in the 1930s. The mound is now in empty desert, but it was clearly a flourishing city in the 3rd millennium bc. Excavations revealed a temple with building phases spanning...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

‘Aqrab

Aq Kupruk

Rock shelter (Aq Kupruk II) and an open site (Aq Kupruk III) on a terrace of the Balkh River. This is one of the richest Palaeolithic sites in Afghanistan, but not the earliest; Lower Palaeolithic material is reported from Dasht-i Nawar and possible Middle Palaeolithic deposits occur at Dara-i Ku...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amri

A site in the Indus Valley in Pakistan, which has given its name to one of a group of cultures in this area. Periods I and II represent the pre-Harappan settlement of agricultural farmers, who kept cattle, sheep, goat and donkey, but also hunted (or herded) gazelle. The Amri culture is characteri...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amorgos

An island in the eastern Cyclades, Greece, known especially for its Early Bronze Age cemetery. Single burials in cist graves were accompanied by pottery, copper weapons and often by fine carved stone figurines of characteristic Early Cycladic type. These were usually made of marble and some were ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amlash

Site in northwest Iran, southwest of the Caspian Sea, dating to the late 2nd millennium bc. It has not been excavated scientifically, but systematic looting of rich burials has brought onto the market gold and silver vessels and pottery figurines and animalshaped rhytons, similar to material from...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amfreville

The find spot in Normandy, northern France, of a helmet of the Early La Tène Iron Age. The helmet is made of bronze sheathed in iron and is richly decorated with scroll patterns on encircling gold-band and enamel ornamentation.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Amfreville

Amekni

Site in the Hoggar highlands of southern Algeria, dated to about the 7th millennium bc. Pottery was in use even at this early date, and it shows strong similarities with the ‘wavy-line’ ware of the ‘aquatic civilization’ as known from Early Khartoum. Barbed bone harpoon heads, however, were not r...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Altamira

One of the two most famous painted Palaeolithic caves (the other being Lascaux). Altamira is situated in the Cantabrian Mountains in Santander province, northern Spain. The 280-metre-long cave was investigated by Don Marcelino de Sautola in 1875, but the paintings were only noticed several years ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ali Kosh

Tell in the Deh Luran plain of Khuzistan, southwest Iran, occupied c7500-5600 be. This site, excavated in the 1960s by a team led by Frank Hole and Kent Flannery, was the first early farming site where significant quantities of plant remains were collected by the flotation technique, representing...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Aichi

A town in Ladakh, Tibet, where A.H. Francke discovered and excavated a number of ‘nomads’ tombs’ between 1900 and 1910. The tombs measured approximately 1.8 by 1.4 metres and were cl.8 metres deep; they were lined and covered with undressed stone slabs. Each contained from 3 to 20 long-headed sku...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Aichi

Akjoujt

Situated in southern Mauritania, Akjoujt appears to have been an early centre of African copper-working. It is, indeed, one of the few Saharan or sub-Saharan areas where there may have been a distinct ‘Copper Age’ preceding the local exploitation of iron. Mining of copper ore is indicated from at...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ajdabiyah

An important Islamic town in northern Libya which, in a region of semidesert, has one invaluable asset: water. Ajdabiyah therefore became an important caravan town at the junction of the main route from Egypt to the Maghreb and a trans-Saharan route from the Sudan. The town was taken by the Fatim...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ajdabiyah

Ain Hanech

A locality in Algeria which has produced some of the earliest evidence of human occupation in north Africa. There is a mammal fauna of Villafranchian type associated with the stone tools, indicating that they were made some 1-1.5 million years ago. The artefacts include choppers and multifaceted ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ai Khanum

Hellenistic city (possibly Alexandria Oxiana) occupied between the 4th century and clOO bc, Ai Khanum stands on a naturally defensible site at the confluence of the Oxus and the Koktcha in Afghanistan. The city comprises a citadel, acropolis and lower town, protected by mud-brick walls and ditch....

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ai Bunar

The largest and most completely explored of a group of three copper mines, located near Stara Zagora, central Bulgaria. The earliest exploitation of the malachite ore beds, by open-cast mining, is dated to the 4th millennium bc Karanovo VI period, with later utilization in the Late Bronze Age. Al...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Ahar

Site in Rajasthan, western India. Period I is dated c2500-1500 BC and belongs to the Chalcolithic Banas culture. The population lived by cultivating a cereal crop and hunting deer; there is little evidence of domesticated animals. They used copper and a variety of different types of pottery, incl...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Agordat

Town in western Eritrea, Ethiopia, best-known archaeologically for the presence of four village sites, never excavated but attributed on the basis of surface collections to about the 3rd millennium be. The artefacts, notably the stone mace-heads and ground stone axes, show affinities to those of ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Adria

[Atria]. Port in northeast Italy. A principal 6th-5th century BC port on the Adriatic, and important crossover point for Etruscan and Greek trade, linking the sea routes with Etruria, the Po Valley and northern Europe. Variously described as of Venetie, Greek or Etruscan foundation, the town seem...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Adrar Bous

Site in the Air massif, on the edge of the Tenere Desert in Niger, where excavations have revealed a long succession of prehistoric occupation. Levalloiso-Mous-terian settlement was followed by an arid phase when the region was probably uninhabited. The succeeding Aterian industry represents a lo...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Adena

A widespread native American culture of the Early Woodland period, centred on Southern Ohio. It is best known for its ceremonial burial practices, particularly mound building (e.g. Grave Creek Mound). Adena mounds date from as early as cl000 be, but do not become common until 500 be. Hunting and ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Acropolis

[Greek: akros (high, top), polis (city)]. The higher or citadel section found in a number of Greek cities, notably Corinth and Athens. The name is often used to refer specifically to the Acropolis at Athens, surmounted by the Parthenon, and the associated complex of monumental public buildings.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Abu Simbel

Great temple on the west bank of the Nile in northern Nubia, 230 km upstream of Aswan, constructed by Rameses II in the 13th century bc as part of the cultural Egyptianization of Nubia under the Eighteenth Dynasty (see Dynastic Egypt). The facade of the temple is dominated by four 20-metre-high s...

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural, Tombs, Place Names

Abu Hureyra

Tell site on the Euphrates River in Syria, 120 km east of Aleppo. The site was excavated in 1972-3, as a rescue excavation in advance of flooding by the Tabqua Dam. Two major phases of occupation are documented: the first, labelled either Epi-Palaeolithic or Mesolithic, dates to the 9th millenniu...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Architectural