Search - Archaeologs

Winlock

(1884-1950). American Egyptologist who excavated at el-Lisht and Deir el-Bahari. He is noted for the high standards of his excavation and recording methods.

Winlock

Windmill Hill

Causewayed camp in Wiltshire, which has given its name to the Early Neolithic culture of southern England, of the 4th millennium bc. Windmill Hill is the largest of the known causewayed camps the outer of the three concentric discontinuous ditches has a diameter of c365 metres. The site has an oc...

Winderemere Interstadial

Interstadial of the Devensian cold stage which occurred between 13,000 and 11,000 bp. It consisted of a rapid temperature rise to an initial thermal maximum, followed by a slight temperature decline at 12,000 bp. Thereafter temperature stabilized until 11,000 bp, when it fell sharply at the start...

Winderemere Interstadial

Winckelmann

(1717-68). German scholar who was an early contributor to the development of archaeology and art history. He is best known for his work on the art of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which was uncovered during the 18th century.

Winckelmann

Winchester Style

From the beginning of the 10th century until the Norman Conquest the Late Saxon kingdom of Wessex was a prominent artistic centre. This renaissance was directed from Winchester, where the building of the New Minster had inspired an artistic tradition based on the revived antique models of Carolin...

EnglishArchitectural

Winchester

The Roman predecessor of medieval Winchester in southwest England was a walled town known as Venta Bulgarum. In the later 9th century the Alfredian burh with its planned streets and defensive system rose to prominence as the capital of Wessex; it continued to thrive during the Middle Ages as an i...

Wilton

The name Wilton has in the past been applied somewhat indiscriminately to many backed microlith industries in sub-Saharan Africa. It derives from a small rock shelter on a farm near Alicedale in the Cape Province of South Africa, but industries from as far northwest as Nigeria and as far north-ea...

Wilson Butte Cave

A site of long occupation on the Snake River plain in Idaho USA. It is located on what is postulated as one of the major routes to the interior for migrating Paleo-Indian groups. A radiocarbon date of 14,450 be is regarded as unreliable, but a less controversial date of 12,500 be from an overlyin...

Williamsburg

The site of one of the most extensive restoration projects in North America. Begun in conjunction with a programme of archaeological excavation in 1928, the site has since been developed as a working model of life in the 18th century. Located on a tidal water peninsula between the York and James ...

Willendorf

Loess site near Krems in lower Austria with nine Palaeolithic levels. The upper five are of Willendorfian or east Grav-ettian type including the famous venus statuette (see venus figurines), while the lower levels were closer to the Aurignacian.

EnglishPlace Names

Willandra Lakes

See Lake Arumpo, Lake Mungo.

Wichqana

A site in the Ayacucho province of the central highlands of Peru. Dating to the beginnings of the Early Horizon, it is probably antecedent to Chavin. The U-shaped ceremonial structure has no examples of carved stone, but is built of stones of alternating size in a similar manner to Cerro Secchin....

White Pottery

Fairly rare white earthenware made only in the Shang period and found chiefly at Anyang, in China. The Anyang white pottery was probably made for ritual or mortuary purposes. Its decoration seldom strays outside a narrow repertoire of incised geometric patterns. Fired at about 1100° C, it is made...

Wheelhouse

Type of dwelling found in Scotland in the Iron Age and Roman period, taking its name from its form, which is circular, with partition walls running from the outside wall to an open central area, like the spokes of a wheel. They are built in dry-stone.

Wheeler

(1890-1976). British archaeologist who made major contributions to the development of excavation and recording techniques. He excavated many sites, both in Britain and abroad, especially in India (including modem Pakistan, then part of an undivided India), where he was DirectorGeneral of the Arch...

Wheeler

Wheat

Group of cereals, members of the genus Triticum. Two wild forms of wheat are found in the Near East today, wild einkorn (Triticum boeoticum) and wild emmer (T. dicoccoides). A closely related group, the goat grasses (Aegilops) is also present in the area. Species of Aegilops can cross with Tritic...

Wharram Percy

Deserted medieval village on the western edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, which has been the site of one of the most important landscape projects in Britain. The Medieval Village Research Group has combined archaeological and historical evidence to document a peasant community between the Early Saxon...

West Stow

An Early Saxon settlement in Suffolk, eastern England extensively excavated in the 1960s. Situated on the northern bank of the River Nank near a Romano-British site, the Saxon settlement was inhabited between the 5th and 7th centuries, at which time it was surrounded by boundary ditches. In the c...

West Kennet

The largest of the Severn- situated near Avebury in Wiltshire, southern England. The tomb is a transepted gallery grave withan impressive concave facade, under a massive long barrow, clOO metres in length. Excavations early in the century and again in the 1950s produced evidence of use for collec...

Period

The earlier part of the Zhou dynasty, from the fall of the Shang dynasty (in the 12th or 11th century bc) to 771 bc. See Zhou.

Western Zhou

[Chou]

Western Zhou

Western Neolithic

Name given to a group of Early and Middle Neolithic cultures in western Europe, that were thought to be related. The group includes the Windmill Hill culture of Britain, the Chassey culture of France, the Cortaillod culture in Switzerland, the Lagozza culture in Italy and the Almerian culture of ...

EnglishPeriods

West Drayton

See Yiewsley.

West Drayton

Wessex Culture

Early Bronze Age culture of southern Britain characterized by a group of very rich burials under round barrows of special types (bell, disc and saucer barrows and enclosures strangely labelled ‘pond barrows’). The burials are usually divided into two groups, with inhumation predominating in the e...

EnglishCultures

Weipa Shell Mounds

See shell mounds (Tropical Australia). Wessex. Kingdom of the West Saxons established, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, by Cerdic when he landed on the south coast in the early 6th century ad. It was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to become firmly established, and expanded slowly by ...

Weipa Shell Mounds

Weifang

[Wei-fang].

Weifang

Weichselian

Group of Quaternary glacial deposits in northwest Europe (see Table 5, page 418). The main feature is a striking group of end moraines, demarcating the maximum extent of the Weichsel ice-sheet. This ice-sheet flowed out from centres in Scandinavia, over the bed of the Baltic Sea and into northern...

Wealden House

A type of timber-framed building, dating from the 15th century; many surviving examples are concentrated in southeast England. The Wealden house has a distinctive design in which the central open hall is flanked at both ends by multi-storeyed wings; in the purest examples the end storeys are jett...

EnglishArchitectural

Wealden House

archaeologsArchitectural

Wayland’s Smithy

An Early Neolithic long barrow in Oxfordshire, southern England, with two phases of construction. The earlier monument covered a wooden mortuary house which contained the remains of 14 individuals. Over this was constructed a much longer trapezoidal mound with a stone kerb and with a megalithic c...

Wayland’s Smithy

Wattle

Flexible wooden rods or twigs, used in constructing hurdles and fencing, or as support in a wattle and daub wall.

Wattle

Watling Street

Roman road from Richborough to Chester in southern and central England, a major trunk route built in the early years of the Roman occupation of Britain. The road runs via Canterbury to London; thence it branches north-west to Veru-lamium, Towcester and Wroxeter, and finally turns north to Chester.

Water Newton

[Roman Durobrivae]. 25 km from Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, eastern England, this was a large and important Roman pottery town, centre of production for the Nene Valley colour-coated fine ware, and find-site in particular (1975) of a hoard of 4th-century Christian silver plate. Accessible toda...

Wasit

Located half way between Basra and Kufa, Wasit was founded as a new town by Hajjaj b. Yusuf al-Thaqafi, governor of Iraq, in 703-4. Its remains occupy some three square kilometres. The only standing building is a shrine with a monumental portal flanked by minarets, datable to the 13th century. Ex...

EnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Warthe

See Saale.

Warthe

Warsaw

Medieval Warsaw grew up on the left bank of the River Vistula. Excavations in the vicinity of the royal castle located the earthworks of the proto-urban 9th-century fortress, with earth-and-timber ramparts and gateways. The area around the cathedral proved to be the site of the citadel of the 10t...

Warring States Period

The latter part (475-221 bc) of the Eastern Zhou period. See Zhou.

Warka

See Uruk.