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Urn

Name given to any kind of large pottery vessel used to contain the cremated remains of the dead; the term is sometimes extended to cover similarly shaped vessels used for domestic storage purposes. The term is particularly widely used in the European Bronze Age and the name Urnfield cultures, giv...

Urewe Ware

The characteristic Early Iron Age pottery type of the interlacustrine region of East Africa. There are good reasons, both typological and chronometric, for regarding Urewe ware as ancestral to the varied wares of the Early Iron Age complex further south. Named after a site in southwestern Kenya, ...

EnglishAncient Pottery, Place Names

Urartu

A kingdom that flourished in the early 1st millennium bc in the region of Armenia (i.e. eastern Turkey and adjacent areas of Iran and the USSR). Its centre was in the Lake Van region. The name Urartu first appears in documentary sources in the 13th century bc and the kingdom was in existence by c...

Uranium Series Dating

Group of related radiometric dating methods, based on the decay series of the uranium isotopes 238U and 235U. Principles. Each of the isotopes decays through a series of radioactive daughter isotopes until a stable isotope of lead is reached. Three daughter isotopes arc created and decay with hal...

Uranium Series Dating

archaeologsOthers

Uqair

Tell site 80 km south of Baghdad, excavated by an Iraqi team in the early 1940s. These excavations uncovered a settlement of the Ubaid period and a temple of the Uruk period. This temple has a tripartite plan and is very similar to the White Temple in the Anu sanctuary at Uruk itself. It is disti...

EnglishArchitectural

Uqair

archaeologsArchitectural

Upton Warren Interstadial Complex

An interstadial of the Devensian cold stage which occurred between 43,000 and 23,000 be (45,0000-25,000 bp). It consisted of a very rapid temperature rise to an initial thermal maximum of 41,000 be (43,000 bp) followed by a temperature decline leading to a lower ‘plateau’ of temperature lasting f...

Upton Warren Interstadial Complex

archaeologsOthers

Underwater Archaeology

This largely self-explanatory term is preferable to the more restricted terms marine or maritime archaeology, since it includes the examination of submerged settlement sites under fresh-water lakes, as well as the examination of harbour works and shipwrecks under the sea. The overall aims and met...

Umm Dabaghiyah

Early 6th-millennium be type site of the Umm Dabaghiyah culture, the earliest known culture in the north Iraq plain. The site is small (less than one hectare), but has yielded some interesting architectural remains long buildings consisting of rows of small cell-like rooms without obvious means o...

Umm An-Nar

A settlement and cemetery of chamber tombs on a small island off the west coast of Abu Dhabi on the Oman peninsula. This site, excavated by a Danish expedition in the 1950s, has given its name to an early 3 rd-millennium bc culture, which has also been found on sites in inland Oman, including the...

Umguzan

See Tshangula.

Umguzan

archaeologsOthers

Umbu

Tradition roughly contemporary and co-regional with Humaita in southern Brazil, but differing from it by the presence of projectile points at an early date. The most common point form is the elongated triangle, which is often found in association with pounders, anvil stones, bolas and polished ax...

Umbu

archaeologsOthers

Uluzzo

Around the bay of Uluzzo, in Apulia, southern Italy, there are several Palaeolithic caves. The most important is Grotta Cavallo, with a series of Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic levels. The earliest Upper Palaeolithic levels are the type series of the Uluzzian.

Uluzzo

archaeologsOthers

Ulu Leang

An important excavated rock shelter in the Maros region of southern Sulawesi, Indonesia, with a sequence starting c9000 be that illustrates the development of the Toalian microlithic industry after 5000 bc.

Ulan Khada

A site on the shores of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia. The lowest level is assigned to a ‘Preccramic Neolithic’ phase, while later levels have pottery and arc labelled Neolithic. All levels arc associated with a hunting and gathering life-style.

EnglishPlace Names

Ulan Khada

archaeologsPlace Names

Ulalinka Creek

See Al tai.

Ulalinka Creek

archaeologsOthers

Ukhaidir

An early Islamic fortified palace in Iraq contained in a rectangular enclosure 169 metres wide and 175 metres long. The enclosure is defended by towers and has gateways on all four sides, the main entrance being to the north. The palace itself adjoins the north wall and is entered through the nor...

Ujjain

A city state of the 1st millennium bc in central India. The earliest phase of occupation is associated with Black and Red ware and the use of iron; the city of this phase was defended by a large rampart. This phase was succeeded by an occupation with Northern Black Polished ware. The city, which ...

Uioara De Sus

The site of a large hoard of metal objects of the Late Bronze Age, located in the upper Mure§ valley in central Transylvania, Rumania, and dated to cl000 be. The largest known hoard of this period, it contains almost 6000 pieces weapons, axes, horse harness and ornaments, with a total weight of c...

Uioara De Sus

archaeologsOthers

Uhle

(1856-1944). One of the great pioneers of South American archaeology and the first to produce an area-wide chronology for Peru, using a synthesis of stratigraphy and seriation. The sheer volume of Uhle’s work is astonishing even by today’s standards. He discovered the source of Nasca pottery (the...

Uhle

archaeologsOthers

Ugarit

2nd-millennium bc Canaanite city at modern Ras Shamra near the Mediterranean coast of Syria. Although securely identified as ancient Ugarit only in the 2nd millennium, the site was occupied from much earlier and the city overlies a series of earlier Bronze Age, Chalcolithic and Neolithic settleme...

EnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ubeidiyah

A site in the Jordan valley at Afikim, Israel, where there are a series of Pleistocene deposits with stone tools dated from potassium-argon indications to between 1.7 and 0.7 million years ago. The lower levels are of Oldowan type, while Acheulian types appear above. Some tiny skull fragments hav...

Ubayama

Large shell midden in Chiba prefecture, Japan, excavated many times since 1893. Pit-houses, human skeletons and Middle and Late Jomon pottery were recovered. Radiocarbon dates of the 3rd millennium bc, the first dates carried out on Jomon materials, were received with scepticism when they were pu...

Ubaid

The small tell of Al Ubaid near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the prehistoric culture which represents the earliest- settlement on the alluvial plain of south Mesopotamia. The Ubaid culture has a long duration, beginning before 5000 be and lasting until the beginning of the Uruk perio...

Uaxactun

A Classic Maya centre located north of Tikal in the northeastern Peten province of Guatemala. The central complex consists of a small plaza flanked by long, low palace- or apartment-style buildings and two temple-pyramids. However, the site is best known for its Late Chican el stucco decoration i...

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...

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