A term describing a type of gold production whose themes were animals and which arose from the Scythians, a seminomadic people from the Eurasian steppes who moved from southern Russia into the territory between the Don and the Danube and then into Mesopotamia. During the 5th to 4th centuries bc t...
A bell worn by an animal, e.g., sheep, goats, cows and hawks, to inform the owner of the animal’s position.
Quaternary glacial deposits found in East Anglia, England. Other possibly related and isolated patches exist elsewhere in Britain, but they are older than the extreme range of radiocarbon dating and paleomagnetism shows them to be younger than 700,000 bp. This period sometimes equates with the El...
A dark, fine-grained volcanic rock.
Chronological systems of the Central Andes area with two main stages, Preceramic and Ceramic. The Ceramic is broken down into: Initial Period, 1900-1200 bc Early Horizon 1200-300 bc Early Intermediate Period 300 bc to ad 700, Middle Horizon 700-1100, Late Intermediate Period 1100-1438/1478, and L...
An anchor-shaped, terra cotta object with a perforation through the shank. These were widespread in the Early Bronze Age of Greece and appear later in Sicily and Malta. Grooving, as if from thread wear, suggests that these objects may have been part of looms.
Small, painted, apelike busts that were the focus of ancestor worship in Egypt’s New Kingdom. Many were of limestone or sandstone, with some smaller examples made of wood and clay.
A period of cool climate in the area of North America that occurred from about 7000 to 5000 bc This was Ernst Antev’s name for the first of the Neothermal periods and it is thought to have started off cool before becoming somewhat warmer.
Arbitrary groupings that an archaeologist defines for classifying artifacts; groups of attributes that define convenient types of artifacts for comparing sites in space and time.
A stage of archaeological research that involves describing and classifying artifactual and nonartifactual data.
Small good-luck charms, often in the form of gods, hieroglyphs, and sacred animals and made of precious stones or faience. They were especially popular with Egyptians and other Eastern peoples, worn in life and placed in burials or within mummy wrappings. Amulets were supposed to afford protectio...
A small Greek or Roman globular flask or bottle with two handles and a short narrow neck. It was used for holding oil for bathers (called ampulla oleria) or wine, oil, vinegar, and other beverages for table use (then called ampulla potaria). These small containers were usually the form of a globe...
A large Greek or Roman earthenware storage jar, with a narrow neck and mouth and two handles (“two-eared,” each called an anem) at the top. The body of the jar is usually oval and long, with a pointed bottom. It was used for holding or transporting liquids, especially wine or oil, and other subst...
Having no definite form or distinct shape.
An interstadial of the Weichselian stage that has radiocarbon dates between 68,000 and 65,000 bp, but it is possibly earlier.
Fossilized pine resin, a transparent yellow, orange, or reddishbrown material from coniferous trees. It is amorphous, having a specific gravity of 1.05-1.10 and a hardness of 2-2.5 on the Mohs scale, and has two varieties - gray and yellow. Amber was appreciated and popular in antiquity for its b...
A phase in the late 18th dynasty, including the reigns of Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen, and Ay (1379-1352 bc when important religious and artistic changes took place. The name is derived from the site of Akhenaten’s capital at Tell el-Amarna.
A warm, dry postglacial period in the western United States c. 5600-2500 bc Coined by Ernst Antev in 1948, the term describes a time during which temperatures were warmer than at present. Other terms, like “long drought,” are also used.
Retouch that occurs on an edge of a lithic flake in such a way that it alternates between the dorsal and ventral sides from one end to the other of the edge. [alternate retouch]
The opposite face of each edge is steeply flaked and each face opposing the beveled edge is flatly flaked.
Any of a number of substances which are a mixture of two or more metals, such as bronze (copper and tin), brass (copper and zinc), or tumbaga (copper and gold). An alloy has properties superior to those of the individual metals. They are not simple mixtures, but complex crystalline structures tha...
An interstadial (transient) period of glacial retreat at the close of the Würm glacial stage in Europe, dated to c. 12,00011,000 years ago. This temporary increase in warmth allowed forests to establish themselves for a time in the ice-free zones. Radiocarbon dates show similar conditions prevail...
A relatively low-fired glaze with a high concentration of alkali elements in its composition, often with wood ash in significant quantity.
An elaborate gold ornament which is an example of 9th-century Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship and found at Somerset, England in 1893 (now in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). It consists of an enameled plaque with an oval portrait in different-colored cloisonné, enhanced with filigree wire and backed by a fla...
İn Roman and Greek antiquity, a blank tablet on which praetors’ edicts and other public notices were recorded for public information. It was also a space on the surface of a wall, covered with white plaster, upon which were written such announcements or advertisements. Afterwards, this term was e...
A late medieval (15th to 18th centuries) Near East, Spanish, and Italian apothecary pottery jar. It was made in the form known as majolica or with a fine tin glaze over typically blue designs imitating the forms of Arabic script. Its basic shape was cylindrical but incurved and wide-mouthed for h...
A Greek container made of alabaster, but sometimes clay, used for unguents. [alabastrum]
A term used by Egyptologists for a type of white, semitransparent or translucent stone used in statuary, vases, sarcophagi, and architecture. It is a form of limestone (calcium carbonate), sometimes described as travertine. It was used increasingly from the Early Dynastic period for funerary vess...
Earliest phase of pre-village, pre-agriculture in Tehuacan Valley, Mexico, from c. 7200 to 7000 bc There was hunting and gathering.
Storing prepared ceramic material (as a wet plastic clay body) to improve its working properties by thorough wetting of particles, slow compression, bacterial action (souring), and other processes.
An inert component such as grog or potter’s flint in ceramic bodies (especially triaxial bodies). [filler, temper]
A time of Western expansion through European exploration, discovery, and enlightenment about the world, which occurred from about the 15th through the 18th centuries, c. 1515-1800.
Any pottery that is veined and mottled to resemble agate.
An object to point at words whilst reading.
Name of a Greek metal vase with a narrow opening. It was filled with water and placed on a fire to make the chimney draw better or to indicate the wind’s direction. [aeolipylae, eolipyle]
A shield or defensive armor in ancient mythology, from the Greek word for shield; also used to describe the representation of a necklace on the head of a deity.
Archaic Greek sculpture discovered in the temple of Pallas-Athene at Aegina, an island in the Saronic group of Greece. They are in the Glyptothek at Munich, Germany. Aegina’s period of glory was the 5th century bc which left a legacy of sculpture.
A shaft-hole adze with additional hammer knob, normally of polished stone.
Capacity of a material to accept and retain another substance, such as moisture, on its surface.
Spanish term for sun-dried mud brick; also the name for a structure built out of this material. These claylike buff or brown mud bricks were not fired, but hardened and dried in the sun. The material was also used as mortar, plaster, and amorphous building material for walls. Adobe structures are...
Contracting stemmed point with a narrower section at the base than the main part of the arrowhead point.
A widespread Native American culture of the Early Woodland period in the Ohio Valley and named after the Adena Mounds of Ross County. It is known for its ceremonial and complex burial practices involving the construction of mounds and by a high level of craftwork and pottery. It is dated from as ...
An organic or mineral material mixed with clay by the potter to modify its properties in forming, drying, and firing. [temper]
İn lithics, severe short angles coming to a sharp point. used as a prefix to a date, it indicates years after the birth of Christ or the beginning of the Christian calendar. Anno Domini (Latin) means “In the year of our Lord.” The lower case “ad” represents uncalibrated radiocarbon years and ad d...
A set of artifacts that reveals the activities of a person.
1. A place where a specific ancient activity was located or carried out, such as food preparation or stone toolmaking. The place usually corresponded to one or more features and associated artifacts and ecofacts. In American archaeology, the term describes the smallest observable component of a s...
A sculptured figure, tripod, disk, or urn, made of bronze, marble, or terra cotta, placed on the apex of the pediment of a Greek temple or other substantial building.
First stage of the behavioral processes (followed by manufacture, use, and deposition), in which raw materials are procured.
Large earthenware or bronze vases that were used to strengthen actors’ voices and were placed in bell towers to help boost the sound of church bells. A church in Westphalia contains fine 9th-century Badorf wares, and larger relief-band amphorae were used in 10th- and 11th-century churches. [acous...
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