Aclis

A small javelin or harpoon, consisting of a thick short pole set with spikes. This massive weapon resembles a trident or angon. [aclys, aclyx]

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Acisculus

A small pick used by stone-cutters and masons in early Roman times.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Acinaces

A short sword or scimitar, often very short and worn suspended from a belt around the waist, and used by Eastern nations of antiquity, especially the Medes, Persians, and Scythians.

archaeologsEnglishWeapons

Acid Etching

Use of hydrofluoric acid to etch a pattern onto a glass surface.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Achzib Ware

A Phoenician, Iron Age II, red-slip pottery type consisting primarily of jugs with a trefoil mouth of “mushroom” rims, red slipped, and highly burnished.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Acheulian

A European culture of the Lower Paleolithic period named for Saint-Acheul, a town in northern France, the site of numerous stone artifacts from the period. The conventional borderline between Abbevillian and Acheulian is marked by a technological innovation in the working of stone implements, the...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Aceramic Neolithic

Early part of the Neolithic period in western Asia before the widespread use of pottery (c. 8500-6000 bc in an economy based on the cultivation of crops or the rearing of animals or both. Aceramic Neolithic groups were in the Levant (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B), Zagros area (Karim Shahir, Jarm...

archaeologsEnglishPeriods

Aceramic

Without pottery or not using pottery; a term applied to periods and societies in which pottery is not used, especially in contrast to other periods of ceramic use and with neighboring ceramic cultures. Aceramic societies may use bark, basketry, gourds, leather, etc. for containers.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Accession Number

Number assigned to an archaeological collection that identifies its origin; part of the catalog number.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Accession Catalog

An accounting system used in the lab after artifacts and ecofacts are initially processed and providing the numbers with which artifacts and ecofacts are marked for storage. Its records describe and record what was found during an archaeological investigation and it is the primary record for all ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Acanthus

Conventionalized representation of the leaf of the Acanthus spinosus plant, found on the lower parts of Corinthian and Composite capitals, and also used for enrichment of various elements in Classical architecture.

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Abydos Ware

Pottery of Canaanite (Syro-Palestinian) origin found in the royal tombs of the 1st and 2nd dynasties (the Old Kingdom) at Abydos, Saqqara, Abusir el-Melek, and other sites in Upper Egypt, dating to the Early Bronze Age II (3300-2700 bc The pottery, often red-rose slipped and burnished or painted ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Abydos

Two hieroglyphic inscriptions containing the names of Egyptian kings that were found on the walls in a small temple at Abydos, Egypt. The first tablet has the names of the kings of the 12th and 18th dynasties and it is now in the British Museum. The second tablet begins with Menes, one of the fir...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Absorption

Process by which a liquid is drawn into and fills the pores of a permeable, porous body.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Absolute Dating

Determination of age with reference to a specific time scale, such as a fixed calendrical system or in years before present bp based on measurable physical and chemical qualities or historical associations such as coins and written records. The date on a coin is an absolute date, as are ad 1492 a...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Absolute Age

Amount of time elapsed, with reference to a specific time scale, since an object was made or used.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Abrader

A stone tool with abrasive qualities, such as pumice or sandstone, used in grinding, smoothing, sharpening, or shaping tools or other objects. [abrading stone]

archaeologsEnglishTools

Abrade

To scrape or wear away by friction or erosion. [abrasion (n.)]

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Abingdon Ware

A Neolithic pottery c. 3900-3200 bc found in a causewayed camp about 15 km south of Oxford, England. The pottery is fairly heavy and formed into round-bottomed bowls with frequentstroke decoration and some having handles.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery, Tools

Abingdon Ware

Abejas Phase

First important agricultural phase in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, dated 3500-1500 bc after the introduction of maize.

archaeologsEnglishPeriods

Abbevillian

Name for the period of the earliest hand-ax industries of Europe, taken from Abbeville, the type site near the mouth of the River Somme in northern France. The site is a gravel pit in which crudely chipped oval or pear-shaped hand axes were discovered, probably dating to the Mindel glaciation. Th...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Abacus

A calculating table or frame, specifically one in which balls slide upon wires, used for the mechanical solution of arithmetical problems.

archaeologsEnglishArchitectural

Sailendra

Mahayana Buddhist dynasty that appeared suddenly in the late 8th century in Central Java. Its name (‘King of the Mountain’) has been seen as the claim to ‘Universal Rulership’, taken over from the kings of Fun an ; indeed, the Sailendras exercised a sort of hegemony in the region, extending even ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Sialk, Tepe

Tell site near Kashan on the Iranian plateau, occupied from the 6th to the 1st millennium bc. The earliest settlement was built of pisé, though no house plans were recovered; painted pottery was in use and some ornaments of hammered copper occurred. In Period II, after c5000 bc, mudbrick architec...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Srivijaya

An ancient Sumatran kingdom centred on Palembang, which came into being at the end of the 7th century and developed rapidly. This development may be linked with the dismemberment of Funan. First mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim I-Ching as an important centre of Buddhist learning and a relay stati...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Szeletian

An early Upper Palaeolithic culture named after the cave of Szeleta in Hungary. It is characterized by leaf points, and seems to mark the transition from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Upper Palaeolithic. Indeed, the earlier Szeletian level from the type site could be regarded as Mousterian, whil...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Szegvar-Tuzkoves

Nucleated open settlement of the later Neolithic period, situated near Szentes in southeast Hungary. Two occupation horizons are represented: a SzakalhAt (Alfold Linear pottery) level dated to the late 5th millennium be and a thick Tisza culture level dated to the 4th millennium be. Several compl...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Szegvar-Tuzkoves

Szakalhat

The eponymous site of a later Neolithic regional group of the Alfold Linear Pottery, located in the town of Hodmez-dvdsarhely in southeast Hungary. The settlement has two occupation layers, a level with late Alfold Linear pottery and a level with Szakalhat pottery. For many years Hungarian archae...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Szakalhat

Syracuse

A Greek colonial settlement and principal port on the east coast of Sicily, and later capital of Roman Sicily. Earliest occupation seems to be on the island of Ortygia which helps to enclose the Great Harbour, where some early Palaeolithic material occurs. It is likely that a native settlement pr...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Symbolkeramik

Name sometimes given to a type of pottery found in southern Iberia during the Copper Age. The pottery, found at sites like Los Millares, is characterized by incised stylized designs which are thought to hold symbolic meanings. One such design is the oculus motif.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Sybaris

Early Greek colonial settlement (perhaps 8th century bc) on the Ionian Gulf in Calabria, southern Italy, proverbial later for the luxury and decadence of its inhabitants, and destroyed by rival Croton in about 510 bc. A new settlement, Thurii, was founded in 443 bc by Pericles of Athens and a gro...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Syam

Earliest ethnic name of the Thais (or Siamese) in epigraphy. It appears as the name of an obviously non-KHMER contingent in the imperial army in an inscription at Angkor Wat; this interpretation is, however, contested.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Syam

Swords

(China). The earliest Chinese swords belong to the Western Zhou period: examples from Zhangjiapo and Lingtai, only 24-27 cm long, date from the 10th century bc. The Western Zhou sword, a tapering two-edged blade with a flat tang for attaching a grip, is not easily related to swords made outside C...

archaeologsEnglishWeapons, Tools

Swords

Swidry Wielkie

See Swiderian.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Swidry Wielkie

Swiderian

Late glacial culture known from Poland at such sites as Calowanie and Swidry Wielkie. Elongated tanged points are typical of these sites, which have radiocarbon dates in the 10,000-8000 be range. The Swiderian is probably related to other tanged-point cultures of northern Europe known to exist at...

archaeologsEnglishCultures

Sweet Potato

Ipomoea batatas, the sweet potato, is of tropical American origin and is reported from sites in Peru as early as 8000 be. During the mid-1st millennium ad the tuber was carried by prehistoric voyagers into eastern Polynesia and became important in the prehistoric economies of Easter Island, the H...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Swasey

See Cuello.

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Swartkrans

Short distance from Sterk-fontein and in the same valley is the richest hominid site in South Africa. It contains remains of perhaps over 60 individuals of A. robustus, the best sample of the robust kind of Australopithecus. These deposits are later than the main Sterkfontein hominid level, perha...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Swanscombe

A site on the lower Thames in Kent, southern England, of major importance on account of the series of river deposits of the 30-metre terrace exposed in Barnfield Pit and elsewhere. These deposits contain useful environmental evidence, including abundant mollusc and mammal remains and large assemb...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names

Swanscombe

Sventoji I

Late Mesolithic and Late Neolithic settlement site in the southeast Baltic area, Lithuania, USSR. Stratified in a peat bog are two culture levels separated by a sterile layer: 1, the earlier occupation, of the Narva culture, with radiocarbon dates of c2700-2150 be; 3, the later occupation of the ...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Suzuki

A stratified site in Kodaira City, near Tokyo, Japan. The Palaeolithic materials are of interest, because regularly shaped blades and edge-ground axes were found in the lower layers dated to about 30,000 years ago. A number of piles of burned rock, which seem to have been used for cooking, were a...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Suvarnabhumi

[Sanskrit: ‘Land of Gold’]. A site or territory on the mainland of Southeast Asia, not identified with certainty, to which the 3rd-century bc Indian emperor Asoka sent the two Buddhist missionaries, Sona and Uttara. This earliest Buddhist centre was most likely located in Mon country either in pr...

archaeologsEnglishOthers

Sutton Hoo

Perhaps the most remarkable archaeological discovery ever made in Britain is the Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, close to the Suffolk coast. The excavations in 1938-9 concentrated on the largest of a group of mounds which was found to contain the remains of an open rowing boat 27 metres lo...

archaeologsEnglishOthers