Nderit Ware

First discovered at Stable’s Drift on the Nderit River, south of Lake Nakuru in the central Rift Valley of Kenya, Nderit ware is a widespread but poorly understood variety of pottery which may pre-date the main florescence of the Pastoral Neolithic in southern Kenya. It is characterized by finely...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Pottery

Nderit Drift

A site on the Nderit River south of Lake Nakuru, Kenya, which preserves a long sequence of alluvial and lacustrine deposits containing several archaeological occurrences which illustrate the precursors of the Pastoral Neolithic complex. Full details of the sequence are not yet available, but a bl...

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Naxos

(Greece). Largest of the group of Aegean Islands known to antiquity as the Cyclades (see Delos), and an important centre for the so-called Cycladic culture of the Aegean Early Bronze Age (late 4th to 2nd millennium bc). Mycenaean, Protogeometric and Geometric periods are also well represented. In...

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Naxos

Nawamoyn

See Oenpelli Shelters.

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Nawamoyn

Naveta

A type of megalithic tomb found on the island of Minorca during the Bronze Age (see megalithic monuments). It takes its name from its shape, which resembles — a little — an upturned boat. Navetas were built of Cyclopean masonry and contained long chambers with corbelled roofs. The best preserved ...

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Navdatoli

A large prehistoric settlement on the Narbada River in Medhya Pradesh, central India, made up of four separate mounds. There were three main phases of occupation. The first, of the 3rd millennium bc, was a village of 50-75 houses, mostly measuring cl 2 by 6 metres; the occupants were farmers grow...

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Naukratis

A Greek trading settlement on the western (Canopic) branch of the Nile. Sources mention concessional arrangements made by Psammetichus I (663-609 bc), who may have been grateful for support from Greek mercenaries, and later by Amasis (578-525 BC). It looks as if Greek trading and residence on Egy...

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Natufian

Mesolithic culture of the Levant; dated cl0,000-8000 be; most sites occur in a band ¿40 km wide along the Mediterranean coast, though some sites occur much further inland, like Mureybat in Syria. Caves and rock shelters continued to be occupied, as in earlier periods, but open settlements also oc...

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Natsushima

An initial Jomon shell midden near Tokyo, Japan, dated to 7290 and 7500 be. The dated layer contained deep conical bowls with cord-marks made by rolling a cord-wrapped stick over the surface of wet clay. There were also bones of domestic dogs, bone and stone arrowheads, grinding stones, partially...

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Natal Early Iron Age

The South African province of Natal has revealed traces of the furthest southeastern extension of the Early Iron Age complex of sub-Saharan Africa, which has been linked provisionally with the dispersal of peoples speaking Bantu languages. In Natal, evidence for Early Iron Age settlement is found...

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Nasik

Rock-cut Buddhist temple in the western Deccan, India, dating to the early centuries ad.

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Nasera

A rock shelter on the Serengeti Plain of northern Tanzania, formerly known as Apis Rock, containing one of the longest well-documented archaeological sequencs from any single site in the region. Pastoral Neolithic material overlies an aceramic microlithic industry dated to about the 6th millenniu...

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Nasca

[Nazca]. The dominant pottery style of the valleys of south-coast Peru, during the Early Intermediate Period. The characteristic polychrome decoration is a continuation of the earlier Paracas style. Although the two styles are similar, Nasca can easily be distinguished because its colours are set...

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Narva

The eponymous site of a late Mesolithic culture distributed on and near the Baltic coast of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and dated to the 4th-3rd millennium be. Similar in type to the ancestral Kunda culture, the Narva economy was based on hunting and fishing, with more tools of bone and antler ...

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Narosura

An important Pastoral Neolithic settlement site near Narok in southern Kenya, occupied between the 9th and the 5th centuries bc. Post-holes suggest the presence of semi-permanent structures of some kind, and the site appears to have covered an area of at least 8000 square metres, although it cann...

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Narce

A settlement on the Treia gorge near Calcata in Lazio, Italy, surrounded by extensive necropolis, and probably inhabited from the 12th century BC. Essentially occupation seems to have been by Faliscans, an Indo-European Italic group, and therefore the site is to be associated with their centres a...

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Naranco

A town near Orviedo in northern Spain. The province of Asturias and Galicia remained an independent Christian kingdom after the Moors had conquered most of the country, and in Asturias a very individual preRomanesque school of architecture flourished between the 8th and 10th centuries. The Asturi...

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Naranco

Nara

See Haji, Kofun, mirrors (Japan), Sue.

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Nara

Naqsh-I Rustam

See Persepolis.

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Naqsh-I Rustam

Naples

Greek neapolis, ‘new city’ (a name common in antiquity). The principal Greek city of Campania, southern Italy, but probably only of modest size and importance during the Roman period. Tradition gives the settlement as a daughter colony founded by Greeks from Cumae, and a 7th-century bc date looks...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names