Archaeologs - Archaeologs

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Birdstone

A class of prehistoric stone objects of undetermined purpose, usually resembling or shaped like a bird; carved bird effigies. These polished stone weights occurred in the cultures of the Archaic tradition (8000-1000 bc ) and later cultures in the eastern woodlands of North America. They were prob...

Birdpoint

A smaller arrowhead used by Native Americans to kill small game such as rabbit, waterfowl, and birds. [bird point]

Birch-Bark Manuscript

Early Russian letters and documents scratched onto thin pieces of birch bark, dating to the 11th to 15th centuries ad . They were first found in 1951 in Novgorod by A. Artsikhovski and form a very important source of information as no other documents earlier than the 13 th century have survived b...

Bipolar Percussion

A type of percussion that involves the placement of raw material (usually small rounded or oval cobbles) on an anvil stone and striking it from the top. [bipolar flaking, bipolar technique]

Bipennis

An ax with a double blade or edge, used as an agricultural implement, an adze, or a military weapon. It was used by the Amazons, Scythians, and Gauls. [bipenne]

Binder

A substance, usually organic, added to a clay or glaze to increase its green strength.

Billet

A soft hammer used to strike flakes from a stone core, often made of antler, bone, or wood. [baton, percussor]

Bilaterally Barbed

A projectile point or harpoon with barbs on both edges.

Bifurcate

Point base split into double lobes with indentation similar to notches on the sides. [bifurcated base]

Bifid Razor

Type of tool, possibly a razor, of the Middle Bronze Age of Europe, with two ovate, sharp-edged lobes of thin metal attached to a central tang.

Bifacially Worked

Pertaining to an artifact that has been flaked on both sides. [bifacial working (n.)]

Bifacial Thinning Flake

Flakes removed during the thinning or resharpening of bifaces. These flakes are relatively flat, have broad, shallow flake scars (produced by the detachment of previous thinning flakes from the dorsal face), and tend to exhibit a feathering out of lateral margins. The proximal end of the flake of...

Bifacial Retouch

Retouch flaking that occurs on both the ventral and dorsal sides of an edge.

Bifacial Flaking

Manufacture of a stone artifact by removing flakes from both faces.

Bifacial Blank

A biface in the early stages of production displaying only percussion flaking and no evidence of pressure flaking. In many cases, blanks were traded and/or transported from their area of origin and subsequently used as bifacial cores from which flake blanks were detached for the production of dar...

Bifacial

On both ventral and dorsal sides.

Biface Bevel

A bevel that was formed by removing flakes from both faces of an edge.

Biface

A type of prehistoric stone tool flaked on both faces or sides; the main tool of Homo erectus . The technique was typical of the hand-ax tradition of the Lower Paleolithic period and the Acheulian cultures. Bifaces may be oval, triangular, or almond-shaped in form and characterized by axial symme...

Bier

A movable wooden platform on which corpses were laid, sometimes together with grave goods, and eventually carried to a burial place.

Biconvex

A blade shape having two worked faces.

Biconical Urn

Style of Early Bronze Age pot of northwestern Europe with a deep, largely plain, outwardly flared body. Above that is a sharp carination, decorated and sometimes with an applied cordon, and an inwardly angled neck with impressed cord designs. The rim is typically beveled and lightly ornamented.

Biconical Drilling

A means of perforating beads or pendants for suspension. Accomplished by drilling in from both sides with a tapered drill resulting in an hourglass-shaped hole.

Biconical

Pertaining to a vessel when the sides make a sharp, inward change of direction, as if two truncated cones were placed base to base.

Bi Disk

A flat jade disk with a small hole in the center, made in ancient China for ceremonial purposes, possibly symbolizing heaven. Bi disks have also been described in ancient Chinese texts as a symbol of rank. Jade disks and disklike axes have been found in 4th and 3rd millennium bc graves at east-co...

Bewcastle Cross

A runic standing cross monument in the churchyard of Bewcastle, Northumberland, northern England, dating from the late 7th or early 8th century. Although the top of the cross has been lost, the 4.5 m (15-foot) shaft remains, with distinct panels of the figures of Christ in Majesty, St. John the B...

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