EVERYTHING ABOUT ARCHAEOLOGY: 2015
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6 Temmuz 2015 Pazartesi

WHAT IS THE DIRECT PERCUSSUION ?

DIRECT PERCUSSION: A technique used in the manufacture of chipped-stone artifacts in which flakes are produced by striking a core with another stone, a hammerstone, or by striking the core against a fixed stone or anvil in order to dislodge a flake. The method is less precise in its results than indirect percussion. [free-hand percussion]

WHAT IS THE DIADEM?

DIAMDEM: A plain or decorated headband or crown of manmade or natural materials, usually as a badge of status or office.

2 Temmuz 2015 Perşembe

WHAT IS THE DEPAS ?

Homeric term that Schliemann used to describe the two-handled cups which he found in Early Bronze Age contexts at Troy. [depas amphikypellon]

WHAT IS THE DAUB ?

Cay which is smeared onto a structure of timber or wattle (interwoven twigs) as a finish to the surface. It is normally added to both faces of a wall and is used to keep out drafts and give a smooth finish. The material usually survives only when baked or fire-hardened, as would be the case if a structure burned down. It can usually be recognized by the impressions of the wattle to be found on its inner face. It was used by both Indians and European settlers in North
America to construct houses.

WHAT IS THE DALTON POINT ?

A complex of the late Paleoindian and Archaic periods of the midwestern and eastern US, associated with the Dalton projectile point class. The point was varied due to reuse and resharpening. The Dalton sites indicate that hunting deer was important. Brand in northeast Arkansas and Stanfield-Worley Bluff in Alabama are the best known sites. [Dalton point, Dalton projectile point]

19 Haziran 2015 Cuma

WHAT IS THE DALLAS WARE ?

DALLAS WARE: Coarse, shell-gritted, handmade cooking pots from the mid 2nd century ad onward around the Trent and Humber Rivers. The fabric is hard and coarse with a smooth but unpolished surface and gray, black, or brown in color.

WHAT IS THE DAGGER AX ?

DAGGER AX: A bronze Chinese weapon in use from the Shang dynasty (c. 1500 bc) to the Han dynasty (206 bc to ad 220). The earliest forms
were broad and mounted at right angles to a wooden shaft through which the tang projected. Later forms had a slender blade which extended down the shaft at right angles to the main point to prevent it snapping. [ko]

WHAT IS THE CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD VASE ?

CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD VASE: A ceramic form popular in the Early Classic period in Mesoamerica and an important artifact of the Teotihuacán. It is cylindrical in shape and stands on three slab or cylindrical legs and frequently has a knobbed lid. [cylindrical vase]

WHAT IS THE CYLINDER SEAL ?

CYLINDER SEAL: A cylinder engraved with a design, scene, and/or inscription which was impressed onto the plastic clay when the cylinder seal was rolled over a clay tablet. This was the standard seal form of the Mesopotamian civilization, starting in the Uruk period. The incised stone cylinder was rolled over a soft surface so that the design appeared in relief. These seals were used to mark property and to legalize documents. Dating is based on changes in the design carved on the seal as well as the seal’s size and proportion.

9 Haziran 2015 Salı

WHAT IS THE CYCLADIC ?


CYCLADIC: Concerning the Bronze Age of the Cyclades, Aegean Islands, equivalent to Helladic on the Greek mainland and Minoan in Crete. It is usually divided into three major divisions: Early (c. 3000–2000 bc), Middle (c. 2000–1550 bc), and Late (c. 1550–1050 bc). In the earlier Bronze Age, Cycladic culture seems to be largely independent, but in the late Middle Cycladic to early Late Cycladic, Minoan influence becomes important. After c. 1400 bc mainland (Mycenaean) influence replaces the Minoan and many islands were colonized by the Mycenaeans. Colin Renfrew has proposed an alternative Early Cycladic subdivision into Grotta-Pelos, Keros-Syros, and Phylakopi I – a culture sequence.

WHAT IS THE CURRENCY BAR ?

CURRENCY BAR: A strip of iron about 4 cm (1.5 inches) wide and 30–90 cm (2–3 feet) long and pinched up at one end, which served as a unit of currency in Britain during the Late Iron Age, before the introduction of coins by the Belgae. The bars may have originated as sword
blanks or roughouts. Their distribution was mainly in Dorset and the Cotswolds, with some in the Severn Basin.

WHAT IS THE CUPISNIQUE ?

CUPISNIQUE: A style of pottery of the north coast of Peru during the Early Horizon, and a local variant of Chavín culture. It is most often associated with graves and is characteristically a polished gray–black ware with globular bodies, stirrup spouts, and relief decoration. Early Cupisnique tends to be strongly modeled by plastic manipulation of the surface. In later phases, red and black banding, separated by incision and life modeling, especially stylized felines, appear. The style dates from 900–200 bc and gave rise to three other styles: Salinar, Gallinazo, and Vicus.

WHAT IS THE CUMB AND RING MARK ?


CUMB AND RING MARK: The commonest form of rock carving in the British Isles, consisting of a cuplike depression surrounded by one or more concentric grooves. Cup-and-ring marks are found on standing stones, singular or in stone circles, and on the slabs of burial cists, as well on natural rock surfaces. In its classic form most cup-and-ring art belongs in the Bronze Age, but the motif occurs on passage graves, for example in the Clava tombs and on the capstones at Newgrange, where it may show links with similar rock carvings in northwest Spain. They are also found in Ireland and Scotland and can be dated to the Neolithic period of the 4th to 3rd millennium bc.

25 Nisan 2015 Cumartesi

WHAT IS THE CUMBRIAN CLUB ?

CUMBRIAN CLUB: A term for a distinctive type of large polished stone ax of Middle Neolithic date made in northwest England. It has a broadbutted form, long, narrow proportions, and a distinct “waisting” of constriction towards the butt end. [Cumbrian-type stone ax]

WHAT IS THE CRESWELL POİNT ?

CRESWELL POİNT: Type of later Upper Paleolithic flint tool found in the British Isles made from a narrow flint blade, with one end worked to produce a slightly elongated trapezoidal form, with the long side of the blade left unworked, and the shorter side blunted.

18 Nisan 2015 Cumartesi

WHAT IS THE CRESTED BLADE ?

CRESTED BLADE: A flint blade with negative impressions of removals on one side of the dorsal surface, creating a crest. These constitute part of a previously worked striking platform or result from preparing the  flaked surface on a core before detaching the flakes or blades.

WHAT IS THE CRESCENT ?

CRESCENT: A crescent-shaped, bifacially flaked stone tool generally restricted to the Paleoindian period and almost always found in association with extinct Pleistocene lakes. They were possibly used for hunting large shorebirds. [Great Basin transverse point]

WHAT IS THE CRATER ?

CRATER: A large, wide-mouthed, two-handled Greek or Roman bowl or vase, usually made of pottery or metal. It is characteristic of Greece in the Mycenaean and Classical periods. They were used to serve wine, mixed with water in varying proportions, into individual drinking cups, and handed out at banquets and sacrifices. The word is Greek for “mixing bowl.” There is a classification of four types: column crater, volute crater, calyx crater, and bell crater, which take their names from the characteristic shape either of the handle or of the body of the vase.

WHAT IS THE CRAMBECK WARE ?

CRAMBECK WARE: A type of pottery that was widely distributed across the north of England and North Wales in the second half of the 4th century ad, including cream-colored mortaria and parchment wares, imitation Samian forms, and gray kitchen wares.

16 Nisan 2015 Perşembe

WHAT IS THE CORTEX ?

CORTEX: A tough covering or crust on an unmodified stone cobble or newly exposed flint nodule and tabular flint. It is formed by weathering and is usually discarded during the knapping process.

WHAT IS THE CORNER NOTCH ?

CORNER NOTCH : A major projectile form that is described as a point that has had notches for hafting struck into the corners of the base; a flaking technique applied to accommodate hafting which involved the flaking of notches into the basal corners of a preform base. [corner-notched, corner-notched point]

WHAT IS THE CORN MUMMY ?

CORN MUMMY: A type of anthropomorphic funerary object made of soil mixed with grains of corn, which was usually wrapped up in linen bandages and had a face mask.

WHAT IS THE CORINTHIAN POTTERY ?

CORINTHIAN POTTERY: A widely distributed pottery made at Corinth and found throughout the Mediterranean, from the late 7th century bc until the mid 6th century bc. This important stage of vase painting included “naturalistic” designs of animals, maenads, and satyrs and the invention of the black-figure technique and some new shapes, such as the aryballos and alabastron. Proto-Corinthian pottery, most of which is miniature in size, was the first to be decorated in the black-figure painting technique – figure silhouettes drawn in black and filled in with incised details.

15 Nisan 2015 Çarşamba

WHAT IS THE CORE TOOL ?

CORE TOOL: A stone tool, such as a hand ax, chopper, or scraper, formed by chipping away flakes from a core. These tools, often large and relatively heavy, were characteristic of Paleolithic culture. They were made by using a pebble, antler, or bone hammer. [core-tool]

WHAT IS THE CORE REJUVENATION FLAKE ?

CORE REJUVENATION FLAKE: A roughly round and slightly wedge-shaped flake of flint with the remains of flake beds around the outside edge. These flakes are created to extend the life of a core that has become uneven or difficult to work. [core tablet]

WHAT IS THE CORE ?

CORE: 1. A piece of stone used as a blank from which flakes or blades were removed by prehistoric toolmakers. Usually it was the byproduct of toolmaking, but it may also have been shaped and modified to serve as an implement in its own right. An object, such as a hand ax, chopper, or scraper made in this way is a core tool. Cores were most often produced when hit by a pebble, antler, or bone hammer. [blank, nucleus] 2. A black or gray zone in the interior crosssection of a vessel wall, usually associated with incomplete removal of carbonaceous matter from the clay during relatively low-temperature firing; not to be confused with black coring at high temperatures, which results from trapped gases and may lead to bloating. [coring (n.)]

WHAT IS THE CORDENED URN ?

CORDENED URN: A type of Middle Bronze Age pottery in the northern parts of the British Isles during the 2nd millennium bc, generally tall straightsided vessels with a flat base, slightly flaring body and a simple rim. The outer face is decorated with applied cordons ornamented with incised decoration.

14 Nisan 2015 Salı

WHAT IS THE CORDILLERAN ?

CORDILLERAN: The ice mass that covered the coastal mountains along the Pacific Ocean coast of North America from northern Washington state into southern Alaska. At its maximum extent, about 20,000 years ago, it connected with the Laurentide ice sheet to the east and with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and reached a thickness of some 3 km (1 mile). The Cordilleran geosyncline was a linear trough in the Earth’s crust in which rocks of Late Precambrian to Mesozoic age (roughly 600 million to 66 million years ago) were deposited along the western coast of North America, from southern Alaska through western Canada and the United States, probably to western Mexico. The eastern boundary of the geosyncline extended from southeastern Alaska along the eastern edge of the northern Cordillera and northern Rocky Mountains of Canada and Montana, along the eastern edge of the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada, and into southeastern California and Mexico. The Old Cordilleran culture appeared in the Pacific Northwest about 9000 or 10,000 bc and persisted until about 5000 bc in some areas. Subsistence was based on hunting, fishing, and gathering. Simple willowleafshaped, bipointed projectile points are characteristic artifacts.

WHAT IS THE CORDED WARE ?

CORDED WARE: a Late Neolithic pottery ware decorated with twisted cord ornament found over much of north and central Europe in the 2nd half of the 3rd millennium bc. The commonest shapes are the beaker and the globular amphora. The ware is always associated with early agriculture, the stone battle ax, and usually with single burial under a small barrow or kurgan. The ware may derive from Denmark, central Germany (Saxo-Thuringia), eastern Poland, or the Ukraine. The culture received its name from the characteristic pottery. Some groups also had metal artifacts. There is some evidence that Corded ware people had domesticated horses and wheeled vehicles, and they are sometimes interpreted as nomadic groups – possibly Indo-European speaking – who spread across northern Europe from the east. Closely related are the Globular amphora and Funnel beaker cultures.

WHAT IS THE CORACLE ?

CORACLE: Primitive, light, small bowl-shaped boat with a wattle frame of grasses, reeds, or saplings covered with hides. They were first known in the Iron Age and are still used in Wales and along coastal Ireland, usually with a canvas and tar covering. The term also refers to an Old English boat of wickerwork covered with hides. Native Americans used the similar bullboat, covered with buffalo hides, on the Missouri River, and the corita, often sealed with bitumen, on the Colorado.

WHAT IS THE COPRIC PERIOD ?

COPRIC PERIOD: Chronological phase in Egypt lasting from the end of the Roman period, c. ad 395, until the Islamic conquest, c. ad 641. It is also described as the “Christian” period and is roughly equivalent to the Byzantine period elsewhere in the Near East.

13 Nisan 2015 Pazartesi

WHAT IS THE COPROLITE ?

COPROLITE: Fossilized or desiccated human or animal feces. The study of these remains can provide information about human or animal activity in that particular locale, such as diet and disease; the study of these remains is called coprology. Coprolites only survive in exceptional circumstances – arid, frozen, and occasionally waterlogged deposits. They can be reconstituted by the addition of chemicals like trisodium phosphate, and can then be analyzed for their plant and animal remains. This gives additional insight into what was being eaten at a site, since the evidence from pollen analysis, or flotation, only suggests what was being grown.

WHAT IS THE COPPER HOARD ?

Copper Hoard Culture
COPPER HOARD: A hoard of copper artifacts, many of which occur in the Ganges-Yamuna doab (alluvial plain) and in the area south of the lower Ganges, the former occasionally associated with ocher-colored pottery. The hoards, dated broadly to the 2nd millennium bc, include flat axes, anthropomorphous axes, barbed harpoons, and sword blades. They have been cited as evidence of the Vedia arrival by some. Other copper hoards with different artifact typologies also occur elsewhere in India and Pakistan.

WHAT IS THE COPPER AGE ?

Iceman Otzi
COPPER AGE: An intermediate period between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, characterized by the use of copper tools. According to the principles of the Three Age System, it should strictly mean the period when copper was the main material for man’s basic tools and weapons. It is difficult to apply in this sense as copper at its first appearance was very scarce, and experimentation with alloying seems to have begun early on. The alternative names of Chalcolithic and Eneolithic imply the joint use of copper and stone. In many sequences, notably in Europe and Asia, there is a period between the Neolithic and Bronze Age, separated from each by breaks in the cultural development, within which copper was coming into use and Copper Age is the best term to use. In Asia, the age saw the origins of civilization, and in Europe the great folk movements of the Beaker and Corded ware cultures, and perhaps the introduction of the Indo-European languages. The period lasted for almost 1000 years in southeast Europe, from 3500 bc.

WHAT IS THE CONG ?

CONG: A tubular, jade object, circular on the inside and enclosed in a rectangular body, made in various sizes and used for ritual purposes in ancient China. Cong were described in ancient Chinese texts as symbols of rank and were used as ritual objects primarily in the Shang (18th to 12th century bc) and Zhou/Chou (1111–255 bc) dynasties. They have been found in graves, arranged with bidisks around the corpses of the elite. The cong is thought to have symbolized Earth or possibly to have been an astronomical                                                                                         instrument. [ts’ung]

11 Nisan 2015 Cumartesi

WHAT IS THE CONE MOSAIC ?

CONE MOSAIC: A type of wall decoration used in the Uruk (VI–IV) and Jemdet Nasr periods of southern Mesopotamia. Stone or baked clay cones were stuck into the surface of building facades to produce a colored mosaic geometric pattern. Examples have been found in the Eanna section of Warka.

WHAT IS THE CONCHODIAL FRACTURE ?

CONCHODIAL FRACTURE: A characteristic shell-like fracture pattern that occurs in siliceous rocks, such as obsidian, chert, and flint. The fracture has smooth, shell-like convexities and concavities. [conchoidal]

WHAT IS THE CONCHOIDAL FLAKE ?

CONCHOIDAL FLAKE: A type of spall resulting from the fracture of fine-grained or glassy rocks. It is characterized by a bulb of percussion, striking platform remnant, and extremely sharp edges. There is a predictable fracture pattern that allows the manufacture of predetermined tools from these materials.

WHAT IS THE COMPARTMENTED SEAL ?

COMPARTMENTED SEAL: The typical, usually metal, seal of the Bronze Age in western Central Asia and northern Afghanistan. Most often round, the seal motifs were geometric or of objects in nature.

10 Nisan 2015 Cuma

WHAT IS THE COMB ?

COMB: A toothed object of wood, bone, horn, metal, etc. with a number of uses – for hair dressing, carding wool, currying horses, compacting the weft in weaving, for decorating pottery, or as an ornament to keep the hair in place. As used for combing the hair, but not wearing, combs were found in Pompeian and Egyptian tombs and in early British, Roman, and Saxon barrows.

WHAT IS THE COLOSSUS ?

The colossus of Rameses II
COLOSSUS: A gigantic statue or image of the human form, usually of a king but also of private individuals and gods. They are typically set up outside the gates or pylons of temples. The term was originally applied by Herodotus to those of Egypt. The most famous is the bronze statue of Apollo at Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the world, reputed to have stood at the entrance to the harbor and claimed by Pliny to have been 27 m (90 feet) tall. [colossi, colossuses (pl.)]

WHAT IS THE COLOR COATED WARE ?

COLOR COATED WARE: A way of referring to many kinds of pottery in the Greek and Roman periods that were given an extra surface coating, usually slightly glossy and most often red. Research suggests that the coating was made from fine clay particles suspended in water with a peptizing agent added.

WHAT IS THE COLLATERAL FLAKING ?

COLLATERAL FLAKING: When flakes on a chipped stone artifact extend to the middle from both edges forming a medial ridge. The flakes are at right angles to the longitudinal axis, and are regular and uniform in size.

WHAT IS THE COLLARED URN ?

COLLARED URN: A type of urn used in the British Early Bronze Age, also called an overhanging rim urn. It has a developed rim which may be straight, convex, or slightly concave in profile. Decoration is normally on the rim or the upper half of the vessel. Collared urns often contained cremation burials, though some have been found in domestic contexts.

WHAT IS THE COIN ?

COIN: A piece of metal or, rarely, of some other material (such as leather or porcelain) certified by a mark or marks upon it as being of a specific value. Coinage is considered to be any standardized series of metal tokens, their specific weights representing specific values, and usually stamped with designs and inscriptions. Coins or coinlike objects were first issued by the Lydians of Anatolia in the late 7th century bc, made of the gold–silver alloy electrum. Their use was then adopted in the Far East, then around the Mediterranean, and has since spread throughout the world. Early coins were used for specialized, prestigious purposes and not for everyday exchange. The early Greek coins were also made of electrum, silver, or gold; the first Roman coins were produced in the early 3rd century bc and were also made of precious metals. Later in that century the first bronze coin was introduced. These material remains are self-dating, though they do not always date the materials they are found with as they may have been traded, handed down through generations, or displaced in the stratigraphy
of a site.

WHAT IS THE COCHISE POINT ?

COCHISE POINT: A type of projectile point from 4000 bc to perhaps 500 bc, indicating an increased interest in hunting, of the US southwest (Arizona). Currently the use of the Cochise culture concept is fairly uncommon.

WHAT IS THE COARSEWARE ?

COARSEWARE: A classification of sandy, rough pottery including Castor ware, New Forest ware, and Rustic ware. [coarse pottery, coarse ware]

WHAT IS THE CLOVIS POINT ?

CLOVIS POINT: A distinctive, fluted, lanceolate (leaf-shaped) stone projectile point characteristic of the early Paleoindian period, c. 10,000– 9000 bc, and often found in association with mammoth bones. It is named for Clovis, New Mexico, where it was first found. The oncave-based projectile point has a longitudinal groove on each face running from the base to a point not more than halfway along the tool. The base of a Clovis point is concave and the edge of the base is usually blunted through grinding, probably to ensure that the thongs, attaching the point to the projectile, were not cut. It is assumed to have been a spear because of its size; the length of points varies from 7 to 12 cm (2–4 inches), and their widest width is 3–4 cm (1–1.5 inches). Clovis points and the artifacts associated with them (grouped together as the Llano complex) are among the earliest tools known from the New World and have been found over most of North America, with a few outliers as far south as Mexico and Panama. It is the earliest projectile point of the Big Game Hunting tradition of North America. From these points came the later, more sophisticated points, such as the Folsom. [Clovis projectile point, Clovis spear point]

9 Nisan 2015 Perşembe

WHAT IS THE CLEAVER ?


CLEAVER: A heavy, large core or flake tool of the Paleolithic period, typically having a wide, straight cutting edge at one end, like a modern axhead. Technologically it is related to the hand ax, and is often found as a component of Acheulian (especially Upper Acheulian) hand-ax industries. The sharp transverse cutting edge was almost always notched by use but never sharpened. Along with bifacial tools, it was one of the main instruments of Homo erectus. It is found mainly in Africa, where much of the flake surface is left unretouched. The axlike knife was used from the Middle Pleistocene era to cut through animal bone and meat.

WHAT IS THE CLAY TABLET ?


CLAY TABLET: The main writing material used by the scribes of early civilizations. Signs were impressed or inscribed on the soft clay, which was then dried in the sun. The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites wrote on tablets made from water-cleaned clay. A common form was a thin quadrilateral tile about 12.5 cm (5 inches) long which, while still wet, was inscribed by a stylus with cuneiform characters. By writing on the surface in small characters, a scribe could copy a substantial text on to a single tablet. For longer texts, several tablets were used and then linked by numbers or catchwords. Book production on clay tablets probably continued for 2000 years in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Either dried in the sun or baked in a kiln, clay tablets were almost indestructible. The latter process was used for texts of special value, legal codes, royal annals, and epics to ensure greater preservation. Buried for thousands of years in the mounds of forgotten cities, they have been removed intact or almost so in modern archaeological excavations. The number of clay tablets recovered is nearly half a million, but there are constantly new finds.