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.

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]

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.

WHAT IS THE CLASSİCAL ?

CLASSICAL: A general term referring to the period of time when a culture or civilization reaches its highest point of complexity and achievement. In a broader sense, the term often describes the whole period of Greek and Roman antiquity with the following breakdown: Early Classical 500–450 bc, High Classical 450–400 bc, and Late Classical 400–323 bc. Specifically, the term describes, in New World chronology, the period between the Formative (Pre-Classic) and the Post-Classic, which was characterized by the emergence of city states. During the Classic stage, civilized life in pre-Columbian America reached its fullest flowering, with large temple centers, advanced art styles, writing, etc. It was originally coined for the Maya civilization, initially defined by the earliest and most recent long count dates found on Maya stelae, ad 300–900. A division between Early and Late Classic was arbitrarily set at ad 600, since in some areas, e.g., Teotihuacán, great civilizations had already collapsed; some scholars regard this date as marking the end of the Classic period. By extension, the word came to be used for other Mexican cultures with a similar level of excellence (Teotihuacán, Monte Albán, El Tajín). In these areas the cultural climax was roughly contemporary with that of the Maya, and the term Classic took on a chronological meaning as well. The full Maya artistic, architectural, and calendric-hieroglyphic traditions took place during the Early Classic. Tikal, Uaxactún, and Copán all attained their glory then. In the Late Classic, between ad 600 and 900, ceremonial centers in the Maya lowlands grew in number, as did the making of the inscribed, dated stelae and monuments. The breakdown of the Classic period civilizations began with the destruction of the city of Teotihuacán in about ad 700. Some date the Classic period to ad 300–900. [classic, Classic] 

WHAT IS THE CLACTONIAN ?

CLACTONIAN: An early flake-tool culture of Europe, dating from the early Mindel-Riss (Great interglacial) of the Pleistocene epoch, which occurred from 1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago. It was named after discoveries at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England. A kind of concave scraper, perhaps used to smooth and shape wooden spears, is typical of the Clactonian industry. Apart from the tip of a wooden spear, the artifacts consist of trimmed flint flakes and chipped pebbles, some of which can be classified as chopper tools. Hand axes were absent. The Clactonian seems, therefore, to have coexisted with the early Acheulian. Some believe that the two industries are quite distinct, while others maintain that both assemblages might have been made by the same people, and that the Clactonian could in theory be an Acheulian industry from which hand axes were absent because such tools were not needed for the jobs carried out at a particular site. Clactonian and related industries are distributed throughout the north European plain, and Clactonian tools are similar in appearance to those produced in the Soan industry of Pakistan and in several sites in eastern and southern Africa. The Tayacian industry of France and Israel is believed to be a smaller edition of the Clactonian.

WHAT IS THE CINERARIUM ?

CINERARIUM: A place for depositing the ashes of the dead after cremation; a niche in a tomb for holding an urn of ashes or a sarcophagus.

WHAT IS THE CHRYSELEPHANTINE STATUE ?

CHRYSELEPHANTINE STATUE: A type of figurine sculpture made of ivory and gold. The flesh was of ivory and the drapery of gold. These were produced in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete, and in Greece from the 6th century bc. They were often colossal cult figures placed in the interiors of major temples, such as that of Minerva by Pheidias, which stood in the Acropolis at Athens and was 12 m (40 feet) high, and that of Zeus, 13.7 m (45 feet) high, also by Pheidias, in the temple of Olympia.

WHAT IS THE CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHIC SEQUENCE ?

CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHIC SEQUENCE: A time scale in which the sequence of geologic time units and their corresponding time–rock divisions (chronostratigraphic units) are defined by standard and internationally agreed reference points within boundary stratotypes. [chronostratigraphic scale]

WHAT IS THE CHOPPER ?

CHOPPER: Any large, simple stone or pebble tool with a single, transverse cutting edge. It was used for hacking, breaking, or chopping and was especially characteristic of Middle Pleistocene, pre-Acheulian industries of the Old World, such as Choukoutien, in the Clactonian in England, and at the earliest levels of Oldowan industries. This crude tool was made by striking a limited number of flakes from the edge of a cobble or fist-size rock to produce a coarse cutting edge. It persisted until the Neolithic. [chopping tool, slitter]

WHAT IS THE CHOCOLATE FLINT ?

CHOCOLATE FLINT: A variety of high-quality flint from the Holy Cross Mountains in central Poland, used by prehistoric peoples from the Mesolithic to the Early Bronze Age. It occurs in round flat nodules and in slabs no more than 10 mm (4 inches) thick. Chocolate flint is very homogeneous and has excellent flaking qualities. It was usually mined from shallow pits about 2.4 m (8 feet) deep. Four chocolate flint mines have been investigated at Tomaszow, Wierzbica-Zele, Polany, and Polany-Kolonie.

WHAT IS THE CHISEL ENDED ARROWHEAD ?

CHISEL ENDED ARROWHEAD: a type of arrow tip of flint or stone, with a sharp, straight cutting edge at right angles to the axis of the arrow shaft, rather than a point.

WHAT IS THE CHIPPED STONE TOOLS ?

CHIPPED STONE TOOL: Any tool produced by flaking or chipping of pieces from a stone core to produce an implement. [chipped artifact]

WHAT IS THE CHIOT POTTERY ?

CHIOT POTTERY: Archaic pottery of the Greek island of Chios, though it may also have been made at Naucratis. The pots and chalices had a cream slip and glazed interior. Decoration on the exterior was of scenes with figures; inside were floral patterns.

WHAT IS THE CHINDADN POINT ?

CHINDADN POINT: A small teardrop-shaped bifacial point found in central Alaska and dating to c. 12,000–10,000 bp; they are diagnostic of the Nenana complex.

WHAT IS THE CHEVRON FLAKING ?

CHEVRON FLAKING: a V-shaped flaking pattern which extended beyond the distal tip along much or all of one or both faces of a blade.

WHAT IS THE CHERT ?

Chert Nodule

CHERT: A coarse type of siliceous (silica) rock, a form of quartz, used for the manufacture of stone tools where flint was not available. It is of poorer quality than flint, formed from ancient ocean sediments, and often has a semi-glassy finish. It is pinkish, white, brown, gray, or bluegray in color. Flint, chert, and other siliceous rocks like obsidian are very hard, and produce a razor-sharp edge when properly flaked into tools. This crystalline form of the mineral silica is found as nodules in limestones. Varieties of chert are jasper, chalcedony, agate, flint, and novaculite. Chert and flint provided the main source of tools and weapons for Stone Age man.

WHAT IS THE CHELLEAN ?

CHELLEAN: An outdated classification term used for the first stage of biface manufacture believed to precede the Acheulian, and named after the type site of Chelles in the Somme Valley, France. It is now generally accepted that Chellean implements should be classified as early Acheulian. The term Chello-Acheulian, once applied to African Earlier Stone Age biface assemblages, has also been replaced by the term Acheulian.

WHAT IS THE CHEEKPIECE ?

CHEEKPIECE: 1. Part of a horse bridle, a crescent section of brow tine from a deer’s antler, perforated with a central hole or slot for the soft mouthpiece of rope or leather, with perforations above and below for a bifurcate rein. Found in the Early Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin dating

to the mid 2nd millennium bc. 2. A plate or rod of bone, bronze, leather, or another metal that is attached to the lower rim of a helmet to protect the wearer’s cheeks.

WHAT IS THE CHEDDAR POINT ?

CHEDDAR POINT: Type of later Upper Paleolithic flint tool of the British Isles, named for Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. The point was made on a relatively narrow flint blade, and both ends were worked to make an elongated trapezoidal form with the long side of the blade left unworked and the shorter side blunted.

WHAT IS THE CHAVIN CULTURE ?

CHAVIN CULTURE: Early Horizon communities living in the northern highlands and the northern and central sections of the coast of Peru in the period 900–250 bc with recognizable architectural styles (temples), iconography, and ceramic forms. The focus of the Chavín culture is the site of Chavín de Huantar, Peru.

WHAT IS THE CHANNEL RIMMED JAR ?

CHANNEL RIMMED JAR: A type of cooking pot with an out-turned rim with one or more distinct grooves on it, mid to late 1st century in Roman times in Britain.

WHAT IS THE CHANNEL FLAKE ?

CHANNEL FLAKE: The long, thin blade of stone removed longitudinally from the base of a fluted Paleoindian projectile point by percussion or pressure from the center line of either face. The smooth depression it leaves behind is known as a flute or channel. [channel flaking (n.)]

WHAT IS THE CHANCAY ?

CHANCAY: In central Peru, a distinctive type of pottery made by the Chancay people between ad 1000 and 1500 (from the Late Intermediate Period). It is black-on-white with a parallel or checkered design, sometimes with biomorphic figures or painted in soft colors. The most common forms were tall, two-handled, egg-shaped collared jars; bowls and beakers with slightly bowed sides; and large figurines. The pottery is associated with large effigy figurines, dolls, and lacelike textiles. Chancay

weaving was considered excellent.

WHAT IS THE CHAMPLEVE ?

CHAMPLEVE: An enameling technique or an object made by the process; a form of inlay in which the pattern is cut out of the metal to be ornamented. The pattern was then filled with enamel frit and fused in an oven, or filled with polished stones or shells. Champlevé can be distinguished from the similar technique of cloisonné by a greater irregularity in the width of the metal lines. It developed as a Celtic art in western Europe in the Roman period and was copied by the Anglo-Saxons. In the Rhine River valley and in Belgium’s Meuse River valley, champlevé production flourished, especially during the late 11th and 12th centuries. It was often used in the decoration of the escutcheons on hanging bowls. [champ-levé, champleve                                                                                             enameling]

WHAT IS THE CHALCOLİTHİC ?

Chalcolithic Jericho

CHALCOLİTHİC: Literally, the “Copper Stone Age,” a period between the Neolithic (Stone Age) and the Bronze Age, from 3000 to 2500 bc, in which both stone and copper tools were used. It was a transitional phase between Stone Age technology and the Bronze Age with its increase in trade and cultural exchanges. The term is much less widely used than other divisions and subdivisions of the Three Age System, partly because of the difficulty in distinguishing copper from bronze without chemical analysis, partly because many areas did not have a Chalcolithic period at all.

WHAT IS THE CHALCIDIAN WARE ?

 Chalcidian black figure amphora

CHALCIDIAN WARE: Black-figured pottery found in Etruria and the Chalcidian colony of Rhegium (modern Reggio) in Italy. The style included lettering of the inscriptions as part of the decoration.

WHAT IS THE CHALCEDONY ?

CHALCEDONY: A fine-grained hard stone, a variety of the silica mineral quartz. A form of chert, it is found in a variety of milky or grayish colors with distinctive parallel bands of contrasting color. In antiquity, chalcedony was the stone most used by the gem engraver for beads, seals, and sometimes as a substitute for flint. Agate, carnelian, jasper, and onyx are some of the varieties still cut and polished as ornamental stones.

WHAT IS THE CHAIN OPERATOIRE ?

CHAIN OPERATOIRE: A perspective for studying lithic technology that emphasizes the sequence of decisions and behaviors from raw material selection and acquisition, through manufacture, use, recycling, and discard.

WHAT IS THE CHAIN MAIL ?

CHAIN MAIL: A type of protective body armor in the form of interlinked metal rings, worn by European knights and other military men throughout most of the medieval period. An early form of mail, made by sewing iron rings to fabric or leather, was worn in late Roman times and may have originated in Asia, where it was worn for many centuries. [mail]

WHAT IS THE CHAFING DISH ?

CHAFING DISH: A cooking pot with an outer pan of hot water, used for keeping food warm.

WHAT IS THE CHACMOOL ?

CHACMOOL: a Mesoamerican life-sized sculpted stone figure representing a reclining human with the head turned to one side, knees drawn up, and hands holding a shallow receptacle flat on the stomach. This was a widespread art form in the Post-Classic period, especially at the Toltec sites of Tula and Chichen Itza and at Aztec and Tarascan sites. It was located at the entranceway to temples and was probably a repository for offerings.

WHAT IS THE CEREMONIAL OBJECT ?

CEREMONIAL OBJECT: Any artifact associated with a ritual or ceremony or that functions only in a symbolic sense, as opposed to a tool or other practical device.

WHAT IS THE CERAMIC PETROLOGY ?

CERAMIC PETROLOGY: The study of the composition, texture, and structure of the minerals in the clay from which pottery is manufactured. The purpose of ceramic petrology is to locate the source of the clay from which the pot was made. Ceramic petrology involves either heavy mineral analysis or petrologic microscopy, both of which require samples to be removed from the pot. Neutron activation analysis is also used. Results from these studies have far-reaching consequences for the study of early economic systems. Not only has it been shown that pottery and its contents were transported over long distances in antiquity, but also that the specialized manufacture and marketing of pottery started as far back as the first agriculture in Europe.

WHAT IS THE CERAMIC ANALYSIS ?

CERAMIC ANALYSIS: any of various techniques used to study artifacts made from fired clay to obtain archaeological data. Color is objectively described by reference to the Munsell soil color charts. Examination under the microscope may reveal the technique of manufacture and allow the identification of mineral grains in the tempering, which will identify the area of manufacture. Refiring experiments often show how the original baking was done.

WHAT IS THE CENOZOIC ?

CENOZOIC: The most recent geological era in the Earth’s history, in which mammals came to dominate animal life. The Cenozoic runs from 66.4 million years ago to the present and began when Asia acquired its present appearance and mammals came to dominate animal life. The most important tectonic event in the Cenozoic history of Asia was its collision with India some 50 million years ago. This collision took place some 2100 km (1250 miles) farther south of the present location of the line of collision along the Indus–Brahmaputra suture behind the main range of the Himalayas. The Cenozoic includes the Tertiary and Quaternary periods.

WHAT IS THE CELTIC ART ?

CELTIC ART :An art style of the European Iron Age, c. 500 bc, developed presumably by Celtic peoples. It originated on the middle Rhine River, extending to the upper Danube and the Marne. Its finest specimens are from the British Isles in the 1st century bc and ad. It appears most commonly in bronzework or other metals, weapons and horse gear, eating and drinking vessels, personal ornaments, and monumental stone carvings. It seems likely that the craftsmen worked under the direct patronage of the chieftains. Techniques employed were decoration in relief, engraving, and inlay. Stylistically, Celtic art combines elements taken from the Classical world, from the Scythians to the east and from the local earlier Hallstatt Iron Age. The art developed into several styles in continental Europe (Early, Waldalgesheim, Plastic, and Sword styles) but came to an end with the Roman occupation. In Ireland, the art style returned after the Roman withdrawal. [La Tène art]

WHAT IS THE CELT ?

CELT: A New Stone Age tool, usually a polished, ungrooved ax or adze head or blade that would be attached to a wooden shaft. The tool, often shaped like a chisel and made of stone or bronze, was probably used for felling trees or shaping wood. Great numbers of celts have been discovered in the British Isles and Denmark and were traded widely. Bronze Age tools of similar general design are also called celts.