WHAT IS THE NENE VALLEY WARE?

WHAT IS THE MUMMIFICATION?

WHAT IS THE MOUSTERIAN?

A Middle Paleolithic culture that is defined by the development of a wide variety of specialized tools made with prepared-core knapping techniques, such as spear points. It is named for the first such artifacts recovered from the lower rock shelter at Le Moustier, Dordogne, France. Stone tools, scrapers, and points found in the cave came to be recognized as the flint industry present throughout Europe during first half of the last glaciation (Würm) and associated with Neanderthal man. The earliest Mousterian goes back to the Riss glaciation, but most of it comes from the late/middle Würm glaciation, giving a total lifespan from 180,000 bc until c. 30,000 bce. Flintwork of Mousterian type (with racloirs, triangular points made on flakes, and – in some variants – well-made hand axes) has been found over most of the unglaciated parts of Eurasia, as well as in the Near East and North Africa (in the latter two areas, it constitutes the Middle Paleolithic). Three major regional variants have been identified – West, East, and Levalloiso-Mousterian, each with subgroups. In certain industries, called Levalloiso-Mousterian, the tools were made on flakes produced by the Levallois technique. It was a progressive stage in the manufacture of stone tools. Mousterian peoples mainly lived in cave mouths and rock shelters.

WHAT IS THE MOSAIC?

A technique of decoration used mainly on floors or walls involving the setting of small colored fragments of stone, tile, mineral, shell, or glass, each called a tessera (plural tesserae), in a cement or adhesive matrix. Mosaic also refers to a tesselated area, often of complex designs and, possibly, inscriptions. Mosaic floors were made from small squares, triangles, or other regular shapes up to 2 cm (1 inch) in size. They were laid in cement to form designs, figures of animals, or classical figures representing the seasons, etc. Old limestone would be used for white and various reds, browns, or grays from baked clays were used. Glass, too, was sometimes incorporated. The earliest known mosaics date from the 8th century bc and are made of pebbles, a technique refined by Greek craftsmen in the 5th century bc. Greek mosaics were simple pebble floors and then became more complex and sophisticated under Macedonian kings. Mosaics are known from Pompeii, Rome, Tivoli, Aquileia, and Ostia – as well as Africa, Antioch, Sicily, and Britain. Under the Roman Empire, the achievements of the 5th to 6th-century Byzantine artists at Ravenna are impressive. An excellent collection of mosaics from Pompeii may be seen in the Mueo Nazionale at Naples, and a good selection of Imperial Roman provincial work may be seen at the Museum of Le Bardo, outside modern Tunis, Tunisia. Pre-Columbian American Indians favored mosaics of semiprecious stones such as garnet and turquoise and mother-ofpearl. These were normally used to encrust small objects such as shields, masks, and cult statues. Mosaic as an art form has most in common with painting. It represents a design or image in two dimensions. It is also, like painting, a technique appropriate to large-scale surface decoration. [mosaic work]

WHAT IS THE MORTLAKE WARE?

A family of elaborately decorated Neolithic ceramics found in southern and eastern parts of the British Isles. Dating to the period 3000–2000 bc, Isobel Smith divided Peterborough wares into three successive styles – Ebbsfleet, Mortlake, and Fengate – on the basis of their occurrence in the ditch fills at Windmill Hill. It is now recognized that these three groups overlap rather more than originally thought, and that they are best seen as part of the broad group of impressed wares found over much of northern Europe in the 3rd millennium bc. The decoration on Peterborough ware consists of pits, “maggot impressions” made by impressing tightly rolled cord, and the impressions made by pressing the ends of bird bones into the soft clay before firing. Some of the later vessels are the first in Britain to be made with flat bases. [Peterborough ware]

WHAT IS THE MORTAR?

1. Part of an ancient device for processing plant foods, usually used with a pestle. It was a stone or wooden receptacle with a cupshaped depression. Mortars were frequently made of special rocks, which might be traded over considerable distances. The mortars of the medieval period in Europe have been studied at length; the first stone mortars occur in 8th century Dore-Stad and have origins in the Moselle Valley, while the French Carolingians at this time were using pottery mortars. 2. A mixture of lime with cement, sand, and water, used in building to bond bricks or stones.

WHAT IS THE MORROW MOUNTAIN POINT?

Middle Archaic bifacially worked chipped stone projectile points of eastern North America dating to the period c. 6000–4000 bc. The points are triangular in outline with slightly flared sides towards the base and a small rounded tang on the base.

WHAT IS THE MINYAN WARE?

A distinctive Middle Helladic pottery – a gray or yellow wheelmade ware of high quality first appearing at Troy VI and in Greece c. 19th century bc. It was the first wheelmade pottery to be produced in Middle Bronze Age Greece. It was ancestral to Mycenaean pottery, and may represent a movement of new peoples into the Aegean area, the first Greek speakers. Traditionally it has been associated with an apparently violent end to the Early Helladic culture, c. 2000–1900 bc, and the arrival of Greek-speaking peoples in the Aegean. The term was coined by Heinrich Schliemann. The ware had a soap-like feeling and its forms were modeled after metal objects.

WHAT IS THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC?

The intermediate part of the Paleolithic period, from about 100,000 years ago to about 35,000 years ago. It was characterized by the development of a variety of stone tools and the first symbolic use of artifacts and sites. It ended with the extinction of the Neanderthals. The Middle Paleolithic is equivalent to the Middle Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa. The Middle Paleolithic comprises the Mousterian, a portion of the Levalloisian, and the Tayacian, all of which are complexes based on the production of flakes, although the hand-ax tradition survived in many instances. Middle Paleolithic assemblages first appear in deposits of the third interglacial and persisted during the first major oscillation of the fourth glacial (Würm) stage. Associated with the Tayacian, in which the artifacts consist of very crude flakes, remains of modern man (Homo sapiens) have been found. Mousterian man, on the other hand, is of the Neanderthal race. It is in the Mousterian levels of the caves and rock shelters of central and southern France that the earliest evidence of the use of fire and the first definite burials have been discovered in western Europe. The artifacts consist of: (1) the prepared striking platform, “tortoise” core (Levalloisian) tradition; (2) the plain striking platform, discoidal core technique of the Clactonian tradition; and (3) a persistence of the bifacial core tool, or Acheulean tradition.

WHAT IS THE MIDDLE ASSYRIAN PERIOD?

1. A period in the history of the Assyrian Empire extending from the 14th to 12th centuries bc. In the Late Bronze Age, Assyria was dominated by the Mitanni state, but in the 14th century bc, Assyria became dominant. Ashur-uballit I created the first Assyrian Empire and initiated the Middle Assyrian period. With the help of the Hittites, he destroyed the dominion of the Aryan Mitanni (a non-Semitic people from upper Iran and Syria) and ravaged Nineveh. Later, allied with the Kassite successors in Babylonia, Ashur uballit ended Hittite and Hurrian rule. By intermarriage he then influenced the Kassite dynasty and eventually dominated all of Babylonia, thus paving the way for the Neo Assyrian mastery during the Sargonid dynasty (12th to 7th century). The succeeding Assyrian kings expanded the empire through northern Mesopotamia and the mountains to the north and briefly occupied Babylonia. Several kings weakened Assyria, but then others brought back its dominion. 2. The name of a form of cuneiform that was used extensively in writing law code and other documents. Middle Assyrian laws were found on clay tablets at Ashur (at the time of Tiglath-pileser I, 1114–1076 bc).

WHAT IS THE MICROLITH?

Any of various very small stone tools varying in size from 1 to 5 cm (0.4–2 inches) – mainly thin blades or blade fragments with sharp cutting edges, usually geometric in shape, and set into a wooden handle or shaft or the tip of a bone or antler as an arrow point. They were shaped by abrupt retouch into various shapes like triangles and crescents. Microliths were produced during  the later Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic and were either struck as blades from very small cores or were made from fractured blades using the microburin technique. They are characteristic, for example, of the Azilian culture of the Mesolithic. Microliths represent both a versatile and an economic use of raw material – just as blades yield more cutting edge than flakes per unit weight of raw material, so bladelets improve yet further this advantage, by a factor of something over 100 compared to core tools. [pigmy stone]

WHAT IS THE MICROBURIN?

A microlith produced by notching and snapping a blade; a small piece of stone snapped off a microlith which is a byproduct of the manufacture of microliths. A blade is notched and then snapped off where the chipping has narrowed and weakened it. One piece becomes a microlithic tool, while the residue (the microburin) still shows traces of the original notch and fracture. Certain trapeze-shaped microliths were made from the central part of a double-notched blade, in which case both ends have the appearance of microburins. This procedure allowed the maker to obtain a strong head with a sharp point by breaking up flint blades after making a notch in them – a practice widespread in the Mesolithic as a means of manufacturing arrowheads. The name originates from the erroneous belief that these pieces were the same as burins. [microburin technique]

WHAT IS THE MICROBLADE?

A small, narrow stone blade, ranging from less than 5 to 11 mm (0.1–0.4 inches) wide and about 15–45 mm (0.6–1.7 inches) long. They were often made from a conical or wedge-shaped microcore, often punch-struck or pressure flaked. Microblades were often retouched into various forms of microliths. Microblades are found in the Upper Paleolithic industries of Eurasia and in the Upper Paleolithic of Siberia, but are also characteristic of the Mesolithic and later industries of the circumpolar regions. Examples are the Eastern Gravettian, the Dyuktai culture, and the Arctic Small Tool tradition.

WHAT IS THE MICOQUIAN?

Final Acheulian phase defined on the basis of assemblages from La Micoque, near Les Eyzies, France. Sites are found in central Europe, including some in the former Soviet Union. The characteristic artifact is a pointed pyriform (pear shaped) or lanceolate (tapering) biface with a well-made tip.

WHAT IS THE METOPE?

In architecture, the space between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze, often adorned with carved work. The entablature or frieze in buildings using the Classical Doric order is usually composed of alternate triglyphs (projecting rectangular blocks, each ornamented with three vertical channels) and metopes (spaces).

WHAT IS THE METATE?

A ground-stone slab with a concave upper surface used as a lower millstone against which another stone is rubbed to grind vegetable material such as cereal grains, seeds, nuts, etc. A metate is one of a two-part milling apparatus – the other part being a mano (handheld upper grindstone). Metates are found in agricultural and pre-agricultural contexts over much of the world and are often made of volcanic rock in Mesoamerica. It is a Spanish term for a smoothed, usually immobile, stone with a concave upper surface and is mostly associated with the grinding of maize. It is a hallmark artifact in the definition of prehistoric subsistence patterns. [concave quern, grinding platform, lower grindstone, stone saddle quern]

WHAT IS THE MESOLITHIC?

A time period in human history beginning with the retreat of glacial ice c. 8500 bc and the changing climatic conditions following it; a development in northwestern Europe that lasted until about 2700 bc. This Middle Stone Age followed the Upper Paleolithic and preceded the Neolithic. It was a period of transition in the Early Holocene between the hunter-gatherer existence and the development of farming and pottery production. Glacial flora and fauna were replaced by modern forms and the flint industries are often distinguished by an abundance of microliths. The equipment was designed for fishing and fowling as well as hunting and often included many tiny flints, or microliths, that were set in wooden shafts and hafts, and stone axes or adzes used for woodworking. Forests grew in Europe and people modified their lives accordingly. In the Near East, which remained free of ice sheets, climatic change was less significant than in northern Europe and agriculture was practiced soon after the close of the Pleistocene. In this area the Mesolithic period was short and poorly differentiated. In Britain the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition did not come until around 4000 bc. The dog was domesticated during the Mesolithic. The term is used widely only in European prehistory.

WHAT IS THE MENHIR?

A single, vertical standing stone; any prehistoric structure consisting of a tall, upright megalith (“huge stone”). The name is from the Old Breton men, meaning “stone,” and hir, meaning “long.” Menhirs occur in all parts of the world where megalithic monuments are known, but they are particularly profuse in prehistoric Europe. Menhirs are difficult to date, but in Ireland and southwest England a few examples mark burials dating from the Neolithic to the Middle or Late Bronze Age. A similar or slightly earlier date is attested for some of the Breton menhirs. In all these areas, a few of the stones bear cup marks. Such a megalith is often isolated, erected by a family or tribe as a memorial stone for some deceased hero or some great event. It may have been a religious object for worship like the American Indian totem pole. Other are associated with dolmens, tumuli, and circles of stones. Menhirs may occur singly, in rows (alignments), or in enclosures (stone circles). Anthropomorphic examples are known as statue-menhirs.

WHAT IS THE MEGARIAN BOWL?

A handleless hemispherical Greek drinking cup made in molds and often decorated in relief and finished in the black glossed technique. Widespread in the Hellenistic period from the 3rd century bc, they developed into the red-glossed Arrentine wares. The type was first recognized at Megara and they were made until the 1st century ad. They were imitations of gold and silver vessels and served as the first form of book illustration. They often bear on their exteriors scenes in relief from literary texts that are sometimes accompanied by Greek quotations. They likely served as models for Roman artists who created the first true book illustrations.

WHAT IS THE McKEAN POINT?

The bifacially worked chipped stone projectile points of the McKean complex of the Middle Archaic stage in the Great Plains of North America, c. 2900–1000 bc. They are lanceolate in outline with curved sides and a hollow base.

WHAT IS THE MATT-PAINTED POTTERY?

Middle Helladic pottery with simple decoration in manganese-based purple-black paint on a pale ground. Matt-painted pottery has been found in the nearer islands to mainland Greece and even as far as Crete and the Anatolian coast.

WHAT IS THE MAGDALENIAN?

The final major European culture of the Upper Paleolithic period, from about 15,000 to 10,000 years ago; characterized by composite or specialized tools, tailored clothing, and, especially, geometric and representational cave art (e.g., Altamira) and for beautiful decorative work in bone and ivory (mobiliary art). The people were chiefly fishermen and reindeer hunters; they were the first known people to have used a spear thrower (of reindeer bone and antler) to increase range, strength, and accuracy. Magdalenian stone tools include small geometrically shaped implements (e.g., triangles, semilunar blades) probably set into bone or antler handles for use, burins (a sort of chisel), scrapers, borers, backed bladelets, and shouldered and leaf-shaped projectile points. Bone was used extensively to make wedges, adzes, hammers, spearheads with link shafts, barbed points and harpoons, eyed needles, jewelry, and hooked rods (probably used as spear throwers). They killed animals with spears, snares, and traps and lived in caves, rock shelters, or substantial dwellings in winter and in tents in summer. The name is derived from La Madeleine or Magdalene, the type site in the Dordogne of southwest France. The culture’s center of origin was southwest France and the adjacent parts of Spain, but elements characteristic of the later stages are represented in Britain (Creswell Crags), and eastwards to southwest Germany and Poland. The Magdalenian culture, like that of earlier Upper Paleolithic communities, was adapted to the cold conditions of the last (Würm) glaciation. The Magdalenian has been divided into six phases; it followed the Solutrean industry and was succeeded by the simplified Azilian. Magdalenian culture disappeared as the cool, near-glacial climate warmed at the end of the fourth (Würm) glacial period (c. 10,000 bc), and herd animals became scarce.

WHAT IS THE LUPEMBAN?

A stone industry of the Lower Paleolithic of west-central Africa, developed from a Sangoan predecessor and characterized by tools appropriate for rough woodwork. Lupemban industry has been found in northern Angola and southern Zaire and an important dated site is at Kalambo Falls on the Zambia–Tanzania border. In contrast with the Sangoan, Lupemban assemblages are marked by the fine quality of their bifacial stoneworking technique on elongated double-ended points, large side scrapers, and thick core-axes. The industry spans from before 30,000 bc until c. 15,000 bc. [Lupembian]

WHAT IS THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC?

The earliest part of the Paleolithic period, beginning about 2.5 million years ago and lasting to about 100,000 years ago. It was characterized by the first use of crude stone tools, the practice of hunting and gathering, and the development of social units, settlements, and structures. It was the era of the earliest forms of humans. The phases of the Paleolithic have been subdivided based on artifact typology; the Lower Paleolithic is the period of early hominid pebble tool and core tool manufacture. In China, the Early Paleolithic ran from 1,000,000 to 73,000 bc.

WHAT IS THE LEVANNA POİNT?

Projectile points are usually associated with Late Woodland and Contact Period occupations in southern New England (c. 700–300 bp). Common material types associated with this point include quartz, quartzite, hornfels, and basalt. Nonlocal cherts were also used in the manufacture of this point type. The Levanna point type is characterized by the equilateral triangular form and concave base.

WHAT IS THE LEVALLOIS TECHNIQUE?

A distinctive method of stone toolmaking in which flakes are removed by percussion from a preshaped core, with little other modification. This prepared-core knapping technique allows the removal of large flakes of predetermined size and shape. The face of the core is trimmed to shape in order to control the form and size of the intended flake. Characteristically the preparatory flaking is directed from the periphery of the core towards the center. The residual core is shaped rather like a tortoise, with one face plane and the other domed, while the flake shows the scars of the preparatory work on one face and is plane on the other. It is named for Levallois- Perret, a suburb of Paris, where such artifacts were first discovered. The Levallois technique was known from the Acheulian period and was employed by certain late Lower Paleolithic hand-ax makers, and throughout the Middle Paleolithic by some Mousterian communities. It lasted into the Upper Paleolithic of the Levant, and in the Epi Levalloisian industries of Egypt.

WHAT IS THE LEKYTHOS?

In ancient Greece, a pottery oil flask used at baths and gymnasiums and for funerary offerings. The flask has a long, cylindrical body gracefully tapered to the base, and a narrow neck with a single loop-shaped handle. The body was often covered with white slip and then painted in polychrome.

WHAT IS THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM?

The geological period dating between 25,000 and 14,000 bp, during which global temperatures reached the lowest levels of the Upper Pleistocene (127,000–10,000 bp). Massive continental ice sheets formed in the northern hemisphere and sea levels fell worldwide. The people were anatomically modern and conducted industries of the Upper Paleolithic in unglaciated parts of the Old World.

WHAT IS THE LARNAX?

1. A Minoan-Mycenaean clay or terra cotta coffin. This kind of coffin, resembling a rectangular wooden chest, enjoyed a brief popularity in the eastern Greek region c. 530-460 bc. The sarcophagus was often crudely painted on the sides with funerary or religious scenes. “Clazomenian” examples were painted in imitation of contemporary vase styles. 2. The term was also used for a closed box, seen in a royal tomb at Vergina, and in art. 3. A bathtub made of a fabric containing straw.

WHAT IS THE LAPIS LAZULI?

A semiprecious stone of an intense blue color, very popular in the ancient Near East for decorative inlays, beads, seals, etc. It is a metamorphosed form of limestone, rich in the blue mineral lazurite, which is dark blue in color and often flecked with impurities of calcite, iron pyrites, or gold. Its main source was Badakhshan, northern Afghanistan, and Iran, from which it was traded as far as Egypt. The Egyptians considered that its appearance imitated that of the heavens, therefore they considered it to be superior to all materials other than gold and silver. They used it extensively in jewelry until the Late Period (664–332 bc), when it was particularly popular for amulets. One of the richest collections of lapis lazuli objects was found in the burials at Tepe Gawra. It has also been found at Ovalle, Chile.

WHAT IS THE LAMASSU?

Colossal stone figures – part human, part animal – carved on the doorways of Assyrian and Achaemenid buildings, as at Nineveh. They were guardian figures.

WHAT IS THE LABRET?

A lip plug or ornament inserted in an incision in the lower lip, often made of shell, bone, ivory, metal, stone, wood, or pottery. Sometimes a succession would be worn, each larger than the predecessor. Labrets indicated the eminence of the wearer, e.g., women of high rank of the northwest coast of North America. Although styles vary and labrets were particularly popular in Mesoamerica, they occur in artifact inventories from the Arctic to the Andes.

WHAT IS THE KYLIX?

A Greek stemmed drinking cup or chalice, usually made of clay or metal. The term was originally used for a cup of any form, but modern scholars restrict it to shallow two-handed stemmed forms. This wide-bowled drinking cup with horizontal handles was one of the most popular pottery forms from Mycenaean times through the Classical Athenian period. There was usually a painted frieze around the outer surface, depicting a subject from mythology or everyday life, and on the bottom of the inside a painting often depicting a dancing or drinking scene.

WHAT IS THE KUDURRU?

1. An Akkadian term meaning frontier, or boundary, for a type of boundary stone used by the Kassites of Mesopotamia. It was a stone block or slab which served as a record of a grant of land made by the king to a favored person. The original kudurrus were kept in temples, while clay copies were given to the landowners. On the stone were engraved the clauses of the contract, the images or symbols of the gods under whose protection the gift was placed, and the curse on those who violated the rights conferred. The kudurrus are important not only for economic and religious reasons but also as almost the only works of art surviving from the period of Kassite rule in Babylonia, around the 16th to 12th centuries bc. The term also applies to the 3rd millennium cuneiform documents in southern Mesopotamia that record land transfers. 2. The word also means “son,” as in personal names such as Nabu-kudurri-usur (Nebuchadnezzar).

WHAT IS THE KRATER?

Ancient Greek vessel used for diluting wine with water. It usually stood on a tripod in the dining room, where wine was mixed. Kraters were made of metal or pottery and were often painted or elaborately ornamented. In Homer’s Iliad the prize offered by Achilles for the foot race at Patroclus’ funeral games was a silver krater. The Greek historian Herodotus describes many enormous and costly kraters dedicated at temples or used in religious ceremonies. Kraters are large, with a broad body and base and usually a wide mouth. They may have horizontal handles placed near the base, or vertical handles rising from the shoulder. Among the many variations are: the bell krater, confined to red-figure pottery, shaped like an inverted bell, with loop handles and a disk foot; the volute krater, with an egg-shaped body and handles that rise from the shoulder and curl in a volute (scrollshaped form) well above the rim; the calyx krater, the shape of which spreads out like the cup or calyx of a flower; and the column krater, with columnar handles rising from the shoulder to a flat, projecting lip rim. Some were fitted with a strainer.

WHAT IS THE KOUROS?

A Greek statue of a youth or a standing nude male youth, of the Archaic period. The large stone figures began to appear in Greece about 615–590 bc. They were funerary markers or dedications in sanctuaries. They were usually larger than life size, made of marble, bronze, or alabaster, and were sometimes painted. The kouros is thought to have been influenced by Egyptian sculpture; the first appearance of such monumental stone figures seems to coincide with the reopening of Greek trade with Egypt in c. 672 bc. The kouros remained a popular form of sculpture until about 460 bc. The female equivalent is called a kore.

WHAT IS THE KORE?

A type of freestanding statue of a maiden – the female counterpart of the kouros or standing youth – that appeared with the beginning of Greek monumental sculpture in about 660 bc and remained to the end of the Archaic period in about 500 bc. It evolved from a highly stylized form to a more naturalistic one. The statue was usually draped, carved from marble, and painted in its original form. They are often dedications in sanctuaries and some are found in funeral contexts. Important series were in the temple of Hera on Samos and on the Acropolis in Athens.

WHAT IS THE KOFUN PERIOD?

Name of the protohistoric tomb period of Japan, ad 300–710, and the type of tumulus used for the burials. Large tombs were built that were covered with artificial hillocks about 8 m (26 feet) high, with burial chambers about 2 m (6.5 feet) underneath the top surface. The burial chamber, enclosed with stones, contained coffins and various funerary offerings. The period when tombs of this kind were built in abundance was characterized by Haji ware and Sue ware. It is divided into Early (4th century), Middle (5th century), and Late (late 5th to 7th centuries). The Kofun period falls between the Yayoi period and the fully historic Nara period and partially overlaps the Asuka and Hakuho periods of art historians. In their writings, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki texts, the culture was explained. Early kofun were built by modifying natural hills, as were Late Yayoi burial mounds. Haji pottery, used throughout the Kofun period, is very similar to Yayoi pottery and farmers lived in the same kinds of houses, using very similar tools. Technical advances over the Yayoi period include irrigation canals and dams. There were also silversmiths who made the ornaments deposited in the kofun, and professional potters began making Sue pottery in the 5th century. Those in the fertile and well-protected Yamato Basin actively sought new technical and administrative skills on the continent and thus artisans came to make new kinds of pottery, ornaments, and weapons. Yamato leaders gained control over much of Japan in the 7th century and moved the capital to Heijo in ad 710. The magnificent kofun tombs indicate that the Yamato court based in the Yamato area (the present Nara prefecture) succeeded in bringing almost the whole of Japan under its control.

WHAT IS THE KNAPPING?

Working of stone by applying force to its surface – by percussion or pressure – to produce a tool. A knapper is one who manufactures stone artifacts, especially by chipping. This technique of striking flakes or blades from a hard, brittle rock, such as flint or obsidian, is done by means of short, sharp blows delivered with a hammer of stone, bone, or wood. Knapping was used to fashion stone tools and weapons, such as blades and arrowheads, in the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley and was also applied to making beads from agate and carnelian.

WHAT IS THE KLEROTERION?

An ancient machine used to decide who would serve on a jury in courts of law. There are surviving examples, such as the one from the Agora at Athens. Different colored balls would drop when tickets were inserted; the color determined acceptance or rejection.

WHAT IS THE KIMBERLEY POINT?

A pressure-flaked bifacial point with serrated margins and long shallow surface scar beds, found in the Kimberleys region of Western Australia and neighboring areas of the Northern Territory and northwest Queensland. South of the Kimberleys, the point was a trade item and was used as a surgical knife. The points were made at the time of European contact, when bottle glass and porcelain were adapted for the industry

WHAT IS THE KILN?

A chamber built for the firing (baking) of pottery, used from prehistoric times. These, usually dome-shaped, structures are designed to produce the high temperatures needed for the industry. In a pottery kiln, the pots were often stacked upside-down on a shelf. An opening for draft was left at the top, and a flue provided at the side. Fuel was piled within and around the kiln, and when the heat was at its greatest the openings were shut to preserve the temperatures and fire the pots inside, with temperatures of 800–1000°C achieved. Other versions were used in glassmaking or the parching of corn. The kiln, like the potter’s wheel, implies craft specialization, and appears only at advanced stages of economic development. Important types of kilns include: bottle (updraft kiln with a narrow chimney shaped like a bottle), clamp (open-topped updraft kiln of semipermanent construction), climbing (kiln set along a slope to aid the draft), continuous (in which ware is fed continuously into the kiln on a track, moving through it during firing), downdraft (an enclosed periodic kiln in which the heat is passed to the top of the kiln, then the draft carries it down through the ware), intermittent or periodic (kiln that is loaded, fired, cooled, and then unloaded before firing a new batch), muffle (kiln constructed so that the ware is not directly subjected to the radiant heat from the flame or heating elements), pit (clamp that is dug partly into the ground), scove (updraft kiln usually having no permanent parts), tunnel (type of continuous kiln), and updraft (kiln in which the heat or flame passes upward through the ware and then is vented outside).

WHAT IS THE KILLKE CULTURE?

A culture and ceramic pottery style of the Cuzco Basin of Peru, from the Late Intermediate Period, c. ad 1000–1438. It immediately preceded the Inca style ceramics. Killke pots have globular bodies, white or buff slip, and simple black (or black and red) geometric patterns.

WHAT IS THE KHIRBET KERAK?

A Palestinian site on the southwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, settled from the Early/Middle Bronze Age and occupied again from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods. In the 4th to 3rd millennia bc, it was a small walled town which lent its name to a distinctive pottery ware (Khirbet Kerak ware, c. 3400) which has been found on many sites throughout the Near East, from Judeidah in Amuq to Lachish in the south. This highly burnished ware with red or black slip is often incised or ribbed in decoration. Its origins lie up in the southern Caucasus (it was related to early Transcaucasian wares), from which it was likely carried south by an emigration of the ancestors of the Hittites. The pottery belongs to the Early Bronze Age III phase and has a wide distribution in Syria and Palestine. It is usually thought to have originated in northeast Anatolia and may have been distributed either by emigration or by trade. The town of the mid 3rd millennium bc contains a massive public building, probably a religious structure, that comprises eight circular stone structures all enclosed by a massive

outer rectangular wall.

WHAT IS THE KHEKER FRIEZE?

Name of a decorative motif common in ancient Egyptian architecture from at least as early as the 3rd dynasty (2686–2613 bc). The motif consists of rows of knots in decorative carved or painted friezes around the upper edges of buildings.

WHAT IS THE KERNOS?

Greek cult vessel – dish, bowl, or jar – made of terra cotta or stucco-covered, sun-baked brick and used for the offering of first fruits. The jar held small cups around its lip and examples are found from the Bronze Age onwards.

WHAT IS THE KENSINGTON STONE?

A stone slab found on a Minnesota farm in 1898 with an inscription in runes purporting to record the arrival of a party of exploring Vikings. An object of controversy from the start, it is now dismissed as a forgery, despite recent confirmation of Viking visits to the eastern American coast. This supposed relic of a 14th-century Scandinavian exploration of the interior of North America is a 90 kg (200-pound) slab of graywacke inscribed with runes (medieval Germanic script). The inscription, dated 1362, is purported to be by a group of Norwegian and Swedish explorers from Vinland who visited the Great Lakes area in that year. The stone is housed in a special museum in Alexandria, Minnesota, and a 26-ton replica stands in nearby Runestone Park.

WHAT IS THE KANTHAROS?

In Greek antiquity, a large, two-handled drinking cup. This type of pottery cup was made in Greek-speaking areas and in Etruria between the 8th and the 1st centuries bc; it had a deep bowl, a foot, and pair of high vertical handles. It was often consecrated to personifications of Bacchus. Early examples are often stemmed. In the 4th and 3rd centuries bc, it became one of the most popular types of drinking vessel in the Greek world.

WHAT IS THE JOMON PERIOD?

Earliest major postglacial culture of hunting and gathering in Japan, 10,000–300 bc, divided into six phases. This early culture, its relics surviving in shell mounds of kitchen midden type around the coasts of the Japanese islands, had pottery but no metal. The pottery was heavy but elaborate, especially in the modeling of its castellated rims. The term Jomon means “cord marked,” reflecting the characteristic decoration of the pottery with cord-pattern impressions or reliefs. One of the earliest dates in the world for pottery-making has been established as c. 12,700 bc in Fukin Cave, Kyshu. Other artifacts, of stone and bone, were simple; light huts, round or rectangular, have been identified. Burials were by inhumation, crouched or extended. The Jomon was succeeded by the Yayoi period. There are over 10,000 Jomon sites divided into the six phases: Incipient (10,000–7500 bc), Earliest (7500–5000 bc), Early (5000–3500 bc), Middle (3500–2500/ 2000 bc), Late (2500/2000–1000 bc), and Final (1000–300 bc). Widespread trading networks and ritual development took place in the Middle Jomon. Rice agriculture was adopted during the last millennium bc. The origins of Jomon culture remain uncertain, although similarities with early cultures of northeast Asia and even America are often cited.

WHAT IS THE JEMDET NASR PERIOD?

A small site between Baghdad and Babylon, near Kish, Iraq, which has given its name to a period of Mesopotamian chronology and its black-and-red painted pottery ware. The period of 3100– 2900 bc was characterized by writing in pictographs, pottery with painted designs or plum-red burnished slip, and plain pottery with beveled rims. Cylinder seals are squat and plain and a drill was used in the designs. The period is characterized by increasing populations, the development of more extensive irrigation systems, towns dominated by temples, increased use of writing and cylinder seals, more trade, and craft specialization. The period – equivalent to Uruk III of the Eanna Sounding sequence – was followed immediately by the Early Dynastic period of Sumer. A building of Jemdet Nasr date may be the oldest palace discovered in southern Mesopotamia.