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.