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 HOLOCENE?

Present geological epoch, which began some 10,000 (bp) years ago (8300 bc). It falls within the Quaternary period (one of the four main divisions of the Earth’s history) and followed the Pleistocene Ice Age. The Holocene is marked by rising temperatures throughout the world and the retreat of the ice sheets. During this epoch, agriculture became the most common human subsistence practice. During the Holocene, Homo sapiens diversified his tool technology, organized his habitat more efficiently, and adapted his way of life. The Holocene stage/series includes all deposits younger than the top of either the Wisconsinian stage of the Pleistocene series in North America or the Würm/Weichsel in Europe.

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 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 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 CALICHE ?

CALICHE: An encrustation or deposit of hard, calcareous cement made up of nitrates, sulfates, halides, and sand. It appears on the surface of materials such as bone, ceramic, or stone after they have been buried or exposed to moisture for an extended time. These layers of calcium carbonate (lime accumulation) are often present in semiarid or arid areas, either on top of or within the soil – as in the desert basins of southern Arizona. [caliché]

WHAT IS THE CALCITE ?

CALCITE: White or colorless mineral consisting of calcium carbonate. [calcite varnish]

WHAT IS THE BENTONITES?

BENTONITES: A clay formed by the decomposition of volcanic ash, having the ability to absorb large quantities of water and to expand to several times its normal volume.

WHAT IS THE BASALT ?

BASALT: a type of very hard, dark, dense rock, igneous in origin, composed of augite or hornblende and containing titaniferous magnetic iron and crystals of feldspar. It often lies in columnar strata, as at the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland and Fingal’s Cave in the Hebrides. It is greenish- or brownish-black and much like lava in appearance. It is also abundant in Egypt and Greece.

WHAT IS THE AUGER ?

AUGER: A tool used to probe into the ground and extract a small sample of a deposit without performing actual excavation. Its applications in archaeology are as a means of sampling and understanding the geological environment of a site and also for extracting peat for pollen analysis. There are various types of augers and they can be manual or power driven. Simple augers bring up samples on the thread of a drill bit. More elaborate ones open a chamber to collect a core after the drill has bored to an appropriate depth. Augering is generally restricted to the earliest stages of archaeological reconnaissance to determine the depth and characteristics of deposits.

Sample

WHAT IS THE ATLANTIC PERIOD ?

ATLANTIC PERIOD: in Europe, a climatic optimum following the last Ice Age. This period was represented as a maximum of temperature, and evidence from beetles suggests it being warmer than average for the interglacial. It seems to have begun about 6000 bc, when the average temperature rose. Melting ice sheets ultimately submerged nearly half of western Europe, creating the bays and inlets along the Atlantic coast that provided a new, rich ecosystem for human subsistence. The Atlantic period was followed by the Sub-Boreal period. The Atlantic period, which succeeded the Boreal, was probably wetter and certainly somewhat warmer, and mixed forests of oak, elm, common lime (linden), and elder spread northward. Only in the late Atlantic period did beech and hornbeam spread into western and central Europe from the southeast.

WHAT IS THE ANGLIAN ?

ANGLIAN: Quaternary glacial deposits found in East Anglia, England. Other possibly related and isolated patches exist elsewhere in Britain, but they are older than the extreme range of radiocarbon dating and paleomagnetism shows them to be younger than 700,000 bp. This period sometimes equates with the Elster glacial maximum and dates to c. 400,000–300,000 years ago. During the Anglian-Elsterian glaciation in Europe a large ice-dammed lake formed in the North Sea, and large

overflows from it initiated the cutting of the Dover Straits. In East Anglia, the deposits are stratified below Hoxnian and above Cromerian interglacial deposits, and Acheulian and Clactonian artifacts are found in the sediments. Most of the evidence of human activity in Britain and Europe is later than this time. Anglian is more often used to describe the group of deposits or the one glaciation (antepenultimate) of that time.

WHAT IS THE AMBER ?

AMBER: Fossilized pine resin, a transparent yellow, orange, or reddishbrownmaterial from coniferous trees. It is amorphous, having a specific gravity of 1.05–1.10 and a hardness of 2–2.5 on the Mohs scale, and has two varieties – gray and yellow. Amber was appreciated and popular in antiquity for its beauty and its supposed magical properties. The southeast coast of the Baltic Sea is its major source in Europe, with lesser sources near the North Sea and in the Mediterranean. Amber is washed up by the sea. There is evidence of a strong trade in amber up the Elbe, Vistula, Danube, and into the Adriatic Sea area. The trade began in the Early Bronze Age and expanded greatly with the Mycenaeans and again with the Iron Age peoples of Italy. The Phoenicians were also specialist traders in amber. The soft material was sometimes carved for beads and necklaces.

WHAT IS THE ALTITHERMAL ?

ALTITHERMAL: A warm, dry postglacial period in the western United States c. 5600–2500 bc. Coined by Ernst Antev in 1948, the term describes a time during which temperatures were warmer than at present. Other terms, like “long drought,” are also used.

WHAT IS THE ADDITIVE AND ADDITIVE TECHNOLOGY ?

ADDITIVE: An organic or mineral material mixed with clay by the potter to modify its properties in forming, drying, and firing.

ADDITIVE TECHNOLOGY: manufacturing processes in which material is added to an original mass to form an artifact. Ceramic production and basketmaking are additive technologies. 

WHAT IS THE ACRATOPHORUM ?

ACRATOPHORUM: a Greek and Roman table vessel for holding pure wine, as opposed to the crater which held wine mixed with water. This vessel was often made of earthenware and metal, though some were gold or silver.

WHAT IS THE ACLIS ?

ACLIS: A small javelin or harpoon, consisting of a thick short pole set with spikes. This massive weapon resembles a trident or angon. [aclys, aclyx]

WHAT IS THE ACHZIB WARE ?

ACHZIB WARE: A Phoenician, Iron Age II, red-slip pottery type consisting primarily of jugs with a trefoil mouth of “mushroom” rims, red slipped, and highly burnished.

WHAT IS THE ACERAMIC AND ACERAMIC NEOLITHIC ?

ACERAMIC: Without pottery or not using pottery; a term applied to periods and societies in which pottery is not used, especially in contrast to other periods of ceramic use and with neighboring ceramic cultures. Aceramic societies may use bark, basketry, gourds, leather, etc. for containers.

ACERAMIC NEOLITHIC: early part of the Neolithic period in western Asia before the widespread use of pottery (c. 8500–6000 bc) in an economy based on the cultivation of crops or the rearing of animals or both. Aceramic Neolithic groups were in the Levant (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B), Zagros area (Karim Shahir, Jarmoan), and Anatolia (Hacilar Aceramic Neolithic). Aceramic Neolithic groups are rarer outside western Asia.

WHAT IS THE ACCESSION ?

ACCESSION: An object acquired by a museum or collector as a part of a permanent collection; also, the act of processing and recording an addition to a permanent collection.

ACCESSION CATALOG: An accounting system used in the lab after artifactsand ecofacts are initially processed and providing the numbers withwhich artifacts and ecofacts are marked for storage. Its records describe and record what was found during an archaeological investigation and it is the primary record for all materials after excavation.

ACCESSION NUMBER: A number assigned to an archaeological collection that identifies its origin; part of the catalog number.