maskette

(archaeology) A small mask, especially one that does not cover the whole head.


unworked

en-adj

unworked (comparative more unworked, superlative most unworked)

more unworked (comparative)
most unworked (superlative)

From Middle English unwerked, unwerched, equivalent to un- + worked. Doublet of unwrought.

Dozens of unworked obsidian cobbles were found buried with the deceased.

(archaeology) Describing an unaltered material found associated with human tool-making or other cultural activity.


posthole

Indentations in the floor were interpreted as postholes and slots that once anchored wooden furniture.

2007 January 31, John Noble Wilford, “Village May Have Housed Builders of Stonehenge”, in New York Times:

(archaeology) A cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone, usually much deeper than it is wide.


imbrex

(archaeology) A roof tile common in Ancient Greek and Roman architecture, used in an overlapping formation with the tegula.


cist

Borrowed from Welsh cist (“chest”) (see kistvaen), from Latin cista (“chest, casket”), see above.

A central stone slab cist containing the burial was surrounded by a circles of stones placed on edge, probably to represent the round house in which the deceased had lived.

2019, Alan Staniforth, Cleveland Way, page 66:

(archaeology) A crypt cut into rock, chalk, or a tree trunk, especially a coffin formed by placing stone slabs on edge and topping them with a horizontal slab or slabs.


rock shelter

(archaeology) A shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff, a frequent location of prehistoric archeological sites.


archeometry

(archaeology) The application of the various techniques of science to archeology.

archeometria

the application of the various techniques of science to archeology


isobase

Assuming their zero isobase and assuming also that they have correctly identified the beaches, the Jamieson hypothesis is decidedly not favored by their field observations.

1920, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, volume 31:

The southern limit of Wright's zero isobase should intersect the north-west coast of England 125 km further north in the vicinity of the southern shore of Morecambe Bay.

1978, Sea-level Changes: North-West England During the Flandrian Stage, M. J. Tooley:

The isobase map shows the marked spatial variability in elevation of archaeological sites from the Groswater Bay west along Lake Melville to the Goose Bay area, as identified by Fitzhugh (1972).

1992, Lucille Lewis Johnson, Melanie Stright, Paleoshorelines and Prehistory: An Investigation of Method:

(archaeology, geology) A line drawn on a map or chart connecting places of equal or constant land upheaval or subsidence.


archaeogeneticist

(archaeology, genetics) A geneticist whose speciality is archaeogenetics

archeogenetikus

a geneticist whose speciality is archaeogenetics


excavation unit

en-noun

excavation unit (plural excavation units)

An excavation unit need not be rectangular, if precise measurements are made to assure good provenience.

(archaeology) A pit, trench, shovel test hole, (etc.) or other result of scientific excavation.


acrophone

There were three classes of predicted knowledge sources: (a) induced sublexical relations (i.e., induction of orthographic–phonological relations from the experience of print words), (b) acrophones from letter names, and (c) transfer from spelling experience.

1999, G. Brian Thompson et al., “Learning correspondences between letters and phonemes without explicit instruction”, in Applied Psycholinguistics, →DOI:

Where there are no certain cognates to an acrophone, but the identity of its letter is secure, I shall reconstruct the translation in square brackets.

2006, Gordon James Hamilton, The origins of the West Semitic alphabet in Egyptian scripts, page 26:

(linguistics, archaeology) The first sound of a word, or a glyph used to represent the first sound of the word it represents


shovel test

A single shovel test was all we needed to show the site's importance.

(archaeology) An excavation unit of small extent and shallow depth, made quickly with a shovel or trowel to determine whether archeologically significant material is present below the ground surface.


shovel test

en-verb

shovel test (third-person singular simple present shovel tests, present participle shovel testing, simple past and past participle shovel tested)

shovel tests (present singular third-person)
shovel testing (participle present)
shovel tested (participle past)
shovel tested (past)

They were contracted to shovel test only within the proposed pipeline's right of way.

(archaeology) To examine a site or area using one or more small excavation units.


dolium

(history, archaeology) A large earthenware vessel used for the storage and transportation of goods in the ancient Western Mediterranean.


battleship-shaped curve

en-noun

battleship-shaped curve (plural battleship-shaped curves)

battleship-shaped curves (plural)
battleship curve (alternative)

From the resemblance to the outline of a battleship, as seen from above.

(archaeology) A two-dimensional region with parallel sides and pointed ends, usually representing the emergence and later disappearance of an entity in a graph over time.


cave painting

cave painting (countable and uncountable, plural cave paintings)

cave paintings (plural)
cave-painting (alternative)

For several decades, now, he [the modern artist] has taken the liberty of learning how to draw and compose by studying and borrowing ideas from the high periods in all art, as far back as prehistoric cave painting.

1959, Erle Loran, Cézanne’s Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs, 2nd edition, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:

[C]ave painting appears to have flourished during the last 8–10,000 years of this period and to be concentrated in limestone caves of southwestern Europe (especially southwestern France and north coastal Spain), [...]

1989, Margaret W. Conkey, “The Structural Analysis of Paleolithic Art”, in C[lifford] C[harles] Lamberg-Karlovsky, editor, Archaeological Thought in America, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, published 1995, →ISBN, page 135:

In another topic on prehistoric man, pupils used 'active learning' methods to construct a 'cave set'; re-enacted cave-painting by homemade candlelight; [...]

1995, Alex Webster, “Differentiation”, in Geoffrey Moss, editor, The Basics of Special Needs: A Routledge/Special Children Survival Guide for the Classroom Teacher, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 1996, →ISBN, page 42:

Art-making may have emerged as early as 1.5 million years ago with the arrival of Homo erectus, our humanlike ancestors. [...] Cave painting and early sketching were ways to enhance thinking, serving as a medium for idea manipulation, enhancement, and storage.

2001, Eric Jensen, “Visual Arts”, in Arts with the Brain in Mind, Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, →ISBN, page 50:

(uncountable) The activity of applying pigments to the interior surfaces of caves to create images, especially when carried out in prehistoric times.

grotschildering

I understand from Paṇḍita Baghavánlál, who lately visited the caves, that the painting and writings in these caves are fast going to decay. Those at Ajaṇṭhá are more durable, whereas the Bagh cave paintings will, it is feared, be entirely obliterated after some years.

1818 July 28, F. Dangerfield, “IX. Some Account of the Caves near Baug, Called the Panch Pandoo”, in Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and John Murray, […], published 1876, →OCLC, editorial note, page 216:

No natives of this country could, I think, have drawn the cave-paintings [in Buddhist caves found in Khandesh].

1851 January, J. Rose, “Art. VIII.—Extracts from the Proceedings of the Society for the Year 1849–50.”, in The Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, volume IV, Bombay, Maharashtra: American Mission Press; T. Graham, […], →OCLC, page 351:

Mr. George W. Stow, of Queenstown, South Africa, refers in a letter to the interesting subject of the old cave-paintings by the Bushmen, [...]

1871 February 4, “Scientific Notes. Cave-paintings by Bushmen.”, in Appletons’ Journal of Literature, Science, and Art, volume V, number 97, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 143, column 2:

Prehistoric pottery, art, cave painting, engraving can be incorporated into the exhibition as an added colourful attraction.

1972 January–March, Dilip Kumar Ray, “Some Thoughts on the Problems of Arrangement of Anthropological Specimen in Museums”, in Amalendu Bose, editor, The Calcutta Review, volume III, number 3 (New Series), Calcutta, West Bengal: University of Calcutta, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 232:

Although somewhat difficult to date, the earliest direct evidence of human interest in honey occurs in the famous stone-age cave painting from southern Spain, of a man robbing a wild bees' nest.

1998, Don Brothwell, Patricia Brothwell, “Sugars”, in Food in Antiquity: A Survey of the Diet of Ancient Peoples, expanded edition, Baltimore, Md., London: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 72:

Rooted in precinematic cultural activities such as walking and traveling, on the one hand, and in all forms of visual representation – including cave painting – on the other, the compound term ["mobilized virtual gaze"] is meant to describe forms of scopic pleasure that travel "in an imaginary flânerie through an imaginary elsewhere and an imaginary 'elsewhen'.'"

1999, Lutz Koepnick, “Benjamin’s Actuality”, in Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power (Modern German Culture and Literature), Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Rethinking the Spectacle), page 213:

The well-known Neolithic cave painting from Morella la Villa in Spain unmistakably shows a battle between two small groups of archers.

2002, Christon I. Archer, John R. Ferris, Holger H. Herwig, Timothy H. E. Travers, “Introduction: The Origins of Warfare”, in World History of Warfare, Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 1:

By 30,000 years ago, modern humans in Europe were producing stunning cave paintings of ice age animals, and carved human figurines.

2009, Jonathan Adams, “The March of Cain: Humans as a Destroyer of Species”, in John Mason, editor, Species Richness: Patterns in the Diversity of Life (Springer–Praxis Books in Environmental Sciences), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; Chichester, West Sussex: Praxis Publishing, →ISBN, section 5.3 (The Secrets of Our Success over Other Human Species), page 211:

Human beings have been students of animal behavior from their earliest days. [...] Further evidence for this appreciation of animal behavior can be seen in the many cave paintings depicting animals, while not depicting any of the other facets of the painters' lives.

2011, “Introduction”, in Victor S. Lamoureux, editor, Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press; Oakville, Ont.: Apple Academic Press, →ISBN, page 7:

(uncountable) The paintings resulting from this activity regarded collectively, especially if prehistoric; cave art; (countable) an individual painting of this type.

grotkuns

paintings resulting from this activity regarded collectively, especially if prehistoric; an individual painting of this type


banjo enclosure

banjo enclosure (plural banjo enclosures)

(archaeology) A feature found on mid-Iron Age sites in Great Britain that resembles a banjo in plan.


preceramic

(archaeology) Describing a society that did not use pottery.


penniform

Even in the palaeolithic periods symbols abound such as cup markings, tectiforms, penniforms, groups of dots, rectangles, lattice designs, symbolic vulvas, and so on.

1970, Stuart Macdonald, The History and Philosophy of Art Education, Lutterworth Press, published 2004, page 335:

Startlingly, the much earlier Blombos cave engravings clearly fit neatly into several of Von Petzinger's categories: lines, crosshatching, cruciforms, penniforms, and perhaps others.

2011, Pat Shipman, The Animal Connection: A New Perspective on What Makes Us Human, page 145:

The symbols she found ranged from dots, lines, triangles, squares and zigzags to more complex forms like ladder shapes, hand stencils, something called a tectiform that looks a bit like a post with a roof, and feather shapes called penniforms. In some places, the signs were part of bigger paintings. Elsewhere, they were on their own, like the row of bell shapes found in El Castillo in northern Spain (see picture below), or the panel of 15 penniforms in Santian, also in Spain.[…]The earliest known penniform is from about 28,000 years ago in the Grande Grotte d’Arcy-sur-Cure in northern France, and later appears a little to the west of there before spreading south. Eventually, it reaches northern Spain and even Portugal.

2016 November 12, “Hidden Symbols”, in New Scientist, number 3099, page 36:

(archaeology) A symbol that is shaped like a feather.


lichenometry

In lichenometry, a lichen is presumed to grow radially at a specific, constant rate: this rate is used to estimate the age of the largest lichen on a rock surface, and thus the length of time the rock has been exposed.

The sophistication of approach to lichenometry has increased markedly in the last decade or two.

2004, Jean M. Grove, Little Ice Ages: Ancient and Modern, Volume 1, 2nd edition, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 7:

Lichenometry is a surface-exposure dating method that uses lichen-growth rates to infer the age of young ([a] few thousand years old or younger) glacial landforms, typically bouldery deposits such as moraines.[…]Several approaches have been employed to measure lichens, and a distinct advantage of lichenometry over other techniques is its simplicity (Bradwell, 2009).

2011, Jason P. Briner, “Dating Glacial Landforms”, in Vijay P. Singh, Pratap Singh, Umesh K. Haritashya, editors, Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers, Springer, page 177:

Lichenometry is a dating method which is based upon the direct relationship between lichen diameter and age.

2012, Matti Saarnisto, “I.4: Time-scales and dating”, in B. Huntley, T. Webb III, editors, Handbook of vegetation science, Volume 7: Vegetation history, Kluwer Academic, page 102:

(archaeology, paleontology, geomorphology) A geomorphic method of geochronologic dating that uses lichen growth to determine the age of exposed rock.

lichenometrie

geochronologic dating method that uses lichen growth


ploughzone

ploughzones (plural)
plowzone (alternative)

(archaeology) The upper region of soil that has undergone ploughing.


scarabaeoid

(jewelry, archaeology) Resembling a scarab in form, but without being made to look like a beetle.


saltern

From Old English sealtærn, from sealt (“salt”) + ærn (“place, building”).

(archaeology) An area used for saltmaking, especially in the East Anglian fenlands.


pothunter

From pot + hunter – in hunting sense, “for the (cooking) pot (to eat)”; in the archeology sense, “seeking old pots (to sell)”.

But hundreds, perhaps thousands of artifacts have been taken by amateur pothunters, whose activities can disturb the soil and ruin the chance of serious research.

2007 December 12, Anthony Depalma, “An Island in the Hudson, Plundered in Search of Indian Artifacts”, in New York Times:

(archaeology) A person who seeks artifacts for their personal collection or to sell without regard to their cultural importance.


uniface

(archaeology) A prehistoric stone tool that has been flaked on one surface only.


level staff

level staff (plural level staffs or level staves)

level staffs (plural)
level staves (plural)

(surveying, archaeology) A graduated rod used by surveyors to measure differences in level.


mirrnyong

mirrnyongs (plural)
mirnyong (alternative)

Along the Creek′s west bank there were three small mirnyongs or native ovens, the first of which, about 200 yards north of the Princes Highway, was the best preserved, until it was bull-dozed out of existence in March 1966 by the Country Roads Board[…].

1969, Aldo Massola, Journey to Aboriginal Victoria, page 26:

(Australia, archaeology) A mound of cooking debris accumulated by Aborigines; a kitchen midden.


bose

en-verb

bose (third-person singular simple present boses, present participle bosing, simple past and past participle bosed)

boses (present singular third-person)
bosing (participle present)
bosed (participle past)
bosed (past)

This criticism applies also to bosing in which the ground is thumped with a heavy rammer; over filled-in pits, tombs, […] Bosing is successful where the top-soil is thin and firm, with an unstratified rock such as chalk beneath.

1974, Martin Jim Aitken, Physics and archaeology:

(usually archaeology) To strike the ground with an object in order to determine, from the resulting sounds, what lies underground.


reliquiae

(archaeology) Artifacts; things made or modified by human art.


palæologist

From palæ- + -ologist, from Ancient Greek: παλαιός (palaiós, “old”) in combination with -λογία (-logía, “explanation, oration”).

But to whatever conclusions the palæologist may come on that head, the original scientific and logical veto on that hypothesis of two or more independent evolutions of the human species must for the present hold good.

1929, John Mackinnon Robertson, “Pagan Christs”, in American Racial Origins, second edition, page 349:

(archaeology) One that researches and studies pre‐historic antiquities.


runestone

(archaeology) An ancient monument consisting of a typically raised stone with a runic inscription.


Ubaid

(archaeology) A prehistoric period of Mesopotamia, circa 6500 to 3800 BCE.


interdome

(archaeology) The open space between the inner and outer shells of a dome or cupola of masonry.


fenestral

(archaeology) A casement or window sash closed with cloth or paper instead of glass.


intermodillion

(archaeology, dated) The space between two modillions.


racloir

(archaeology) A prehistoric flint scraper.


incavation

Instead, what is incavated is archaeological evidence in itself, and incavations are thus about the very possibility of archaeology.

2004, Neil Brodie, Catherine Hills, Material Engagements: Studies in Honour of Colin Renfrew, page 48:

During this incavation, eight contemporary and mundane domestic assemblages were buried in the garden of a Berlin townhouse. In undertaking this 'incavation', Holtorf made a powerful statement about archaeology as a performance and a particular form of material engagement with the past.

2010, Rodney Harrison, John Schofield, After Modernity: Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past, page 116:

To revert to my earlier imagery, while conventional archaeological excavations aim to methodically purify what its practitioners conceive of as a target signal from a specific past, by amplifying it over and above the temporal pile-up of object noise that surrounds it, Afro-Cuban ritual 'incavations', if I may call them that, proceed no less methodically in scrambling the frequencies of space and time upon which disciplined historicist archaeological praxis depends.

2013 April, Stephan Palmié, “Signal and Noise: Digging up the Dead in Archaeology and Afro-Cuban Palo Monte”, in Archaeological Review from Cambridge, volume 28, number 1, page 127:

(archaeology) An act of earthing artifacts; the burial or entombment of archaeologically interesting items.


argilliturbation

From Latin argilla (“clay”) + turbation.

At SBA-1807 and SBA-2061, these processes include bioturbation, argilliturbation, chemical weathering, downslope movement, natural addition of faunal remains to the midden, wildfires, trampling, grading, plowing, and discing.

1994, Jon Erlandson, Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast, page 165:

In extreme situations, argilliturbation can result in a surface stone pavement (Johnson and Hester 1972, Muhs 1982).

2005, Randall J. Schaetzl, Sharon Anderson, Soils: Genesis and Geomorphology, page 291:

A site′s stratigraphy can become thoroughly churned if this argilliturbation process takes place over and over for hundreds or thousands of years.

2012, Robert L. Kelly, David Hurst Thomas, Archaeology, page 112:

(geology, archaeology) A mixing process in clay rich soils subjected to cycles of wet and dry, whereby the soil expands when wet and contracts as it dries, causing soil, stones and artefacts to move up and down.


Neolithic Revolution

the Neolithic Revolution (canonical)
Neolithic revolution (alternative)

The end of the last ice age around 10,000 b.c. was followed by what is called the Neolithic Revolution; that is, the revolution that occurred in the New Stone Age (the word Neolithic is Greek for “New Stone.”)

1997, Jackson J[oseph] Spielvogel, “[The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations] The First Humans”, in Western Civilization, 3rd edition, volume I (To 1715), Saint Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 5, column 1:

The Neolithic Revolution (about 8000-3000 B.C.E.) was characterized by people moving from nomadic lifestyles to agricultural lifestyles.

2004, Monty Armstrong, David Daniel, Abby Kanarek, Cracking the AP World History Exam, 2004-2005, The Princeton Review, page 328:

For most people, the concept of the Neolithic Revolution refers to the actual origin of agriculture with domesticated plants, this occurring in Southwest Asia in the late PPNA or early PPNB at around 9000-8500 BC.

2005, Peter S. Bellwood, The First Farmers: the origins of agricultural societies, Wiley-Blackwell, page 65

The Neolithic Revolution brought about the greatest material transformation in human history.

2010, I. Peter Martini, Landscapes and Societies: Selected Cases, Springer, page 25

(archaeology) the discovery of agriculture


Archaeolithic

Archaeolithic industry

Archaeolithic Period

(archaeology) Of, from, or relating to the earliest Stone Age; applied to a prehistoric period preceding the Paleolithic.

archéolithique

of or relating to the earliest Stone Age


soundage

en-noun

soundage (countable and uncountable, plural soundages)

The establishment of a stratigraphic continium for Deh Morasi Ghundai and Said Qala Tepe will have to wait until the analysis of the soundage is completed.

The first phase is known only from a very small soundage on the eastern side of a large building of the third phase .

1994, Vibha Tripathi, Ajeet K. Srivastava, The Indus Terracottas, page 51:

It is a huge soundage, which was purposely dug for robbing the brick structure .

2006, Devi Prasad Tewari, Excavations at Pirvitanisarif-Trilokpur, page 35:

(archaeology) An excavated trench or pit.


hammerstone

Striking a hand-held isotropic block or cobble (a core) with a hammerstone initiates a cone-shaped crack at roughly 60° from the axis of force, exemplified by the hole in a plate glass window made by a pellet gun (18, 19 ).

2001 March 2, Stanley H. Ambrose, “Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution”, in Science, volume 291, number 5509, →DOI, pages 1748–1753:

On the other hand, in the same crannog, a hammerstone broken in two was found, each half in a different place, as were two parts of a figurine at Dumbuck.

(archaeology) A type of stone used to hit or strike in a similar way to a modern-day hammer.


protohistory

protohistory (countable and uncountable, plural protohistories)

And at all times, now as in proto-history, the membrum virile is the symbol of creation, the ultimate basis and source of life.

1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page ii:

(archaeology, history) The period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings.


technocomplex

(archaeology) A distinct culture that employed a specific technology


diffusionism

diffusionism (usually uncountable, plural diffusionisms)

(archaeology) The belief that changes in one culture are caused by diffusion of ideas from another.


Lernean

(Greek mythology, archaeology) From or pertaining to Lerna, a former coastal lake and Helladic site on the Peloponnese.


paleohabitat

paleohabitats (plural)
palaeohabitat (alternative)

(ecology, archaeology) An extinct habitat that can only be reconstructed from fossils


PPN

Pre-Pottery Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic#English

(archaeology) Abbreviation of Pre-Pottery Neolithic.


grave goods

grave goods pl (normally plural, singular grave good)

grave good (singular)
grave-goods (alternative)

(archaeology) The artefacts (jewellery, animals, slaves, etc) buried with a dead person in a grave or tomb.


archaeological horizon

archaeological horizon (plural archaeological horizons)

archaeological horizons (plural)
archeological horizon (alternative)

From archaeological + horizon (“layer or stratum, subculture”).

The Lochnore Phase is followed by the Shuswap Horizon, the first of three archaeological horizons that together comprise the Late Period of the Mid Fraser-Thompson River area.

1996, Arnoud R. Stryd, Michael K. Rousseau, “Early Prehistory of the Mid Fraser-Thompson River Area”, in Roy L. Carlson, Luke Robert Dalla Bona, editors, Early Human Occupation in British Columbia, page 197:

2011, Nuria Sanz, Penelope Keenan (editors), Human Evolution: Adaptations, Dispersal and Social Developments (HEADS), World Heritage Papers: 29, UNESCO, page 132,
While speech, song, music and dance presumably existed still earlier, the oldest musical instruments known are four bone flutes and four mammoth ivory flutes from archaeological horizon II at Geißenklösterle (Hahn and Münzel, 1995; Conard et al., 2004).

2012, Rivka Rabinovich, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Lutz Kindler, Naama Goren-Inbar, The Acheulian Site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Volume III: Mammalian Taphonomy: The Assemblages of Layers V-5 and V-6, page 5,
The evidence of fire revealed in each of the archaeological horizons is based mainly on the high frequency of microartifacts.

(archaeology) A common set of artefacts that identifies a culture and is found disseminated widely (usually over a number of sites, but sometimes widely over one site) but restricted to a single stratum; a layer or stratum.

horizonte arqueológico

a common set of artefacts that identifies a culture


doorslab

So she picked all the prettiest flowers she could find and strewed them over the door-slab, which they put in its right place again.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 58:

This temple is so called from the two carved limestone doorslabs bearing Maya writing, part of which was read as the date 1014 A. D.

1928, El Palacio, volumes 25-26, page 119:

(archaeology) A slab forming part of a doorway.


ecofact

The fact that two periods of occupation are in evidence, both having similar ecofact and material remains, suggests that the occupation and the behavior carried on there are part of an established cycle of seasonally based behavior.

1963, Missouri Archaeological Society, Research Series, Issues 1–13, page 57:

Ecofact is a term archaeologists invented to classify natural objects used by humans without modification. Animal bones left for dinner or pollen from gathered plants are ecofacts. … Even phosphates or other chemicals in the soil are ecofacts showing that people threw their organic waste on the ground.

2009, Nancy Marie White, Archaeology For Dummies, part 1 Archaeology: Seeing Past People Today, chapter 1 What Archaeology Is, page 12

(archaeology) A biological artifact not altered by humans, but which may be indicative of human occupation.


Awan

Sumerian cuneiform: a-wa-anki, "Country of Awan"

(archaeology, historical) An ancient city-state or region of Elam in the western area of modern-day Iran.


conehead

(anthropology, archaeology, informal) A person who has undergone cranial modification in order to produce an elongated skull.


Valentini

en-proper-noun

Valentini (countable and uncountable, plural Valentinis)

(uncountable, archaeology) An ancient people of Sardinia


Metal Age

Metal Ages (plural)
metal age (alternative)

(archaeology) An age characterised by the use of tools made from a specific type of metal.


type site

type sites (plural)
type-site (alternative)
typesite (alternative)

The Late Bronze Age assemblage to which the type site offers no significant parallel.

1935, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 1 6:

Bambata is the type site for the Stillbay Culture in Rhodesia.

1959, J.G.D. Clark, Reflections on the significance of prehistoric cultural influences in South West Africa, VI 159:

A ‘type-site’ is, in archaeological jargon, the site after which a culture is named, often the site at which it was first discovered or recognized as distinct.

1981, P. Salway, Roman Britain, section 7:

(archaeology) An archaeological site considered the representative example of a particular culture, frequently its first discovery and frequently used as its eponym


Paleohispanic

paleohispanic (alternative)
paleo-Hispanic (alternative)
Paleo-Hispanic (alternative)

Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula#English

(linguistics, archaeology) Of or relating to the native peoples, languages and scripts of the Iberian Peninsula before its conquest by the Romans.


migrationism

(archaeology) The theory that movements of people from one region to another can account for changes in the culture of the destination region.


tumi

The tumis are characterized by a metal handle, which can be bent at the free end or may have an ornament in the form of a button or a zoomorphic head; they also have a curved, sharp blade edge, forming a semicircle or half-moon.[…]The archaeological associations of the tumis found in Argentina indicate that these objects all had an Inca origin.

1979, Alberto Rex González, “Pre-Columbian Metallurgy in Northwest Argentina: Historical Development and Cultural Process”, in Elizabeth P. Benson, editor, Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America, Conference Proceedings, page 177:

For instance, he makes sure that the reader is aware that the weapons taken by the Inca army, tumis, are ritual weapons used for the ritual hunt and slaughter of llamas.

2002, Thomas B. F. Cummins, Toasts with the Inca: Andean Abstraction and Colonial Images on Quero Vessels, page 18:

Decorated tumis such as this one may have been used for ceremonial purposes, although their utilization on more mundane occasions should not be ruled out.

2004, Richard L. Burger, Lucy C. Salazar, “Catalogue”, in Richard L. Burger, Lucy C. Salazar, editors, Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas, page 193:

(archaeology) A ceremonial axe used by some Incan and pre-Incan cultures of South America.


Anzu

Learned borrowing from Sumerian 𒀭𒉎𒂂𒄷 (AN.IM.DUGUD^(MUŠEN) /Anzû/, “a mythical dragon-like bird”), origin unknown, perhaps from 𒀭 (An, “heaven”) + 𒍪 (zu, “to know”).

lbor

(archaeology) Certain depictions of lion-headed eagles in Sumerian art.


Paleo-Indian

(archaeology) pertaining to Native American culture before circa 8,500 BCE


postprocessual

(archaeology) Of or relating to a movement, in reaction to processualism, that emphasizes the subjectivity of archaeological interpretations.


postprocessualism

(archaeology) postprocessual attitudes and approaches generally.


pithouse

pithouses (plural)
pit-house (alternative)

(archaeology) A primitive building partially dug into the ground and roofed over.


Ġgantija

Named after the Ġgantija temple complex, from Maltese ġgantija, from ġgant (“giant”).

(archaeology, rare) A period of the Neolithic in Malta during which megalithic temples were built.


Samian ware

en-noun

Samian ware (countable and uncountable, plural Samian wares)

(archaeology) A form of terra sigillata tableware made in ancient Gaul.


Nazca

Nasca (alternative)
Naska (alternative uncommon)
Nazka (alternative uncommon)

(archaeology) A culture that flourished from 100 BC to 800 AD in southern Peru.


Andronovo

Named after the village of Andronovo where, in 1914, skeletons and decorated pottery were found.

(archaeology) A collection of similar local Bronze Age cultures that flourished circa 1800–1400 BCE in western Siberia and the west Asiatic steppe.


sorting table

2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text
Stefania Chlouveraki, the project leader, stands at a long sorting table. She turns the colored fragments over and over in her fingertips. She fits each one into its place: a magnificent tableau of lions, crosses, pomegranate trees.

(archaeology) A table on which finds are sorted by date, origin etc.


terra sigillata

/ˌtɛɹə ˌsɪdʒɪˈleɪtə/

/ˌtɛɹə ˌsɪdʒɪˈlɑːtə/

/ˌtɛɹə ˌsɪdʒəˈleɪtə/

From Medieval Latin terra sigillāta (literally “sealed, stamped earth”).

bor

(archaeology) A type of fine, red Roman pottery made from the first to the third centuries AD in Gaul.


pukara

Borrowed from Quechua pukara (“fortress”).

bor+

Some of the largest pukaras had substantial villages and hamlets around their base.

2003, Charles Stanish, Ancient Titicaca: The Evolution of Complex Society in Southern Peru and Northern Bolivia, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 209:

(historical, archaeology) A defensive hilltop site or fortification built by the prehispanic inhabitants (primarily Inca and Aymara) of the central Andean area.


archeomaterial

archeomaterials (plural)
archaeomaterial (alternative)

(archaeology) Any material from an earlier civilization, found during archeological studies.


microgravette

These bags contain a number of robust microgravette points (or fragments thereof) that are more likely to belong in these periods than in the Romanellian, diagnostics of which (very small thumbnail scrapers, very narrow backed bladelets) are mostly to be found in bags with a “B-I” label.

2015 July 9, “Analysis of Site Formation and Assemblage Integrity Does Not Support Attribution of the Uluzzian to Modern Humans at Grotta del Cavallo”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

(archaeology) A small projectile point (from the Stone Age)


sidescraper

sidescrapers (plural)
side-scraper (alternative)
side scraper (alternative)

(archaeology) A Paleolithic stone tool used for scraping.


use-wear analysis

(archaeology) A technique for identifying the functions of artefact tools by closely examining their working surfaces and edges.


archaeometallurgical

archaeometallurgic (alternative)
archeometallurgical (alternative)
archeometallurgic (alternative)

(archaeology) Relating to archaeometallurgy.


cutmark

The presence of cutmarks on the bones suggested cannibalism.


postpipe

(archaeology) The remains of an upright timber placed in a posthole.


Aubrey hole

Named after the seventeenth-century antiquarian John Aubrey, who observed them in 1666.

(archaeology) Any of a ring of early chalk pits at Stonehenge, of unknown purpose.


CBM

ceramic building material
w:ceramic building material

(archaeology) Initialism of ceramic building material.


bipoint

(archaeology) A primitive tool that is pointed at both ends.


unipoint

(archaeology) A primitive tool with a single pointed end.


flaker

→ German: Flaker (archive fashion slang)

(archaeology, chemistry, kitchen) A tool or appliance used to break flakes off a piece of material or something into it.


larnax

Borrowed from Ancient Greek λάρναξ (lárnax).

In a chamber tomb at Milatos, Mr. Evans discovered in 1899 a painted larnax or sarcophagus, on which there is figured a great Mycenæan body shield.

1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 101:

The borders found on the sarcophagus also occur in similar positions on the terracotta larnakes.

1973, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, volumes 37-41, page 24:

Burial in larnaxes was first practiced in Crete in the Early Minoan period (EM) and its popularity grew in the Middle Minoan period (MM).

1992, Rivka Gonen, Burial Patterns and Cultural Diversity in Late Bronze Age Canaan:

Black painted band on the upper surface of the larnax rim, extended below the rim, both inside and outside.

2005, Yiannis Papadatos, Tholos Tomb Gamma: A Prepalatial Tholos Tomb at Phouni, Archanes:

(archaeology, historical) A small closed coffin, box or cinerary urn often used as a container for human remains in Ancient Greece.


Gravettian

Coined by English archaeologist Dorothy Garrod in 1938, named after the site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France, where the characteristic tools were first found and studied.

coin

Recently, two additional Gravettian sites, Troyanove 4 and Ozerove, have been explored in central Ukraine (Zaliznyak et al. 2007).

2020, Malcolm C. Lillie, Inna D. Potekhina, editors, Prehistoric Ukraine: From the First Hunters to the First Farmers, Oxbow Books, →ISBN, page 73:

(archaeology) Of or relating to a specific archaeological tool-making industry of the European Upper Paleolithic era prevalent before the last glacial maximum, c. 33000–20000 BCE.


talayot

/təˈlɑːjəʊt/

Borrowed from Catalan talaiot, from talaia (“watchtower”), of Arabic origin.

A talayot may be square, round, oval, or stepped in form, averaging 12–20 m in diameter and containing a massive central roof pillar.

2011, Michael E. Smith, The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 147:

(archaeology) A kind of Bronze Age megalith found on the islands of Minorca and Mallorca.


talayotic

(archaeology) Of or relating to talayots or the culture that built them.


Clactonian

(archaeology) Belonging or relating to a class of ancient tools fashioned from flakes chipped off flint cores.


Clactonian

(archaeology) One of the ancient people who fashioned Clactonian tools.


Roman dodecahedron

en-noun

Roman dodecahedron (plural Roman dodecahedra)

(archaeology) A small hollow dodecahedral object of bronze or stone, with holes in the faces, mostly found at Gallo-Roman sites. Their use and significance is uncertain.


archeothanatology

Based on the recorded position of bones in the grave, archeothanatology aims to determine the original position of the body, the position of the funerary artifacts, the relative chronology of deposits found in the grave and the architecture of the burial when it first took place.

2016 February 25, “Early Medieval Muslim Graves in France: First Archaeological, Anthropological and Palaeogenomic Evidence”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

(archaeology) The study of ancient deaths


Hoabinhian

(archaeology) Of, relating to, or exhibiting the features of the prehistoric Hòa Bình culture of Southeast Asia, characterised by certain types of stone artifact.


Bacsonian

On present evidence it seems that the Bacsonian is simply a late facies of the Hoabinhian, since it ended at roughly the same time.

2004, Peter S. Bellwood, Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History, page 180:

The key to the neolithic problems of the whole of south - east Asia is found in IndoChina in the Bacsonian culture - complex as developed in caves and rock - shelters near Hoabinh and in the Bacsonian limestone massif in Tonkin province .

(archaeology) Of or relating to a variation of the Hoabinhian industry, based around Bắc Sơn and characterized by a higher frequency of edge-ground cobble artifacts.


Villanovan

(archaeology) Of or relating to the earliest Iron Age culture of central and northern Italy.


Olmecoid

en-adj

Olmecoid (comparative more Olmecoid, superlative most Olmecoid)

more Olmecoid (comparative)
most Olmecoid (superlative)

(archaeology) Showing influences from the Olmec culture.


stone circle

Near Smeinogorsk an octagonal tumulus has been found containing the corpse of a horse near a rectangular one with a human corpse, both within stone circles.

1898, Friedrich Ratzel, The History of Mankind, volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., page 325:

(archaeology) A prehistoric monument consisting of standing stones arranged in a circle.


Clava cairn

Named after the group of three cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, to the east of Inverness in Scotland.

(archaeology) A type of Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn.


gigantolith

(archaeology) A large stone or flint tool of the Heavy Neolithic industry, associated primarily with the Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon.


technosignature

(archaeology, anthropology) A phenomenon indicating that a particular technology is or was used by a particular society; (astrophysics, astrobiology) a phenomenon indicating that a particular technology is or was present in some place (for example, a phenomenon suggesting that a Dyson sphere might exist in a certain region of space).


roofbox

From roof + box, coined by Professor Michael O'Kelly during his excavation of the Newgrange passage cairn at Brú Na Bóinne in Ireland.

(archaeology) A specially contrived opening above a doorway, usually aligned to mark an astronomical event.


Copper Age

(archaeology) A short or theoretical prehistoric period between the Neolithic and Bronze Age.


levelling staff

en-noun

levelling staff (plural levelling staffs or levelling staves)

levelling staffs (plural)
levelling staves (plural)
leveling staff (alternative)

(surveying, archaeology) A graduated pole used in the process of establishing heights and altitudes.


Châtelperronian

And there is some evidence that once the Neanderthals made contact with humans they borrowed ideas and ways of doing things, in doing so creating the Châtelperronian culture, which persisted until the moment of Neanderthal extinction.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 176:

(archaeology) Relating to a paleolithic flint industry located near Châtelperron in France.


lophid

en-adj

lophid (not generally comparable, comparative more lophid, superlative most lophid)

more lophid (comparative)
most lophid (superlative)

From lopho- (“ridge”) + -id (“pertaining to”).

confix

Similarities include minimal division of the paracristid and cristid obliqua, paucity of enamel crenulations on the lophid faces and, to a lesser degree, anterior turn of the lophid ends

2004, Gavin Prideaux, Systematics and Evolution of the Sthenurine Kangaroos, page 64:

(zoology, palentology, archaeology, usually of teeth) Featuring or characterized by a crest or ridge.


lophid

There is a very small wear facet on the tip of the first lophid.

1967, David Whistler, Oreodonts of the Tick Canyon Formation, Southern California, page s.n.:

In early Elephantoidia, the mesial root supports only the first lophid of the molar.

2009, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Giday WoldeGabriel, Ardipithecus Kadabba: Late Miocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia, page 471:

(zoology, palentology, archaeology) A ridge on molars or other teeth formed by a modification of cusps.


sunken featured building

en-noun

sunken featured building (plural sunken featured buildings)


SFB

sunken featured building
sunken featured building#English

(archaeology) Abbreviation of sunken featured building: pithouse.


lissoir

From French lissoir, from lisser (“to smooth”) + -oir (“tool suffix”).

suffix

(archaeology) A prehistoric tool, made of bone or wood, used to soften leather.


desert kite

(anthropology, archaeology) A funnel trap constructed of stone and found in Middle Eastern deserts, intended to trap migrating game animals.


Oldowan

From Maasai Olduvai, from the site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where the first Oldowan lithics were discovered in the 1930s.

(archaeology) Belonging to the earliest widespread stone-tool archaeological industry in prehistory.


briquetage

From French briquetage (“brickwork”) (In French archaeology the term is also used in this extended, specialist sense).

qf

(archaeology) burnt-clay remains associated with historical salt production.

(archaeology, more generally) any crudely-made objects fashioned of burnt clay.


PPNB

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B#English

(archaeology) Abbreviation of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B.


paleodose

(archaeology) The dose of natural radiation accumulated by an archaeological sample


shellmound

shellmounds (plural)
shell mound (alternative)

(archaeology) A prehistoric midden containing shells of edible mollusks and other detritis


chacmool

en-noun

chacmool (plural chacmools or chacmooles)

chacmools (plural)
chacmooles (plural)
chac mool (alternative)
chac-mool (alternative)
chacmol (alternative)

Borrowed from Yucatec Maya chak moʼol (“jaguar”, literally “red paw”). The name was first given by Augustus Le Plongeon to a statue of this type discovered at Chichén Itzá in 1875.

bor

(archaeology) A stylized, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican stone sculpture depicting a reclining male figure with the head raised and turned to one side, holding a small tray over the stomach.


cropmark

cropmarks (plural)
crop mark (alternative)

The earliest air photograph showing cropmarks at Mucking appears to be a high level vertical view of the area taken by a German aircraft of the Luftwaffe in 1943. This photograph, however, only shows a few small and indistinct marks.

2013, Ann Clark, Excavations at Mucking: Volume 1: The site atlas, English Heritage, →ISBN, page 23:

(archaeology) A sign of the former location of some feature (such as a wall or a ditch) revealed by variations in plant growth on the surface.


breakface

breakfaces (plural)
break face (alternative)

The carved surface and breakfaces on the sides of this relief exhibit a uniform appearance in ultraviolet light despite damage to the surface, including scratches, abrasion, and a modern drillhole from a previous mount. […] The head has been broken off at the neck and repaired previously. Breakfaces appear sharp and clean as if the break were recent. […] A chip is associated with the clean breakface.

1999, Lawrence M. Berman and Kenneth J. Bohač, The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Egyptian Art, page 551 and page 561

(archaeology) the surface of an artifact where a piece has been broken off


sambaqui

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese sambaqui.

bor+

(archaeology) The remains of a midden containing mostly seashells


hachereau

From French hacher, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hack”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; peg; hook; handle”).

der

A "hachereau" or hatchet, sometimes served as a hammer.

1982, Jean Daigle, The Acadians of the Maritimes: thematic studies, page 457:

Bifacial tools are represented by an amigdaloid hand-axe (Figure 4.2:6), a possible biface fragment, and an atypical hachereau.

2003, Marie Soressi, Harold Lewis Dibble, Multiple Approaches to the Study of Bifacial Technologies, →ISBN, page 79:

In its essential features, this kind of implement might also be viewed as a kind of small hachereau (Type 55).

2013, Arthur J. Jelinek, Neandertal Lithic Industries at La Quina, →ISBN, page 229:

(archaeology) a cleaver, similar to an ax but with a wider cutting edge


typometry

(archaeology) The measurement of artefacts; statistical methods for analysis of artefacts.


bioarchaeometry

(archaeology) The application of archaeometry to bioarchaeology


subassemblage

(archaeology) An assemblage of artefacts associated with a part of a larger group


solar boat

(archaeology, Egyptology) A wooden burial boat intended to be used by a king to make celestial journeys in the afterlife.

(archaeology, Egyptology) The boat that, in myth, carries the sun on its journey across the sky; solar barque.


Levalloisian

From Levallois + -ian. Named after Levallois-Perret, a suburb of Paris where stone tools were found during the 19th century. Attested from the 20th century.

O'Brien regards the Still-Bay as the final development of the Levalloisian, and, like Leakey, assigns it to the end of the Gamblian pluvial.

1902, D.J. Cunningham, “Right-handedness and left-brainedness. Huxley Memorial Lecture”, in Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, page 23:

(archaeology, anthropology) Of or related to certain Middle Paleolithic cultures.


name vase

(archaeology) An ancient vase that a painter is named after, since the painter's actual identity is not known but can be recognised by the characteristic style or artistic content.


megasequence

(geology, archaeology) A very large sequence of strata


chronocultural

(archaeology) Relating to the chronology of ancient cultures

kulttuurien ajoitukseen liittyvä

relating to chronology of ancient cultures


Jomon

(archaeology) Relating to an early Neolithic culture in Japan and Korea.

(archaeology) Relating to pottery characteristic of this culture.


Golaseccan

(archaeology, historical) Pertaining to the Golasecca culture of northern Italy.


Marnian

(archaeology, history) Pertaining to the La Tène culture of the Marne region.


tool stone

(archaeology) A stone used to manufacture other stone tools


Trypillian

Several projects in recent years have tried to make sense of the Trypillian proto-cities.

2021 February 24, Laura Spinney, “The rise and fall of the mysterious culture that invented civilisation”, in New Scientist, archived from the original on 2023-03-11:

(archaeology) Relating to the archaeological culture of which Trypillia is a type site.

трыпо́льскі

relating to the archaeological culture of which Trypillia is a type site


Trypillian

(archaeology) A representative of the archaeological culture of which Trypillia is a type site.

трыпóлец

a representative of the archaeological culture of which Trypillia is a type site


archaeobiology

(archaeology, biology) The biological aspects of archaeology


archaeobiological

(archaeology, biology) Relating to archaeobiology


broadline

(archaeology) Having a broad line inscribed or drawn.


Great Earth Mother

en-noun

Great Earth Mother (plural Great Earth Mothers)

In the East women want to identify themselves with their biological function. And that makes them all woman. Compartmentalisation is our big crime in the West. Normah should have been the Great Earth Mother.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 397:

(paganism, archaeology) Alternative form of Earth Mother.


LBK

From German LBK, from Linearbandkeramische or Linienbandkeramische (used alongside Kultur).

A number of authors have pointed out that while these pots are dissimilar from LBK wares, they may have a generalised affinity with the Cardial pottery of the Mediterranean (Lüning et al. 1989).

1996, Julian Thomas, Time, Culture, and Identity: An Interpretative Archaeology, Routledge, page 114:

1996 [Routledge], I. J. Thorpe, The Origins of Agriculture in Europe, 2005, Taylor & Francis e-Library, page 41,
The LBK was succeeded by a variety of regional pottery traditions (Bogucki and Grygiel 1993).

However, in the northern areas and in central Europe sedentary life can be linked to the central European Linear Pottery culture (LBK), emerging around 5550 cal BC (Bánffy and Oross 2010, pp. 260–268). The LBK longhouse of the Neolithic evolved south of the upper reaches of the Danube and spread to Austria, Moravia, Bohemia, Poland and Germany in its fully developed form with the earliest LBK groups.

2013, Eszter Bánffy, “Chapter 6: Tracing the Beginning of Sedentary Life in the Carpathian Basin: The Formation of the LBK House”, in Daniela Hofmann, Jessica Smyth, editors, Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe: Sedentism, Architecture and Practice, Springer, page 117:

(archaeology) Linear Pottery culture; often used attributively.


fairy dart

Hence, by having a fairy dart in your possession, you can defy the fairies, or can even turn them from active enemies into powerful friends and personal patrons. This curious property makes the stone arrowhead a most valuable charm ...

The shape is believed to have been derived from its being originally the mounting of an elf-shot or fairy dart, i.e. flint arrowhead. An old man in Kincardineshire […]

1969, Joseph Jacobs, Alfred Trübner Nutt, Arthur Robinson Wright, William Crooke, Folklore:

Cattle are shot with stones and can only be cured by a "fairy dart" or ancient stone arrowhead. These objects are kept in numerous wrappings by every properly qualified "fairy doctor," who rub[s] them on the sick beasts with appropriate charms ...

1918, Folklore Society (Great Britain), Publications:

(archaeology) A prehistoric stone arrowhead; an elf arrow.


mobiliary art

(archaeology) Small pieces of prehistoric art that could be carried, as opposed to art applied to walls or cliffs, for example.


osteodontokeratic

(archaeology) Relating to any culture in which tools were made from bone, tooth and horn


roofspall

roofspall (countable and uncountable, plural roofspalls)

(archaeology) debris from the roof (and walls) of a cave or similar shelter


archaeoinformatics

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-archaeoinformatics.wav

(archaeology, computer science) The application of informatics to archaeology


Lomekwian

From Lomekwi + -an, after the archaeological site Lomekwi 3 in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. From no earlier than 2015, the year of publication of the discovery.

Makers of Lomekwian tools show less of an understanding of stone fracture mechanics and a reduced reliance on a free-hand technique than makers of Oldowan tools, the next oldest stone tool industry.

2017, Margaret E. Lewis, “Chapter 2: Carnivore Guilds and the Impact of Hominin Dispersals”, in Nicole Boivin, Rémy Crassard, Michael Petraglia, editors, Human Dispersal and Species Movement: From Prehistory to the Present, Cambridge University Press, page 31:

These Lomekwian tools, such as the one illustrated in Fig. 3.1, were an earth-shattering find. They are hundreds of thousands of years older than the previously oldest stone tools found and they absolutely and unquestionably could not have been made by any human being (if your definition of human restricts itself to members of genus Homo, which did not come about until about half a million years later). Finally, these Lomekwian stone tools are of a different style than all previously known stone tools.

2017, Christina De La Rocha, Daniel J. Conley, Silica Stories, Springer, page 31:

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to the period when certain stone artefacts, found at the archaeological site Lomekwi 3 in Kenya, were manufactured and used, apparently by hominins prior to the emergence of genus Homo.


Lomekwian

(archaeology) A loosely defined period, approximately 3.3 million years ago, characterised by the manufacture and use of the tools found at Lomekwi 3.


typochronological

(archaeology) Relating to typochronology


typochronology

(archaeology) The chronological variation in the type of a class of objects


spiritual midden

spiritual midden (plural spiritual middens)

(archaeology) A hidden cache of objects (e.g. within the walls of a building) having some magical purpose.


tophet

They are an important factor indicating a corpus of beliefs common to the important central colonies (Carthage, Sousse, Motya, Sulcis, Nora, Tharros), where tophets and accompanying grave stelae have been found.

1991, John Boardman, The Cambridge Ancient History (part 1, page 490)

(archaeology) A Carthaginian monument associated with a cemetery for ritually sacrificed children.


stelar

(archaeology) Of or relating to a stele.


timber circle

(archaeology) A circular arrangement of wooden posts, interpreted either as a complex of freestanding poles or as the support for a large circular building.


BMAC

(archaeology) Initialism of Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex.


attritional mortality

(archaeology, paleontology) The process by which individuals in a population die off one by one from a variety of causes (rather than in large numbers as part of a single event).


catastrophic mortality

(archaeology, paleontology) The process by which individuals in a population die off in large numbers as part of a single event (rather than one by one, from a variety of causes).


tablestone

(archaeology) A large flat horizontal stone.


objective piece

objective piece (plural objective pieces)

(archaeology) The initial piece of stone from which a tool is made.


macroband

(archaeology) A group of hunter-gatherers from several families


backed blade

(archaeology) A prehistoric flint knife with one edge blunted (backed) and the other sharpened.


woodhenge

From wood + henge, by analogy to Stonehenge.

(archaeology) A prehistoric monument composed of a ring of timber (typically surviving as a ring of postholes)


enchytrism

enchytrism (usually uncountable, plural enchytrisms)

From Ancient Greek ἐγχυτρισμός (enkhutrismós, “enchytrism”), from ἐγχυτρίζω (enkhutrízō, “to expose a newborn in a pot”) + -μός (-mós), from lenited ἐν- (en-, “in-”) and χυτρίζω (khutrízō, “put in a pot”), from χύτρα (khútra, “clay pot”).

der

(archaeology) The burial of a child or a small animal in a vessel such as a pot.


multivallate

(archaeology) Having multiple defensive ramparts


multivallation

(archaeology) The use of multiple defensive ramparts


Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex

Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (canonical)
BMAC (alternative)

(archaeology) A Bronze Age civilization of Central Asia, dated to c. 2400–1900 BCE.


Cemetery H culture

(archaeology) A Bronze Age culture in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, dated to c. 1900-1300 BCE.


situlate

From situla + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

af

(archaeology) Resembling a vessel of the situla type.


myBP

(archaeology, geology, paleontology) Initialism of million years before present.


proscynema

From Ancient Greek προσκύνημα (proskúnēma, “adoration”), a word used in the standard Greek formula for such inscriptions.

bor

(archaeology) A formulaic inscription expressing adoration of or homage to a particular deity.


unifaced

(archaeology) Of a prehistoric stone tool: flaked on one surface only.


bifaced

(archaeology) Of a prehistoric stone tool: having two sharp cutting edges.


Great Mother

In the mystery of the writing of language, the two had become the one; the stylus of the scribe was like the older Neolithic statues of the Great Mother carved on the phallus.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 22:


Great Goddess

Gone is the obese Great Goddess; come is the sleek young maid, the Queen of Heaven.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 165:


Tollund Man

Named after a nearby Danish village, where its discoverers lived.

Tollund Man was found eight or nine feet beneath the surface of a Danish bog by two men cutting peat in 1950.

1996, Christine Quigley, The Corpse: a history, McFarland & Company, page 237:

The composition of the meal was a clear indication of the dating of Tollund Man, as the ration of naked and hulled barley closely corresponds to the ratio known to be used around the time of the birth of Christ; linseed and spelt, also found among the stomach contents, do not enter the Danish flora until around 400 BC.

1998, Christian Fischer, “Bog bodies of Denmark and northwestern Europe”, in Aidan Cockburn, Eve Cockburn, Theodore A. Reyman, editors, Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 247:

The remains of Tollund Man reside in Silkeborg. Tollund Man lies in the center of a room dedicated to displaying himself and aspects of his life.

2015, Margaret Comer, “13: Ancient Bodies, Modern Ideologies: Bog Bodies and Identity in Denmark and Ireland”, in Peter F. Biehl, Douglas C. Comer, Christopher Prescott, Hilary A. Soderland, editors, Identity and Heritage, Springer, page 130:

(archaeology) A bog body found preserved in peat on the Jutland peninsula, Denmark, in 1950; the naturally mummified body of a man believed to have lived in the 5th century BCE during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the pre-Roman Iron Age.


tegulation

(archaeology) The construction of a roof from tegulae.


El Argar

From its centre the El Argar culture spread eastwards towards Granada and northwards to Murcia and Valencia, though losing some traits on the way.

1975, I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger, editors, The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume II, Part 2: History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region c. 1380-1000 BC, 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 764:

The site of El Argar sat on a plateau 1000 x 330 ft (300x90 m) on the Rio Antas in southeastern Spain, 7 mi (12 km) from the sea.[…]El Argar was the largest and most important of some forty other fortified villages that were within a 50 mi (75 km) length along the coast.

1998, Harry Mountain, The Celtic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Universal Publishers, page 44:

The palynological interpretations of the overexploitation and forest degradation of El Argar have been taken from archaeological and bioarchaeological research in the 1980s and 1990s, which in turn have served as the basis for a large number of anthracological studies in the early 20th^([sic]) century.

2021, Mireia Celma Martínez, “Long-term effects of forest exploitation in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula: An anthracological synthesis for El Argar (2200-1550 cal BC)”, in Marian Berihuete-Azorín, María Martín Seijo, Oriol López-Bultó, Raquel Piqué, editors, The Missing Woodland Resources, Barkhuis Publishing, page 85:

(archaeology) An archaeological site and the prehistoric centre of an early to middle Bronze Age culture, located near present-day Antas, in the province of Almería, Spain.


eraillure

eraillures (plural)
éraillure (alternative)

Borrowed from French éraillure (“scar”).

(archaeology) A flake removed from a lithic flake's bulb of force.


chaîne opératoire

(anthropology, archaeology) The technical processes and social acts involved in the production, use, and eventual disposal of artifacts; used to guide step-by-step analysis.


flakage

(archaeology) The presence of flaking in an artifact.


radiometric age

en-noun

radiometric age (plural radiometric ages)

2001, Allen H. Andrews, Erica J. Burton, Kenneth H. Coale, Gregor M. Cailliet, Roy E. Crabtree, Radiometric age validation of Atlantic tarpon, Megalops atlanticus, Fishery Bulletin, Volume 99, Issue 3, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, page 394,
For older age groups and individual cores, annulus-derived age was higher than radiometric age by as much as 21.8 years and lower than radiometric age by as much as 23 years.

For additional radiometric ages and references to the radiometric ages in the table above see Dickinson, (1997), Wilson et al., (2005) and Tables A1–A6 in Hall, (2002).

2007, Clarence A. Hall Jr., Introduction to the Geology of Southern California and Its Native Plants, University of California Press, page 129:

Use is made of a smoothing spline fit on the two way plot between the composite standard scaling of the stages (Table 23.2) and radiometric ages.

2012, Felix. M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, Mark D. Schmitz, Gabi M. Ogg, The Geologic Time Scale 2012, Elsevier, page 638:

(archaeology, paleontology, geology, geochronology) The age of a material as determined by radiometric dating.


OSL

(physics, geophysics, geology, paleontology, anthropology, archaeology) Initialism of optically stimulated luminescence.


unsided

Upper limbs: fragment unsided ulna shaft. Lower limbs: left proximal femur shaft segment; fragment each of unsided tibia and fibula shaft.

2022, William Britnell, Alasdair Whittle, The First Stones, page 202:

(archaeology) Originating from an uncertain side of the body, either left or right.


Nebra sky disc

Named after the German town of Nebra, Germany, near which it was discovered in 1999.

The Nebra Sky Disc is one of archaeology's prime finds because its cosmological iconography offers a unique insight into the mental processes of Bronze Age people.

2013, Harald Meller, “Chapter 14A: The Sky Disc of Nebra”, in Harry Fokkens, Anthony Harding, editors, The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age, Oxford University Press, page 266:

Discovered near the town of Nebra in Germany, the Nebra sky disc is believed by archaeoastronomers to be a Bronze Age durable sky map dating back to 1600 BC.

2013, Chris Impey, Holly Henry, “Dreams of Other Worlds”, in Paperback, Princeton University Press, published 2016, page 190:

The Nebra sky disc, dated to 1600 BC, was found on the Mittelberg, a hilltop site near Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, along with two bronze swords, two hatchets, a chisel and fragments of spiral bracelets.

2016, Robin Melrose, Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur, McFarland, page 50:

(archaeology) A bronze disc featuring gold symbols inlaid on a blue-green patina, generally interpreted as depicting the Sun or full moon, a lunar crescent and stars (including a group that may be the Pleiades), dated to circa 1800–1600 BCE and attributed to the Unetice culture of the early European Bronze Age.

disque céleste de Nebra

bronze disc dating from the European Bronze Age


petrogram

(archaeology) A painting on rock, especially one made in prehistoric times.


zoofact

(archaeology) Something resembling a stone tool made by non-human animals.


Minyan ware

Minyan ware (countable and uncountable, plural Minyan wares)

(archaeology) A style of Aegean burnished pottery associated with the Middle Helladic period (c. 2000/1900–1550 BC).


multiface

Unifacial and multifacial tools are, on average, the largest tools at JAAP-1 while edge-only and bifacial tools tend to be similar in average size and somewhat smaller than the unifaces and multifaces.

1988, John F. Doershuk, Plenemuk Mound and the Archaeology of Will County, page 153:

Multifaces have at least one flake scar not originating on an edge on more than two faces ( Plate 10.5 ) .

1988, Charles W. Markman, Putney Landing, page 200:

As a general rule across the site, the usage patterns of bifaces differed significantly from the usage of multifaces or unifaces.

1988, Anthropological Papers - Issues 79-81, page 72:

(archaeology, anthropology) A stone tool constructed by chipping off flakes from every side.


Tardenoisian

(archaeology) Of or relating to an Epipaleolithic culture whose characteristic arrowheads were found at Coincy in the Tardenois region of France in 1885.


hut circle

(archaeology) A circular or oval depression in the ground, sometimes with a low stone wall around it, that was once the foundation of a roundhouse.


hydroarchaeology

(archaeology, uncommon) The study of artefacts or remains found underwater.


Oneota

(archaeology) A cultural complex that existed in the eastern plains and Great Lakes area of what is now occupied by the United States from around AD 900 to around 1650 or 1700, considered a major component of Upper Mississippian culture, and characterized by globular, shell-tempered pottery that is often coarse in fibre.


Danubian corridor

The caves lie on a migration route into western Europe known as the Danubian Corridor.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 179:

(paleontology, archaeology) A route along the valleys of the Danube and Rhine Rivers taken by of various ancient migrations of Eastern cultures into the north and northwest of Europe.


living floor

A living floor is, in archaeological terms, the floor of a cave upon which people lived and which retains evidence of their activities.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 202:

(archaeology) A flat and relatively level space inside a cave showing evidence of ancient habitation.


faunal assemblage

faunal assemblage (plural faunal assemblages)

Europe’s mammals are described by scientists as comprising faunal assemblages - groups of species that typically occur together.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 192:

(archaeology, paleontology) A group of different species that commonly associated with one another whose fossils occur together in a particular stratum.


Clovis point

They closely resemble the famed American Clovis points, which are associated with large mammal extinctions across the North American continent.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 219:

(archaeology) A fluted spearhead or the like created by people of the prehistoric Paleoamerican Clovis culture.


petrified carpentry

It is, however, often used in woodwork, where it is easier to execute, and it seems possible that its use at Göbekli Tepe constitutes an example of ʻpetrified carpentryʼ.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 228:

(archaeology) The presence in stonework architecture of designs that originated in carved wooden structures.


Creswellian

(archaeology) A British Upper Palaeolithic culture named after the type site of Creswell Crags in Derbyshire.


Reihengräber

From German Reihengräber (literally “row grave”).

bor

(historical, archaeology) A culture characterized by the burial practice of regularly arranged, identically oriented inhumation graves, existing between the mid-fifth and early-eighth century in central and western Europe, within the Merovingian sphere of influence.


Elling Woman

The Elling woman from the same large bog as Tollund man, and similarly hanged, had long plaited hair which had presented problems to the executioner, who had wound it up and round itself to remove its contact with the rope.

1996, D. Brothwell, “European bog bodies: current state of research and preservation”, in Konrad Spindler, Harald Wilfing, Elisabeth Rastbichler-Zissernig, Dieter ZurNedden, Hans Nothdurfter, editors, Human Mummies, Springer, page 169:

Sleeping near the Tollund Man for centuries is the Elling Woman, whose body was discovered in 1938 about 60m (200 ft.) from where the Tollund Man was later discovered.

2009, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Frommer's Denmark, Wiley, page 356:

Elling Woman from Denmark was also hanged with a leather belt that left a deep scar around her throat.

2016, Dennis William Harding, Death and Burial in Iron Age Britain, Oxford University Press, page 216:

(archaeology) A bog body found preserved in peat on the Jutland peninsula, Denmark, in 1938; the naturally mummified body of a woman believed to have died approximately 280 BCE, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the pre-Roman Iron Age.


turfline

(archaeology) A stratum of soil between two other layers.


Sa Huỳnh

(archaeology) A culture in modern-day central and southern Vietnam (1000 BCE–200 C.E.).


Okvik

(archaeology) An early subdivision of the Old Bering Sea culture.


Elmenteitan

(archaeology) A prehistoric lithic industry and pottery tradition with a distinct pattern of land use, hunting and pastoralism that appeared and developed on the western plains of Kenya during the Pastoral Neolithic c.3300-1200 BP.


Ipiutak

(archaeology) A culture that arose possibly as early as 100–200 BCE and collapsed around 800 CE, found from the south of the Bering Strait, across the Brooks Range and possibly as far north as Point Barrow.


New Year's bottle

en-noun

New Year's bottle (plural New Year's bottles)

(archaeology) A kind of lentoid bottle found in the cultures of Ancient Egypt, designed to be filled with Nile water or possibly perfume or oil and offered as celebratory gifts for the New Year.


Salinar

(archaeology, historical) A culture of ancient Peru that developed in the coastal area of Ancash and La Libertad.


Stillbay

Named by archaeologists A. J. H. Goodwin and C. van Riet Lowe in 1929.

(archaeology) A Middle Stone Age stone tool manufacturing style, first described from the site of Stilbaai (Still Bay) in South Africa.


Micoquien

Micoquean (alternative)
Micoquian (alternative)

(archaeology) An early middle Paleolithic industry, found in the Eemian and in an early episode of the Würm glaciation (about 130,000 to 60,000 BCE), and distinguished technologically by the appearance of distinctly asymmetrical bifaces.


circulation time

circulation time (countable and uncountable, plural circulation times)

tracing the precise circulation routes and circulation time of exchange goods may offer finer detail on social questions, cf. Frankenstein and Rowlands ( 1978 ).

1984, John L. Bintliff, European Social Evolution: Archaeological Perspectives, page 28:

This would seem to confirm our hypothesis that increasing circulation time reflects periods of declining supplies of bronze.

1984, Matthew Spriggs, Marxist Perspectives in Archaeology, page 92:

Swords were classified according to degree of wear—that is, circulation time.

2005, Kristian Kristiansen, Michael Rowlands, Social Transformations in Archaeology, page 93:

During its circulation time, capital does not function as productive capital, and therefore produces neither commodities nor surplus-value.

We can think of the capitalist's desire to reduce circulation time in terms of turnover time.

Industrial capital requires —to a greater or lesser degree—time (circulation time) and costs (circulation costs) for the sale.

2018, Teinosuke Otani, A Guide to Marxian Political Economy, page 295:

(economics, archaeology) The time in which capital is bound up the form of a commodity; the time in which a manufactured item is in use.


fougou

(archaeology) Alternative form of fogou.


Old Bering Sea

The culture was initially named the Bering Sea culture by Canadian archaeologist Diamond Jenness in 1928, following the discovery on the Diomede Islands of distinctively decorated objects such as whaling and sealing harpoon heads. The adjective "Old" was added by Smithsonian archaeologist Henry B. Collins to distinguish the culture from younger materials with similar design elements.

archaeological culture
archaeological culture

(archaeology, historical) An archaeological culture associated with a distinctive, elaborate circle-and-dot aesthetic style and centered on the Bering Strait region.


Ertebølle

Named after the type site in the village of Ertebølle on Limfjorden in Danish Jutland.

(archaeology) A pottery-making, hunter-gatherer and fisher culture dating to the end of the Mesolithic period, and concentrated in southern Scandinavia.


Chellean

After the town of Chelles, a suburb of Paris, France.

(archaeology, dated) Synonym of Abbevillian.


Pre-Pottery Neolithic

Holonyms: Neolithic, New Stone Age

Meronyms: Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B


Turkana Boy

Named after Lake Turkana, Kenya, near which the fossil was discovered in 1984 by Kenyan palaeontologist Kamoya Kimeu, on the bank of the Nariokotome River.

The prime importance of the Turkana Boy is that he represented the earliest kind of human we know of whose general body proportions matched those of living people.

1995, Ian Tattersall, The Fossil Trail, Cambridge University Press, page 118:

As Homo erectus is no chimpanzee, Turkana boy’s true age at death was probably between seven and 11 years. What is clear is that the Turkana boy followed a pattern of growth that is neither that of a modern human nor that of a chimpanzee.

1999, Barry Bogin, Patterns of Human Growth, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 202:

2009, Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth, Simon & Schuster (Free Press), page 197,
The most famous specimen of Homo ergaster, and one of the most complete pre-human fossils ever found, is the Turkana Boy, or Nariokotome Boy, discovered by Kamoya Kimeu, star fossil-finder of Richard Leakey's team of palaeontologists.
The Turkana Boy lived approximately 1.6 million years ago and died at the age of about eleven.

Homo ergaster
Homo ergaster#Translingual

(archaeology) The nearly complete fossilised skeleton of a Homo ergaster youth (estimated 7–11 years old at death) who lived 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago.

KNM-WT 15000

fossil designation by National Museums of Kenya


Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

Holonyms: Pre-Pottery Neolithic, PPN < Neolithic, New Stone Age

Pre-Pottery Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic

(archaeology) The first stage of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.


Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

(archaeology) The second stage of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.


PPNA

Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A#English

(archaeology) Abbreviation of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A.


early Helladic

(history, archaeology) related to or referring to the early Bronze Age period (3000–2000 BCE)


Lower Xiajiadian culture

Calque of Mandarin 夏家店下層文化 /夏家店下层文化 (Xiàjiādiàn xiàcéng wénhuà), from 夏家店 (Xiàjiādiàn, “Xiajiadian”) + 下層 /下层 (xiàcéng, “lower strata”) + 文化 (wénhuà, “culture”), with Xiajiadian being the location of the type site, which was discovered at a lower level than that of the Upper Xiajiadian culture. By surface analysis, lower + Xiajiadian + culture.

surf

(archaeology) An archaeological culture found throughout southeastern Inner Mongolia, northern Hebei and western Liaoning in China, who thrived from approximately 2200 to 1600 BCE.


Upper Xiajiadian culture

Calque of Mandarin 夏家店上層文化 /夏家店上层文化 (Xiàjiādiàn shàngcéng wénhuà), from 夏家店 (Xiàjiādiàn, “Xiajiadian”) + 上層 /上层 (shàngcéng, “upper strata”) + 文化 (wénhuà, “culture”), with Xiajiadian being the location of the type site, which was discovered at a higher level than that of the Lower Xiajiadian culture. By surface analysis, upper + Xiajiadian + culture.

surf

(archaeology) An archaeological culture found throughout southeastern Inner Mongolia, northern Hebei and western Liaoning in China, who thrived from approximately 1000 to 600 BCE.


archaeological culture

en-noun

archaeological culture (plural archaeological cultures)

(archaeology) A recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society.


Liaoning bronze dagger culture

Partial calque of Mandarin 遼寧青銅文化 /辽宁青铜文化 (Liáoníng qīngtóng wénhuà), from 遼寧 /辽宁 (Liáoníng, “Liaoning”) + 青銅 /青铜 (qīngtóng, “bronze”) + 文化 (wénhuà, “culture”), with Liaoning being the location of the type site, and the fact that the culture is characterised by its manufacture of bronze daggers. By surface analysis, Liaoning + bronze + dagger + culture.

surf

(archaeology) An archaeological culture dating from the Bronze Age in north-eastern China and parts of the Korean Peninsula, characterised by the high zinc content of the bronze daggers which it manufactured.


bird point

bird points (plural)
birdpoint (alternative)
bird-point (alternative)

She had watched the turned ground passing and had snatched up three partial arrowheads and a flint scraper and one fine complete bird point.

1997, Charles Frazier, “Ashes of Roses”, in Cold Mountain, New York: Atlantic:

Flint chips and flakes were scattered about. Here and there, every so often, one would find a point or blade. Occasionally, a tiny arrow-point (birdpoint) would surface.

1999, Bob Rampani, “Yesterday In Bridgeton, Site #6”, in Central States Archaeological Journal, volume 46, number 1, pages 9-10:

(US, archaeology) A small flint arrowhead


unprovenienced

Near-synonym: unprovenanced

There are many problems associated with artifacts and objects that lack a secure archaeological context. As Biblical Archaeology Review readers know, we typically describe such objects as “unprovenanced” (or, more accurately, unprovenienced). Since they were not found through controlled scientific excavation and often enter collections through the antiquities market, unprovenanced objects present serious practical, ethical, and even legal issues that scholars must consider when discussing them.

2021 November 19, Glenn J. Corbett, “The Problem with Unprovenanced Objects”, in Bible History Daily, Biblical Archaeology Society:

“Unprovenienced” is to be differentiated from “unprovenanced,” which refers to artifacts whose ownership history is unknown.

2024 April 3, Christopher J. Foster, Glenda Chao, and Mercedes Valmisa, “The Methods and Ethics of Researching Unprovenienced Artifacts from East Asia”, in Cambridge Elements: Elements in Ancient East Asia, Cambridge University Press:

(especially archaeology, of an artifact) Not having provenience: not having complete and fully ascertained information about origin, not even knowledge of the site in which an artifact was first found by archaeology (let alone any other aspect of its history).


field investigation

en-noun

field investigation (plural field investigations)

Field investigation is required..to prove that these valley-bottom villages are, in fact, sited on patches of low terrace.

(law, archaeology) The study of the traces of human culture at any site by means of surveying, sampling, excavating, or removing the surface or subsurface.


pothunt

en-verb

pothunt (third-person singular simple present pothunts, present participle pothunting, simple past and past participle pothunted)

pothunts (present singular third-person)
pothunting (participle present)
pothunted (participle past)
pothunted (past)

(archaeology) To seek artifacts for one's personal collection or to sell without regard to their cultural importance.


conisterion

conisterions (plural)
conisterium (alternative)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κονιστήριον (konistḗrion).

bor+

Prodigious ruins of walls, which formerly were all coated with marble, still point out the two temples, the two ephebea, the places where youths exercised themselves in the gymnastic games, the place for the wrestlers, the piscina, or the pool for the swimmers, different divisions for the houses of the superintendants, the apodyterion, or place where the wrestlers undressed, the conisterion, or place where the wrestlers, after being anointed with oil, were sprinkled with dust, the heliafterion, or place where they sunned themselves, the vestibulum, which was a rotunda, the baths, which consisted of cold, lukewarm, warm, and sweating baths, the theatre, two libraries, one Greek and one Latin, the course for racing, the place for playing at ball, a place which formerly was planted with the plane tree, and exedræ, for poets, philofophers, and rhetoricians.

1796, FREDERIC LEOPOLD COUNT STOLBERG, translated by THOMAS HOLCROFT, TRAVELS through GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, ITALY, and SICILY., translation of original in German, page 421:

The Conisterion, from sand, it being the place in which the bodies of the wrestlers were sanded.

1862, EDWARD FALKENER, EPHESUS and THE TEMPLE OF DIANA., page 62:

(archaeology) A room in ancient Greek and Roman gymnasiums where athletes, particularly wrestlers, applied sand or dust to their bodies after being anointed with oil. This practice enhanced grip during matches by counteracting the slipperiness caused by oil and sweat.


Sushkivka

Borrowed from Ukrainian Су́шківка (Súškivka).

(archaeology) An ancient Cucuteni–Trypillia city in Uman Raion, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine.


Dea Nutrix

Dea Nutrices (plural)
dea nutrix (alternative)

(history) A pagan goddess taking the form of a nursing mother, known mainly from Roman Britain.

(archaeology) A figurine (or other depiction) of such a goddess.


Proto-Mediterranean

Protomediterranean (alternative)
proto-Mediterranean (alternative)

It is clear, from what we have said, that the greatest purity of the Leucodermic type is to be found among the Nordics; because only the southern branch, on its road through Mediterranean Africa or in the Mediterranean islands themselves, met that strongly hybrid population which may be called Proto-Mediterranean, which must have been derived from the crossing of the Crô-Magnon with the Combe-Capelle and the Negroids of Grimaldi.

1921, Prof. V. Giuffrida-Ruggeri, “Europe: Ethnology, The Hybrid Origin of the Mediterraneans”, in Man, A Monthly Record of Anthropological Science, volumes 20-21, page 181:

Mediterranean region
Mediterranean region

(anthropology, archaeology) Of a specific human cranial type, associated with populations in the Mediterranean region during the Mesolithic period.