Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (153 page)

Time as measured by a clock, assessed in terms of days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Before the invention of clocks, time-reckoning was based on events of the natural world, such as the rising and setting of the sun.

 
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A decorative technique involving a metal filament bent into a desired design form and then superimposed on an enamel surface. Commonly used by Romano-British craftsmen.

 
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The central articulating feature of a
MONASTERY
, usually set out in the form of a square. In the centre was a courtyard or open garth kept clear of structures, although sometimes arranged as a garden or burial ground. Around the garth was a continuous covered passage or cloister walkway. The outside wall of the walkway was sometimes an open arcade, although in later times they were often glazed. The walkway served to link and give access to all the main buildings and facilities of the complex. The church was usually on the north side of the cloister, the
CHAPTERHOUSE
, dormitory, halls, refectory, and abbot's lodgings being arranged on the other sides. The cloister walk sometimes includes washing facilities, places for study, and wall cupboards for books and records. In Carthusian houses the individual cells occupied by members of the community open from the cloister walk.

 
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A small area of enclosed ground.

 
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A group of artefacts and a structure of some kind within a single deposit that shows no signs of disturbance since its formation and which is sealed by another archaeological layer or deposit. Examples include the contents of a backfilled storage pit sealed by a metalled surface or a grave covered by a round barrow.

 
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A class of early and middle Iron Age settlement found in many parts of the British Isles which comprises a small rectangular or sub-rectangular space bounded by an earthwork (usually a bank and ditch) one side of which is formed by an existing
LINEAR BOUNDARY
. In this way the enclosure appears to hang from the linear boundary—hence the name. In some cases a series of three or four such enclosures may hang from the linear boundary over a distance of 1–2km.

 
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