Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (203 page)

One of a number of broadly contemporary, regionally specific, cultural groupings within the Arctic Small Tool Tradition of the far north of North America, dating to the period 2000–800 bc. The Denbigh Flint Complex is found in Alaska, its name being derived from the site of a temporary caribou hunting camp discovered at Iyatayet Creek by Cape Denbigh on Norton Sound. Although widely applied, the Complex is really only recognizable in the Denbigh region itself. The lithic assemblages are characterized by microblades, small burins, graving tools, and numerous side and end blades carefully pointed at both ends.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A highly accurate dating method that in favourable circumstances provides both absolute and relative dates. The idea of dendrochronology was developed in the early 20th century by Andrew Ettlicott Douglass , an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, as a result of his work on the effects of sunspots on terrestrial climate. Also known as tree-ring dating, the method is based on the fact that living trees add an annual growth ring to their trunk and branches. The size and character of the ring varies from year to year according to weather patterns and general climatic conditions: in dry years the ring is thin while in wet years it is relatively thick. Trees of the same species of similar age and living in the same region will show similar patterns of tree-ring growth. By analysing trees whose growth periods overlap it is possible to construct a master tree-ring profile for a region. When a piece of timber of unknown date is found in the same area its rings can be matched with the master sequence and its date established. Even where sequences cannot be tied down to absolute ages it is possible to construct ‘floating’ sequences so that timbers can be dated in relative terms; when the master sequence is eventually tied down these dates will become absolute dates.A number of master curves have been or are being constructed for different parts of the world. One of the longest and most spectacular is the Belfast curve for the British Isles which spans the period back to about 5500 bc. The method has much to commend it, and for recent centuries, where large timbers survive in standing buildings, it is already widely used. For earlier times the key issue is the preservation of suitable timber: ideally a timber with more than 50 years' growth represented is needed to achieve firm dating.Dendrochronology is also the basis for the construction of calibration curves for the conversion of radiocarbon ages to calendar years. See
CALIBRATION
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Dennis , George
(1814–98)
[Bi].

Amateur British antiquary whose career as a civil servant and in the diplomatic service afforded him irregular opportunities to pursue antiquarian survey and excavation in Italy. His principal work,
Cities and cemeteries of Etruria
, was published in 1848 and served to establish the Etruscans as a significant pre-Roman civilization.
[Bio.: T. W. Potter , 1998, Dennis of Etruria: a celebration.
Antiquity
, 72, 916–21]

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

1
A term used to describe a flint or stone tool with one edge worked into a series of notches to give a toothed or serrated cutting blade.
2
Term used by François Bordes for one of the defined
MOUSTERIAN
assemblages in southwest France which had few scrapers but high proportions of notched and denticulate blades.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

The line of teeth-like blocks of stone, suggesting the rafter ends of a flat roof, found, for example, under the cornice of a building of Ionic or Corinthian order.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search