Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (21 page)

The steps or platform on which an altar stands in a church.

 
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Holocene climatic optimum centred on
c.
5500–3500 bc recognized in the western part of North America and broadly equivalent to the Atlantic Phase in Europe.

 
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See
ANCIENT MONUMENT
.

 
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See
ANCIENT MONUMENTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
.

 
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Flowering herb (Amaranthus hypochondriacus) with the flowers bunched together in long conspicuous racemes, native to Mexico and central America. Domesticated from
c.
4500 bc in Mexico, but rather later elsewhere in South America.

 
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Fossilized pine resin, relatively soft and easily carved, extensively used in prehistoric and later times for the manufacture of ornaments and jewellery. There are few sources of the material, but items were traded widely. It is mostly derived from the Baltic coastlands but sources around the North Sea are also known. Amber also occurs in the Mediterranean but can be chemically distinguished from north European sources.

 
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The raised pulpit in a Byzantine or Orthodox Christian church.

 
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