Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (366 page)

Koldewey , Robert
(1855–1925)
[Bi].

German archaeologist and classicist, best known for his excavations at Babylon between 1899 and 1914. His excavations at Babylon were of a high quality for the time, and the results were published promptly in 1914 as
The excavations at Babylon
(London: Macmillan).
[Bio.: W. Andrae , 1952,
Babylon: die versunkene Weltstadt und ihr Ausgraber Robert Koldeway
. Berlin: W. de Gruyter ]

 
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Early Neolithic LBK village on the middle terrace of the River Rhine on the outskirts of Cologne. The excavations between 1929 and 1934 by W. Buttler were a pioneer attempt to apply open area excavation to a settlement site. At the time the site was interpreted as having a series of timber barns and pit-houses; these can now be reinterpreted as timber long houses and borrow pits. Dating to the period
c.
4300–4100 bc it is also now clear that for much of its life the village lay within a series of enclosures. Seven main periods can be recognized in the occupation of the site, each with an average of 21 houses at any one time. Buttler believed that these phases represent periodic revising of the area as part of a
SLASH AND BURN AGRICULTURAL
system, but this is no longer accepted.
[Rep.: W. Buttler and G. Haberey , 1936,
Die bandkeramische Ansiedlung bei Köln Lindenthal
, Leipzig]

 
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Area of badland landscape in northern Kenya that has yielded an important sequence of early hominid remains and artefacts, although not in good association. The area was discovered by Richard Leakey in 1968, and investigated in subsequent years. There are two cultural traditions represented. The earliest dates to around 1.8 or 2 million years ago, with material of a similar kind to the Oldowan from Olduvai Bed I. Higher in the sequence is Karari industry material dated to 1.5 million years ago and matching well the Bed II finds from Olduvai. In addition to the stone tools there are fossil hominid remains representing at least 150 individuals: four species of
Australopithecus
together with
Homo habilis
and
Homo erectus
are present.
[Rep.: M. G. and R. E. Leakey , 1978,
The fossil hominids and an introduction to their context, 1968–74
. Oxford: Clarendon Press]

 
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kore
(kourus)
(pl.
korai
,
kouroi
)
[De].

Conventionally applied to the clothed female and the nude male sculptured figures of the Archaic, pre-Persian War period in Greece: they stand erect with the weight distributed between the feet, of which the left is slightly forward, but no motion is suggested; on their faces is often the ‘archaic smile’. The best of these beautiful korai, or maidens, are in the Acropolis Museum at Athens, and of the male figures in the National Museum, where the steady progress of the sculptor's art from the purely static figure to the dynamic is readily seen and enjoyed.

 
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Hungarian version of the early Neolithic
STAR
EVO CULTURE
, named for a tributary of the river Tisza, known in Romania as the
CRI
. One distinguishing trait of the Körös Culture is the use of footed vessels and the relative lack of painted wares. Sometimes referred to as the Star
evo–Körös Culture.