Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (393 page)

The final industrial tradition of the British Bronze Age, contemporary with the continental Hallstatt C and thus truly transitional between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Named after a large hoard of metalwork from Llyn Fawr in Mid Glamorgan in South Wales discovered between 1911 and 1913. Imported metalwork includes Gündlingen swords which influenced the development of local styles such as the Thames sword. Other products of the period include winged chapes, cauldrons, razors, horse harness mounts, massive
SOMPTING
axes, and a vast array of pins. Iron is used to make spearheads and sickles, amongst other things.

 
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Deposits of fine rock dust, sand, and related sediments carried by the wind in arid conditions, for example during glacial periods, from exposed glacial moraines and outwash deposits. In Europe these deposits are found widely across the southern steppes and in the major river systems across central and western Europe. In Neolithic times they were extensively used by early farmers who found the light stone-free soils to be fertile, well drained, and easy to cultivate.

 
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A wooden vessel made by hollowing out a substantial tree-trunk. In many cases such vessels were used with no further elaboration, in others the dug-out trunk formed the hull of a more substantial vessel built up from it. The earliest known date from the Mesolithic period in Scandinavia and northern Russia, where several examples are painted or carved with the forms of animals. Care must be taken in identifying logboats because tree-trunks were also hollowed out in prehistoric times to make troughs and coffins. Also called by the less satisfactory term dug-out canoe.

 
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As governor of Britain from ad 138 or ad 139 to perhaps ad 144 he was responsible for the construction of the
ANTONINE WALL
in Scotland.

 
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Germanic people who migrated southwards to occupy the Hungarian plains during the 6th century. Pressure from the Avars caused them to move westwards, and in ad 568 they invaded Italy and established a kingdom in the Po Valley, with virtually independent duchies in the south. The northern kingdom was annexed by Charlemagne but the duchies survived until the Norman conquest of the mid 11th century
ad
.

 
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The capital city of England since medieval times, and of the UK in recent centuries, straddling the River Thames in the southeastern part of the British Isles. Although prehistoric settlements are known in the area later occupied by London, the major settlement on the site was the creation of a Roman town (Londinium) in the mid 1st century
ad
. In ad 66 the town was sacked by the Boudiccan rebellion. After its rebuilding it grew steadily, with a timber bridge across the Thames to Southwark by ad 70. The main town lay on the north side of the river, but was not walled until the later 2nd century when a fort seems to have been added to the north side. In its southwest quarter were a series of high-status and monumental structures including a temple erected in ad 294–5, a Mithraic temple, a large bath-house, and the governor's palace. Outside the walls were large cemeteries.
Although there is little evidence for occupation in the 5th and 6th centuries, London was chosen as the seat for the bishopric of the East Saxons in ad 604, and it was probably at this time that the cathedral of St Paul was founded. By the mid 7th century there was a port at London, and by the 9th century a substantial town was re-established to the west of modern-day Wallbrook, walled by
c.
1050.
The main consequence for London of the Norman invasion was the construction by
WILLIAM I
of the White Tower in what is now the Tower of London. West of the city there was also much activity around Westminster where an abbey existed from at least the 8th century and which later became the focus for a royal palace and the seat of power. Throughout the medieval period the city was prosperous with churches, monastic houses, merchants, traders, and industrial quarters all developing. The Civil War did not affect London greatly, but in 1666 the Great Fire of London caused much loss of property, as about one-third of the walled area was razed to the ground. The post-Fire reconstruction took many years but included great achievements such as Christopher Wren's masterpiece of architecture at St Paul's Cathedral.
[Sum.: E. Harwood and A. Saint , 1991,
London
. London: HMSO]