Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (463 page)

BOOK: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
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Nanna
(Nannar)
[Di].
Sumerian god connected with the moon and with fertility. His principal city was
UR
. Equivalent to the Akkadian god Sin.
Napo Phase
[CP].
South American farming cultures found in the Rio Pastaza and Rio Napo areas of Amazonia and tentatively dated to
c.
ad 1000–1200. Characterized by their ceramic assemblages which belong to the Incised and Punctuate Horizon Style of Amazonia.
NAR
[Ab].
narrative
[Th].
The creation of a historical narrative is, for many, the ultimate aim of archaeological research—developing a rounded knowledge about the past, or some aspect of it, which combines the particulars of the archaeological record with events, people, societies, and a plot. The creation of such narratives is a major theme of interest in
POST-PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY
. Narrative is a basic human means of making sense of the world, and narratives form a basic component of self-identity. The development of a narrative is itself a creative and intellectual process. Not surprisingly, narratives feature prominently in nationalist and heritage appropriations of the archaeological past for they provide a means of externalizing particular ways of seeing the world and projecting understandings of meaning and significance to others.
Narrow Point Tradition
[CP].
Late Archaic hunter-gatherer communities living in southern New England, North America, in the period
c.
2700–2000 bc, within the more broadly constituted Mast Forest late Archaic. Narrow Point Tradition communities are characterized by chipped stone projectile points of long narrow outline.
Narses
[Na].
General of Justinian, at first an assistant of Belisarius in Italy (ad 538), and from ad 550 to ad 554 commanding general in Italy, which he conquered in ad 554. Until his death in ad 567 he acted as regent and administered the Italian reconstruction.

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