Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (533 page)

A measure of soil acidity or alkalinity calculated as the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion concentration in moles per litre of a solution. The pH scale runs between 0 (highly acid) and 14 (highly alkaline): a value of 7 is neutral. The survival of archaeological materials is highly dependent on soil acidity, calcareous materials such as bone and shell being well preserved in alkaline soils but lost in acidic soils.

 
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Bronze roundels used to decorate saddle cloths and straps on horse gear from the later Bronze Age onwards. Some were worn by Roman soldiers on their breast armour.

 
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Relating to or resembling a phallus or penis. Often seen in the design or ornamentation of ancient objects; speculatively suggested for almost any tall narrow form or structure by those so inclined.

 
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The title taken by the rulers of ancient Egypt who assumed the duel duties of king and god. Each line of pharaohs formed a
DYNASTY
, 31 in all. The title originates from the Egyptian term for ‘great house’.

 
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A Latin term for an early kind of lighthouse. Built of stone and/or wood these were simply towers situated in prominent coastal positions in order to display beacon lights to guide ships at sea. The most famous is the Pharos at Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The only remaining example known in Britain is at Dover, Kent.

 
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1
In North American archaeology this term refers to the common incidence of a component at a number of sites within a defined geographical area and specific time period. Originally defined by Alfred Kidder in 1946, the term was modified to more or less its modern application by G. Willey and P. Phillips in 1958: ‘an archaeological unit possessing traits sufficiently characteristic to distinguish it from all other units similarly conceived, whether of the same or other cultures or civilizations, spatially limited to the order of magnitude of a locality or region and chronologically limited to a relatively brief interval of time’. Distinctive traits recognized through items of material culture or the content of assemblages are therefore used to define phases. Subphases may be identified as more sites belonging to a phase illustrate details of geographical or temporal variation. A phase is thus broadly equivalent to the concept of a
CULTURE
in European archaeology.
2
[De].
In describing the development of a particular site or building, groups of broadly contemporary features are represented as a single entity even though in reality this approach conflates time and a whole succession of actions relating to the use of individual elements over widely differing durations.

 
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