Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (551 page)

An open square in ancient cities of the New World used as a focus for meetings and events.

 
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The earliest of two chronostratigraphic units or epochs forming the
QUATERNARY PERIOD
(the later one is the
HOLOCENE
), from about 2 million years ago to 10000 years ago. Also known as the Great Ice Age, the Pleistocene includes six main stratigraphic stages representing an alternating pattern of stadials (i.e. glacial) and interstadials (i.e. interglacial). Although it is now recognized that these are overly simplistic in terms of the complicated stratigraphy that exists for the Pleistocene, they do at least provide a working model within which to view the activities of human communities. The last glacial phase of the Pleistocene, the
DEVENSIAN
, marks the end of the Pleistocene epoch; it is succeeded by the Holocene which contains just one main stratigraphic stage, the
FLANDRIAN
.

 
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Projecting course at the foot of a wall or the stone base of an altar or similar ornamental or ceremonial structure.

 
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Last of the five epochs within the
TERTIARY PERIOD
, dating from about 14–2 million years ago.

 
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Russian term for a style of constructing house floors in the Neolithic of southeast Europe which involved laying horizontal logs over which a layer of clay was deposited and then hardened by burning to produce a firm surface.

 
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Plot , Robert
(1640–96)
[Bi].

British antiquary and first Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. His principal works were his
Natural history of Oxfordshire
(1677) and
Natural history of Staffordshire
(1686).
[Bio.:
Dictionary of National Biography
, 15, 1310–12]

 
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