Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (610 page)

One of three main styles of architecture current during Maya times in northern Yucatan, Mexico. Characterized by the extensive use of uncut stone and stucco, emphasizing appearance rather than function.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

South American farming cultures found in lowland Bolivia and tentatively dated to
c.
ad 1500+. Characterized by their ceramic assemblages which belong to the Incised and Punctuate Horizon Style of Amazonia.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A method of burnishing pottery in which the whole surface is worked into ripples, in extreme cases approaching
FLUTING
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A style of secondary flaking applied to flint and stone tools in which a series of small elongated flakes are removed from the surface of the tool being manufactured in such a way that each new flake scar cuts into the edge of the last one to produce a corrugated or rippled surface.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Third, penultimate, major glacial period of the
PLEISTOCENE
Ice Age in the Alpine sequence, broadly dated to the period 200000 to 170000 years ago.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A favourite but deplorable term commonly used by archaeologists looking to explain unfamiliar patterns in material culture that seem to have no functional explanation. Ritual strictly refers to practices connected with magical, supernatural, or religious experiences and beliefs, ritual deposits being the result of material culture deployed as part of such practices. It is now widely recognized, however, that in non-capitalist, non-westernized societies there is no formal boundary between what is ritual and secular, between the sacred and the profane.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search