Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (753 page)

Egyptian god. See
SETH
.

 
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The classification of objects, structures, or specimens by subdividing observed populations into a theoretical sequence or series of groups (types) and subgroups (subtypes) according to consideration of their qualitative, quantitative, morphological, formal, technological, and functional attributes. Once established, typological sequences are often used as a surrogate chronology or culture history. The basic ideas underpinning typological studies were originally formulated in the field of biology. See also
TAXONOMY
.

 
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Early port and settlement situated on a coastal promontory south of Beirut. More or less continuous occupation down to the present day has limited the amount of excavation that has taken place, but the broad sequence is clear enough; its location was so desirable for long-distance trade that it was frequently captured and occupied by successive dominant powers in the eastern Mediterranean. In ancient times the main settlement was on a small offshore island. There was a double harbour linked by a canal so that ships could enter port in almost any conditions and this was flourishing under Egyptian protection from the 18th Dynasty. Later, as a Phoenician city it appears to have been the capital of the western Phoenician (Punic) world, at least until 572 bc when Tyre was taken by the
BABYLONIANS
under
NEBUCHADNEZZAR
after a thirteen-year-long siege. The site remained a powerful and important trading centre although it fell again to a siege by Alexander the Great in 332 bc. After this a causeway was built out to the mainland and it is this promontory that was occupied through Greek, Roman, and Byzantine times. It was an archbishopric during Christian times but fell to the Arabs in ad 636. The region around Tyre was well known in the ancient world for its purple dye (Tyrian purple) made from the
murex grandaris
mollusc.
[Sum.: M. E. Aubet, 1993,
Tyre and the Phoenician colonies in the west
. Cambridge: CUP]

 
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Early Classic Stage Maya Lowland Phase characterized by the mass-produced but elegantly decorated polychrome pottery.

 
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A sacred almanac of 260 days forming part of the calendar used in Mayan cultures, called by the Nahuatl speakers
Tonalpohualli
. See also
LONG COUNT
.

 
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A Pre-Classic and Classic Stage Maya settlement situated in the northeastern Peten Province, flourishing between ad 328 and ad 889 according to the range of dates preserved on stelae. The site was extensively excavated by Oliver Ricketson in 1926–30 and A. Ledyard Smith in 1931–7, with more recent work by J. Antonio Valdés . Pottery from the site was used by Alfred Kidder as the basis of his seriation that provided the sequence for the Lowland Maya chronology. Although small, the site has two temple pyramids in the central area together with a small plaza and a palace.
[Rep.: L. A. Smith , 1950,
Uaxactún, Guatemala: Excavations of 1931–7
. Washington DC: Carnegie Institution]

 
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