Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (757 page)

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A small narrow-necked vessel, usually in a rough fabric, used as a container for ointment or perfume. Because of what they contained, such vessels are often found long distances from source as evidence of trade and exchange.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Style of working flint or stone flakes into tools or implements by limited retouch confined to one side of the flake only.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Artefact, usually of flint or stone, that has working on one side only.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A proposition, developed by James Hutton in the late 18th century and elaborated by Sir Charles Lyell in the early 19th century, which states that processes observed happening today can reasonably be assumed to have happened in a comparable way in the past too. Initially applied in the field of geology to show that geological deposits were laid down as part of a continuous and uniform process over a long period of time rather than as the result of a series of catastrophes, the same principle can to some extent be used to underpin experimental attempts to understand the formation of archaeological deposits such as ditch fills or the decay of stone cairns.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A late 19th-century evolutionary theory that envisaged all human societies as evolving along a common track from simple hunting and gathering communities to literate civilizations. In this, all societies would pass through the same basic sequence of stages, although the speed of transition might vary. Reflections of such a way of thinking can be seen in the
THREE AGE SYSTEM
and in schemes grounded in anthropological theory which identify
BAND
,
TRIBE
, and
CHIEFDOM
as successive stages.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search