Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (798 page)

A scoop or artificially created depression in the ground in which one or more crafts were carried out. The scoop acted both to contain the activity itself and to provide a measure of protection from the elements; some working hollows show evidence of superstructures in the form of postholes or stone post-bases.

 
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An international forum for discussing the study of the past. Founded in 1986 following the repudiation by the existing international conference, the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, of a meeting organized in Southampton, UK, WAC is based on the need to recognize the historical and social role and political context of archaeology, and the need to make archaeological studies relevant to the wider community. WAC has particular interests in: education about the past; archaeology and indigenous people; the ethics of archaeological enquiry; the protection of sites and objects; the effect of archaeology on host communities; the ownership, conservation, and exploitation of the archaeological heritage; and the application of new techniques in archaeology. In addition to publishing newsletters, WAC has held a series of international conferences: Southampton, UK (1986); Venezuela (1990); New Delhi, India (1994); Johannesburg, South Africa (1998).

 
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An organization founded in 1975 to represent peoples and communities of the Fourth World. The Council has observer status in the United Nations and a secretariat based in Canada.

 
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International convention concerning the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage adopted by the general conference of UNESCO at its meeting in Paris on 16 November 1972. Since then it has been ratified by many states around the world. The aim is to recognize heritage sites of outstanding universal value, inscribe them on the World Heritage List, and thereafter ensure that each state that is party to the convention recognizes and fulfils its duties to protect, preserve, manage, conserve, and present its heritage sites.

 
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A concept developed by the American historian Immanuel Wallerstein to refer to an economic unit extending beyond the boundaries of an individual nation-state by virtue of trade networks and economic alliances. The example used by Wallerstein was the relationship that developed between Europe and the West Indies in the 16th century
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. As such it emphasizes that ‘world systems’ do not embrace the whole world, but do operate on a large scale. Implicit to the idea of a world system is the existence of ‘core’, ‘periphery’, and ‘outer’ zones; these distinctions form the basic principles for wider applications of the idea in capitalist and non-capitalist societies. The aim is to analyse the development of particular societies in terms of their position in relation to the full range of contemporary social systems and to ask what the scale of the economic systems within these societies was.

 
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Worsaae , Jens Jacob Asmussen
(1821–85)
[Bi].

Danish prehistorian born in Jutland who early in life developed an interest in archaeology that later led him to be described as the first professional archaeologist. He studied law at Copenhagen University before assisting C. J.
THOMSEN
with the arrangement of collections in the National Museum. He was an enthusiastic exponent of the ‘Three Age System’, deducing support for it from his examinations of stratified and associated assemblages. In 1843, when he was only 22 years old, he published
Danmarks Oldtid oplyst ved Oldsager og Gravhoje
(Copenhagen), which was translated into English and published in 1849 as
The primeval antiquities of Denmark
(Oxford: Parkers). It was one of the first attempts to write a detailed account of the prehistory of a particular region. Worsaae travelled widely in Europe between 1843 and 1848, playing a major role in the adoption of the Three Age System in many countries. In 1846–7 he visited Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man studying the remains of Viking occupations. In 1848 he was appointed Inspector-General of Antiquities in Denmark, and in 1855 added to this an attachment to the University of Copenhagen that made him the first academic teacher of prehistory in Scandinavia. He resigned these posts in 1866 to succeeded C. J. Thomsen as Director of the National Museum in Copenhagen.
[Bio.: J. Wilkins, 1961, Worsaae and British antiquities.
Antiquity
, 35, 214–220]