Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (97 page)

A spire rising from the tower without any parapet.

 
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See
RIG AND FURROW
.

 
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A localized metalworking tradition within the
EWART PARK PHASE
of the British late Bronze Age. Found mainly in the Welsh Marches, the Thames Valley, and parts of central southern England, it is exemplified by hoards of weapons such as that found in July 1867 at Broadward, Shropshire, which contained more than 70 items. Large barbed spearheads are particularly distinctive, as well as short tongue chapes, tubular ferrules, tanged chisels, and palstaves.

 
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A kind of dry-stone-built circular tower up to 30m in diameter and 15m high found widely across the Western Isles and adjacent areas of the Scottish mainland. The walls were hollow, doubled-skinned, up to 3m wide, with chambers inside. In some cases the central court was roofed over, in others there were lean-to structures against the wall faces of the tower. They date to the late 1st millennium
bc
and early 1st millennium
ad
and appear to have been the fortified and imposing residences of local lords and chiefs. Some brocks are surrounded by clusters of small houses and yards rather in the form of a small dependent village. The best-preserved broch is the Broch of Mousa on Shetland.

 
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A large single-storey masonry pueblo east of Snowflake, investigated in the late 1960s by James N. Hill using approaches and methods exemplary of the New Archaeology of the time.
The pueblo has 95 rooms, dating mainly to the 13th century
AD
. Three types of room were distinguished on the basis of plan, location, and content. The largest rooms had fire-pits and corn grinders and were probably the main domestic areas. Smaller rooms without fire-pits were for storage. The third kind of room was rather rare and sunk below ground level. They contained benches and wall niches and were interpreted as ceremonial places.
Pottery from the site suggested that two social or residential groups lived at the site.
[Rep.: J. N. Hill , 1970,
Broken K Pueblo: Prehistoric social organization in the American southwest
. Tucson: University of Arizona]

 
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An alloy of copper (typically about 90 per cent) and tin (typically about 10 per cent). It has many advantages over pure copper, notably a lower melting point, better casting properties, and a greater hardness when cold. The big disadvantage was that tin is relatively scarce compared to copper and thus long-distance trading links were necessary in order to secure supplies. The earliest use of bronze in Europe was probably in the lower Danube or Carpathian region during the second half of the 3rd millennium
bc
, influenced by metalworking traditions still further to the east in the Caucasus.

 
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