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GLOSSARY

Anthracological 

From the Greek word “anthrax” meaning carbon. It is the discipline that studies the structure of charcoal fragments.

Awl

Tool tapered toward one end to form a point and used for different purposes, mainly in hide-working, weaving, and basketry manufacture to (re-) open holes, pass thongs or threads through holes, (un-) tie knots of cords, tamp down threads, shape decorative motifs, etc..

Bevel-ended tool

Tool with a sharp working edge shaped by cutting an oblique facet.

Black-topping

Carbon particles are introduced on to the vessel’s surface at the end of firing, thus producing a black stripe under the vessel’s rim.

Blank

Bone section meant to be shaped into an artifact (tool, ornament, figurine, etc.)

Building clay

Mixture of clay and mineral or vegetal elements used as building material.

Channeled decoration

Decoration made of shallow grooves traced on a ceramic vessel’s wall. There are two variants: in the first, which is most popular in the Neolithic period, the grooves are so light as to be hardly visible; grooves are deeper in the second variant, used in the end of LN II and the EBA period.

Chisel-like

Tool with a cutting edge on the active end, used to split or carve solid materials such as wood and bone.

Colluvium

Sediment accumulated at the foot of a slope as a result of the erosion of the upper parts.

Core-samplings

Drillings made with a machine- or hand-driven device, allowing the extraction of a sample of sediments in the shape of a cylinder (core) whose diameter varies from 6 to 20cm.

Crosspieces

Long horizontal pieces from wood connecting the vertical elements of a frame.

Fallow deer

One of the three species of the Cervidae family recognized among the animal skeletal remains from Dikili Tash. The other two species are red deer and roe deer.

Graphite

Mineral of the carbon family from which pencils are still made today. It is used in different periods (especially in the Late Neolithic II) for the decoration of ceramics, usually dissolved in water and applied with a brush.

Harpoon

Composite piercing weapon with detachable pointed head, used for fishing.

« Heroa »

Monuments built to honour one of the city’s heroes, usually one of its founders.

Holocene

Geological era that started at about 10000 BC and lasts up to the present.

Infrared Spectroscopy

Analytical technique that measures the quantity of infrared radiation absorbed by a sample in order to determine its chemical composition.

In situ

Expression meaning ‘in the original place’.

Late Helladic

The last period of the Aegean Bronze Age, between 1550 and 1025 BC. It corresponds to the Mycenaean period in Southern Greece.

Paleosol

Sediment that has been subjected to soil formation (pedogenesis) in the past. It is frequently characterised by a dark brown colour because of high concentrations of decomposed organic materials.

Petrographic

Petrography is a branch of geology that studies the mineralogical composition of rocks. The same analysis is used for determining the composition of ceramic fabrics.

Pick

Antler tool tapered toward the active end and perforated for the insertion of a handle.

Pleistocene

Geological era that preceded the Holocene (i.e., our own era), characterised by the alternation of glacial and interglacial periods. It started approximately 1,65 million years ago and ended some 12000 years ago, after the last glacial episode in the Northern hemisphere.

Radiocarbon (or 14C)

14C is one of carbon’s radioactive isotopes, naturally present in the atmosphere, which enters into living organisms through the food-chain or growing processes. By measuring the level of such isotopes in a dead organism (carbonized wood or fruits, bones, shells…), we can estimate the time of its death, and therefore its age.

Sleeve

Intermediate part of composite tools, made from a transverse section of a deer antler that has been hollowed at one end to form a socket for a celt or similar insert, and mounted on a haft or perforated to receive a haft.

Tell

Artificial mound resulting from the accumulation of successive building remains over the centuries. In Greek it is called “toumba”, a term used also for burial mounds.

Terminus post quem

Expression meaning ‘the date after which an event took place’.

Thermoluminescence (TL)

Method that allows us to estimate the age of heated materials (ceramics, clay structures, stones) by measuring the dose of irradiation absorbed since these objects were last heated.

Thinned and snapped

This technique consists of wearing down the antler’s outer, compact, tissue before snapping the inner, spongy, tissue along a girdled cut.

Trumpet-like handles

Cylindrical lugs with slightly pulled up ends.

Valve

Each of two parts of the shell of bivalve molluscs, such as clams, mussels, or spondylus.

Wattle-and-daub

Technique for constructing walls by applying building clay (“daub”) over a frame made of wooden posts and interlaced branches (“wattle”).

Zoomorphic

In the shape of an animal.

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Last Update : 2/02/12

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