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.
Last Update : 2/02/12 |
 |