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abrasive stone: usually a sandstone slab used for grinding and polishing.

absolute dating: the determination of age with reference to a specific time scale, such as a fixed calendrical system; also referred to as chronometric dating.

achieved status: social standing and prestige reflecting the ability of an individual to acquire an established position in society as a result of individual accomplishments (cf. ascribed status).

activity area: a limited portion of a site in which a specialized cultural function was carried out, such as food preparation, tool manufacture etc.

adaptation: changes in gene frequencies resulting from selective pressures being placed upon a population by environmental factors; results in a greater fitness of the population to its ecological niche.

adze-blade: a ground and polished stone artifact characterized by a generally rectangular shape with a beveled cutting edge on one end. Used as a woodworking tool. [picture]  Reference: http://www.loghelp.com/adzes.html

aerial photography: photographic coverage of the land surface obtained from the air. Useful in locating and recording site positions.

aerial reconnaissance: an important survey technique in the discovery and recording of archaeological sites (see also reconnaissance survey).

alidade: an optical surveying instrument used in conjunction with a plane-table and stadia-rod to produce detailed large-scale topographic maps. [picture]  Reference: http://www.atlasinstrument.com/alidade.html

alloying: a technique involving the mixing of two or more metals to create an entirely new material, e.g. the fusion of copper and tin to make bronze.

alluvial fan: a cone-shaped deposit of sediments generally formed where a mountain stream discharges onto a level surface. Alluvial fan deposits are among the most common surficial sediments in mountainous terrain.

alluvium: a general term for all deposits laid down in fresh water - most commonly applied to riverine sediments.

altimeter: a barometric device for determining elevations above sea-level.

altithermal: a postulated climatic period characterized by warmer and/or drier conditions approximately 4,000-8,000 years ago.

amino-acid racemization: a method used in the dating of both human and animal bone. Its special significance is that with a small sample (10g) it can be applied to material up to 100,000 years old, i.e. beyond the time range of radiocarbon dating.

analogy: a process of reasoning whereby two entities that share some similarities are assumed to share many others.

ancillary sample: any non-artifactual materials collected by archaeologists to aid in dating, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, or other interpretations - e.g. carbon samples, soil samples, palynological samples etc.

annealing: in copper and bronze metallurgy, this refers to the repeated process of heating and hammering the material to produce the desired shape.

anthropology: the study of humanity - our physical characteristics as animals, and our unique non-biological characteristics we call culture. The subject is generally broken down into three subdisciplines: biological (physical) anthropology, cultural (social) anthropology, and archaeology.

anthropomorphic: "man-like." Used to describe artifacts or art work decorated with human features or with a man-like appearance.

arbitrary level: an excavation level defined by factors of convenience, with no necessary relationship to site-stratigraphy or cultural components.

archaeobotany: see paleoethnobotany.

archaeological culture: a constantly recurring assemblage of artifacts assumed to be representative of a particular set of behavioral activities carried out at a particular time and place (cf. culture).

archaeology of cult: the study of the material indications of patterned actions undertaken in response to religious beliefs.

archaeology: a subdiscipline of anthropology involving the study of the human past through its material remains.

archaeomagnetic dating: sometimes referred to as paleomagnetic dating. it is based on the fact that changes in the earth's magnetic field over time can be recorded as remnant magnetism in materials such as baked clay structure (ovens, kilns, and hearths).

archaeozoology: sometimes referred to as zooarchaeology, this involves the identification and analysis of faunal species from archaeological sites, as an aid to the reconstruction of human diets and to an understanding of the contemporary environment at the time of deposition.

art object: any artifact carrying, or consisting of, decorative or artistic elements.

articulated: two or more bones left in their anatomical position after tissue decay.

artifact: any manually portable product of human workmanship (see feature). In its broadest sense includes tools, weapons, ceremonial items, art objects, all industrial waste, and all floral and faunal remains modified by human activity.

ascribed status: social standing or prestige which is the result of inheritance or hereditary factors (cf. achieved status).

assemblage: a group of artifacts recurring together at a particular time and place, and representing the sum of human activities.

association: the co-occurrence of an artifact with other archaeological remains, usually in the same matrix.

atlatl-weight: usually a ground and polished stone object with grooves or perforations - for attachment to the shaft of an atlatl. Presumed to function in balancing the weapon prior to throwing.

atlatl: a device used to propel throwing-spears or "darts", used in most parts of North America prior to the appearance of the bow and arrow.

atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS): a method of analyzing artifact composition similar to optical emission spectrometry (OES) in that it measures energy in the form of visible light waves. It is capable of measuring up to 40 different elements with an accuracy of c. 1 percent.

attribute: a minimal characteristic of an artifact such that it cannot be further subdivided; attributes commonly studied include aspects of form, style, decoration, color, and raw material.

attritional age profile: a mortality pattern based on bone or tooth wear which is characterized by an overrepresentation of young and old animals in relation to their numbers in live populations. It suggests either scavenging of attritional mortality victims (i.e. those dying from natural causes or from non-human predation) or the hunting by humans or other predators of the most vulnerable individuals.

augering: a subsurface detection method using either a hand or machine-powered drill to determine the depth and character of archaeological deposits. [picture]  Reference: http://www.eijkelkamp.com/seismic5.html

Australopithecus: a collective name for the earliest known hominids emerging about 5 million years ago in East Africa.

awl: a small pointed hand tool used for piercing holes in leather, wood and other materials,

azimuth: a magnetic bearing sighted from your position to a known landmark. Used in navigation and in determining site locations.

B.P.: "Before Present." the notation commonly used on radiocarbon dates, e.g. 1,000 B.P. = 1,000 years before 1950 A.D., or approximately 1,000 A.D.

back-dirt: the excavated matrix or fill of a site, Presumed to be of little or no further archaeological significance.

back-filling: the process of refilling a completed excavation.

band: a small territorially-based social group consisting of 2 or more nuclear families. A loosely integrated population sharing a sense of common identity but few specialized institutions.

barb: a sharp backwards extension of a projectile point intended to act as a hook to keep the point within a wound.

barrow: a large mound of earth or stones placed over a burial. The term is especially used in reference to the mounds of England.

basal grinding: intentional smoothing of the base or stem of a chipped stone projectile point.

basal thinning: the intentional removal of small longitudinal flakes from the base of a chipped stone projectile point or knife to facilitate hafting.

basalt: a fine-grained volcanic rock used for the manufacture of chipped stone artifacts. Color black to gray, texture granular to glass-like.

base-line: an arbitrary line established by stakes and string, or by surveying instrument, from which measurements are taken to produce a site-map, or to provide an initial axis for an excavation grid.

baulks: unexcavated "walls" which may be left between pits to provide stratigraphic control.

bearing: in mapping or navigation, a compass direction, or horizontal angle of sight measured in magnetic degrees.

bench mark (B.M.): a vertical datum-point usually at a known elevation above sea-level, to which mapped elevations may be related.

biconical drilling: a means of perforating beads or pendants for suspension. Accomplished by drilling in from both sides with a tapered drill resulting in an hour-glass-shaped hole.

biface: a stone artifact flaked on both faces.

bifacial flaking: the manufacture of a stone artifact by removing flakes from both faces.

bilaterally barbed: a projectile point or harpoon with barbs on both edges.

bilaterally symmetrical: the condition in which, when something is cut down the middle, the two halves formed are generally mirror images of each other.

biological anthropology: see physical anthropology.

bipoint: a bone or stone artifact pointed at both ends.

bipolar percussion: a means of manufacturing chipped stone artifacts. Accomplished by placing the raw material on a large rock and hitting it cith a hammerstone from above.

bison jump: a specialized animal trap used on the Plains, involving driving bison (or buffalo) over a natural cliff or embankment.

blade: a long slender prismatic flake manufactured by indirect percussion or pressure from a prepared core. (See macroblade and microblade.) At least twice as long as it is wide.

blank: an "advanced" Preliminary stage in the manufacture of an artifact (also: "preform".)

body sherd: any fragment of a ceramic vessel not identifiable as a rim sherd.

bone breccia: cave fill that consists of masses of bone cemented together with calcium carbonate that has dissolved out of limestone.

bone hammer: a bone that is used as a hammer in the removal of flakes from a core in the manufacturing of stone tools.

bone industry All the bone artifacts from a particular site.

boreal forest: "subarctic forest." A dense mixed forest dominated by spruce, aspen and birch with areas of muskeg. It extends as far north as the tree-line (edge of the tundra) and is the largest single vegetation zone in Canada.

bosing (or bowsing): a subsurface detection method performed by striking the ground with a heavy wooden mallet or a lead-filled container on a long handle.

boulder arrangement: (also boulder mosaic, petroform.) surface boulders aboriginally arranged into geometric, zoomorphic or anthropomorphic patterns.

brain endocasts: these are made by pouring latex rubber into a skull, 50 as to produce an accurate image of the inner surface of the cranium. This method gives an estimate of cranial capacity and has been used on early hominid skulls.

break-in-slope: any abrupt change in the gradient of a topographic surface, such as the edge of a cliff, terrace scarp, etc.

breaking chain: the process of obtaining horizontal distances over sloping terrain with a surveyor's chain by measuring stepped level intervals up the slope.

brunton compass: a sophisticated magnetic compass used as a basic surveying instrument. Also known as the "Brunton Pocket Transit".

bulb of percussion: a raised rounded area on the ventral surface of a conchoidal flake directly below the striking platform.

burial mound: an artificial aboriginal mound containing or covering human burials.

burial: a human interment. may be "flexed" or "extended"; single or multiple; primary or secondary.

burin: a type of chipped stone artifact characterized by the deliberate removal of small prismatic flakes (burin-spalls) down one or more edges. Commonly assumed to have served as engraving or carving tools.

butchering station: a site, or localized activity area within a site, dominated by evidence for the past butchering of game animals (e.g. broken and cut faunal remains and butchering tools).

 
cache: a deliberate store of equipment, food, furs or other resources placed in, or on the ground (perhaps protected by a rock cairn), or raised above the ground on a platform.

cairn: stones intentionally piled by humans.

calcined bone: burned bone reduced to white or blue mineral constituents.

calendrical system: a system of measuring time that is based on natural recurring units of time, such as revolutions of the earth around the sun. Time is determined by the number of such units that have preceded or elapsed with reference to a specific point in time.

carbon sample: a quantity of organic material, usually charcoal, collected for radiocarbon dating.

catalogue number: a number assigned all items recovered by archaeological research to cross-index them to the catalogue.

catalogue: the systematic list recording artifacts and other finds, recovered by archaeological research, including their description and Provenience.

catastrophe theory: a branch of mathematical topology developed by Rene Thom which is concerned with the way in which nonlinear interactions within systems can produce sudden and dramatic effects; ills argued that there are only a limited number of ways in which such changes can take place, and these are defined as elementary catastrophes.

catastrophic age profile: a mortality pattern based on bone or tooth wear analysis, and corresponding to a "natural" age distribution in which the older the age group, the fewer the individuals it has. This pattern is often found in contexts such as flash floods, epidemics, or volcanic eruptions.

cation-ratio dating: this method aspires to the direct dating of rock carvings and engravings, and is also potentially applicable to Paleolithic artifacts with a strong patina caused by exposure to desert dust. It depends on the principle that cations of certain elements are more soluble than others; they leach out of rock varnish more rapidly than the less soluble elements, and their concentration decreases with time.

cenote: a ritual well, for example, at the late Maya site of Chichen Itza, into which enormous quantities of symbolically rich goods had been deposited.

central place theory: developed by the geographer Christaller to explain the spacing and function of the settlement landscape. Under idealized conditions, he argued, central places of the same size and nature would be equidistant from each other, surrounded by secondary centers with their own smaller satellites. In spite of its limitations, central place theory has found useful applications in archaeology as a preliminary heuristic device.

ceramics: deliberately fired clay artifacts, such as ceramic vessels.

chain: a surveying chain, or long steel tape-measure, calibrated in meters or feet, used for site mapping and grid layout.

chaine operatoire: ordered chain of actions, gestures, and processes in a production sequence (e.g. of a stone tool or a pot) which led to the transformation of a given material towards the finished product. The concept, introduced by Andre Leroi-Gourhan, is significant in allowing the archaeologist to infer back from the finished artifact to the procedures, the intentionality in the production sequence, and ultimately to the conceptual template of the maker.

chalcedony: a semi-translucent silicate (quartz) rock with a wax-like luster and a great range of colors, used as raw material for the manufacture of chipped stone artifacts. Commonly called agate.

characterization: the application of techniques of examination by which characteristic properties of the constituent material of traded goods can be identified, and thus their source of origin; e.g. petrographic thin-section analysis.

chert: a mainly opaque, fairly granular, silicate rock with a dull shiny luster and a great range of colors, used as raw material for the manufacture of chipped stone artifacts. Varieties include jasper and flint.

chi-tho: crude bifacially flaked boulder spall or slab scraper-cutting tools commonly associated with northern Athabaskan assemblages. Similar to a cortical spall tool.

chiefdom: a term used to describe a society that operates on the principle of ranking, i.e. differential social status. Different lineages are graded on a scale of prestige, calculated by how closely related one is to the chief. The chiefdom generally has a permanent ritual and ceremonial center, as well as being characterized by local specialization in crafts.

chinampas: the areas of fertile reclaimed land, constructed by the Aztecs, and made of mud dredged from canals.

chopper: a natural pebble with a crude, steep cutting edge formed by unifacial percussion flaking.

chronology: arrangement of past events in time.

chronometric dating: a dating system that refers to a specific point or range of time. Chronometric dates are not necessarily exact dates, and they are often expressed as a range.

classification: the ordering of phenomena into groups or other classificatory schemes on the basis of shared attributes (see also type and typology).

CLIMAP: a project aimed at producing paleoclimatic maps showing sea-surface temperatures in different parts of the globe, at various periods.

cluster analysis: a multivariate statistical technique which assesses the similarities between units or assemblages, based on the occurrence or non-occurrence of specific artifact types or other components within them.

cognitive archaeology: the study of past ways of thought and symbolic structures from material remains.

cognitive map: an interpretive framework of the world which, it is argued, exists in the human mind and affects actions and decisions as well as knowledge structures.

cognitive-processual approach: an alternative to the materialist orientation of the functional-processual approach, it is concerned with (1) the integration of the cognitive and symbolic with other aspects of early societies; (2) the role of ideology as an active organizational force. It employs the theoretical approach of methodological individualism.

collagen: the organic fraction of bone as distinct from the mineral or carbonate portion. Can be dated by the C-14 method.

collateral flaking: when flakes on a chipped stone artifact extend to the middle from both edges forming a medial ridge. The flakes are at right angles to the longitudinal axis, and regular and uniform in size.

colluvium: materials deposited by gravity at the foot of a slope, e.g. talus, soil creep, etc.

complex: a consistently recurring assemblage of artifacts or traits which may be indicative of a specific set of activities, or a common cultural tradition.

component: "the manifestation of a given archaeological phase at a site." (Willey and Phillips 1958: 21.) Sites may be "single component" (only one distinct cultural unit), or "multi-component" (2 or more cultural units).

composite tool: a tool formed of two or more joined parts, e.g. "composite toggling harpoon head".

computed axial tomography (CAT or CT scanner): the method by which scanners allow detailed internal views of bodies such as mummies. The body is passed into the machine and images of crosssectional "slices" through the body are produced.

concentration: a notable accumulation of archaeological materials in a small area, such as a "concentration of flakes" etc.

conchoidal flake: a type of spall resulting from the fracture of fine-grained, or glassy rocks. Characterized by a bulb of percussion, striking platform remnant, and extremely sharp edges. A predictable fracture pattern that allows the manufacture of Pre-determined tools from these materials.

concretion: a natural clay nodule formed out of solution in soil interstices. Often confused for man-made objects because of their peculiar shapes.

conjoining: see refitting.

conjunctive approach: a methodological alternative to traditional normative archaeology, argued by Walter Taylor (1948), in which the full range of a culture system was to be taken into consideration in explanatory models.

conservation: the protection and care of archaeological resources.

context: an artifact's context usually consists of its immediate matrix (the material surrounding it e.g. gravel, clay, or sand), its provenience (horizontal and vertical position within the matrix), and its association with other artifacts (occurrence together with other archaeological remains, usually in the same matrix). "Primary context" refers to materials found in their original position; "secondary context" refers to materials which have been displaced and redeposited by disturbance factors; "geological context" is the relationship of the archaeological finds to geological strata.

contextual seriation: a method of relative dating pioneered by Flinders Petrie in the 19th century, in which artifacts are arranged according to the frequencies of their co-occurrence in specific contexts (usually burials).

continuous variation: see clinal distribution.

contour interval: the vertical spacing of contour lines on a topographic map - e.g. 10 m , 100 ft., etc..

contour line: a line on a map connecting points of equal elevation.

contoured level: an excavation level with a floor parallel to the slope of the ground surface.

contract archaeology: archaeological research conducted under the aegis of federal or state legislation, often in advance of highway construction or urban development, where the archaeologist is contracted to undertake the necessary research.

control: in the scientific method, a situation in which a comparison can be made between a specific situation and a second situation that differs, ideally, in only one aspect from the first.

coprolites: fossilized feces; these contain food residues that can be used to reconstruct diet and subsistence activities.

core: (1) a blocky nucleus of stone from which flakes or blades have been removed. (2) a column or lineal sample of materials obtained by "coring" the ground, trees, etc..

cortex: the naturally weathered outer surface of a pebble.

cortical spall: a flake struck from the surface of a pebble or nodule which retains the natural cortex on one face. A "Cortical Spall Tool" is generally a relatively large ovate cortical spall exhibiting retouch or use-wear on one or more edges.

creation-science: the idea that scientific evidence can be and has been gathered for creation as depicted in the Bible. Mainstream scientists and the Supreme Court discount any scientific value of creation-science statements.

cremation: an intentionally burned human interment.

Critical Theory: a theoretical approach developed by the so-called "Frankfurt School" of German social thinkers, which stresses that all knowledge is historical, and in a sense biased communication; thus, all claims to "objective" knowledge are illusory.

cryptocrystalline: a term for glassy rocks which break with a conchoidal fracture, such as obsidian.

cultural anthropology: a subdiscipline of anthropology concerned with the non-biological, behavioral aspects of society; i.e. the social, linguistic, and technological components underlying human behavior. Two important branches of cultural anthropology are ethnography (the study of living cultures) and ethnology (which attempts to compare cultures using ethnographic evidence). In Europe, it is referred to as social anthropology.

cultural deposit: sediments and materials laid down by, or heavily modified by, human activity.

cultural determinism: the idea that except for reflexes all behavior is the result of learning.

cultural diffusion: the spreading of a cultural trait (e.g., material object, idea, or behavior pattern) from one society to another.

cultural ecology: a term devised by Julian Steward to account for the dynamic relationship between human society and its environment, in which culture is viewed as the primary adaptive mechanism.

cultural evolution: the theory that societal change can be understood by analogy with the processes underlying the biological evolution of species.

cultural group: a complex of regularly occurring associated artifacts, features, burial types, and house forms comprising a distinct identity.

cultural materialism: the theory, espoused by Marvin Harris, that ideas, values, and religious beliefs are the means or products of adaptation to environmental conditions ("material constraints").

cultural relativism: the ability to view the beliefs and customs of other peoples within the context of their culture rather than one's own.

cultural resource management (CRM): the safeguarding of the archaeological heritage through the protection of sites and through salvage archaeology (rescue archaeology), generally within the framework of legislation designed to safeguard the past.

culture history: the identification and classification of cultural change through time. A primary aspect of archaeological interpretation concerned with establishing the chronological context of cultural items and complexes.

culture sequence: the chronological succession of cultural traits, phases, or traditions in a local area.

culture-area: a classification of cultures within a specific geographic-environmental region, sharing enough distinctive traits to set them apart from adjacent areas, e.g. Northwest Coast, Arctic, etc.

culture-historical approach: an approach to archaeological interpretation which uses the procedure of the traditional historian (including emphasis on specific circumstances elaborated with rich detail, and processes of inductive reasoning).

culture: learned, nonrandom, systematic behavior and knowledge that can be transmitted from generation to generation.

cutting blade: (also "end blade".) the Piercing element of a composite projectile point or harpoon head. (See also projectile point.)

datum plane: an arbitrary or imaginary horizontal surface surveyed over a site from which vertical measurements are taken.

datum: a fixed reference point on an archaeological site from which measurements are taken.

debitage: waste by-products from tool manufacture.

deduction: a process of reasoning by which more specific consequences are inferred by rigorous argument from more general propositions (cf. induction).

deductive nomological (D-N) explanation: a formal method of explanation based on the testing of hypotheses derived from general laws.

deep-sea cores: cores drilled from the sea bed that provide the most coherent record of climate changes on a worldwide scale. The cores contain shells of microscopic marine organisms (foraminifera) laid down on the ocean floor through the continuous process of sedimentation. Variations in the ratio of two oxygen isotopes in the calcium carbonate of these shells give a sensitive indicator of sea temperature at the time the organisms were alive.

demography: the study of the processes which contribute to population structure and their temporal and spatial dynamics..

dendrochronology: the study of tree-ring patterns; annual variations in climatic conditions which produce differential growth can be used both as a measure of environmental change, and as the basis for a chronology.

dentalia: small, slender horn-like Pacific Ocean shell used and traded as beads and wealth-items.

dependent variable: a variable that is affected by the independent variable.

detritus: waste by-products from tool manufacture. Most frequently applied to chips and fragments resulting from stone flaking.

diachronic: referring to phenomena as they change over time; i.e. employing a chronological perspective (cf. synchronic).

diatom analysis: a method of environmental reconstruction based on plant microfossils. Diatoms are unicellular algae, whose silica cell walls survive after the algae die, and they accumulate in large numbers at the bottom of rivers and lakes. Their assemblages directly reflect the floristic composition of the water's extinct communities, as well as the water's salinity, alkalinity, and nutrient status.

differential fluxgate magnetometer: a type of magnetometer used in subsurface detection with the advantage of producing a continuous reading.

diffusion: when elements of one culture spread to another without wholesale dislocation or migration.

diffusionist approach: the theory popularized by V.G. Childe that all the attributes of civilization from architecture to metalworking had diffused from the Near East to Europe.

distal: that portion of a tool or bone farthest from the body of the user or "owner".

disturbance: a cultural deposit is said to be disturbed when the original sequence of deposition has been altered or upset by post-depositional factors. Agents of disturbance include natural forces such as stream or wind erosion, plant or animal activity, land-slides etc.; and cultural forces such as later excavations.

division of labor: the set of rules found in all societies dictating how the day to day tasks are assigned to the various members of a society.

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid): the material which carries the hereditary instructions (the "blueprint") which determine the formation of all living organisms. Genes, the organizers of inheritance, are composed of DNA.

domestication: the process by which people try to control the reproductive rates of animals and plants by ordering the environment in such a way as to favor certain species.

dowsing: the supposed location of subsurface features by employing a twig, copper rod, pendulum, or other instrument; discontinuous movements in these instruments are believed by some to record the existence of buried features.

drill: a tool used for perforating wood, bone, and soft stone.

drinking tube: a length of hollow bird-bone used in aboriginal ceremonial situations for drinking liquids.

drive-lanes: aboriginal fences of rock piles or brush used to direct game-animals towards a trap.

drumlin: a streamlined hill or mound formed by a moving glacier, with the "tail" in the direction of ice-flow.

early man: in the New World this term refers to the oldest known human occupants - i.e. prior to ca. 8,000 B.P.

echo-sounding: an acoustic underwater-survey technique, used to trace the topography of submerged coastal plains and other buried land surfaces (see also seismic reflection profiler).

ecofacts: non-artifactual organic and environmental remains which have cultural relevance, e.g. faunal and floral material as well as soils and sediments.

ecological determinism: a form of explanation in which it is implicit that changes in the environment determine changes in human society.

ecology: the study of the dynamic relationships of organisms to each other and the total environment.

ecosystem: a group of organisms with specific relationships between themselves and a particular environment.

effigy mound: an earthwork in the general shape of an animal (e.g. a snake, bird, etc.).

effigy pipe: an aboriginal smoking pipe shaped to resemble a human or animal form.

egalitarian society: a society that recognizes few differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status.

electrical resistivity: see soil resistivity. electrolysis A standard cleaning process in archaeological conservation. Artifacts are placed in a chemical solution, and by passing a weak current between them and a surrounding metal grill, the corrosive salts move from the cathode (object) to the anode (grill), removing any accumulated deposit and leaving the artifact clean.

electron probe microanalysis: used in the analysis of artifact composition, this technique is similar to XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectrometry), and is useful for studying small changes in composition within the body of an artifact.

electron spin resonance (ESR): a chronometric dating technique based upon the behavior of electrons in crystals exposed to naturally occurring radioactivity; used to date limestone, coral, shell, teeth, and other materials. Enables trapped electrons within bone and shell to be measured without the heating that thermoluminescence requires.

elevation: a measurement of vertical distance in mapping.

empathetic method: the use of personal intuition (in German Einfuhlung to seek to understand the inner lives of other people, using the assumption that there is a common structure to human experience. The assumption that the study of the inner experience of humans provides a handle for interpreting prehistory and history is made by idealist thinkers such as B. Croce, R.G. Collingwood and members of the "postprocessual" school of thought.

empirical: received through the senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste), either directly or through extensions.

empiricism: reliance on observable and quantifiable data.

emulation: one of the most frequent features accompanying competition, where customs, buildings, and artifacts in one society may be adopted by neighboring ones through a process of imitation which is often competitive in nature.

engineer's level: an optical surveying instrument designed to obtain accurate level lines of sight and turn.

environmental archaeology: a field in which inter-disciplinary research, involving archaeologists and natural scientists, is directed at the reconstruction of human use of plants and animals, and how past societies adapted to changing environmental conditions.

environmental circumscription: an explanation for the origins of the state propounded by Robert Carneiro that emphasizes the fundamental role exerted by environmental constraints and by territorial limitations.

eolian deposits: sediments transported by wind (e.g. sand-dunes, loess, etc.).

eoliths: crude stone pebbles found in Lower Pleistocene contexts; once thought to be the work of human agency, but now generally regarded as natural products.

erratic: a glacially transported boulder.

esker: a sinuous ridge of fluvial deposits resulting from a sub-glacial melt-water stream.

ethnicity: a basis for social categories that are rooted in socially perceived differences in national origin, language, and/or religion.

ethnoarchaeology: the study of contemporary cultures with a view to understanding the behavioral relationships which underlie the production of material culture.

ethnographic analogy: interpretation of archaeological remains by comparison to historical cultures.

ethnography: that aspect of cultural anthropology concerned with the descriptive documentation of living cultures.

ethnohistory: the study of ethnographic cultures through historical records.

ethnology: a subset of cultural anthropology concerned with the comparative study of contemporary cultures, with a view to deriving general principles about human society.

ethnos: the ethnic group, defined as a firm aggregate of people, historically established on a given territory, possessing in common relatively stable peculiarities of language and culture, and also recognizing their unity and difference as expressed in a self-

evolution: the process by which small but cumulative changes in a species can, over time, lead to its transformation; may be divided into two categories: physical evolution (adaptive changes in biological makeup) and cultural evolution (adaptive changes in thought and behavior).

excavation grid: a system of rectangular coordinates, established on the ground surface by stakes and string, which divides a site into excavation units.

excavation: the principal method of data acquisition in archaeology, involving the systematic uncovering of archaeological remains through the removal of the deposits of soil and the other material covering them and accompanying them.

experimental archaeology: the study of past behavioral processes through experimental reconstruction under carefully controlled scientific conditions.

exposure: (1) a natural or artificial section or cut into the ground, such as a wind blow-out, sea-cliff, or roadcut. (2) the orientation of a site in relation to magnetic direction or the sun - e.g. a "southern exposure". (3) the quality of color, contrast and light in a photograph.

fabric: (1) a material woven of plant or animal fibers. (2) the orientation of sedimentary particles.

factor analysis: a multivariate statistical technique which assesses the degree of variation between artifact types, and is based on a matrix of correlation coefficients which measure the relative association between any two variables.

faience: glass-like material first made in predynastic Egypt; it involves coating a core material of powdered quartz with a vitreous alkaline glaze.

fall-off analysis: the study of regularities in the way in which quantities of traded items found in the archaeological record decline as the distance from the source increases. This may be plotted as a falloff curve, with the quantities of material (y-axis) plotted against distance from source (X-axis).

faunal dating: a method of relative dating based on observing the evolutionary changes in particular species of mammals, so as to form a rough chronological sequence.

faunal remains: bones and other animal parts found in archaeological sites. Important in the reconstruction of past ecosystems and cultural subsistence patterns.

feature: a non-portable product of human workmanship. Usually clusters of associated objects; structural remains; hearths, etc.

field data forms: printed forms used to record archaeological survey or excavation information. Special forms are frequently used to record artifact proveniences; features and burials; site locations and descriptions; and level-notes.

filigree: fine open metalwork using wires and soldering, first developed in the Near East.

fire-cracked rock (f.c.r.): (also "fire-broken rock"). Rocks which have been cracked or broken by the heat of a fire. A common element in aboriginal campsite debris.

fishing station: a special type of site located on streams, lakes, or ocean beaches, where fishing activities were carried on. May be characterized by a fish-trap or WEIR.

fission-track dating: a dating method based on the operation of a radioactive clock, the spontaneous fission of an isotope of uranium present in a wide range of rocks and minerals. As with potassium-argon dating, with whose time range it overlaps, the method gives useful dates from rocks adjacent to archaeological material.

flagging (also "survey tape"): brightly colored plastic ribbon used to mark features, sites, surveyed stakes etc., to aid in their relocation.

flake-scar: the negative area left on a stone core or nucleus after the removal of a conchoidal flake.

flake: a fragment removed from a core or nucleus of cryptocrystalline or fine-grained rock by percussion or pressure. May be used as a tool with no further deliberate modification, may be retouched, or may serve as a preform for further reduction.

flaking station: a specialized site, or activity area within a site, dominated by evidence for the past manufacture of flaked stone artifacts. Might consist of an area of concentrated detritus, cores, flaking-tools, and preforms.

 flaking-tool (also "flaker"): any implement used to remove conchoidal flakes by percussion or pressure from a nucleus of suitable material. May be a pointed antler or bone pressure-flaking tool, or a small hammer-stone used for percussion.

flesher: a toothed implement manufactured on an animal long-bone, used for scraping hides.

flexed burial: a human interment where the body is placed in a semi-fetal Position with the knees drawn up against the chest and hands near the chin.

flint: a microcrystalline silicate rock similar to chert, used for the manufacture of flaked stone tools. Color most commonly gray, honey-brown, or black.

floor-plan: a scale drawing of features, matrix changes, and important associations completed for the end of each excavation level in a given

floral remains: remnants of past vegetation found in archaeological sites (see microfloral remains). Useful in the reconstruction of past environments.

flotation: the process of recovering small particles of organic material by immersing sediment samples in water or other fluids and skimming off the particles which float on the surface. An important method for obtaining microfloral and microfaunal remains and carbon samples.

fluted: grooved or channeled. A fluted point is a projectile point which has had one or more long thinning flakes removed from the base along one or both faces (e.g. Clovis or Folsom points).

fluvial deposits: sediments laid down by running water.

foraging: collecting wild plants and hunting wild animals for subsistence.

foreshaft: a separate, often detachable piece, between the point and main shaft of a projectile.

formation processes: those processes affecting the way in which archaeological materials came to be buried, and their subsequent history afterwards. Cultural formation processes include the deliberate or accidental activities of humans; natural formation processes refer to natural or environmental events which govern the burial and survival of the archaeological record.

fossil beach (also: "paleo-beach", "raised beach", "fossil strandline"): a lake or ocean beach developed when the water-level was significantly different from that of the present. Most commonly these will be "raised beaches", or old strandline features and sediments found above the modern shoreline.

fossil cuticles: the outermost protective layer of the skin of leaves or blades of grass, made of cutin, a very resistant material that survives in the archaeological record often in feces. Cuticular analysis is a useful adjunct to palynology in environmental reconstruction.

fossil ice wedges: soil features caused when the ground freezes and contracts, opening up fissures in the permafrost that fill with wedges of ice. The fossil wedges are proof of past cooling of climate and of the depth of permafrost.

frequency seriation: a relative dating method which relies principally on measuring changes in the proportional abundance, or frequency, observed among finds (e.g. counts of tool types, or of ceramic fabrics).

functional-processual approach: see processual archaeology.

functionalism: the theory that all elements of a culture are functional in that they serve to satisfy culturally defined needs of the people in that society or requirements of the society as a whole.

genes: the basic units of inheritance, now known to be governed by the specific sequence of the genetic markers within the DNA of the individual concerned.

geochemical analysis: the investigatory technique which involves taking soil samples at regular intervals from the surface of a site, and measuring their phosphate content and other chemical properties.

geochronology: relative dating based on geological stratigraphy.

geographic coordinates: the world-wide system of latitude and longitude used to define the location of any point on the earth's surface.

geomagnetic reversals: an aspect of archaeomagnetism relevant to the dating of the Lower Paleolithic, involving complete reversals in the earth's magnetic field.

geomorphology: a subdiscipline of geography, concerned with the study of the form and development of the landscape, it includes such specializations as sedimentology.

georadar: a technique used in ground reconnaissance, similar to soil-sounding radar, but with a much larger antenna and more extensive coverage.

gift exchange: see reciprocity.

glacial lake: a lake formed of ponded glacial meltwater, or by the damming of a drainage system by glacial activity. A "pro-glacial" lake has at least one margin formed by glacial ice.

glacial maximum: the position and period of greatest advance of a glacier.

glacial striae: scratches on bedrock or loose stones caused by glacial abrasion. May be large or microscopic and could, in some cases, be mistaken for evidence of human activity.

glacial: a period of expansion of glacial ice.

glottochronology: a controversial method of assessing the temporal divergence of two languages based on changes of vocabulary (lexicostatistics), and expressed as an arithmetic formula.

gorge (also "gorge-hook"): a bone bipoint used to catch fish or waterfowl. After being swallowed, the hook will toggle in the stomach of the prey and cannot be drawn out.

gorget: a relatively large, flat, or gently curving object of polished stone, shell, or metal, with holes for suspension. Usually believed to have been worn as an ornament around the throat.

granulation: the soldering of grains of metal to a background, usually of the same metal, and much used by the Etruscans.

grave goods (also: "grave inclusions", "mortuary goods", etc.): tools, weapons, food, or ceremonial objects placed with a burial.

graver: a small pointed or chisel-like stone tool used for incising or engraving.

grid-system: a system of rectangular excavation or sampling units laid over a site by strings and stakes.

ground reconnaissance: a collective name for a wide variety of methods for identifying individual archaeological sites, including consultation of documentary sources, place-name evidence, local folklore, and legend, but primarily actual fieldwork.

ground stone: stone artifacts shaped by sawing, grinding, and/or polishing with abrasive materials (e.g. "ground slate knives", "polished soapstone pendants" etc.).

gun-flint: a square blade-segment of flint used to ignite the powder charge of a flint-lock gun. Often mistaken for an aboriginal artifact.

habitation area: a generalized term for a house or tent floor, or the remains of any other type of aboriginal shelter.

habitation site: a location where a human group has lived and conducted normal daily activities for a significant period.

hafted: attached with a binding to a shaft or handle (e.g. a "hafted knife").

half-life: the time taken for half the quantity of a radioactive isotope in a sample to decay (see also radioactive decay).

hammerstone: a natural rounded, largely unmodified pebble used as an unhafted hammer.

hand-axe: a Paleolithic stone tool usually made by modifying (chipping or flaking) a natural pebble.

hand-level: a small, simple, hand-held surveying instrument for establishing horizontal lines-of-sight over short distances.

hand-maul: a carefully manufactured unhafted stone hammer.

harpoon head (point): the arming tip of a harpoon. generally classifiable into 2 main forms - toggling and barbed - each of which may be composite or single-piece, and may or may not carry additional cutting-blades or side-blades. Always have line-guards or other means of line attachment.

harpoon: a thrown or thrust spear-like weapon armed with a detachable point fastened to a retrieving line.

hearth: a fireplace, often circular and may be unlined, rock or clay-lined, or rock-filled.

heat treatment: an aboriginal process by which the flaking properties of a rock were improved by controlled heating in a fire.

hegemony: preponderant influence or authority of one individual or social group over another. heliocentric: a sun-centered model of the universe.

hematite: a natural iron oxide which was used as a reddish pigment.

henge: literally, "hanging rock," this term is often applied to the Neolithic stone monoliths found in Britian.

herd: among geladas, a large social unit consisting of several bands that come together under very good grazing conditions.

hermeneutics: formal study of methods of interpretation. Following Gadamer, the hermeneutical process is often regarded as involving complex interaction between the interpreting subject and the interpreted object.

hinge-fracture: a weak or inward-directed blow against cryptocrystalline or fine-grained rock will produce a flake which breaks off (or "hinges") halfway along, without carrying through to a thin tapered end.

historic period: the time after European contact, or the beginning of written recording.

historical archaeology: the archaeological study of historically documented cultures. In North America, research is directed at colonial and post-colonial settlement, analogous to the study of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Europe.

historical particularism: a detailed descriptive approach to anthropology associated with Franz Boas and his students, and designed as an alternative to the broad generalizing approach favored by anthropologists such as Morgan and Tylor.

historiographic approach: a form of explanation based primarily on traditional descriptive historical frameworks.

hoards: deliberately buried groups of valuables or prized possessions, often in times of conflict or war, and which, for one reason or another, have not been reclaimed. Metal hoards are a primary source of evidence for the European Bronze Age.

holism: the philosophical view that no complex entity can be considered to be only the sum of its parts; as a principle of anthropology, the assumption that any given aspect of human life is to be studied with an eye to its relation to other aspects of human life.

holocene: the post-glacial period, beginning about 10,000 B.P.

homeostasis: a term used in systems thinking to describe the action of negative feedback processes in maintaining the system at a constant equilibrium state.

horizon: (1) a discrete regional cultural period or level of cultural development marked by some easily recognizable criterion or trait. (2) in soil-science terminology, a natural developmental zone in a soil profile such as the "A-horizon".

horizontal angle: in mapping, the angle of sight measured on the level or horizontal plane.

horizontal circle: with major surveying instruments, the graduated horizontal table around which the sighting telescope revolves; used to measure the horizontal angle.

horizontal datum: a base measuring point ("0.0 point") used as the origin of rectangular coordinate systems for mapping or for maintaining excavation provenience.

horizontal distance: the measurement of distance on a true level plane.

horizontal provenience: the location of an object on a two-dimensional plane surface.

house-pit: an aboriginally excavated house floor.

household: a domestic residential group whose members live together in intimate contact, rear children, share the proceeds of labor and other resources held in common, and in general cooperate on a day-to-day basis.

Human Relations Area Files: (HRAF) a compilation of reports on 330 societies that are used for cross-cultural research.

hunter-gatherers: a collective term for the members of small-scale mobile or semi-sedentary societies, whose subsistence is mainly focused on hunting game and gathering wild plants and fruits; organizational structure is based on bands with strong kinship ties.

hunting and gathering: involves the systematic collection of vegetable foods, hunting of game, and fishing.

hypothesis: a statement that stipulates a relationship between a phenomenon for which the researcher seeks to account and one or more other phenomena.

hypothetico-deductive explanation: a form of explanation based on the formulation of hypotheses and the establishment from them by deduction of consequences which can then be tested against the archaeological data.

ice cores: borings taken from the Arctic and Antarctic polar ice caps, containing layers of compacted ice useful for the reconstruction of paleoenvironments and as a method of absolute dating.

ice-wedge: a vertical wedge-shaped vein of ground ice found in permafrost areas. causes "polygonal ground" (see periglacial phenomena) and may result in severe disturbance of archaeological sites.

iconography: an important component of cognitive archaeology, this involves the study of artistic representations which usually have an overt religious or ceremonial significance; e.g. individual deities may be distinguished, each with a special characteristic, such as corn with the corn god, or the sun with a sun goddess etc.

idealist explanation: a form of explanation that lays great stress on the search for insights into the historical circumstances leading up to the event under study in terms primarily of the ideas and motives of the individuals involved.

in situ: archaeological items are said to be "in situ " when they are found in the location where they were last deposited.

inclined sights: in mapping, a vertically angled line of sight.

inclusion: an intentional cultural association, such as grave-goods with a burial.

increment borer: a hand-operated coring device for obtaining tree-ring samples.

independent variable: the variable that can cause change in other variables.

index: a spirit-bubble leveling device on the vertical circle of major surveying instruments.

indirect percussion: a technique for flaking stone artifacts by interposing a bone or antler punch between the hammer and the raw materials. Allows greater control than direct percussion flaking.

induction: a method of reasoning in which one proceeds by generalization from a series of specific observations so as to derive general conclusions (cf. deduction).

inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry (ICPS): based on the same basic principles as OES (optical emission spectrometry), but the generation of much higher temperatures reduces problems of interference and produces more accurate results.

industry: all the artifacts in a site that are made from the same material, such as the bone industry.

infrared absorption spectroscopy: a technique used in the characterization of raw materials, it has been particularly useful in distinguishing ambers from different sources: the organic compounds in the amber absorb different wavelengths of infrared radiation passed through them.

innovation: the process of adopting a new thing, idea, or behavior pattern into a culture.

institutions: a society's recurrent patterns of activity, such as religion, art, a kinship system, law, and family life.

instrument height: the elevation of the line-of-sight of a surveying instrument above the immediate ground surface.

instrument position (ip): the location at which a surveying instrument is established to obtain a sighting.

instrument: a general term for major optical surveying equipment, including transits, alidades, and surveyor's levels.

intensification: an increase in the product derived from a unit of land or labor.

intensive agriculture: a form of agriculture that involves the use of draft animals or tractors, plows, and often some form of irrigation.

interaction sphere: a regional or inter-regional exchange system, e.g. the Hopewell interaction sphere.

interglacial: a period of warming between two glacials.

invention: any new thing, idea, or way of behaving that emerges from within a society.

Iron Age: a cultural stage characterized by the use of iron as the main metal.

isostatic uplift: rise in the level of the land relative to the sea caused by the relaxation of Ice Age conditions. It occurs when the weight of ice is removed as temperatures rise, and the landscape is raised up to form raised beaches.

isotopic analysis: an important source of information on the reconstruction of prehistoric diets, this technique analyzes the ratios of the principal isotopes preserved in human bone; in effect the method reads the chemical signatures left in the body by different foods. Isotopic analysis is also used in characterization studies.

jasper: a colloquial term for some varieties of chert. Usually refers to dark red or dull-green, fine-grained, semi-translucent banded materials.

 
kill-site: a type of special activity site where large game animals were killed and butchered.

kula ring: a system of ceremonial, non-competitive, exchange practiced in Melanesia to establish and reinforce alliances. Malinowski's study of this system was influential in shaping the anthropological concept of reciprocity.

 
labret: a "cuff-link" or pulley-shaped object of stone, bone or wood, inserted in a perforation of the lower lip as an ornament or status symbol by some aboriginal peoples.

lacustrine deposits: lake sediments; usually fine laminated silts and clays.

laminae: very thin strata.

LANDSAT: see remote sensing.

landscape archaeology: the study of individual features including settlements.

leaching: a natural process by which chemicals and minerals are transported downwards through a soil-profile.

legal subdivision system: the method of describing parcels of land in terms of "Township, Range, Section, and Quarter Section".

leister: a composite fishing spear made up of barbed side-pieces surrounding an unbarbed central point.

lenticular: "lens-shaped". any object with a biconvex cross-section.

level bag: a bag containing excavated materials from a single level of a single excavation unit.

level notes: written observations on all significant characteristics of an excavated level.

level: the basic vertical subdivision of an excavation unit. May be natural. arbitrary or contoured.

lexicostatistics: the study of linguistic divergence between two languages, based on changes in a list of common vocabulary terms and the sharing of common root words (see also glottochronology).

lichenometry: the study of lichen growth as an aid to dating surface rock features and rock art.(-FONT>

life expectancy: the length of time that a person can, on the average, expect to live.

light-table: a glass-topped table illuminated from underneath, used in the laboratory photography of archaeological specimens.

lignite: a soft shiny black variety of coal, aboriginally used to manufacture decorative objects.

line-guard: a device to fasten the retrieving line to a harpoon point.

line-level: a small spirit-bubble designed for suspension on a string Used in archaeology to determine horizontal lines over short distances.

lineage: a unilineal descent group composed of people who trace their genealogies through specified links to a common ancestor.

linguistic anthropology: a subdivision of anthropology that is concerned primarily with unwritten languages (both prehistoric and modern), with variation within languages, and with the social uses of language; traditionally divided into three branches: descriptive linguistics, the systematic study of the way language is constructed and used; historical linguistics, the study of the origin of language in general and of the evolution of the languages people speak today; and sociolinguistics, the study of the relationship between language and social relations.

linguistics: the scientific study of language.

lipids: the class of compounds that includes fats, oils, and waxes.

lithic industry: that part of an archaeological artifact assemblage manufactured of stone.

lithic technology: the process of manufacturing tools etc. from stone. Most frequently refers to stone flaking.

lithic: of, or pertaining to stone.

lithology: the identification and study of rocks.

living floor: the horizontal layer of an archaeological site that was once the surface occupied by a prehistoric group. It is identifed both by the fact that it is hard-packed and also by the artifacts located on its surface. 

locality: a very large site or site-area composed of 2 or more concentrations or clusterings of cultural remains.

loess sediments: deposits formed of a yellowish dust of silt-sized particles blown by the wind and redeposited on land newly deglaciated, or on sheltered areas.

logistics: the process of transporting, supplying and supporting a field project.

long-house: the long multi-family dwellings of the Iroquois area.