| absolute dating | Method of dating that can provide an age in calendar years.
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| accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) | A huge scientific instrument used for sorting and counting isotopes. AMS dating allows much smaller samples to be used in archaeology.
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| achieved status | Earned position of prestige in society determined by skills, abilities, and effort.
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| acropolis | Refers to the citadel or upper part of ancient cities in the classical world or Maya region.
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| activity area | Location of specific tasks or behaviors within a site.
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| additive techniques | A way of making things like ceramics or building a house that involves incremental steps and the addition of material to the object or structure. A bigger object is made from smaller pieces. Compare subtractive techniques.
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| adobe | A brick made of earth and straw and dried by the sun.
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| alidade | An optical surveying instrument used for making contour maps.
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| amateur archaeologist | In contrast to professional archaeologists, who are educated in the discipline, amateur or vocational archaeologists collect artifacts, study archaeology, and participate in professionally run excavations. Amateur archaeologists are an important part of the field and have made substantial contributions to our knowledge of the past.
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| amino acid | Simple organic compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and in certain cases sulfur. Twenty amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.
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| ancient DNA (aDNA) | Genetic material preserved in archaeological or paleontological remains.
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| annealing | A process of repeated heating and cooling to make metal tougher and less brittle.
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| anthropogenic | Created or produced by human activity, e.g., anthropogenic soils are a result of human activity.
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| anthropological archaeology | Archaeological investigations that seek to answer the larger, fundamental questions about humans and human behavior taught in departments of anthropology.
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| appendicular skeleton | The limbs (the clavicles, scapulae, bones of the pelvis, and the upper and lower limbs, including the hands and feet).
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| appliqué | Decorative technique for pottery involving the addition of clay pieces to the original clay vessel.
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| arboreal pollen (AP) | Pollen from trees.
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| archaeobotany | (a.k.a. paleobotany, paleoethnobotany) The study of archaeological plant remains.
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| archaeological chemistry | A part of archaeometry, the investigation of inorganic and organic composition, elements and isotopes, molecules and compounds in archaeological materials.
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| archaeological context | The buried or surface context in which archaeological remains are found; what survives to the present.
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| archaeological culture | A group of related materials from a region that indicate a common or shared way of doing things.
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| archaeological record | The body of information about the past that has survived to the present.
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| archaeological science | A generic term that includes noninstrumental areas such as faunal analysis, paleoethnobotany, and human osteology.
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| archaeology | The study of our human past, combining the themes of time and change, using the material remains that have survived.
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| archaeomagnetism | A dating technique based on the migration of the earth's north pole, known for the last 1000 years.
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| archaeometry | The measurement of the chemical or physical properties of an artifact in order to solve problems of chemical composition, technology, chronology, etc. Sometimes described as "instrumental" archaeology.
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| archaeozoology | The study of animal remains in archaeology.
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| articular | The portion of the bone that touches another bone, usually a surface at the end or edge of a bone.
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| artifacts | The objects and materials that people have made and used.
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| ascribed status | Inherited position of prestige in society determined by birth.
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| assemblage | A related set of different things.
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| association | A statistical term referring to related groups, or subsets, within a sample that have similar values. The members of the group are said to be associated.
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| atomic number | The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
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| attributes | Detailed characteristics of archaeological materials and information.
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| auger | (a.k.a. corer, borer) A tool for drilling holes, used in archaeology for coring into soil and taking samples.
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| aurochs | Wild cattle.
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| axial skeleton | The trunk and head (all the bones of the head and neck, the vertebrae, ribs and sternum).
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| band | Small-scale societies of hunter-gatherers where relationships are generally egalitarian and decision making is consensual.
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| bar graph | Visual display of data; basically a tally sheet with bars instead of tally marks, used to display nominal or ordinal scale data.
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| barrow | Earthen burial mound.
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| base | The lower part of a ceramic vessel.
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| bifacial | A term describing a flaked stone tool in which both faces or sides are retouched to make a thinner tool. See also unifacial.
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| bioarchaeology | The study of human remains from archaeological contexts.
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| bioerosion | Changes in the exterior surface on bone that indicate conditions of deposition.
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| biological anthropology | The study of the biological nature of our nearest relatives and ourselves.
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| bioturbation | Disturbance of the archaeological record from plant and animal activities such as root growth or animal digging.
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| bipedal | The human method of locomotion, walking on two legs; one of the first human characteristics to distinguish the early hominins,as opposed to quadrupedalism, walking on four legs.
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| blade | A special kind of elongated flake with two parallel sides and a length at least twice the width of the piece. The regular manufacture of blades characterized the Upper Paleolithic, with an efficient way of producing mass quantities of cutting edges.
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| body sherd | Fragment of broken pottery that does not include the rim of the vessel.
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| bronze | A mixture of tin (or arsenic) and copper that produced a harder metal. Produced in both the Old and New Worlds.
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| brushing | Decorative technique for pottery involving roughening of the surface.
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| bulb of percussion | A partial cone of fracture that is seen on the inner surface of flakes as a slightly rounded protrusion or bulb.
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| bulbar surface (a.k.a. ventral) | The inner, fresh surface of a flake.
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| bundle burial | A disarticulated group of bones buried in a group, probably tied in a bundle or wrapped in a skin or cloth.
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| burial population | The set of human remains found interred in a site or cemetery.
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| burin | A distinctively edged stone tool combining a 90° edge and an oblique angled working edge.
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| burnishing | Decorative technique for pottery involving smoothing or polishing of the surface.
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| calendar | A system for organizing time into repeatable and predictable units.
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| calibration | Correction of radiocarbon dates for the difference between calendar years and radiocarbon years.
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| camp | Short-term, temporary settlement, usually associated with huntergatherers or nomads.
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| cassava | Tropical root crop with starchy roots (a.k.a. manioc), source of tapioca.
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| cementum annuli | Annual deposits of cementum around the base of teeth.
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| cenotaph | An empty grave, without a body.
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| ceramic | Fired clay.
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| ceramic petrography | Microscopic technique for study of the mineral composition of pottery.
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| cervids | Members of the deer family.
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| chaîne opératoire | (French: sequence of production) The different stages of production from the acquisition of raw material to the final abandonment of the desired and/or used objects.
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| chenopod | A variety of weedy herbs belonging to the goosefoot family, which includes spinach, beets, and pigweed.
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| chert | A cryptocrystalline quartz with large crystal size and impurities that give it color and cloudiness.
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| chiefdom | A large, kinship-based political unit of several communities where status is hereditary and assigned by birth order (rank).
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| chi-square (X2) | A statistical test of association for nominal scale information.
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| chronology | A framework of time to show the order of events, a dated sequence of events in the past.
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| city | Urban agglomeration with population of 10,000 or more, internal differentiation, and distinct civic or ceremonial areas within its boundaries.
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| class | Distinctions between groups of people that define levels, or strata, in society.
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| classical archaeology | A branch of archaeology primarily concerned with the Mediterranean civilizations of Greece and Rome.
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| classification | The process of putting objects into groups on the basis of shared characteristics.
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| clay | A very fine-grained sediment, deposited in water and usually found in former lake or stream deposits; raw material for making pottery.
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| coefficient of stylistic variability | A statistical measure of the strength of association among stylistic attributes.
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| coil technique | Pottery vessel made by ropes of clay used to build up the walls of the vessel.
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| collagen | The protein that makes up the organic portion of bone.
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| collar | A vessel rim with added clay material.
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| commensals | Species in a symbiotic relationship in which one species is benefited while the other is unaffected.
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| complexity | Organization of society involving more units in society and more integration between those units.
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| component | An assemblage from a single layer, living floor, or occupation horizon; a set of materials in contemporary use by the same group of people.
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| composition | The mineral and organic contents in a petrographic thin section.
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| compounds | Combinations of elements in either organic or inorganic molecules in nature.
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| conchoidal fracture | Shell-like shape of the interior surface of a flake; the breakage pattern seen in flaking stone tools.
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| conservation | Preservation and restoration of archaeological materials in the laboratory and museum.
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| context | Place and association among the archaeological materials and the situation in which they occur.
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| contour map | A schematic map of topography, the three-dimensional surface of the earth or other features. Contours are conventionally shown as a series of curved, concentric lines reflecting elevation or relief of a surface.
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| coprolites | Preserved ancient feces.
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| cord-marked | Decorative technique for pottery involving impressions of cord-wrapping in the clay.
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| cord-marking | A distinctive decoration on pottery produced by pressing a cord-wrapped stick into the soft clay of a pot before firing.
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| core | The stone from which other pieces or flakes are removed. Core tools are shaped by the removal of flakes.
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| correlation | A measure of association between two sets of numbers.
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| cortex | A heavily weathered rind on the outside of flint or chert nodules. The presence of this cortex is the criterion for a cortical flake.
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| cortical bone | Hard, dense bone tissue commonly found in limbs and supporting structure of the skeleton.
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| cortical flake | A flake with some of the outer surface (cortex) of the stone nodule present.
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| cosmology | Explanations of the origins of the universe, of life, and of society.
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| country | A sovereign region, marked by boundaries, and defended by military power, usually associated with state-level societies.
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| cremation | A funereal practice involving immolation of the corpse. Cremation burials usually consist of ash and a few fragments of bone and teeth, and are often found in urns and small pits. Also, the incinerated remains of a human body. Contrast with inhumation.
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| cribra orbitalia | Pitting and thickening of the eye sockets in the skull caused by anemia or parasitic infections.
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| cryptocrystalline | Stone with microscopic crystals, formed from silica under pressure in marine deposits, such as quartz, chert, flint.
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| crystalline | Materials with atoms arranged in a regular geometric pattern, used in X-ray diffraction analysis.
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| cultural (social) anthropology | The study of living peoples with a focus on the shared aspects of the human experience.
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| cultural resource management (CRM) | Historical preservation in the United States; involves survey and excavation to determine that historical and cultural resources are not being destroyed by development and construction.
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| cultural transformation | Modification of the archaeological record through human activity.
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| culture | A means of human adaptation based on intelligence, experience, learning, and the use of tools; the general set of behaviors and knowledge that humans use to survive and adapt.
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| culture change | In archaeology, innovations or modification in technology or material culture.
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| curated tools | Special-purpose implements that require specific raw materials and substantial time and labor in manufacture. Curated tools can often be repaired or recycled and are normally discarded only when exhausted. Contrast with expedient tools.
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| cursus monument | Paired linear earthworks that mark an avenue or long, rectangular area in Neolithic Europe.
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| cut | Geomorphological terms for erosion of sediments, also human digging.
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| cutmarks | Scratches and cuts on bone indicating the use of stone tools for butchering.
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| data | Information; the observations and measurements of archaeological materials.
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| datum | A point with known locational coordinates and elevation; a fixed point for surveying.
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| débitage | (French) A term referring to all the pieces of shatter and flakes produced and not used when stone tools are made; also called waste.
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| deciduous teeth | The first set of "baby" teeth that are lost when the permanent teeth come in.
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| deconstruction | A form of literary analysis used to show the differences between the structure of a text and basic Western concepts about the meaning of reality.
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| demography | Study of human populations with a focus on size, age, and sex distribution, birth and death rates, and migration. Prehistoric demography is also known as paleodemography.
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| dendrochronology | The study of the annual growth rings of trees as a dating technique to build chronologies.
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| descriptive statistics | Numbers that are used to condense information in order to summarize and compare different sets of data.
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| diachronic | Dealing with change over time, comparing two or more time periods.
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| diagenesis | Physical and chemical changes in bone after burial.
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| diatom | Silicate shells of microscopic algae.
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| diffraction | Principle of X-rays being scattered when striking a crystal, used in X-ray diffraction analyses.
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| diffusion | The spread of new ideas or materials from one group to another.
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| discriminant analysis | Statistical technique for classifying a set of observations into predefined classes based on new measurement.
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| division of labor | Organization of tasks involving different groups doing different activities for the sake of efficiency.
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| DNA | The blueprints for life; hereditary material; a long molecular chain of molecules called chromosomes found both in the nucleus of the cell and in cell structures known as mitochrondria.
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| dorsal surface | The outer surface of a flake.
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| drawing grid | (a.k.a. planning frame) Normally a 1 m2 (10 ft2) frame of wood or aluminum fitted with a grid of string or wire at 20 cm (ca. 8 in) intervals. It is used for drawing detailed plans of vertical sections or horizontal floors in archaeological excavations.
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| dual-residence | A subsistence and settlement pattern observed among some groups of hunter-gatherers who live in two places at different seasons during the course of a year.
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| ecofacts | Unmodified, natural items found in archaeological contexts, often plant or animal material.
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| ecological constraint | Limitations on human activity imposed by the environment. For example, arid conditions are an ecological constraint on agriculture.
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| economy | The means and methods that society uses to obtain food, water, and resources for maintenance and growth.
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| effigy | An object or construction in the shape of a plant, animal, or human figure.
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| electron spin resonance (ESR) | A dating method based on trapped electrons in tooth enamel, assuming the accumulation rate is constant.
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| elements | Building blocks of matter, different atoms by weight.
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| empire | Large sovereign space, expanded by military conquest, and encompassing several countries and/or territories, associated with state-level societies.
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| enamel hypoplasia | Irregular lines in tooth enamel resulting from childhood stress or malnutrition.
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| environment | The natural and social milieu in which human societies operate.
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| enzyme | A protein that catalyzes a chemical reaction.
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| epiphysis | Joint ends of bones where growth occurs.
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| equifinality | A situation in which different initial conditions can lead to a similar end, making archaeological interpretation difficult.
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| ethnoarchaeology | Archaeological study of living societies for information to help better understand the past.
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| ethnographic | Ethnography is the study and description of human societies. Ethnographers are anthropologists who study societies in a variety of places around the world.
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| ethnographic analogy | Comparison between ethnography and archaeology to explain similar things.
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| ethnography | The detailed investigation of a group of people, traditionally non-Western, through participant observation and descriptions of practices, activities, behaviors, and beliefs.
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| ethnohistory | Branch of ethnography that combines sources from history, archaeology, and oral traditions in the search for answers about past peoples.
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| excavation | The exposure, recording, and recovery of buried materials from the past.
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| exchange | Transfer of material or information among individuals or groups.
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| exotic | Foreign, unusual; in archaeology refers to artifacts and other materials from nonlocal sources.
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| expedient tools | Implements that are quickly made, used, and discarded. The technology is fairly simple, production fairly rapid, use more general purpose, and discard immediate. Contrast with curated tools.
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| experimental archaeology | Modern experiments to reproduce artifacts, architecture, and/or techniques from the past.
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| extractive sites | Nonresidential localities where some members of the society obtain food or other resources.
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| fabric | The geometric relationship of the constituents in a petrographic thin section.
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| fatty acid | Organic compound in animal and vegetable fats and oils, made up of saturated or unsaturated fats.
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| fauna | Generic term for the archaeological remains of animals; the general class of animals.
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| faunal remains | The animal ecofacts found in archaeological contexts, including bone, teeth, antler, ivory, shell, scales, and the like.
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| features | The permanent facilities and structures that people construct in or on the earth.
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| Fertile Crescent | The arc-shaped zone of wetter uplands in Southwest Asia that stretches from the Mediterranean coast through the mountains of southeastern Turkey, to the mountains of southwestern Iran. The ancestral homeland of many species that were domesticated.
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| field notes | The records of a field project of survey or excavation with description of activities, finds, records of samples, drawings, photographs, and the like. An important document of the research project.
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| fieldwork | An important part of archaeological research involves survey for and excavation of archaeological materials, practices normally done outdoors (in the field) and collectively known as fieldwork.
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| fill | Geomorphological terms for deposition of sediments, also human filling.
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| flake | A type of stone artifact produced by removing a piece from a core by chipping or knapping. Flakes are made into a variety of different kinds of tools or used for their sharp edges (without further retouching).
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| flint | A hard, siliceous stone that breaks in predictable ways to produce sharp flakes; common raw material for stone tools in prehistory.
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| flintknapping | Chipping or flaking stone to make tools and other artifacts.
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| flora | Generic term for the archaeological remains of plants; the general class of plants.
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| floral | Plants, botanical materials, in contrast to fauna, or animals.
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| flot | The lighter, carbonized plant remains that "float" in the flotation methods of recovering plant remains.
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| flotation | An archaeological technique for recovering charred plant remains using water and density differences between heavy and light materials in sediments. Dry sediments are stirred into water and the lighter plant remains float to the top.
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| fluorine absorption | An archaeometric test for relative dating based on the assumption that fluorine accumulates at a constant rate in buried bone.
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| foragers | Nonfarmers; groups who subsist by hunting, collecting, fishing, and the like without domesticated plants or animals; see also hunter-gatherers.
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| forensic reconstruction | Restoration of the facial tissues on human skulls, both past and present.
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| foreshaft | Part of an arrow, designed to detach with the point after impacting the animal in order to preserve the longer shaft of the arrow, which falls away.
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| fossile directeur | (French: indicator fossil ) A single fossil species as a marker of a time horizon.
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| fractionate | Process through which the ratio of isotopes in a material can be changed by heat, photosynthesis, enzymes, or other natural mechanisms.
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| fracture mechanics | The physics of how materials break.
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| fully modern humans (FMH) | Asynonymous term for Homo sapiens sapiens, first appearing more than 100,000 years ago in
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| fume hood | A ventilation system for removal of toxic gas in a chemistry lab.
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| function | The use of an artifact; the action or activity for which it was made.
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| gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) | Archaeometric technique for organic materials; samples in gas state separate in a column and exit sequentially to a detector that produces a spectrum of the weight and amount of the molecules.
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| Geiger counter | A device for measuring radioactive emissions.
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| genus | A taxonomic group containing one or more related species (plural: genera).
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| geoarchaeology | Archaeological research concerned with geology and the earth sciences.
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| Geographic Information Systems (GIS) | A computer program(s) for the storage, display, and analysis of geographic and spatial data. The basic concept involves the use of overlaid maps of an area in combination with locational information and spatial analytical capabilities.
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| geomorphology | The branch of geology concerned with the study of the shape of the land, and involves classification, description, origin, and change of land forms.
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| glaze | A metallic or glass mixture used to change the surface of the pottery vessel for decorative purposes.
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| Global Positioning System (GPS) | A locational and navigational system for determining precise three-dimensional coordinates (longitude, latitude, and elevation) of any place on the earth's surface. Satellites broadcast locational information used by GPS equipment to determine the exact position of a place. Used instead of traditional, manual land survey methods.
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| glume | The husk that covers and protects cereal grains.
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| gorget | Jewelry worn on the chest.
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| grave goods | Food and/or other goods, often valuable, sometimes buried with deceased individuals.
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| gravity model | A concept from geography where interaction among settlements is based on size, similar to interaction among planets based on gravity. Bigger communities have more interaction and influence on smaller communities.
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| Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) (a.k.a. georadar) | An instrument that sends radar waves through the ground to reveal buried features.
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| grouping | The process of sorting things into piles, or groups, of similar items without predetermined categories.
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| guide | A listing of the different types, or species, that are present, and the distinguishing characteristics of each.
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| habitus | Unthinking dispositions and basic knowledge that constitute a practical cultural competence.
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| half-life | Conventional rate for radioactivity based on the time period for the decay of half the unstable isotopes in a known quantity of material.
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| hamlet | A small village with just a handful of houses and a small number of inhabitants.
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| hammer and anvil | A hard hammer percussion technique which involves striking the core (hammer) itself against a large rock in the ground (anvil) to produce a flake.
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| hammerstone | A stone used to knock flakes from cores; part of the toolkit of a flintknapper.
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| handaxe | The characteristic artifact of the Paleolithic: a large, teardrop-shaped stone tool bifacially flaked to a point at one end and a broader base at the other, for general-purpose use.
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| hand-thrown | Pottery made by hand.
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| hard hammer | A percussion technique for making stone tools by striking one stone, or core, with another stone, or hammer. See also soft hammer technique.
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| Harris lines | Interruption of growth evidenced in a skeleton by darker bands in the ends of long bones.
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| Harris matrix | A method for depicting intricate archaeological stratigraphy in a schematic way.
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| Hertzian Cone | Name for the bulb of force produced in fracture of cryptocrystalline materials.
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| hieroglyph | Originally, the pictographic script of ancient Egypt; any depictive, art-related system of writing, such as that of Mesoamerica; may also refer to an individual symbol.
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| histogram | A graph of the number of measurements in interval form.
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| historical archaeology | Refers primarily to the archaeology of the civilizations of the recent industrial era, since 1700 or so.
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| home range | The geographic area an animal uses for feeding and other activities; in archaeology the term generally refers to the area used by mobile hunter-gatherers.
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| hominin | Early human ancestor, fossil form (replaces the term hominid).
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| horizon | Layer or assemblage associated with geological strata or archaeological contents, e.g., usage includes a soil horizon, a cultural horizon; the geographic extent of similar artifacts and design in space.
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| human osteology | The study of human skeletal remains for information on past biology and behavior.
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| human taphonomy | Study of the placement and decomposition of the corpse in the grave.
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| hunter-gatherers | People who obtain their food from wild plants and animals, not domesticated species.
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| hydrocarbon | One of many organic compounds that contain only carbon and hydrogen.
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| hydrophilic | Chemical compounds with an affinity for water which are used to remove water from artifacts during conservation.
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| hydroxyapatite | The mineral component of bone.
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| iconography | The pictorial representations of beliefs, ideas, symbols, and concepts.
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| ideology | The explanation of human, natural, and supernatural relationships through belief, ritual, and ceremony.
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| impressing | Decorative technique for pottery involving impressions or incisions made with various small tools.
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| in situ | (Latin) An object in its original position of discard or deposition, in place, primary context.
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| incising | Decorative technique for pottery involving cutting or carving lines and other designs in the surface of the clay.
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| inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) | Archaeometry technique, in which samples introduced to a plasma source are ionized and elemental mass and concentration are measured.
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| industry | One object or artifact type that appears in a number of assemblages.
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| inferential statistics | Numbers that are used for making decisions about data and describing relationships among variables.
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| ingot | A casting of pure metal intended for transport and reuse, usually oblong or disk-shaped.
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| inhumation | Burial of all or part of the corpse; contrast with cremation.
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| inorganic compounds | Molecules that do contain carbon.
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| instrumental surveying | Making maps and plans of places and areas of archaeological interest using survey instruments such as a total station or global positioning satellite systems.
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| interface | The term used in Harris matrix for surfaces at a site that were places of activity before they were buried—for example, the surface of a pit.
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| invention | The creation or development of new ideas or techniques for solving problems.
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| ion | Electrically charged atoms that have lost or gained electrons.
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| isotopes | Slightly different atoms of the same element with the same atomic number, but a different numbers of neutrons.
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| key | Condensed guides, listing the characteristics of important types.
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| kiln | Fire for making pottery, can be open or closed, updraft or downdraft.
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| kinship | Relationships between individual members in society based on family ties.
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| knapping | (a.k.a. flaking) Intentionally removing a series of flakes, working stone.
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| kouros | Ancient stone statue of a nude Greek youth.
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| kurgans | Burial mounds in the steppe region of eastern Europe.
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| lake dwelling | Archaeological remains of settlements once thought to have stood over the water on raised pilings, but now known to have been situated along former shorelines, now submerged.
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| landscape | A humanly modified or perceived area.
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| leguminous plant (legume) | One of thousands of species with seed pods that split along both sides when ripe; more common legumes include beans, lentils, peanuts, peas, and soybeans; plants that absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere rather than from soil.
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| levee | A raised bank created by repeated flooding.
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| lineage | Genealogies, lines of descent that are used to extend relationships and determine membership in a group; the relationship between individual members in society on the basis of their family ties.
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| linguistics | The study of human languages.
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| lintel | A horizontal beam of wood or stone that supports the wall above a doorway or window.
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| lipids | A generic category of greasy compounds including fats, oils, waxes, sterols, and triglycerides, that are constituents of living tissues.
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| lithic assemblage | The complete set of stone artifacts found at an archaeological site.
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| lithics | A generic term used for stone artifacts in archaeology and more specifically for flaked stone artifacts.
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| living floor | The actual places where people lived and carried out their activities.
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| living horizon | (occupation horizon, living floor) The actual surface of occupation at an archaeological site, sometimes preserved under unusual conditions of deposition.
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| lost wax casting | A technique for creating detailed metal castings using wax as the mold. The molten metal replaces the wax and replicates the mold.
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| macroscopic | Visible to the naked eye.
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| magnetic polarity | A dating technique based on shifts in the location of the earth's magnetic pole.
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| magnetometer | (a.k.a. gradiometer) Measures the earth's magnetic field at an archaeological site to locate buried walls and pits.
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| mass spectrometer | Any analytical instrument that records components of a spectrum by weight.
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| material culture | Tangible, surviving evidence of human activities.
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| mean | The average for ratio scale data calculated by dividing the sum by the number of numbers.
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| median | The exact middle number of the nominal or ordinal values.
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| Mesoamerica | Anthropological term for the area of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador where several early civilizations, including the Aztec and Maya, emerged.
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| metal detectors | Instruments that emit an electromagnetic field that is disrupted by the presence of metal objects in the ground, used for finding buried metal objects.
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| microburin | (1) A technique for making segments of blades into small geometric pieces (microlith); (2) waste products of the microburin process are also called microburins.
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| microlith | Small blades and geometric forms of stone tools, usually associated with the Mesolithic period in the Old World.
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| micromorphology | The study of anthropogenic sediments at a microscopic level.
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| microscopic | Visible only with magnification.
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| microwear analysis | Microscopic studies of damage and polish on the edges of stone artifacts to reveal the materials that were worked.
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| midden | Any substantial accumulation of garbage or waste at a locus of human activity; archaeological deposits of trash and/or shells that accumulate in heaps and mounds. A shell midden is a specific type of midden composed largely of mollusk shells.
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| Middle Range Theory | Used to describe a cultural system outside of a specific cultural context.
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| migration | Movement of new people into an area.
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| mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) | Modern genetic material taken from the mitochondria, inherited only through the maternal line.
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| MNI | The minimum number of individuals, which is based on counts of the number of distinctive body parts from a particular species.
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| mode | The most common category in nominal or ordinal data or the highest peak in ratio scale data.
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| moieties | Organizational division of some societies into two large, kin-related groups; moieties are composed of clans.
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| molded | Pottery produced by pressing clay into prepared molds.
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| molecular archaeology | Sometimes used to refer to the organic component of archaeological chemistry and particularly to the investigation of ancient DNA in plant and animal remains, including humans. Sometimes called biomolecular archaeology.
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| molecule | A combination of atoms held together by chemical bonds.
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| mortuary analysis | Study of graves and their contents to learn about past societies and individuals.
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| mounds | (a.k.a. barrows, tumuli) A built pile or heap of earth or stones, resembling a very small hill, usually a burial monument.
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| multicomponent | A mixture of different episodes or periods of activity.
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| myoglobin | A protein found in human tissue; its presence in human feces is used as evidence for cannibalism.
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| Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) | Federal legislation intended to protect and return certain archaeological human remains and culturally significant artifacts to Native Americans.
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| natural transformation | Modification of the archaeological record by geological, hydrological, or chemical activity.
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| Neanderthal | An earlier human relative that lived largely in Europe from approximately 250,000 to 35,000 years ago when it became extinct. Homo neanderthalensis.
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| neck | The upper zone on a pottery vessel between the shoulder and the rim.
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| neutron | Particle in the core of an atom with no electrical charge; part of the nucleus of an atom.
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| neutron activation analysis (NAA) | Archaeometry technique using neutron bombardment to release detectable element-specific gamma rays in samples.
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| NISP | The number of identified specimens, the number of bones from a species.
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| nodule | Unworked pieces of stone, raw material for making stone tools.
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| nominal scale of measurement | Basic information recorded as unordered observations, often descriptive.
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| nonarboreal pollen (NAP) | Pollen from plants other than trees.
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| nonsite (off-site) | The areas between archaeological sites where there are occasional traces of human activity in the form of isolated artifacts, features, or other evidence.
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| normal curve | The standard, or normal, shape of measured values plotted in a frequency diagram.
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| nucleic acid | Compounds found in all living cells and viruses, composed of purines, pyrimidines, carbohydrates, and phosphoric acid.
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| nucleotides | Basic building blocks of DNA, each made up of one of four base units (adenine, cytosine, guanine, or thymine) that together make up the long molecules of chromosomes.
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| observation | Term used for each value recorded in a data set.
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| obsidian | A glassy rock produced from sand in volcanic conditions, used for making stone tools in the past.
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| obsidian hydration dating | A dating technique which relies on the accumulation of a hydration (weathering) layer on the fresh surface of obsidian objects.
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| occipital flattening | A flattening of the back of the head caused by hard crib boards in infancy. Noted among the Moche and many other Native American groups in the New World.
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| occupation horizon | The layer or strata that accumulates during an episode of human habitation and activity.
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| ochre | A red iron mineral sometimes found in prehistoric graves.
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| open-air sites | On land and uncovered, in contrast to sites in caves or rockshelters.
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| optimal foraging theory | Evolutionary ecology perspective based on efficient foraging strategies.
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| ordinal scale of measurement | Ranked information with an ordered relationship between numbers.
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| organic compounds | The molecules of living organisms with the element carbon as a base.
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| organization | Structure and interaction in human society, including relationships among individuals, groups, and other societies.
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| orifice | The opening or mouth of a ceramic vessel.
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| osteodontokeratic | ("bone-tooth-horn") A term coined to describe what might have been the earliest tools; lack of modification makes them impossible to identify.
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| oxbow lake | A stranded river meander left as a lake in a floodplain.
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| paddle-and-anvil technique | Use of two tools to press and shape the walls of a ceramic vessel.
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| paleobotany | Study of fossil plants.
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| paleoethnobotany | The study of plant use by both living and prehistoric peoples.
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| paleontology | Study of fossil animals.
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| paleopathology | The study of medical disorders and injury in human skeletal remains.
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| palynology | The study of pollen from plants for information on species, environment, and climate.
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| parenchymous tissues | Parenchyma is plant storage tissue, commonly found in roots, tubers, rhizomes, and corms.
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| parry fracture | A distinctive break in the forearm resulting from a blow to an arm raised in protection.
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| paste | Mix of clay and other materials used to make pottery.
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| patination | A weathering process that gradually changes the surface appearance of flint from shiny to dull, and often from one color to another over time; the new surface is described as a patina.
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| pectoral | Wide, biblike necklaces or plates worn over the chest area; part of costume or armor.
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| pedologist | Soil scientist.
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| percussion flaking | A technique for producing stone artifacts by striking or knapping crystalline stone with a hard or soft hammer. See also pressure flaking.
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| petroglyphs | Rock art made by removing the outer surface of a rock by carving or hammering.
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| petrographic microscope | A specialized version of a binocular microscope designed for the study of thin sections of rock or pottery.
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| phase | A particular period in time and space where an assemblage occurs.
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| photosynthesis | Process in plants for manufacture of carbohydrates and oxygen from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of chlorophyll with sunlight as the energy source.
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| phytoliths | Genus-specific silicate bodies inside plants.
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| pictographs | Rock art made by the application of pigment to rock surfaces.
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| pithouse | A dwelling constructed over a hole in the ground; semi-subterranean structure; structure built on a semisubterranean foundation.
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| plan view | A bird's-eye or top-down view of a site or region. A kind of map of the features and characteristics of a place. A standard representation of archaeological sites and areas.
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| plasma | The gaseous state of hot ionized material consisting of ions and in spectrometry.
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| playa | A dry lake bed, common geomorphological feature in the western United States.
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| plow zone | The upper part of soil layers that has been disturbed by plowing.
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| point bar | A low ridge of sand and gravel that forms underwater along the inner bank of a meandering stream.
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| pollen | Covering of the gametes of flowering plants released in sexual reproduction.
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| polychrome | Several colors; polychrome pottery is painted with at least two colors.
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| polymerase chain reaction (PCR) | Technique in genetic studies to increase quantities of DNA sample by rapid cloning.
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| population | (1) All of the people living at a place or in a region. An archaeological population generally refers to the people related through membership in the same group. (2) All of the items or units of interest in statistical sampling.
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| population density | The number of people per unit of area, e.g., square kilometer.
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| positivism | A philosophical view that the application of science and the evaluation of empirical evidence allow one to be objective.
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| posthole | The hole or depression left when a post is removed from the ground, an indication of construction posts.
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| pottery | Ceramic container or vessel.
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| preform | (a.k.a. blank) A basic piece or blank form used to make a specific kind of finished product. Term is used in lithic studies to describe early stages in manufacture of certain kinds of tools like projectile points.
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| prehistory | The time in the past before written history, often synonymous with archaeology.
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| pressure flaking | A technique for producing stone artifacts by removing flakes from a stone core by pressing with a pointed implement. See also percussion flaking.
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| primary context | An object in its original position of discard or deposition; in place (Latin: in situ).
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| primary inhumation | Burial of the complete corpse after death.
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| profile | A cross-section of archaeological or geological deposits showing the stratigraphy, sequence of layers. Also, the cross-section of the walls of a ceramic vessel, a measure of shape.
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| projectile point | Generic name for the range of shapes and materials used to make a sharp end on weapons such as spears, darts, javelins, arrows, and the like (synonym: arrowhead, spearhead).
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| protein | Complex organic macromolecule composed of more chains of amino acids containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen; fundamental components of all living cells and many substances such as enzymes, hormones, and antibodies.
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| proton | Particle in the core of an atom with a positive electrical charge.
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| provenience | The place of discovery or origin. Where an item is from (a.k.a. provenance in classical archaeology).
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| provenience postulate | States that if differences within a source of material are less than differences with other sources, then it is possible to distinguish individual sources, or provenience.
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| pseudoscience | False or misleading claims about the nature of the world or the past, masquerading as science.
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| pubic symphysis | The "face" of the pelvis where the two halves join; important area for age determination in the skeleton.
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| punch | A piece of antler, bone, or wood used as a pointed object between the hammer and the core to assist the removal of the flake; a kind of chisel for flintknapping.
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| punctate | Decorative technique for pottery involving impressions of circular depressions in surface of clay.
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| punctuated equilibrium | Abrupt and sudden changes in the pace of evolution.
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| rachis | The stem that connects the grain seed to the main plant stalk in cereals.
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| radioactivity | The process of decay of unstable isotopes over time through the spontaneous emission of radiation from the nucleus of an atom.
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| radiocarbon | A radioactive isotope of carbon (14C, carbon-14); an important dating technique in archaeology.
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| radiopotassium, or potassium-argon, dating | Dating technique for old samples that is based on half-life for decay of potassium into argon in new rock.
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| raised fields | A productive agricultural field system in wetlands using canals for water and built-up islands between canals for farmland.
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| range | A measure of the spread of values using the minimum and maximum.
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| rank | Inherited positions in societies based on birth order and ancestry.
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| ratio scale of measurement | Measurements with a true zero point made using an instrument.
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| reciprocity | The exchange of items of roughly equal value.
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| reconnaissance | The search for artifacts and sites by survey or field walking.
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| redistribution | The movement of goods to a central place from which they are rationed or portioned out to members of society.
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| reference collections | Collections of modern plants, animal bones, human skeletal material, and other items to be used in the process of identification of archaeological remains. Prehistoric items are compared to modern to find the closest match.
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| refitting | A technique for reassembling the scattered pieces of stone, pottery, or bone at an archaeological site to study patterns of manufacture and disposal.
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| regions | Large geographic areas, containing a number of archaeological sites, that have been physically or conceptually modified.
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| relative dating | Method of dating that determines whether an object or layer is older or younger than another.
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| religion | Formalized ritual, a belief system that promotes cosmology,ideology, morals, and values in human society.
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| remote sensing | A variety of techniques used for obtaining information about surface or buried objects. Above-ground techniques normally involve aircraft or satellites using photography, radar, and other methods to locate and map features on or near the surface. Below-ground techniques use radar, resistivity, magnetic properties, or chemistry to search for buried features.
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| research design | The overall strategy of intended methods, research area, and planned analysis for answering a question or questions about the past.
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| residential sites | Places of habitation where people live and carry out the everyday activities that sustain life.
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| resist | A decorative technique for pottery involving materials which disappear on firing and leave a negative color on the surface of the vessel.
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| resistivity meter | Used to measure electrical conductivity in soils that may be due to the presence of buried disturbances such as fireplaces, burials, or other structures.
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| restoration | Altering the material and/or structure of an artifact or structure to return it to a more original condition.
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| retouch | The shaping or sharpening of stone artifacts through percussion or pressure flaking; a technique of flintknapping.
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| rim sherd | Fragment of broken pottery that includes part of the rim of the vessel.
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| ritual | Symbolic, prescribed, and structured behaviors that are often repetitive in nature and related to belief systems.
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| rock art | Decoration of rock surface by painting, pecking, or engraving.
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| rockshelter | A shallow cave or overhang, defined by having a width greater than its depth.
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| root crop | Plants that reproduce asexually from shoots or cuttings.
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| sample | A portion of a whole (n); to take a part of a deposit, site, feature, or artifact for analysis (v). The term sampling describes the process of taking a sample. This can be a one-time event, a series of actions, or a statistical process. Statistical sampling is a specific method for taking samples that allows probability estimates to be made about the population that is being sampled. Archaeologists almost always take samples, but only rarely is this done in a statistical fashion.
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| saqia | An oxen-powered water wheel used for irrigation in ancient Egypt.
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| scale | (1) Different levels of discovery, analysis, and interpretation in archaeology, or (2) the size of a map relative to the area it portrays.
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| scale | A ratio representing the size of an illustration, map, or reproduction in a publication.
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| scale of measurement | Measurements can be made using nominal, ordinal, or ratio scales of numbers.
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| scanning electron microscope (SEM) | An electronic (not optical) instrument for very high magnification of microscopic structures. The SEM uses electrons instead of light to form an image.
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| scatterplot | A single graph combining two sets of numbers simultaneously.
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| screening | Sifting or sieving of sediments through fine screens to separate them from artifacts and ecofacts.
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| seasonal round | (a.k.a., annual cycle) The pattern of subsistence and settlement found among hunter-gatherers who change residence regularly during the course of a year.
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| seasonality | The time of year a site was occupied, part of an annual cycle, usually related to hunter-gatherer settlement patterns.
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| secondary inhumation | Reburial or burial of partial or skeletal human remains often missing some parts.
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| secondary products | Both food and nonfood materials and energy that come from domestic animals in addition to meat.
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| section | (a.k.a. profile) The walls of trenches and squares in excavations that show a cross section of the deposits and reveal the sequence and methods of formation.
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| sedentary | Permanent or year-round settlement.
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| sediment | Any particulate matter (clay, sand, silt, mud, leaves, shell, and other materials) that can be transported by water. Opposite of rock.
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| seed crop | Plants that reproduce sexually by making and dispersing seeds.
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| selectionist | School of archaeological theory that believes culture should be explained by natural selection and other Darwinian processes.
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| seriation | An archaeological method for ordering.
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| sexual dimorphism | Size difference between the males and females of the same species.
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| shaduf | A manual water hoist used for irrigation in ancient Egypt.
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| shaman | Specialist in ritual and healing; seer of the future in hunter-gatherer and subsistence farming societies.
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| shattering | Seed dispersal mechanism.
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| shell midden | A specialized kind of extractive site, a mound made up of large dumps of shell from mussels, oysters, or other species.
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| sherds | Broken pieces of pottery.
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| shoulder | The transition zone where the body ends and the neck begins on a ceramic vessel.
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| silica | The mineral component of sand.
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| single component | The remains of a single episode of human activities.
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| site formation | The processes involved in the creation of archaeological sites.
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| sites | Accumulations of artifacts and features, representing the places where people lived or carried out certain activities.
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| slab technique | Pottery vessel made by rolling a single sheet of clay into a cylinder and attaching a base.
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| slip | A coating of the surface of a ceramic vessel for decorative or functional reasons.
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| slopewash | Gradual movement of sediments from higher to lower ground as a natural process of erosion and deposition.
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| sodalities | Groups or clubs within society whose members come from different lineages and share common interests or goals.
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| soft hammer | A flintknapping technique that involves the use of a hammer of bone, antler, or wood, rather than stone. See also hard hammer.
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| soil | Surface sediments weathered in situ.
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| species | A taxonomic group whose members can interbreed.
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| spondylus | Species of large marine mollusk with a prized shell.
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| spore | Microscopic gamete of nonflowering plant.
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| stadia rod | Essentially, very long ruler that is held vertically and read by an optical surveying instrument to determine distance above the ground.
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| standard deviation (s.d.) | The square root of the variance, a single measure of spread.
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| starch | Microscopic grains of a complex carbohydrate found in certain species of plants.
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| state | A large-scale, autonomous, and territorial political unit and class society, having a centralized government with the power to collect taxes, draft men for work or war, and decree and enforce laws.
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| stela | A stone monument, carved and/or painted with designs and/or inscriptions, common in the Maya region (plural: stelae).
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| sterile | Containing no archaeological materials.
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| sterol | Unsaturated solid alcohol, such as cholesterol and ergosterol, present in the fatty tissues of plants and animals.
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| stratigraphy | A sequence of layers in the ground.
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| striking platform | The flat surface of a core where a blow is struck to remove flake, visible at the top of the flake.
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| study area | A generic term for the region of focus of a research project.
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| style | A distinctive way of being or doing.
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| subsistence | The activities and materials that people use to obtain food.
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| subtractive techniques | A way of making things like stone tools or wood carvings that involves the continuous removal of material from a larger original piece. Compare additive techniques.
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| superposition | Principle that governs the interpretation of stratigraphy—in a sequence the oldest layers are on the bottom and the youngest layers are on top.
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| surface sites | Visible on the surface of the ground.
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| survey | (1) A systematic reconnaissance of the landscape for artifacts and sites on the ground through aerial photography, field walking, soil analysis, or geophysical prospecting; (2) mapping of sites and areas using surveying instruments such as a total station or GPS.
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| symbol | Depiction or design which expresses a larger concept, often ideological.
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| synchronic | Dealing with a moment in time, a single time period.
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| Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) | An instrument that beams energy waves to the ground surface and records the reflected energy.
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| systemic context | The actual use of artifacts and features in the past or present.
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| systems theory | A method to explain the interaction of different variables within an organism or organization.
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| taphonomy | The study of what happens to an organism between its death and the time it is found as a fossil or archaeological remain, including decomposition, postmortem transport, burial, and the biological, physical, and chemical changes.
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| taro | Tropical root crop with slightly toxic potatolike tuber.
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| technology | The material, equipment, techniques, and knowledge that allow humans to convert natural resources into tools, food, clothing, shelter, and other products they need or want.
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| tectonic | Geological forces that move and deform the earth's crust.
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| tell | An accumulated mound of occupation debris; man-made, settlement mounds of earth and trash that accumulate from the decomposition of mud brick, common in Southwest Asia and Southeast Europe.
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| temper | A nonplastic substance intentionally added to clay in order to reduce breakage caused by shrinkage and firing.
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| teosinte | Wild Mexican grass, probable ancestor of corn.
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| territory | A recognized and defended area utilized by a group or society, often associated with agricultural societies.
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| texture | The size and sorting of sediments, for example, in a petrographic thin section.
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| theory | A generally accepted explanation of observed events or relationships.
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| Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) | A satellite instrument that records multiple wavelengths of light reflected from the earth's surface.
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| thermoluminescence (TL) dating | Technique for absolute dating based on the principle of the rate of accumulation of TL after heating, used with burned flint and clay.
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| tool | Any equipment, weapon, object intentionally modified by humans to change the environment around them.
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| total station | A modern surveying instrument using an infrared laser and computer to calculate distance and three-dimensional angles to determine the precise location of a target in terms of grid coordinates and elevation. Replaces levels, alidades, transits, and theodolites.
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| town | Larger than a village with internal differentiation in size and location of structures and usually containing one or more public buildings.
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| trabecular bone | Spongy bone tissue found in the interior of bone.
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| trade | Economic transactions between individuals or groups involving bartering, buying, or selling.
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| tradition | The continuity of similar artifacts and design through time.
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| tribe | Small-scale societies of farmers where relationships are generally egalitarian and decision making is consensual.
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| trophic level | Position in the food chain, e.g., herbivore, carnivore, bottom-feeder.
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| type list | The set of types of artifacts for a specific area.
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| typology | A formal system of classification for assigning time and space meaning to archaeological materials.
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| unifacial | A term describing a flaked stone tool in which only one face or side is retouched to make a sharp edge. See also bifacial.
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| uniformitarianism | Geological principle that the processes of erosion and deposition observed in action today also operated in the past.
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| uranium series dating | An isotopic dating method based on radioactive decay of uranium.
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| variance | A single measure of spread or range in ratio data.
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| varves | Annual layers of deposits in cold-water lakes.
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| village | Small residential unit of permanent houses with a population of less than a few hundred.
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| waste | A term referring to all the pieces of shatter and flakes produced and not used when stone tools are made; also called débitage.
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| waster | Pottery that broke or warped in the process of firing.
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| wattle-and-daub | A construction technique that involves standing posts and interwoven horizontal branches (wattle) that are covered in mud (daub) to make a wall.
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| weathering | Chemical and biological processes that break down and change the surface of the earth, altering its color, texture, or composition.
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| wet lab | A chemistry facility with lab tables, equipment, and running water.
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| wheel-thrown | Pottery produced on a wheel with distinctive manufacturing characteristics.
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| wiggle matching | A technique for finding precise dates using a series of radiocarbon dates and the irregularities in the calibration curve.
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| X-ray diffraction (XRD) | Archaeometric method for measuring mineral and elemental composition of most solids using distinctive patterns of X-ray scattering.
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| ziggurat | A large, solid, mud-brick stepped tower. Stairways lead to a small temple on top.
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