with the Bell beaker, a type of pottery found across Western and Central Europe between 2500 and 1800 b.c.


bifaces

Stone tools flaked on two surfaces.


bifacial points

Pointed stone tools made by bifacial flaking.


bifacial reduction strategies

An approach to stone tool making that results in a single piece of stone being flaked on both sides.


bioturbation

A natural process occurring in archaeological sites that leads to the movement of materials in deposits due to the action of root growth or the activities of burrowing animals.


Boasian anthropology

Anthropological theory (anti-evolutionary and antidiffusionist) developed by German-American anthropologist Franz Boas.


bovids

Cattle.


breccia

A rock made up of angular rock fragments cemented together.


burins

A blade-shaped stone tool from the European Upper Paleolithic which features a chisel-like working edge. Thought to be used for engraving.


Capsian

Group of Epipaleolithic tool assemblages with blades, bladelets, and microliths, as well as the cultures or peoples using them, mainly in Cyrenaica, Tunisia, and eastern or central Algeria, dating roughly from 7500 to 4000 b.c.


causeway camp

A Neolithic enclosure, found in England, formed by rings of ditches and earth embankments topped with wooden palisades.


Celtic urnfield

Burial complexes found in central Europe in the period between 1200 and 800 b.c. Interments were cremations placed in ceramic urns.


ceramic types and complexes, ceramic seriation

Refers to the classification and statistical analysis of ceramics as a class of archaeological data. See also seriation.


Chalcolithic

Copper Age or Eneolithic.


chambered tomb

Tombs either cut directly into rock or built of stone and then covered by an earth mound and containing more than one burial.


Chatelperonian

The earliest Upper Paleolithic industry found in France, around 36,000 years old.


chorology

The local distribution of sites or artifact types.


chronology, relative and absolute

The establishment of a sequence of events over time. Relative chronologies are established through the use of stratigraphy or typology. Absolute chronologies produce specific dates that are established through the application of dating technologies such as radiocarbon to artifacts or contexts.


Clactonian-like

A British Lower Paleolithic flaked tool industry which has no bifacially flaked tools.


clasts

Archaeological remains as part of natural sedimentary deposits.


closed finds

Those located in sealed contexts such as burials that show no signs of alteration or disturbance after deposition.


cordrouletting

The use of cord to produce decoration on pottery.


cognitive processual archaeology

A branch of processual archaeology that was concerned with exploring the possibilities of reconstructing prehistoric thought patterns.


conjunctive approach

Advocated by W.W. Taylor as a means of linking investigations of chronology and the relationships between archaeological sites in a given area with a focus on detailed recording and analysis of artifacts and contexts found within specific sites.


contextualism

An approach to the interpretation of archaeological sites and assemblages that stresses the need for archaeologists to also focus on the society and culture of the people who created those assemblages and contexts.


Continental bell barrows

Burial mounds in Central Europe where Bell beakers are a significant element in the funerary assemblage.


Continental disc barrows

Circular burial mounds found in Europe.


coprolites

Feces preserved in archaeological deposits.


crescents

Crescent-shaped small stone tools.


culture contact

A process brought about by two cultures (usually interpreted as two distinct groups of people) coming into contact.


Cycladic

Bronze Age culture of the Cyclades Islands in the Aegean.


Dabban

A stone industry from Libya dating to between 40,000 and 14,000 years ago.


Dalton points

A class of stone projectile points found in the Midwest and East of North America, spanning the transition period between Paleo-Indian and Archaic cultures.


dates, dating, absolute and relative

The physical