Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (123 page)

Distribution of ages in an animal population as a result of death by natural causes.

 
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Proposition that the geological processes, cited by 18th-century and later scholars as evidence for the great antiquity of the earth, had been accelerated by a series of great catastrophes. Such catastrophes included the great flood of Noah recorded in the Bible. Accepting catastrophism allowed the Mosaic chronology of Archbishop
USSHER
to be adhered to. See also
DILUVIALISM
.

 
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Curved metal plate which holds the pin of a brooch in place, similar to that employed in a modern safety-pin.

 
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Old name for China, derived from Khitai (or Khitan), the name of the northern tribe who founded the Liao Dynasty in Manchuria and northeast China in ad 916. The name was carried to Russia by traders, and by Muslims to the west by the 13th century
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.

 
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Latin term for the throne of a bishop in the early church, usually placed in the apse behind the high altar.

 
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A substantial church which contains a chair (
cathedra) symbolizing the authority of a bishop. A place that contains a cathedral is known as a see (from the Latin
sedes, ‘a seat’), and constitutes the administrative and spiritual focus of a diocese which is the territory over which a bishop exercises pastoral authority. Until the 11th century
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there was no common plan or form to a cathedral, which was more of a concept than a physical structure. Sees were established within monasteries or in non-monastic churches such as some minsters. From the 11th century
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cathedral churches become more standardized, grander, and more fixed as institutions. The main church containing the
cathedra was usually accompanied by subsidiary buildings set within a close, the whole being termed a cathedral. Associated with the church as a place of Christian worship there were (and in some cases still are) meeting rooms, educational facilities, and private accommodation for the bishop, dean, canons, and others.

 
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