Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (133 page)

Champollion , Jean François
(1790–1832)
[Bi].

French linguist and antiquarian who deciphered the texts on the Rosetta Stone. Born at Figeac in France, he was educated at the Académie de Grenoble and when only sixteen years old read a paper there in which he argued that the Coptic language was the ancient language of Egypt. In 1807 he went to Paris where he studied at the School of Oriental Languages and the Collège de France. From this time on he devoted himself to the study of ancient languages, returning to Grenoble in 1819 to become Professor of History at the Lyceum. In the early 1820s he used the Rosetta Stone texts to present a solution to Egyptian hieroglyphics, publishing his results in 1824 as
Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens, figuratif, idéographique et alphabétique
. Later in 1824 he went to study the Egyptian antiquities in the museums of Italy and on his return was appointed director of the Egyptian Museum at the Louvre. From 1828 to 1830 he carried out expeditions to Egypt, and in 1831 he was appointed to the Chair of Egyptology specially created for him at the Collège de France. However, his health was already failing and he died in Paris a year later.
[Bio.: L. Adkins and R. Adkins , 2001,
The keys to Egypt: the race to read the hieroglyphs
. London: Harper Collins]

 
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A cultural grouping settled on the north central coast of Peru in the period ad 1000–1500, characterized by a distinctive ceramic style, typically an elongated jar with a face painted on a small neck. Numerous large cemeteries are known from this culture and the pattern of grave goods suggests marked social stratification. Conquered by the Inca empire in the 16th century
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The part of a church to the east of the nave, often separated by a screen, containing the altar. The chancel was often the portion appropriated by singers and is sometimes called the choir.

 
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An extensive urban centre situated in the Moche Valley of the north coast of Peru. Capital of the Chimú polity, the site has a civic core covering 6 square kilometres and an additional 19 square kilometres of outlying buildings.
Investigations have revealed nine large rectangular compounds in the central area, each about 200m by 600m. These probably served as the administrative headquarters and ceremonial centres of each of the successive rulers of the Chimú. Within or adjacent to each compound was a truncated pyramid mound which served as a burial platform.
The poverty of settlement sites in the surrounding areas suggests that most of the population of the Moche Valley lived at Chan Chán, a resident population of perhaps 10000 people.
[Rep.: M. E. Moseley and K. C. Day , 1982,
Chan Chán
. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press]

 
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A series of early capital cities relating to the Western Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties built on adjacent sites in the vicinity of modern Xi'an in Shansi Province. Excavations in the area since the 1950s have revealed a long history of settlement starting in the 5th millennium
bc
. The Western Han site (202 bc–ad 8) has been located about 10km northwest of Xi'an with massive defensive walls of rammed earth, the interior being divided into more than 160 smaller walled units. There were also the remains of two palaces, an armoury, a drainage system, and a regular street pattern. The Sui Dynasty (ad 581–618) city is to the southeast of the Han city and was planned and built in a single event. The same site was used in the Tang period (ad 618–907) when the city lay at the eastern end of the Silk Route, and was one of the great cities in the world during the late 1st millennium
ad
. Its walls enclosed a settlement of 84 square kilometres, subdivided into 108 wards and a regular street grid, fourteen streets running north to south and eleven running east to west.
[Sum.: N. S. Steinhardt , 1990,
Chinese imperial city planning
. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press]

 
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