Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (147 page)

Large underground water storage facility.

 
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A strongly fortified structure, especially within a city. See
ACROPOLIS
.

 
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A member of a politically or administratively defined community, having both rights and duties associated with that membership.

 
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In archaeology this term is used to refer to a social and political unit which consisted of a major urban centre and its hinterland, and which had achieved a high degree of autonomy and a clear identity. The hinterland might contain other cities or large settlements. A city-state had its own government and was not subject to any outside authority.

 
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civitas
(pl.
civitates
)
[De].

A Roman local government administrative unit based on the citizenship of its occupants, usually based on pre-Roman tribal groupings. They were ruled from a
civitas
capital (also known as cantonal capitals) which, in Britain, were towns deliberately founded for the purpose. A
civitas
thus comprised the citizens and magistrates of a town together with the people occupying the surrounding associated territory.

 
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A name applied to
NORSE
mills built in Scotland and elsewhere. A horizontal water wheel drove a pair of grindstones on the floor above. A peg in the upper stone knocked against a chute sprinkling grain into a hole in the top of the stones, thus making a distinctive clicking sound with each revolution.

 
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