Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (152 page)

A term generally used to refer to episodes of depopulation caused by a landlord or other authority turning communities off the land by incentive, coercion, or force. In Britain the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries
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had a tremendous impact on the rural economy and the structure of the Scottish landscape, as sheep replaced people.

 
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Roughly U-shaped stone tool with a transverse cutting edge.
ACHULIAN
bifacial cleavers resemble truncated handaxes with a straight or oblique edge instead of a point. On flake cleavers the cutting edge is generally formed by the intersection of the primary flake surface and a transverse flake seat on the upper surface.

 
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A lighting storey or range of windows in the highest part of the nave, chancel, or aisle of a church.

 
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A system of patronage, in which services are available to specific individuals in positions of influence or power. Those ‘patrons’ tie others to them by means of the rewards they control.

 
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A coastal promontory adapted as an enclosure by the construction of one or more ramparts across the neck of the spur in order to separate it from the mainland and make it defensible. The promontories chosen usually end in steep cliffs on the seaward side. Numerous examples are known around the western coasts of the British Isles where they mainly seem to date to the later 1st millennium
bc
and early 1st millennium
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. Some appear to have been used as small settlements, others may have had a predominantly ritual or ceremonial purpose, perhaps connected with the sea.

 
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Term used to describe a technique of constructing water craft in which the strips of wood forming the skin of the hull are joined so that they overlap downwards rather than edge to edge (compare
CARVEL-BUILT
). The gaps between the overlapping strips are caulked with rope or tar. The technique is typical of boat-building in northern Europe and early examples including the Halsnoy boat where the planks were sewn together are dated to around 350 bc. Viking ships from the 8th and 9th centuries
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onwards were clinker-built.

 
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