Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (194 page)

BOOK: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
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cyclopean
(cyclopean masonry/cyclopean architecture)
[De].
A style of construction often applied to walls built not of ashlar masonry however big the blocks, but of large boulders of a size which called for giants to handle them, and with interstices filled up with small stones. Typical of early Mycenaean walls.
cylinder seal
[Ar].
A small stone cylinder incised with reversed designs so that when it was rolled over a soft surface the design appeared in relief. These seals were used in ancient Mesopotamia among other things to mark property and to legalize documents.
cylindrical hammer technique
[De].
Removal of shallow flakes in the manufacture of handaxes and other tools, by using an implement of a softer material (wood or bone) than the tool itself. Characteristic of the
ACHEULIAN
and later cultures, often used as a means of distinguishing the Acheulean from the
ABBEVILLIAN
.
Cynric
[Na].
King of the West Saxons in the mid 6th century
ad
. He is said to have defeated the British near Salisbury in ad 552 and set up an English kingdom. He died
c.
ad 560.
D

 

dado
[Ge].
Continuous border round the lower part of a wall decorated with painted plaster.
Dales ware
[Ar].
Coarse shell-gritted hand-made cooking pots, probably made near the confluence of the rivers Trent and Humber from the mid 2nd century
ad
onwards. The fabric is hard and coarse with a smooth but unpolished surface, grey, black, or brown in colour. The body of the clay contains small fragments of white shell. Sandy wheel-thrown imitations, Dales-type cooking pots, were made in Lincolnshire, the Humber Basin, and probably around York at the same time.

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