Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (2 page)

 
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Now obsolete, this term was originally proposed by Abbé Breuil in ad 1939 to describe the pre-
ACHEULIAN
flint industries of western Europe on the basis of material from
ABBEVILLE
in France. Also known as the Chellean.

 
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A community of monks or nuns ruled by an abbot or abbess.

 
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A general term used to describe the buildings inhabited by a community of monks or nuns. See
MONASTERY
.

 
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A scheme for the cultural history of the British Iron Age first proposed Christopher
HAWKES
in 1931, but expanded and elaborated in the late 1950s as the opening paper at a conference on the Southern British Iron Age organized by the CBA and held in London in December 1958, subsequently published in
Antiquity
(1959, 170–82). The ABC refers to cultures, each of which appears in each of three periods that are designated 1, 2, and 3. Period 1 broadly equates to the late Hallstatt on the continent, period 2 to La Tène I, and period 3 to La Tène II and III. Hawkes's scheme is often recalled but rarely used.

 
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Fourth main phase of activity in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico, dating to the period 4300–3000 bc, marked archaeologically by the appearance of semi-permanent villages of pit houses, new species of plant food, long obsidian blades, and possibly the cultivation of cotton. Agriculture supplies up to 25 per cent of food requirements during this phase.

 
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Abercromby Lord John
(1841–1924)
[Bi].

Scottish antiquary who specialized in the prehistory of northwest Europe. Born the 5th Baron of Aboukir and Tullibody , he served in the army from 1858 to 1870 before devoting himself to scholarship and especially philology, archaeology, and folklore. He travelled widely and mastered several European languages, including Finnish. In 1904 he introduced the term
‘BEAKER’
into the literature to refer to the late Neolithic decorated drinking vessels often associated with burials of the period. The term has remained in use ever since, although Abercromby's original subdivision into three types—A, B, and C—has since been modified. In 1912 he published in two volumes
A study of Bronze Age pottery in Great Britain and Ireland
(Oxford: Clarendon Press). Throughout his later life he supported the work of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and was their President from 1913 to 1918. In his will he founded and endowed the Abercromby Chair of Archaeology in the University of Edinburgh, the first two incumbents being Gordon Childe and Stuart Piggott respectively.
[Obit:
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
, 59, 4–6]