Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (237 page)

A branch of archaeology concerned especially with documenting and understanding the physical environment in which particular cultural systems operated. The focus of such work is sometimes synchronic in trying to reconstruct a picture of land use at or around a site at a particular phase in its history, at other times diachronic in trying to understand the changing nature of vegetation cover or animal populations in a given landscape. Increasingly, interest has moved towards the matter of context, the dynamics of relationships between people and their environment, and the symbolic meanings that earlier populations attached to particular plants, animals, or sectors of the landscape they occupied.

 
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A concern with preserving the integrity of the physical environment in the face of the impact of modern industry and technology. Archaeology is sometimes included in such quests as the remains of the past are included within the physical environment (i.e.,
HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT
) of the present.

 
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A process that since the mid 1970s has been developed and increasingly applied to large and medium-sized development proposals whereby technical studies are undertaken in order to predict the likely impact that the scheme will have on the local, regional, and global environment. The aim is to better inform the decision-making process, allow alternative proposals to be compared, and, where appropriate, promote the development of acceptable mitigation measures. EIA was first applied widely in the USA; it was made a legal requirement for certain types of scheme in Europe following a European Community Directive issued in 1985. Archaeological remains are one of the resources that can be included in the scope of an EIA where it is believed that such things might be significantly affected by a proposed project. Also known as Environmental Assessment (EA).

 
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Obsolete term, formerly used for a naturally shaped or fractured stone fancifully considered to be created by humans. The origin of eoliths was once the subject of long-running debate connected to recognizing and accepting the great antiquity of the human species.

 
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Egyptian god. See
APET
.

 
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Once a major seaport on the west coast of Turkey in the delta area of the River Cayster, this site is now 8km inland. It is one of the richest and most splendid sites in the world. Excavations by John Turle Wood for the British Museum in the 1860s located the temple of Artemis, and later work by Austrian archaeologists uncovered a good deal of its early history. First occupied in Mycenaean times, tradition describes how the settlement was founded from Athens by King Androklos. Supreme prosperity arrived under Hellenistic and Roman rulers. The centre-piece is the temple of Artemis (Diana to the Romans and perhaps equivalent to the Anatolian god Cybele), one of the
SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD
, but later destroyed by Alexander the Great in 356 bc. From the Greco-Roman town there are many public buildings, including seven gymnasia, administrative buildings, baths, and the agora. The theatre, from the
HELLENISTIC
period, could seat 24000 people and was the setting for St Paul's address set down in the Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 19). The Archaic Greek temple is also important as its foundation deposit includes a hoard of early electrum coins.
[Sum.: G. E. Bean , 1989,
Aegean Turkey
. London: Murray]

 
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