Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (348 page)

A Neolithic village site in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains near Kirkuk in northwest Iraq. Excavated by Robert Braidwood between 1948 and 1955, the site is important because of its early evidence for food production. Sixteen main levels were defined within the 7m thick stratigraphy, the first eleven of which lacked pottery. The earliest levels date to the 7th millennium
bc
and reveal the presence of mud-brick houses. Cereals at the site include wheat and barley, and there was equipment present for processing the grain. Field pea, lentil, and blue vetchling were also present. Goat was domesticated from the earliest levels, but pig was undergoing domestication when the settlement began. Hunting and gathering remained important throughout the sequence with pig, sheep, and gazelle being exploited together with pistachio and acorns.
[Sum.: R. J. Braidwood , 1960, The agricultural revolution.
Scientific American
, 203(3), 130–48]

 
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Early Iron Age communities in the southern Baltic region who were amongst the first to use iron on the north European Plain. Dating to the late
HALLSTATT
.

 
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Buddhist stories of Indian origin included in the sacred literature but in fact entertaining tales of supernatural adventures.

 
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South American cultures of the Intermediate Stage found in the Lower and Middle Amazon areas of Amazonia and tentatively dated to
c.
1200–700 bc. Characterized by their ceramic assemblages which belong to the Zone Hachured Horizon Style of the Amazon basin. Pottery from Jauarí itself comes from a midden surrounding a pile-built house and is dated to about 1000 bc.

 
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Name given to early hominid remains found in ad 1891 by Eugène Dubois at Trinil in Java. Dating to between 1 million and 500000 years ago the fossils are now known to be those of
Homo erectus
.

 
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A kind of large flint projectile point used during the Neolithic in the British Isles. Usually lozenge-shaped in outline with slightly convex curves on the leading edges. Finely made, and sometimes polished and ground on the large flat sides, presumably to reduce the weight and produce a thinner blade.

 
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