Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (361 page)

 
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Linguistically linked ethnic groups occupying Cambodia, southern Vietnam, and adjacent parts of Thailand, who developed an extensive but relatively short-lived empire around the turn of the 1st millennium
ad
, dominating their traditional areas and also Thailand and southern Laos. Their beginnings can be traced back to the 3rd millennium
bc
when rice cultivators moved down the Mekong into Cambodia. By 1500 bc they had developed bronze casting, and from 500 bc iron was being used. During the later 1st millennium
bc
the population grew, chiefdoms developed, and steps were taken to cope better with the environment. As the Khmer empire grew, water controls in the form of ditches around settlements and channels linking the fields to allow water distribution in the dry season and drainage in the wet season spread. The capital is at Angkor which during this period became a very wealthy city. Destroyed by the Thais about ad 1400.

 
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Egyptian god, one of the triad of Thebes, child of Mut and Amun. A moon god, shown as a young man with the side-lock of youth, a staff in his hand and the horns and disc of the moon on his head. Has several forms: worshipped at Karnak as Khonsu Neferhotep; and has an aspect as expeller of demons.

 
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Egyptian god, ram-headed god of the Cataract Region. He was the consort of Anuket and Satet. A creator god, he was thought to have fashioned man on his potter's turntable. Worshipped at Elephantine, Esna, Silsileh, and in Nubia.

 
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The raised centre of a base which rises to a hollow peak.

 
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Kidder , Alfred Vincent
(1885–1963)
[Bi].

American archaeologist trained at Harvard and widely travelled in Europe and the Near East, renowned for his application of stratigraphic principles to excavation and the use of interdisciplinary techniques. Above all, he helped move archaeology from an antiquarian pursuit into a scientific discipline. From 1916 Kidder excavated at Pecos, New Mexico, a pueblo site near Santa Fe which was, at the time, the largest excavation that had taken place in North America. The work provided an important artefact sequence and classification which helped build a chronology for the American southwest which still stands today. Kidder also carried out a series of excavations and surveys at Maya sites on behalf of the Carnegie Institution. In 1927 Kidder initiated the Pecos Conference to bring archaeologists together to exchange information and agree basic standards.
[Bio.: R. B. Woodbury , 1973,
Alfred Kidder
. New York: Columbia University Press]

 
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