Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (380 page)

A complex of Aboriginal rock paintings and peckings in caves and rock-shelters around Laura on Cape York. The motifs represented include paintings and engravings of animals, tracks, and abstract symbols. Charcoal from occupation layers in the Early Man Rock-Shelter which cover the paintings and peckings has been radiocarbon dated to the period
c.
13000 bc to 10000 bc, making these amongst the earliest examples of rock art in Australia. The shelter was used down into recent times and the latest images present were probably executed in the 1930s
ad
.
[Sum.: A. Rosenfeld , D. Horton , and J. Winter , 1981,
Early man in north Queensland: art and archaeology in the Laura area
. Camberra: Australian National University]

 
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An elegantly worked long thin leaf-shaped flint implement up to 35cm long, characteristic of the
SOLUTREAN
tradition. The high-quality finish is usually achieved with careful invasive retouch.

 
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Late Archaic cultures representing various hunter-gatherer communities living in the St Lawrence Valley of North America in the period
c.
3200–1400 bc and forming a subdivision of the
LAKE FOREST TRADITION
. Characterized by distinctive broad-bladed and side-notched Otter Creek points, scraper types, slate points and knives, ground stone gouges, and stone fishing-line weights. Polished stone
ATLATL
weights, known as ‘bannerstones’, are also known. A number of phases or local variations have been recognized: Vergennes (3200–3000 bc), Brewerton, and Vosburg.

 
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Late Bronze Age communities forming a regional variant of the
URNFIELD CULTURE
living between the Elbe and the Oder and eastwards into Poland in the mid 2nd and early 1st millennia
bc
. Characterized by its fine bronze work and dark pottery, the latter sometimes graphite-burnished and decorated with applied bosses and fluting. A few fortified settlements are known from the Lausitz Culture, including the well-preserved site of Biskupin in Poland. Burials show a combination of cremations either in flat cemeteries (urnfields) or under round barrows. In northern areas of its range this culture may have persisted down into the Hallstatt Iron Age.

 
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Major Olmec religious centre on an island in the marshy lowlands of Tabasco Province near the Tonala River. Overall, the site was used from about 1000 bc down to 600 bc, but it reached its greatest size during the Middle Formative Stage (
c.
850–750 bc) after the abandonment of San Lorenzo in
c.
900 bc. La Venta is dominated by a large clay pyramid, about 33m high and 128m in diameter at the base, built in the form of a fluted cone. Its form may imitate volcanic cones such as can be seen in the Tuxtla Mountains only 100km to the west. Round about, spread over an area covering 5 square km, there are numerous platforms, mounds, pyramids, and plazas. All the major structures are aligned broadly north–south. Some of the platforms are thought to have supported houses for the elite, constructed in perishable materials and long since gone.
Carved stone stelae (many probably broken at the death of those they celebrate), altars, colossal stone heads, and three massive mosaic pavements in serpentine set in the form of a jaguar mask represent monumental works of the very highest quality. The mosaics are each 4.5m by 6m and include 485 separate serpentine tiles. They are all the more impressive because the stone used is not native to the area and had to be imported from over 100km away.
The well-known Jade Group of objects, comprising sixteen human figure statuettes and six celts, were found arranged in a kind of circular gathering. Household refuse is scarce, but prestige goods including magnetite mirrors, sting-ray spines, and worked jade illustrate the high status of the site.
[Rep.: P. Drucker , R. F. Heizer , and R. J. Squier , 1959,
Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955
. Washington DC: Bureau of American Ethnology]

 
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