Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (412 page)

Polynesian temples, comprising walled and paved courtyards containing altar-like ahu before which ceremonies took place. Marae are among the most important remains on Easter Island, the Hawaiian Islands (especially Heiau), and the Tuamoto, Society, Cook, Austral, and Marquesas Islands. Ancestral forms probably go back to Early Eastern Polynesian settlement around ad 500, but are especially characteristic of the period ad 1200–1800.

 
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South American farming communities found in the Marajo area of Amazonia and tentatively dated to
c.
ad 1000–1400. Characterized by their ceramic assemblages which belong to the Polychrome Horizon Style of the Amazon Basin.
Tangas
, pottery pubic covers, have been found together with labrets, clay stools, spindle whorls, and figurines of seated humans. Burial mounds were built, and often contain secondary burials in anthropomorphic polychrome urns. Marajoara settlements comprise large artificially constructed earthen mounds, often 50m by 35m by 6m high. Multi-family houses were built on these mounds which raised the houses well above any seasonal floodwaters.

 
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A granular limestone or dolomite composed of calcium-magnesium carbonate that has become recrystallized under the influence of heat, pressure, and aqueous solutions. This dense fine-textured stone can be polished and was used for sculpture and decoration in many civilizations of the Old World from Egyptian times onwards.

 
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A temporary Roman fort set up by the army while on the move for overnight stops and short stop-overs. Surveyors laid out a suitable and reasonably flat rectangular site, and tent positions were planned and marked, usually surmounted by a palisade of stakes. These distinctive enclosures may be identified by aerial survey.

 
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‘Border Men’, a Germanic people, from the 1st century
bc
, established in Bohemia. Major wars were fought against them from 166 bc to 180 bc, but they remained a threat to the Danube frontier, and in the 6th century
bc
they annexed Bavaria.

 
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Roman emperor, ad 161–80.

 
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