Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (434 page)

Any heap of rubbish or occupation debris adjacent to a dwelling or other site. See also
SHELL MIDDEN
.

 
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See
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
.

 
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General term to define the middle of three subdivisions of the Archaic Stage in the North American cultural sequence. Broadly the period 6500–4500 bc.

 
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General term referring to the fifth of the seven main chronological phases recognized in Andean archaeology, broadly the period ad 600 to 1000. It is characterized by the florescence of powerful regional states such as the Tiahuanaco and Huari.

 
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1
In Egypt covering the 12th and 13th Dynasties,
c.
2100–1750 bc, the period of Egyptian history following the reunification of Upper and Lower Egypt by the 11th Dynasty king Mentahopte II, ushering in more than two centuries of stability and prosperity.
2
A translation of the Chinese
Chung Kuo
, now the Chinese name for the country known in the west as China. It was anciently used to designate the part of the Chou feudal realm that was governed by the king of Chou; later it came to mean that part of China whose inhabitants were true Chinese. Thus the southern kingdoms of Ch'u, Wu, and Yüeh were not seen as parts of the Middle Kingdom, and doubts were expressed about whether the western Ch'in should be so regarded.

 
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Village-based farming communities living in the Missouri River drainage, especially in the states of North and South Dakota, in the period
c.
ad 1000–1500. The subsistence base relied on a special strain of cold-resisting quick-maturing maize, although some hunting and gathering was also practised. Dwellings were square or rectangular in plan, often semi-subterranean, arranged in enclosed villages of between six and twenty houses, set on promontories over-looking a river. These were defensive positions and conflict and warfare seems to have been common. There is skeletal evidence of massacres and scalping. Pottery includes a distinctive grit-tempered ware, often in globular or wide-mouthed forms. Woodland and Mississippian influences are evident in the pottery assemblages. The Middle Missouri Tradition disappeared after about ad 1500 but historic tribes such as the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa are thought to be their descendants.

 
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