Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (440 page)

Pueblo-based farming communities living along the Mimbres River in southwest New Mexico, North America, in the period
c.
ad 1000–1130. Mimbres is probably best known for its very fine ceramics which include magnificent ceremonial bowls adorned with painted geometric and pictorial designs. Examples are often found inverted over the head of the deceased in burial deposits, ritually broken by making a small hole in the centre of the base. Mimbres communities lived in single-storey pueblos of up to 150 rooms. Ceremonial rooms included large rectangular subterranean kivas rather like those of the earlier
MOGOLLON TRADITION
. There is little evidence of long-distance exchange; society seems to have been nucleated, essentially egalitarian, and inward-looking.

 
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A style of motif used in the
ROCK ART
of Arnhem land in northern Australia based on thin, stick-like representations of human beings. They are earlier than the X-ray style and are disclaimed by contemporary populations who attribute them to mimi spirits.

 
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Egyptian god of the desert, thunder, storms, and of fertility. Depicted with an erect phallus and holding aloft a flail, Min was an early god of Coptos, later associated with Amun at Luxor. The Feast of Min was an important festival.

 
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Second major glacial stage of the Pleistocene in the Alps, recognized as a group of moraines and related river terrace deposits. Dated to between 450000 and 300000 years ago.

 
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A major interglacial stage of the Pleistocene in the Alps, between the Mindel and Riss glaciations. Dated to between 300000 and 200000 years ago. Equivalent to the
HOXNIAN
in the British sequence.

 
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Any kind of excavation into the ground for the purpose of extracting some kind of raw material such as stone, metal ore, coal, or flint. The simplest mines are basically pits sunk into the ground to find or follow outcrops of the desired material; these can be described as
open–cast mines
. Lines of shallow extraction pits following surface outcrops of metal ore are known as
rakes
. Deeper, rather cylindrical holes may be described as
simple shaft mines
. Examples where the shaft is expanded at the bottom to maximize the area available for extracting a particular layer of material are known as
bell pits
. Shafts that provide access to a series of galleries that follow seams of material underground are known as
galleried shaft mines
. Pits that run horizontally into a hill slope or cliff following material into the slope are known as
adits
or
drift mines
. The techniques of mining developed steadily from Neolithic times onwards in most parts of the world, the use of fire-setting and stone mauls being the commonest way of extracting hard rocks until hardened iron or steel tools became available in later medieval times. The use of drills and explosives appears from the 18th century
ad
. In prehistoric times, soft rock such as gravel or chalk was excavated using bone and antler tools and stone and flint axes. The archaeology of mines and mining is often rather complicated because as well as the underground elements (which are often well preserved) there will be surface structures including spoil heaps, processing areas, working floors, a range of shelters and facilities, drainage works, and perhaps aqueducts, leats, reservoirs, and other water management works where water power was used or where material removed from the mine itself needed to be washed.