Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (468 page)

See
NASCA CULTURE
.

 
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National Buildings Record. See
NATIONAL MONUMENTS RECORD
.

 
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An extinct hominid species
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
, first recognized from fossil remains found in the Feldhofer Cave in the Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf, Germany, in ad 1856.
Anatomically, Neanderthals were somewhat shorter but much more robust than
Homo sapiens sapiens
. They had distinctive cranial features that included prominent brow ridges, low, sloping foreheads, a chinless and heavy forward-jutting jaw, and extremely large front teeth. Their brain size was comparable to that of
Homo sapiens sapiens
, averaging about 1600cc. Neanderthal skeletal remains have been found over a wide area of Asia, Europe, and Africa, and are regularly associated with Middle Palaeolithic flint industries that are characterized as the Mousterian. Dates for the skeletal remains and associated industries suggest that the species thrived between about 230000 and 30000 years ago. There has been much debate about both the origin and the fate of the Neanderthals. Their origins amongst the European
Homo erectus
now, however, seem fairly certain, both in terms of the traits revealed by the fossil human remains and the development of the lithic industries. Some scholars believe that the Neanderthal line leads to modern humans, but Chris Stringer and Clive Gamble have persuasively argued that the Neanderthal species was a dead end and that it was replaced by modern humans who evolved in Africa and were better organized and better equipped. See also
HOMO SAPIENS
.

 
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An early Neolithic tell settlement in Macedonia, northern Greece, excavated by Robert Rodden between 1961 and 1964. The period over which the site was occupied was relatively short, 6200 to 5300 bc, and so it provides a snapshot of life in one of the earliest Neolithic settlements in Greece. The houses were constructed in the style of those further east: square-plan single-roomed structures made from timber and mud. A large structure in the centre of the mound contained terracotta female figurines and is thought to have been a shrine. Plain and painted pottery was found, together with frogs carved from greenstone, flint blades, and many ground stone axes. The earliest domesticated cattle date from about 6000 bc, and were associated with cultivated einkorn, emmer, and barley.
[Rep.: K. A. Wardle , 1996,
Nea Nikomedeia: the excavation of an early Neolithic village in northern Greece, 1961–1964
. London: The British School at Athens]

 
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A technique for examining the spatial distribution of two-dimensionally recorded points, for example settlement sites within a river catchment. Assuming that all the points to be examined are contemporary and that all relevant examples are known, a series of statistics can be calculated by measuring the linear distance between sites. This can very easily be done using a GIS system. A nearest-neighbour index (usually denoted by the symbol
R
), is calculated from the ratio of the average observed distance from each point in the pattern to its nearest neighbour, to the average distance expected if the pattern were randomly distributed, which depends solely on the density of the pattern being studied. The index
R
varies from 0.00 for a totally clustered pattern through 1.00 for a random distribution to a maximum of 2.15 for a completely regularly spaced pattern.

 
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