Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (531 page)

A family of elaborately decorated Neolithic ceramics found in southern and eastern parts of the British Isles. Dating to the period 3000 to 2000 bc, Isobel Smith divided Peterborough wares into three successive styles–Ebbsfleet, Mortlake, and Fengate–on the basis of their occurrence in the ditch fills at Windmill Hill. It is now recognized that these three groups overlap rather more than originally thought, and that they are best seen as part of the broad group of impressed wares found over much of northern Europe in the 3rd millennium
bc
. The decoration on Peterborough ware consists of pits, ‘maggot impressions’ made by impressing tightly rolled cord, and the impressions made by pressing the ends of bird bones into the soft clay before firing. Some of the later vessels are the first in Britain to be made with flat bases.

 
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A style of later Mesolithic flint arrow tip in north-west Europe in which a blade is broken into trapezoidal pieces with the broken edges forming the divergent long sides with the naturally sharp blade edges at either end. The broader end is mounted as the leading edge. Also known as transverse or chisel-shaped arrowheads.

 
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Diverse series of later Neolithic flint arrowhead forms found in Britain and believed to derive from the development of petit-tranchet arrowhead forms. The group was defined and classified in 1934 by Grahame Clarke and includes a range of triangular and trapezoidal pieces; some were perhaps for use in hunting birds.

 
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An ancient city set deep in a valley on the western side of the limestone plateau of Jordan that owed its origins to good supplies of spring water, an important position on trading routes between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, and the presence of abundant natural caves that could be turned into dwellings and storehouses. Petra was the name given by Greek and Roman traders; it was known as Rekem or Arkem in Hebrew and Sela by the Crusaders.
Petra was successively the capital of the Edomite and
NABATAEAN
kingdoms, which established it as a trading centre in the 1st millennium
bc
. Roads were built into the valley (the Sik) and the high cliffs on either side were decorated with emblems of the god Durares. At the head of the Sik in the transverse gorge of Wadi al Jarra is the façade of a massive temple, Khazneh al Faraún, sculptured into the rose-red rock. Throughout Petra every available rock surface has been worked into a vertical face and in many cases sculptured into the façade of a temple, shrine, palace, or dwelling. Behind each façade is a large chamber hewn into the rock and entered through a tall rectangular doorway. In Roman times a large rock-cut amphitheatre with 33 rows of seats was added, as well as a temple known as Kasr al Bint Faraún. Later on the Crusaders fortified Petra and held it until the Moslem conquest drove the Franks out of the Middle East. Petra was then completely abandoned and its location lost.
[Sum.: I. Browning , 1989,
Petra
(3rd edition). London: Chatto and Windus]

 
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Petrie , Sir William Matthew Flinders
(1853–1942)
[Bi].

English archaeologist who specialized in Egyptology. Born in Charlton, Kent, Flinders was educated at home by his parents and through what he could pick up himself. At an early age he developed an interest in antiquities through visits to the British Museum, and in surveying structures and earthworks under the tutelage of his father who was a civil engineer. In 1877 he published
Inductive metrology
and in 1880 he produced an excellent survey of
STONEHENGE
, Wiltshire. These early publications stand at the head of a prodigious and wide-ranging bibliography. In 1880 he went to Egypt to survey the Great Pyramid at Giza, in 1883 becoming unpaid joint secretary and field director of the recently formed Egypt Exploration Fund, working first at Tanis. Petrie was responsible for advances in excavation technique and artefact analysis, devising a system of sequence dating of artefacts independent of period labels. Equally important was his recognition of Mycenaean and ‘proto-Greek’ pottery in Egypt and Egyptian imports in the Aegean, which formed the basis for cross-dating between the regions. In 1897 he married Hilda Isabel , by whom he had two children. He was elected an FRS in 1902 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1904; he was knighted in 1923. From 1892 to 1933 he was Professor of Egyptology in the University of London. After 1926, dissatisfied with conditions in Egypt, he worked in Palestine until his death in Jerusalem in July 1942.
[Bio.: M. Drower , 1985,
Flinders Petrie
. London: Gollancz]

 
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