Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (56 page)

 
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Early hominid reconstructed as being bipedal but small-brained. The earliest specimens, classified as Australopithecus afarensis come from East Africa and date to about 3.75 million years ago, although claims of still greater age have been made on fragments of fossil bone from Lothagam in Kenya which date to about 5 million years ago. Australopithecus africanus has been recognized at about 2–3 million years ago in southern Africa. Both A. afarensis and A. africanus have a relatively light build and are considered ‘gracile’ australopithecines. Many regard them as direct human ancestors. A more robust australopithecine (A. robustus/ paranthropus) is known from a number of sites in Kenya at about 2 million years ago when it seems to have been contemporary with Homo habilis and Homo erectus.

 
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Rule by a specific military leader, who concentrates power in his own hands.

 
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The development of a new technology, artefact, or style which is similar to one that already exists in another time or place but which has come about completely independently. Many important discoveries and inventions have been made several times over, for example: the domestication of plants and animals; metalworking; and writing.

 
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Latin name for the units comprising auxiliaries or non-citizens in the Roman army, usually 500 or 100 strong.

 
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Avebury, Lord
(1834–1913)
[Bi].

See
LUBBOCK
.

 
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The largest and finest henge monument in Britain set on the rolling chalk downlands of southern England near the headwaters of the River Kennet. The great ditch encloses an area of 11.5ha and has a diameter of 350m. On the inner edge of the ditch stood a ring of 98 stones. Near the centre of the henge were two smaller stone circles with internal settings. Limited excavation within the interior of the site revealed very little, as is the case at most henge monuments. It is, however, known that prior to its construction in about 2100 bc some or all of the area was under cultivation.
Two avenues of upright stones led away from Avebury, connecting it to the wider landscape. The Beckhampton Avenue to the southwest has largely disappeared, but the West Kennet Avenue to the southeast remains, in part reconstructed.
At the southeastern end of the West Kennet Avenue is the Sanctuary, a complicated and long-lived monument that started its life as a series of timber circles. Two rings of stone slabs were later added and it is the outer of these that connects to the Avenue and thence to Avebury.
[Sum.: A. Burl , 1979,
Prehistoric Avebury
. London and New Haven: Yale University Press]