Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (65 page)

BOOK: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
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baptistery
[Co].
The place, usually a separate room entered from one of the aisles, of an early Christian church in which a pool of water provided with steps down into it was used for the baptism of adult converts by immersion, e.g., in the Twin Churches of St Mary at Ephesus, or at Philerimos in Rhodes.
barbarous radiate
[Ar].
Late and inferior copies of
RADIATE
coins that circulated in the Roman empire. Most were made in regional mints scattered throughout the provinces.
barbed and tanged arrowhead
[Ar].
Triangular-shaped flint arrowheads of the later Neolithic and early Bronze Age in Europe. Distinctive in having a short rectangular tang on the base opposite the point, symmetrically set either side of which is a barb. The tang was used to secure the arrow tip to its shaft and usually projects slightly below the ends of the barbs.
barbican
[Co].
A tower or advance work defending the entrance to a castle.
barbotine decoration
[De].
A method of relief decoration executed by trailing semi-liquid clay through the end of an implement on to a finished pottery vessel before firing, a process identical to icing a cake.
Bare Creek Phase
[CP].
Hunter-gatherer communities occupying parts of the northwest corner of the Great Basin in California 2500–100 bc. Successors to the Menlo Phase, Bare Creek communities lived in small domed brush wickiups each of which probably held a nuclear family. They hunted bison, deer, and sheep, but relied for food on the meat of rabbits and waterfowl. Artefacts include the bifurcate chipped stone Pinto points.
Bargrennon group
[CP].

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