Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (716 page)

Artificial mound or hill resulting from the accumulation of occupation debris over a long period of time. In the Near East and southeast Europe (especially northern Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania) the use of mud brick lent itself to the building up of deep deposits as successive phases of settlement were constructed upon the ruins of their predecessors and then in turn levelled to provide a platform for succeeding structures. The terms
tal
,
tepe
,
depe
, and
hüyük
are local names for tell mounds in different parts of Anatolia and the Near East and are often reflected in modern place-names and archaeological sitenames.

 
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Tello , Julio Cesar
(1880–1947)
[Bi].

One of the founding fathers of Peruvian archaeology, educated in science and medicine in Peru and in anthropology at Harvard University in the US. He excavated many important sites in Peru, including
CHAVÍN
,
PARACAS
, and
PACHACAMAC
. He argued that the Chavín was the first major civilization in the Andes, a view that was widely held until the 1990s. In 1945 he founded what later became the National Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology in Lima. Following his death in 1947 he was buried in the museum grounds.
[Obit.:
American Antiquity
, 14 (1948), 50–6]

 
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1
In southern Iraq, an artificial raised platform.
2
In the Greco-Roman world, a sacred enclosure, sanctuary, or sacred precinct at an established cult centre, sometimes incorporating many buildings. In Roman times it came to mean the enclosed area in which a temple stood: a temple precinct.

 
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A non-plastic additive to clay (e.g. sand, shell, crushed pot, or charcoal) to improve workability and assist uniform drying by preventing excessive shrinking. In pottery manufacture, temper is an additive to the raw clay such as sand or finely crushed stone which helps to prevent the pot shrinking or cracking during firing.

 
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A process for hardening iron blades, involving heating and rapid cooling.

 
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A specialized building devoted to the worship, or regarded as the dwelling place, of a god or other deity. Styles, construction, and layout vary greatly between cultures, but amongst many include some kind of ceremonial entrance; an open courtyard sometimes with elaborate colonnades or statuary around the edges; a focal building in the courtyard; and a central sanctuary within the focal building. In many cases the temple may be enclosed within a
TEMENOS
of some kind.

 
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