Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (782 page)

A tall, generally narrow, stone or wooden structure topped by a viewing platform on which observers can stand in order to keep a lookout. Such towers may be freestanding or attached to the perimeter walls of a castle or settlement.

 
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In the archaeological context this refers to material that is permanently wet as a result of being below the level of the local water table or within a microenvironment such as might be created in the bottom of a ditch, pit, or well. Organic remains, especially wood, are generally well preserved through waterlogging because
ANAEROBIC
conditions prevail.

 
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A low-lying area of grassland adjacent to a river or stream that can be artificially flooded and drained to promote enhanced grazing for livestock or the production of grass for hay. Found in northwest Europe possibly from Roman times onwards, their construction and use became more common in medieval and later times, especially after the early 17th century when intricate systems of water management using sets of cut channels known as ‘drowners’ for flooding the meadow and ‘drains’ for reducing the water level were introduced. Weirs, sluices, and hatches were installed to control the flow of water. Some water meadows cover up to 60ha. Once established a water meadow is capable of sustained operation over a long period. In southern England a few are still used today, although many more have fallen into disrepair.

 
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An industrial monument in which a set of machinery dedicated to a particular purpose is powered by the motion obtained from a
WATER WHEEL
, the machinery itself being housed in a wooden or stone building.

 
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A wooden or metal wheel with paddles or buckets of some kind attached to the outside so that when set in a watercourse it will rotate as a result of pressure from the movement of the water. The energy captured by such wheels in the form of rotary motion is usually transmitted via a connecting rod to some kind of machinery. Three main kinds of vertically set waterwheel can be identified: the
undershot
wheel rotated by water passing below the wheel; the
overshot
wheel where water is fed onto the top of the wheel, filling buckets which unbalance the wheel causing it turn; and the
breastshot
wheel where water is fed onto the wheel at an intermediate level. Water wheels appear to have been first used in the Greco-Roman world during the 1st century
bc
. The Roman engineer Vitruvius writing between 20 bc and 11 bc describes what is essentially an undershot wheel set vertically with a horizontal drive shaft. The use of such water wheels appears to have spread fairly rapidly within the Roman world and beyond, being known in Gaul by ad 370. It is possible that such wheels were preceded by a primitive horizontally set wheel with a vertical shaft, but no certain early evidence for these has been found.

 
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Interwoven hazel rods (wattle) coated with a mixture of clay, straw, dung, and other materials (daub) used structurally to form a wall or screen. It was used for, among other things, house walls, ovens, and simple pottery kilns. Often revealed archaeologically by the impressions of wattle-work in burnt daub. Early examples of wattle and daub construction date back to at least the Mesolithic.

 
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