Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (91 page)

Settlement which obtained certain privileges relating to trade and the holding of markets, landholdings, and self-government, by means of a charter granted by the crown or a lord.

 
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A small scoop or quarry-pit from which clay, earth, or mud is taken, usually for building purposes.

 
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A low-tech technique for locating buried ditches and pits at sites with a solid underlying natural bedrock (e.g., chalk or limestone) and relatively thin stratigraphy. The procedure is to place a block of wood on the ground surface and then hit it hard with a sledge-hammer. A dull thud will be heard where there are disturbances in the bedrock while a sharper ring is emitted where undisturbed bedrock lies below the topsoil. By systematically working across a site and mapping the sounds, the distribution and extent of bedrock cut features can be worked out.

 
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See
AUROCHS
.

 
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Botta , Paul-Émile
(1802–70)
[Bi].

French diplomat and antiquarian best known for his work in Iraq. While posted as French Consul to Mosul between 1840 and 1843) he excavated a number of sites, including Khorsabed which he believed to be the ancient city of
NINEVEH
. In 1843 he uncovered, for the first time, structures relating to the
ASSYRIAN
empire. He and others were struck by the magnificence of the art and decoration lavished on the buildings, especially the great winged bulls. With the recovery of loot his primary objective, Botta uncovered much of great importance in a short time. Many of the sculptures from Khorsabed are now in the Louvre in Paris.
[Bio.: F. H. McGovern and J. N. McGovern , 1986, Portrait of Paul Emile Botta.
Biblical Archaeologist
, 49.2]

 
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Boucher de Crêvecoeur de Perthes , Jacques
(1788–1868)
[Bi].

A French customs officer and amateur antiquary whose discovery in the gravels of the Somme of chipped flints in association with the remains of extinct fauna led him to argue for the great antiquity of man. It took a considerable time for his theories to gain support, but they were slowly accepted by the French and British scientific communities. Boucher first set out his findings in his five-volume
De la création: essai sur l'origine et la progression des êtres
(1838–41) and later in his three-volume work
Antiquités celtiques et antediluviennes
(1847).
[Bio.: C. Cohen , 1989,
Boucher de Perthes: 1788–. Les origines Romantiques de la préhistoire.
Paris: Berlin]

 
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