Pagan
A term given to a religion that is not one of the major religions of the world – in particular, in a European context, one that is not Christian.

Palaeobotany
The study of the vegetation of the past from the remains that have not rotted as they would normally do, such as pollen grains and macrofossils of leaves, twigs, seeds and so on.

Palaeolithic
The term for the Old Stone Age, the immensely long period of hunter-gatherers extending from the time when humans first evolved up to about 10,000 BC. In Britain, the earliest evidence of human activity dates from about 450,000 years ago, although there are long periods (of 100,000 years or more) when there appears to have been no human presence. The period has been divided up by archaeologists into the Lower (the oldest), Middle and Upper Palaeolithic to indicate when social and technological developments – mainly increasingly sophisticated flint tools – occurred. Neanderthal Man was supplanted by Homo sapiens, modern man, during this epoch. What are popularly thought of as 'cavemen' also belong to this period. Their remains have been found in caves, such as those at Cheddar (Somerset), but they probably lived more often in open country.

Passages
See tunnels and passages.

Patina
An encrusted or glossy surface acquired by an object as a result of age, use or chemical changes after it was buried.

Pipes
Of particular interest to archaeologists are the bits of white clay pipes made for smoking tobacco. Tobacco, originally a 'New World' crop, was introduced to Europe in the 16th century, when pipes were developed to smoke it. Rather like pottery, the pipes changed in form, style and decoration between the 16th and 20th centuries and so the remains of them on sites, whether found during excavations or fieldwork, can be used to give approximate dates for occupation. Also rather like pottery, they broke easily and so were frequently discarded.

Plague
Epidemics and pandemics of various diseases have broken out many times in the past, affecting and killing millions of people. The most famous was the worldwide Black Death (bubonic and pneumonic plague), which affected Europe in the period 1340-50 and may have killed between a third and a half of the people living there at the time. Plague was endemic in Europe right up to the Great Plague of London in 1665. See also the Channel 4 History website on the Great Plague of 1665.

Planning
A useful term used of many periods and for many activities. It always implies a degree of forethought and control of development within some sort of overall grand design. Even if this was never clearly stated, or at least not recorded, something definite was usually laid down on the ground, and this can be recovered by archaeologists. Generally a degree of regularity is expected, as well as rectilinearity of layout.

Pollen analysis
Pollen that falls into marshes, bogs, lakebeds or other anaerobic places may remain as a sort of fossil to be recognised many hundreds or thousands of years later. It will then reflect what the vegetation was like at the time it was deposited. Experts skilled in such analysis – palynologists – can often give a vivid account of the vegetation and how it changed as people moved into an area, cleared the land and farmed it, with subsequent periods of forest regeneration.

Pompeii/Herculaneum
At about 1pm on 24 August 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupted violently. By the end of the following day, thousands of people were dead and the flourishing Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum had disappeared beneath tons of ash, pumice and solidified mud. That tragedy has given archaeologists a unique insight to the way people lived at the height of the Roman empire. See the Channel 4 History website on The Riddle of Pompeii and The Lost Scrolls of Herculaneum.

Portable Antiquities Scheme
The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a voluntary recording scheme for archaeological objects found by members of the public. Every year many thousands of objects are discovered, many of them by metal-detector users, but also by people out walking, gardening or going about their daily work. Such discoveries offer an important source for understanding our past. See also Treasure Act and www.finds.org.uk.

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.

Post hole
Many early buildings and other structures were made of wood, and before the use of stone foundations, their main supports were usually posts set in the ground. To construct these, a hole was dug, the timber was set in, then the hole was filled with a packing of stone or earth. From these holes and the packing around them, archaeologists can recognise the site of such posts and therefore of the building or structure they once supported, even when the posts have rotted or were removed.

Post-medieval
A useful term in archaeology, which follows on from the Middle Ages (see Medieval/Middle Ages), beginning in about 1500 AD, and continues to this day (although archaeologists do little with sites, etc after c1800). Despite abundant documents, maps and a wealth of architectural and industrial remains from this period, there is still much that we do not know and which can only be gained from archaeological research.

Pottery
Of all the things that archaeologists could study, pottery is, perhaps surprisingly, by far the most useful. This is because of the main properties of the fired clay from which it is made. Once fired, such pottery is very resistant to destruction, and even after being buried for thousands of years or being knocked about in the ploughsoil for generations, bits and pieces – ie sherds – of these vessels can still be found. They were originally either just thrown out of houses on to the surrounding land or taken along with the rest of the domestic debris out to the fields in the manure. Because of developing technology in manufacture and the types and degrees of decoration, styles of pottery have constantly changed. Thus even small individual sherds can be recognised and some idea of their date and context can be guessed at; they may also indicate whether a site is present and give some idea of its date.

Priory
See abbey.

Prodigy houses
See Snapshot: Tudor 'prodigy houses'