A-DE-HI-LM-OP-RS-Z

magnetometry See geophysics

maps

A very important part of archaeology. Modern maps, whether on paper or drawn by computer programs, are essential in the plotting out of all the detail of archaeological work, so that a record can be kept and the interrelationships (see context) between features can be appreciated. Old maps – particularly those that show the countryside in detail and record field and placenames – are of immense help in the locating of sites and in explaining what many of the things found during fieldwork actually were.

medieval/Middle Ages

Usually interpreted by historians as the period between 1066 (the Norman Conquest) and 1485 (the accession of the Tudors). In fact, the decade 1530-40, which includes the dissolution of the monasteries, was much more significant, and marks a more realistic end to the Middle Ages. Some archaeologists now use the term ‘medieval’ for the whole period, comprising about 1000 years, from the end of the Roman occupation to the time of the Tudors. It can then be divided into the early period up to the Normans, and the ‘high medieval’ after that. See Dark Ages.

mesolithic

The last part of the hunter-gatherer period and the middle part of the Stone Age, between the palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) and the neolithic (New Stone Age) when agriculture and animal husbandry were introduced. In Britain, where it lasted from approximately 10,000 to 3500 BC, it is marked by sophisticated groups of hunter-gatherers who used spears and harpoons that incorporated very small sharp blades called microliths.

monastery

Any religious establishment where the people in it follow a ‘rule’, like that of St Benedict, and have taken vows. Abbeys, priories, nunneries and friaries are all sorts of monasteries.

neolithic

The last period of the Stone Age when many innovations were introduced including monument building, the first engineering projects, the use of pottery and, most importantly, the domestication of plants and animals so that hunter-gathering was no longer the only or perhaps even the main way of obtaining enough food. In Britain, it lasted from around 3500 to 2000 BC, although it may have begun earlier.

Normans

These were the successful invaders who conquered England in 1066, and then Wales and Ireland. They came from Normandy in northern France, and were the descendants of the Northmen – that is, Norsemen, or Vikings – who had been granted the right to settle there in 911. In England, the Norman kings – including William I (the Conqueror), William II Rufus, Henry I and Stephen – are well known for introducing castle building to the country (although there had been a few earlier), and for the elaborate Romanesque style of architecture in the many cathedrals, abbeys and churches they built.

oak

One of the principal building materials used in the past, especially for roofs and for major structural timbers. The dating method known as dendrochronology has so far been developed mainly for this wood.

Offa’s Dyke

A great linear earthwork consisting of a bank with a ditch on the western side, which runs from Prestatyn, Clwyd to Chepstow, Gwent, straddling the border between the Welsh and the English. It was built in the reign of Offa, king of Mercia (in the north Midlands) in the late 8th century. About 80 miles of the original 120 still survive. See also dykes.

ogam (ogham)

An early script developed in Ireland whereby letters are rendered as cut marks in the edge of a stone. Several strokes are used to indicate each letter. It was used in the so-called Dark Ages, particularly between the 5th and 9th centuries. The letters were usually carved on memorial stones so are found in churches and graveyards, particularly in Ireland, Wales, Scotland and south-west England. We know what the ogam marks mean because the message is usually repeated in Latin, which can then be translated.

osteoarchaeology
Osteoarchaeology is the archaeology of bones. The study of bones found in archaeological excavations tells us a great deal about the past. From the study of animal bones found in archaeological contexts we can learn much about ancient diets, agricultural and social practices. And from the study of human skeletal remains we can answer all sorts of questions about how people lived, their health, the demographic profile of ancient populations and so on. The study of an individual's remains can tell us about that person's age, gender and stature, as well as their overall state of health and any diseases they may have suffered from. Conditions that can be identified by osteoarchaeology and reveal a lot about both individuals and the societies in which they lived include osteoarthritis, leprosy, venereal disease, tuberculosis and dental disease. Fractures or other wound marks can reveal how someone died – or disabilities that afflicted them during life.

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 down to about 10,000 BC. The period has been divided up by archaeologists to indicate when social and technological developments occurred. What are popularly thought of as ‘cavemen’ belong to this epoch; the remains of many of them and their sites have been found in caves, such as those at Cheddar (Somerset), even though 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.

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.

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 AD 1500, and continues to this day (although archaeologists do little with sites, etc after c 1800). 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

querns

These are mills for grinding cereals. The earliest and simplest saddle querns comprise a slab with a stone on the top; the person grinding the grain would straddle the slab. The more sophisticated rotary quern has two circular stones, one above the other; grain fed through a hole in the centre of the top stone was ground between the stones by moving the top one backwards and forwards over the lower one, to emerge as flour around the edges. These ‘hand mills’ were eventually replaced by the various animal, water and wind mills. Pieces of querns frequently turn up on archaeological sites, and many are made of types of stone which have been brought a very long way from their geological source.

quoits

In archaeology, an old-fashioned term for some of the impressive stone monuments of the neolithic and Bronze Ages, particularly communal burial chambers.

radar See geophysics

radio-carbon dating

Until the development of dendrochronology, radio-carbon dating (or C14 dating) was the most precise type of dating in archaeology, and it is still used when not enough wood can be found to give a dendro date. It is based on the fact that all living things contain carbon, and that this consists of two sorts: ordinary carbon (carbon 12), and radioactive carbon 14, which occurs in small quantities. As soon as a living thing dies, the radioactive carbon begins to decay, shedding atomic particles to end up eventually as nitrogen. This rate of decay was worked out by Willard Frank Libby in the United States, who found that, after 5,730 years, half of the carbon 14 had gone. If the amount of radioactive carbon 14 can be measured in something that was once alive, be it wood, charcoal, bone, shell or whatever, then the year of its death can be discovered. There are a number of problems with the technique, but it is still very important and, over the last 20 years, has revolutionised our knowledge of the absolute, or calendar, dates of many of the sites and objects in archaeology.

raggle

A dialect term for the remains of a roof line preserved on the end of an adjacent building.

recording

The most important aspect of archaeological work. Without proper recording of sites as fieldwork takes place or excavation is undertaken, it would not be possible to see what the context is of anything found. Since excavation, in particular, equals destruction, as complete a record of all layers, sections, features and finds is essential if the work is going to be understood by anyone after it has taken place. The same is true of most archaeological activities.

rescue excavation

The term applied to excavations carried out in advance of any modern development such as roads, pipelines, housing schemes, town centre redevelopments and the like, which will destroy the archaeology lying under them, and where the information has to be ‘rescued’ before it is lost for ever. Often this takes place in areas that archaeologists themselves would not choose to dig, but opportunistically, they carry out excavations to answer questions or understand what was there. In Britain, most excavation since the 1960s has been rescue excavation.

resistivity See geophysics

Roman occupation

The period from AD 43, when Britain was invaded by the Roman army, to the 5th century, when links with the remains of the western Roman empire were severed. For about 400 years, Britain was part of the Roman empire, and this is reflected in the range of new aspects that appear in the archaeology of that time. These include: a greater variety of pottery, coins and metal goods; stone, tile, mortar and plaster as building materials; wall paintings; heating systems. Major industrial production of such items as pottery, and major engineering schemes for roads, bridges, drainage, town planning and so on, were also major innovations.

rubbish heaps

Much archaeological research is concerned with the rubbish of past societies and what we can learn of these people’s lives from what they left behind. There are even modern garbage projects in the United States which analyse rubbish from different parts of American cities. What is in the rubbish provides a clear indication of the social and economic groups that have discarded the rubbish.

runes

This is a script formerly used in northern Europe and is particularly associated with Viking monuments. Like ogam, it is based on a combination of vertical and diagonal cuts in wood or stone, although it was also applied to items such as swords. Most runes are associated with memorial stones.

scheduled ancient monument (SAM)

Ancient monuments of national importance, the preservation of which is desired, are put on a list, or schedule. From that point, permission to do anything to such sites – including geophysical work, fieldwork or excavation, as well as modern developments that might affect the archaeology – has to be obtained from the relevant department of national government – English Heritage (for England), Cadw (Wales) or Historic Scotland (Scotland), all acting for the Department of National Heritage. SAMs include bridges, ruined structures and uninhabited buildings as well as the more familiar barrows, hillforts, castles and monasteries. Inhabited structures tend to be listed buildings, but there is an overlap of both forms of statutory protection. Only a very small percentage of known sites are scheduled as monuments, although a big programme is in hand to add large numbers of other sites in the next few years.

sections

Often a difficult concept for visitors to archaeological sites to understand. Archaeologists often cut through sites to reveal the layers (stratigraphy) under the topsoil. These ‘sections’ – like a layer cake with a slice removed – frequently reveal ditches and pits ‘in section’, which the archaeologist then refers to as if they were still open and obvious when all the visitor can see is the trench! In practice, a well-positioned section gives a detailed look at the history of a site – from the geology (or ‘natural’ as it tends to be called) at the bottom, up through the layers that result from construction and occupation on the site, with recutting of ditches, replacement of walls and the like, to the abandonment of the site and the formation of a soil with turf at the top. The objects, especially pottery and coins, associated with these layers in the section give good evidence of the date of occupation on the site.

sherd

A broken piece of pottery.

Sites and Monuments Record

This is a record of all the known archaeological sites, finds, earthworks and so on. Each county has one, usually located in the Planning Department and maintained by the county archaeologist.

snails

The shells of these can be used rather like pollen grains as evidence of land use and the landscape in the past. Snails live only in particular environments, do not travel far (or fast) and, when they die, their shells are left behind in the soil as indicators. The snail specialist can take a section through a site, look at the species present as shown by the shells, and, with the knowledge of the sort of environment they prefer, such as wet and shaded or dry grassland, make some assessment of what the countryside was like and how it has changed. This is yet another aspect of environmental archaeology.

soil profile

Soil science is a complex subject, and the variety of soils that can be found even in such a relatively small area as the British Isles is enormous. It is useful for archaeologists to know what the ‘natural’ soil profile is in an area being worked so that features and layers formed as a result of human activity over long periods can be understood.

Stone Age See palaeolithic, mesolithic, neolithic

stratigraphy See sections

surveying

Archaeologists have to ensure that they know the position of their site, excavations, trenches or areas of fieldwork in relation to the general landscape, since the actual position is itself usually of significance. Surveying can range from fairly simple jobs carried out with gridded paper (see grids), measuring tapes and canes or ranging rods to the use of theodolites, levels or modern computerised equipment such as an EDM.

terminus post quem/terminus ante quem

Two Latin terms used by archaeologists to describe the relationships of objects to layers and each other that they find in the ground. The dictionary definition of terminus post quem is the ‘starting-point of a period’; that of terminus ante quem is the ‘finishing-point of a period’. They are very important concepts, fundamental to the understanding of the development of a site and to the working-out of its likely date.

In archaeological usage, a datable object such as a coin found in a layer can only give the date after which the layer in which it is found was formed, and this could be any time after this date if there is nothing to indicate otherwise. This circumstance would be designated terminus post quem.

However, if a layer is cut by a ditch or other feature, then the layer must be earlier. The layer will thus have a date earlier than any datable objects in the layers or features above. This circumstance would be designated terminus ante quem.

tile

Fired clay to produce tiles for roofing, drains and heating systems originated in the Roman period and continued over later centuries. Great quantities of tiles are still found during fieldwork, indicating former buildings (roofs) or dumps of tiles for hardcore. Some tiles in the Middle Ages were decorated with slip and glazed and made into floors.

treasure trove

All gold and silver found in Britain, which was originally hidden and where the owner cannot now be found, belongs to the Crown and, when discovered, is subject to an inquest at a coroner’s court to establish the circumstances of its loss or deposition. Archaeologists are frequently involved in giving evidence to such inquests. Finders are often allowed to keep the objects, or an institution such as the British Museum pays so that the objects can be added to a national collection.

trial trench

See sections. Often a trial trench is dug to get some idea of the stratigraphy on a site, or even just to see if there is any archaeology present. Such trenches can be dug by hand using shovels, but frequently a machine is brought in to dig a quick trench, which can then be cleaned up and excavated by hand before recording takes place.

tunnels and passages

One of the most frequently recounted local tales is of a secret tunnel that is supposed to link monasteries, nunneries, churches and so on, intended for the escape of people from events such as the dissolution of the monasteries and the Civil War. They are often said to run over the most amazing distances and under the most unlikely rivers, mountains and estuaries. If so, they would have taken decades to build and would have involved massive investment.

In fact, there are many tunnels and passages about, but when examined they are usually quite short and are invariably drains or sewers conveying water to large manor houses or monasteries. They are sometimes big enough to walk through, so that they could be cleaned out frequently.

typology

The study of the obvious similarities between objects, such as Bronze Age swords or pottery vessels. Changes in design appear gradually so that objects can be arranged in a sequence of development. Before the advent of absolute methods of dating, such as radio-carbon dating and dendrochronology, such developmental sequences were used to get some relative idea of the different dates between sites and the objects from them. There are obvious flaws to this approach, but noting the typological changes in objects is still a useful way of studying developing technology and styles. Modern parallels such as the development of the motor car or coach, or even milk bottles, show this well.

unstratified

An adjective applied to any object found out of context so that it is not known to which soil layer or feature it belongs. Such objects may be of very limited value as pieces of information to the archaeologist.

urns for cremation

At certain times, such as in the later Bronze Age, and in the Dark Ages in some areas, bodies were disposed of by cremation rather than burying (inhumation) and then the ashes were placed in a pot and buried in the ground, usually in a sacred place along with other burials. Specialists are able – even from fragments of cremated bone – to describe the sex, age and condition of the once-living person.

vernacular

The Oxford English Dictionary defines this as ‘of one’s native country, native, indigenous’ (so it can refer to local speech, for example) and, with reference to architecture, ‘concerned with ordinary buildings’. In this latter sense, it is used to indicate the normal everyday structures of the majority of people at times when local traditional styles of building and local building materials were the only ones within the reach of most. These vernacular structures should be compared to those of the gentry, which followed fashion and were likely to incorporate foreign, particularly classical, elements.

Vikings

The general name given to the Northmen (Norsemen) from Scandinavia who raided, plundered and then settled many parts of Britain and Europe in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries. See also Normans.

villas

The general name given to the architecturally elaborate country houses of the Roman occupation. Villas vary a great deal, but most have masonry walls, roofs of clay or stone tiles, and concrete floors; some have decorated wall plaster, mosaics composed of small tesserae (small square blocks), and heating systems (hypocausts). The biggest are veritable palaces with great suites of rooms, bathing complexes and extensive gardens.

vitrified forts

A name given to certain Iron Age hillforts, particularly in Scotland, where the ramparts have been reinforced by firing the timbers within them so that they became welded together into a solid mass.

wattle and daub

In timber-framed buildings, and in those of mainly timber construction such as Iron Age round houses, windproof and well-insulated walls were constructed between the main timbers by a lattice of wattles, like basketwork, usually made from hazel rods. On to this framework was plastered daub, a mixture of mud with other materials, such as dung and straw. When this dried, a thin wall resulted that, as surviving examples many hundreds of years old show, could last well as long as it was kept dry.

weeds of cultivation

With the introduction of agriculture and the growing of a relatively small number of crops over wider areas, other plants appeared that preferred the same open conditions but were not deliberately planted by people. Environmental archaeologists can identify these and, even in the absence of crop remains, can see them as evidence of agriculture. Such plants include cleavers, charlock, poppies, fat hen and corncockle.

wood conservation

Before metal, and then plastic, became so abundant in recent times, wood was the most important material, not only for building work but also for implements, tools, containers and so on. But wood eventually rots away so any objects or structures made of it disappear and are not available for study by archaeologists. Therefore, when wooden structures or objects are found, usually in waterlogged, anaerobic conditions such as in fens, marshes or rivers, they can provide much more information than the range of inorganic objects found on most sites.
However, when they are removed from the place where they have been preserved in the right conditions, they will begin to rot if they are not conserved. There are a number of techniques now available to treat wood so that it can be preserved in a way that enables the objects or structures made of it to be examined and then put on display. The main one seeks to replace the water in the wood with soluble wax which will keep the shape, size and structure of the original material more or less intact.

X-rays

In archaeology these are used to examine the interiors of things that are difficult to see because of corrosion. In the conservation of iron objects, for example, X-rays are employed to see what is inside a rusted mass. Occasionally, previously unnoticed details of swords, knives and so on are seen on X-rays, including constructional and decorative features not visible on the outside. In such cases, archaeologists can judge whether the careful removal of the corrosion will be worth the effort.