Weeks, Feast of a summer festival commemorating the receiving of the Ten Commandments by Moses.
Western Wall the Wailing Wall. A vestige of the foundation of the Temple of Jerusalem, where Jews go to pray.
Yahweh the name for God; it is always written as YHWH and never spoken aloud because of its sacred- ness. See Adonai, Jehovah.
yarmulke the skullcap worn by Jewish men.
Yom Kippur the holiest of all Jewish holidays, devoted to prayer, confession of sins, repentance, and fasting. Also known as the Day of Atonement.
s
CIENCE
anthropology and archaeology
aborigine a native inhabitant.
abrading stone any stone used to smooth or sharpen wood, bone, or other stone.
absolute dating any method that uses specific physical or chemical measurements, such as carbon-14 dating, or historical associations, such as historical documents or dates on coins, to determine age within a limited time frame.
alidade a sighted rule used for drawing lines of sight and measuring angles, a surveyor's tool.
amino acid dating a dating method that determines age by measuring changes in amino acid structure, which occur at a known rate in bone and other organic material, and can be used with artifacts up to 100,000 years old.
amphora a large, round ceramic container, used for centuries to store oil, wine, grain, etc., and often found in ancient shipwrecks.
anthropoid any ape such as the gorilla, chimpanzee, gibbon, or orangutan characterized by its resemblance to humans; resembling a human or ape.
archaeologist an anthropologist who specializes in archaeology.
archaic Homo sapiens the first modern human subspecies, living 250,000 years ago, and characterized by broad, somewhat Neanderthal-like faces.
Archaic period in North American prehistory, the years between 10,000 b.c. and 3000 b.c.
archeomagnetic dating a method of dating burned rock or clay, as from a hearth or kiln, by using Earth's magnetic field. Superheating aligns iron particles within the rock or clay to the magnetic North Pole, which changes location over time.
Ardipithecus ramidus African, prehuman ancestors who may have walked upright at least part of the time. Their oldest remains date from 4.4 million years ago.
articulated referring to bones that are still joined rather than separated or scattered.
artifact any object made or employed by humans, especially one of interest to archeologists.
assemblage any grouping of artifacts, particularly from the same site.
atlatl a bone or wood implement with a hand grip and a hook in which the end of a spear was inserted, used to hurl a spear with greater velocity.
Australopithecus anamensis African, prehuman ancestors whose shin bone remains are thicker than the shin bones of a chimpanzee, evidence of upright walking. They lived from 3.9 to 4.2 million years ago.
Australopithecus afarensis prehuman ancestors living in East Africa from 3 to 4 million years ago; the most famous fossils are those of "Lucy," who stood only 3 1/2 feet tall.
Australopithecus africanus African, prehuman ancestors living from 2 to 3 million years ago, and characterized by slightly larger braincases than A. afarensis.
Australopithecus boisei prehuman ancestors living in another part of Africa at the same time as A. robustus, with slightly larger builds, from 1.5 to 2.6 million years ago.
Australopithecus robustus prehuman ancestors, characterized by their huge teeth and heavy jaws requiring supporting skull crests, living in Africa from 1.5 to 2.6 million years ago.
barrow a human-made mound, especially one found over a grave; a tumulus.
bipedal walking on or having the ability to walk on two feet.
bison jump any site on top of or at the foot of a cliff, especially in the Americans Plains, where there is evidence that humans tricked bison into leaping to their deaths for easy slaughter.
bowsing thumping the ground with a mallet or other heavy tool to listen for differences in ground resonance, used to locate buried chambers.
B.P. abbreviation for before present, before the present day.
Bronze Age the period beginning from around 5000 to roughly 500 b.c., depending on region, when metals (bronze and copper) were first used to construct tools and weapons.
burial mound a mound of soil under which people were buried.
butchering station a location within a site that contains evidence, such as a large number of bones, of the regular butchering of animals.
cairn a human-constructed pile of rocks, sometimes found over a burial site.
carbon-14 dating a dating method that measures the amount of radioactive decay in an artifact's carbon-14 content and can be used to date organic objects as old as 75,000 years.
catalog a recording of artifacts and where they were found at a site; also spelled catalogue.
Caucasoid a widespread human race, making up approximately 55% of the world's population, and characterized by light skin; they evolved in the north and especially in Europe.
cave art cave paintings left by Cro-Magnon people in France and elsewhere, from around 30,000 years ago and later.
ceramic referring to pottery.
chert a rock similar to flint but found in variable colors and chipped off to form projectile points.
chronology a time line of historical events in the order in which they happened.
cist a stone coffin, from the Neolithic period.
clovis point a fluted, leaf-shaped stone projectile point, used by Native Americans to kill large prey.
codex a handwritten manuscript, especially a Christian or Mesoamerican one.
convergent evolution the principle that those from different lineages can develop similar characteristics as a response to environmental similarities.
Copper Age the beginning period of the Bronze Age, when copper and bronze were used in the manufacture of tools and weapons.
coprolite fossilized feces.
core a sampling, often cylindrical, of a segment of soil, ice, tree wood, etc., analysed to find clues about climate, volcanic activity, forest fires, plant growth, and the like.
Cro-Magnon man a highly intelligent and advanced human ancestor with exceptional artistic and tool- making abilities, living from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago, and characterized by a broader face than that of a fully modern human.
cross-dating dating an archaeological site by using the established date and evidence of similarities from another site.
cuneiform pictographic writing, developed and used by the Sumerians around 3500 b.c.
curate to look after archaeological artifacts, as in a museum.
curator one who looks after an archaeological collection, as in a museum or a repository.
Darwinism from naturalist Charles Darwin, the theory of evolution or survival of the fittest.
debitage the waste products, particularly chips, left over from the making of stone tools.