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A Dictionary of Archaeology

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C. Blegen: The palace of Nestor at Pylos (Princeton, 1966); M. Ventris and J. Chadwick: Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Cambridge, 1973); J. Chadwick: The Mycenaean world (Cambridge, 1977); Th. Palaima and C. Shelmerdine, eds: Pylos comes alive: industry and administration in a Mycenaean palace (New York, 1984).

RJA

pyramid

1 Egypt and Nubia. Pyramid-shaped superstructures were used for Egyptian royal tombs from the 3rd dynasty to the end of the Middle Kingdom (c.2649–1640 BC); throughout the rest of the pharaonic period private tombs occasionally incorporated small-scale ‘pyramidia’. The first ‘step-pyramids’ appear to have developed initially out of the rectangular royal and private MASTABATOMBS of the Early Dynastic period (c.3000–2649 BC), but by the end of the 3rd dynasty the first smooth-sided ‘true pyramid’ had been constructed at DAHSHUR. Over the next thousand years the pyramid gradually acquired a range of symbolic meanings. The full-scale ‘pyramid complex’, consisting of a pyramid with its mortuary and funerary temples (the two temples being linked by a long causeway), had evolved by the beginning of the 4th dynasty, but its origins can be discerned in the royal tombs and ‘funerary palaces’ at Early Dynastic

PYRAMID 485

ABYDOS and the Step Pyramid complex at SAQQARA. In the reign of the 5th-dynasty ruler Unas, the internal chambers began to be inscribed with funerary spells now known as the Pyramid Texts.

In the 18th dynasty, the pharaohs began to be buried in the subterranean rock-tombs of the VALLEY OF THE KINGS, instead of pyramids, and the royal mortuary temples were constructed some distance away from the royal burials themselves. Hundreds of years later the pyramid form was revived, albeit on a smaller scale, by the Napatan and Meroitic kings of Nubia (see MEROE, NAPATA

and NURI).

See also ABU ROASH, GIZA, HAWARA, EL-LAHUN,

EL-LISHT, MEIDUM and NAQADA.

2 Mesoamerica. The term ‘pyramid’ is sometimes applied to certain Mesoamerican religious buildings (see Kubler 1973): see LOWLAND MAYA, MESO-

AMERICA, PALENQUE TALUD-TABLERO,

TEOTIHUACAN and TIKAL.

R.O. Faulkner: The ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts

(Oxford, 1969); G. Kubler: ‘Iconographic aspects of architectural profiles at Teotihuacan and in Mesoamerica’, The iconography of Middle American sculpture (New York 1973), 24–39; D. Arnold, Building in Egypt: pharaonic stone masonry (Oxford, 1991); I.E.S. Edwards, The pyramids of Egypt, 5th edn (Harmondsworth, 1993).

IS

ANATOMICALLY MODERN

Q

Qadan see CATARACT TRADITION

Qadesh (Tell Nebi Mend) Syro-Hittite Bronze Age city where the famous battle between the Egyptians and the Hittites was fought in c.1290 BC. In 1921 it was identified with the site of Tell Nebi Mend next to the River Orontes, which was excavated by Maurice Pézard in 1921–2 and by Peter Parr in the 1970s. The investigation of the massive tell, measuring about a kilometre in length and over 30 m in height, revealed strata dating back at least as early as the 2nd millennium BC, when it may have been an AMORITE settlement. After the SyroHittite period the site continued to be occupied in the early Iron Age, during which time a large wooden-columned palace was constructed.

M. Pézard: Qadesh, mission archéologique à Tell Nebi Mend (Paris, 1931); H. Goedicke: Perspectives on the Battle of Kadesh (Baltimore, 1985); S.J. Bourke: The transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age in the northern Levant: the evidence from Tell Nebi Mend, Syria (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1992).

IS

Qafzeh and Skhul Cave sites in the MOUNT CARMEL region of Israel which have yielded the earliest fossils of

HUMANS outside Africa. Thermoluminescence analyses of burnt flint indicate that the burials in these caves, including a child with grave goods, are dated to c.90–100,000 BP (Vandermeersch 1989). These dates are significantly earlier than those derived from the nearby caves of Tabun and KEBARA which produced NEANDERTHAL fossils, suggesting that ‘modern’ humans had colonized the Levant before the Neanderthals. Qafzeh and Skhul are also notable for the fact that ‘modern’ human remains are associated with MOUSTERIAN technology, thereby undermining the claim that ‘anatomical’ modernity is necessarily to be equated with superior technology (which itself is often rather dubiously equated with superior intelligence).

B. Vandermeersch: ‘The evolution of modern humans:

recent evidence from southwest Asia’, The human revolution, ed. P. Mellars and C. Stringer (Edinburgh, 1989), 155–64.

PG-B

Qannas, Tell see HABUBA KEBIRA

Qantir (anc. Piramesse) Egyptian city-site in the eastern Delta near modern Khatana, which was established by Seti I (c.1306–1290 BC) and became an important centre of power during the Ramessid period. Excavations have revealed a mud-brick palace of Ramesses II (Hayes 1937) as well as Ramessid military barrack-rooms and workshops (Pusch 1996). By the beginning of the 3rd Intermediate Period (c.1070 BC) the city had diminished in importance and a great deal of its stonework was eventually transferred to the Late Period temples at TANIS and BUBASTIS.

W.C. Hayes: Glazed tiles from a palace of Ramesses II at Kantir (New York, 1937); E. Uphill: The temples of Per Ramesses (Warminster, 1984); E. Pusch: ‘Pi-Ramesses- beloved-of-Amun, Headquarters of thy chariotry: Egyptians and Hittites in the Delta Residence of the Ramessides’, Pelizaeus Museum: the Egyptian collection, ed. A. Eggebrecht (Mainz, 1996), 126–45.

IS

Qarnawu see ARABIA, PRE-ISLAMIC

Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi Extensive Islamicperiod site in the desert southwest of Palmyra, Syria, which was founded as a monastery in the 6th century AD by Harith b. Jabala, a Ghassanid prince allied to the Byzantines. According to its foundation inscription, it was expanded by the Caliph Hisham in AD 727 – a rare case of precise dating and attribution among Umayyad palaces. Its ornate fortress-like doorway echoes Byzantine models in form but the ornamental plaster reflects SASANIAN influence and presages the dominant position of plaster in Islamic decoration. A similar synthesis of Mediterranean and eastern influences occurs in

T. Watkins and D. Baird: Qermez Dere: the excavation of an Aceramic Neolithic settlement near Tel Afar, N. Iraq
(Edinburgh, 1987).
EPIPALAEOLITHIC and ACER-
settlement in the northern plains of Iraq, excavated in the 1980s by Trevor Watkins. The proto-Neolithic levels, dating to about 8000 BC, include the remains of several circular mud huts with sunken floors. The contents of these structures included stone hearths, stone and plaster pillars and scattered human skulls, suggesting that, like the houses at ÇATAL HÜYÜK, they may have played a ritualistic role in the life of the community. The lithic remains are similar to those at MUREYBET in Syria as well as those at Karim Shahir, M’lefaat and NEMRIK in the eastern Zagros region.
pillared rooms approached by sloping causeways. In the Ptolemaic period the site retained its importance and a temple was constructed by Ptolemy IV and VI (221–145 BC).
W.M.F. Petrie: Antaeopolis (London, 1930); H. Steckeweh: Die Fürstengräber von Qâw (Leipzig, 1936).
see EL-BADARI
IS
Qijia
Qin
AMIC NEOLITHIC
Qermez Dere
IS
Qau-Matmar

the floor paintings from the palace, one of which is a Sasanian-style hunting scene, while the other includes a representation of the Greek earthgoddess Gea. The palace stands at the centre of an extensive agricultural estate, equivalent to Roman latifundia. Such sites as Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi (northeast of Palmyra, see Grabar et al. 1978), and Khirbat al-Mafjar (between JERUSALEM and AMMAN) all reflect the Umayyads’ heavy investment in agricultural development, and in recent years the diversity of roles served by these Umayyad ryural sites has been increasingly recognized.

D. Schlumberger: ‘Deux fresques omeyyades’, Syria 25 (1946), 86–102; K.A.C. Creswell: Early Muslim architecture 1/2 (Oxford, 1969), 506–18; O. Grabar et al.: City in the desert: Qasr al-Hayr East, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1978); D. Schlumberger: Qasr el-Heir el-Gharbi (Paris, 1986).

GK

Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi see QASR AL-HAYR AL-

GHARBI

Qasr Ibrim (anc. Pedeme, Primis) Site of a fortified settlement in Lower Nubia, located on the edge of LAKE NASSER, about 240 km south of Aswan. The earliest evidence of occupation dates to the 11th dynasty (c.2000 BC), but the major surviving building is a Nubian cathedral dating to the 8th century AD. The other architectural remains include four New Kingdom rock-shrines (c.1640–1070 BC) and several temples dating from the 25th dynasty (c.700 BC) to the late MEROITIC period (c.AD 250). The cemeteries, situated to the north and south of the town-site, date principally to the Meroitic, BALLANA, Christian and Islamic phases of the site’s history.

J. Plumley et al.: Preliminary reports on the EES excavations, JEA 50– (1964–); R.A. Caminos: The shrines and rock inscriptions of Ibrim (London, 1968); A.J. Mills: The cemeteries of Qasr Ibrim (London, 1982).

IS

Qatabaneans see ARABIA, PRE-ISLAMIC

Qau el-Kebir (Tjebu; Antaeopolis) Necropolis in Egypt, located about 55 km southeast of the modern city of Asyut. The site is known primarily for the massive funerary complexes of the 12thdynasty governors and other officials of the 10th Upper Egyptian nome, which were probably the largest provincial tombs of their time. They were modelled on royal pyramid complexes, taking the form of rock tombs fronted by terraced courts and

QSAR ES-SEGHIR 487

see CH’I-CHIA

see CH’IN

Qingliengang (Ch’ing-lien-kang) see TA-WEN-

K’OU

Qinglongquan see CH’ING-LUNG-CH’UAN

Qishan (Ch’i-shan) see WESTERN CHOU

Qsar es-Seghir Medieval port midway between Tangier and Ceuta on the Moroccan shore, guarding the Strait of Gibraltar. The port was founded in the 12th century AD as an Islamic town, taken by the Portuguese as a colony in the 15th century, and finally abandoned in the 16th century. Between 1974 and 1981, about 5000 sq. m were excavated, following a sampling strategy (see SAMPLES,

SAMPLING STRATEGIES) based upon a set of 19

excavation units each 9 × 9 m, designed by Charles Redman. As an illustration of probability and

SPATIAL ANAL-

488 QSAR ES-SEGHIR

judgement sampling it represents an innovative project in medieval archaeology. Redman not only examined the topographic features of the two very different phases of the port’s history, but also used the sampling scheme to evaluate the spatial patterning of material culture.

C.L. Redman: Qsar es-Seghir, an archaeological view of medieval life (Orlando, 1986).

RH

quadrant method Excavation technique, based on the grid or box system, which is used primarily on roughly circular sites such as round barrows. Four quadrants of the site are excavated, leaving baulks between them. On a smaller scale, the quadrant system may sometimes be used to excavate such features as POSTHOLES or pits (although in such cases no baulks are left).

quadrat analysis Branch of

YSIS which uses as DATA the counts of objects of one or more classes in cells of a grid imposed on the region or site being studied (e.g. the fragments of stone tools spread across prehistoric occupation floors). The size of the cells can be chosen to match the scale of the patterning being sought, provided that it is greater than the precision with which the locations of the objects have been measured. The technique is suited to both intra-site and inter-site SPATIAL ANALYSIS. The variation between counts in different cells can indicate whether the distribution of a class of objects is aggregated, random or uniform; associations between the distributions of two or more classes can also be studied. The main drawbacks of the approach are (i) it can only reliably detect square or rectangular patterns, and (ii) the choice of scale of patterning is arbitrary. The latter has been partly overcome by the dimensional analysis of variance used by Whallon (1973).

P. Grieg-Smith: Quantitative plant ecology (London, 1964); R. Whallon: ‘Spatial analysis of occupation floors: the application of dimensional analysis of variance’, The explanation of culture change, ed. C. Renfrew (London, 1973), 115–30; I.R. Hodder and C.R. Orton: Spatial analysis in archaeology (Cambridge, 1976), 33–8.

CO

quantification In a general sense, quantification is the process of choosing the VARIABLES (and their values) by which a set of archaeological objects can be described. This is not as easy as it sounds, and gives rise to theoretical and practical problems, sometimes known as the ‘coding problem’. In a specific archaeological sense, it

refers to the measuring of the amounts of different TYPES of pottery in assemblages (Orton 1993; Orton, Tyers and Vince 1993). Because pottery is almost always found broken, it cannot simply be counted like other classes of artefact. For many years (c.1916–60) the usual way was to count individual sherds; more recently, however, various other methods of quantifying pottery have been proposed, such as weight, number of vessels represented and ‘eves’ (estimated vessel-equivalents, in which each measurable fragment is recorded as the appropriate fraction of a whole vessel).

J.E. Doran and F.R. Hodson: Mathematics and computers in archaeology (Edinburgh, 1975), 99–114; S. Shennan: Quantifying archaeology (Edinburgh, 1988), 8–21; M. Fletcher and G.R. Lock: Digging numbers (Oxford, 1991), 5–8; C.R. Orton: ‘How many pots make five?’, Archaeometry 35 (1993), 169–84; ––––, P.A. Tyers and A.G. Vince: Pottery in archaeology (Cambridge, 1993), 166–81.

CO

Quelccaya Ice Cap Glacier in the Peruvian southern Andes which has yielded cores providing a detailed precipitation record some 1500 years long. Highland precipitation feeds the oasis valleys of the coast where irrigation supported large, often urban, polities from the Early Horizon (1200–400 BC) onwards. In the 6th century AD major changes can be observed in the archaeological record as the Moche state collapsed and its population moved inland to the necks of the valleys. Similar events are noted to the north in the Lambayeque Valley and to the south in the Lima and NAZCA valleys. Although hampered by poor chronologies, these cataclysmic cultural events may well be connected to a detectable series of droughts in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, causing economic and political disruption and necessitating withdrawal inland to the heads of the irrigation systems.

L.G. Thompson, E. Moseley-Thompson, J.F. Bolzan and B.R. Koci: ‘A 1500 year record of tropical precipitation in ice cores from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru’, Science 229 (1985), 971–3; I. Shimada, C. Barker-Schaaf, L.G. Thompson and E. Moseley-Thompson: ‘Cultural impacts of severe draughts in the prehistoric Andes: application of a 1500 year ice core precipitation record’, WA 22/3 (1991), 247–70.

KB

Quetta Valley in Baluchistan, Pakistan, incorporating several important pre-Harappan settlements, including Kili Ghul Muhammad, Kechi Beg and DAMB SADAAT. Quetta ceramics include plain ware and black-on-buff painted

vessels, typically decorated with black painted motifs located between parallel rows of horizontal lines. Common Quetta motifs include curvilinear, zigzag and diagonal lines, along with crosses, leaves, a variety of geometric forms and occasional plant and animal motifs (bull, ibex or gazelle, fish and bird). Other Quetta decorated wares (Quetta Wet Ware) bore fabric impressions and plastic motifs such as ridges or stamped designs. Quetta ceramics have been found at numerous sites of the 4th millennium BC both within the Quetta valley itself and beyond (e.g.

MEHRGARH and SUR JANGAL).

The archaeological remains at Kechi Beg cover an area measuring only 46 × 23 m, and a single 8 × 3 m trench was excavated by Walter Fairservis in the early 1950s. Although there were few surviving architectural remains, the site yielded several distinctive ceramic types, including Kechi Beg Polychrome and Kechi Beg Red Painted Ware, which have been found at other sites in the Quetta region.

Kili Ghul Muhammad is a small settlement mound (only about 0.5 ha in area) at which Walter Fairservis, on the basis of a single trench (excavated in 1950–1), defined four chronological periods, from the mid-5th to mid-4th millennium BC. The only absolute dates are from Period I, the rest of the sequence being dated within a relative sequence by ceramic wares. The earliest phase, dated by calibrated radiocarbon dates to the mid-late 5th millennium BC, included the remains of wattle-and- daub huts, domesticated animals (sheep, goat and cattle), bone points and flaked and ground stone lithics; mud-brick architecture appeared near the end of this period. The fourth phase at Kili Ghul Muhammad featured a new style of polychrome pottery of the Kechi Beg black-on-buff and white- on-dark painted styles.

W.A. Fairservis: ‘Excavations in the Quetta Valley, West Pakistan’, APAMNH 45 (1956), 169–492; S. Ashthana:

Pre-Harappan cultures of India and the Borderlands (New Delhi, 1985), 70–3, 120–4.

CS

Quetzalcoatl The Mesoamerican featheredor plumed-serpent deity of the Classic and Postclassic periods (c.AD 300–1521), known by the LOWLAND MAYA as Kukulcán and by the highland Maya as Gucumatz. Closely identified with Tollan (see TOLTECS), Quetzalcoatl is a complex concept, simultaneously a historical human figure (Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl), a deity and a symbol. Like most Mesoamerican gods, Quetzalcoatl the deity is a

QUIRIGUÁ 489

composite with many aspects, including god of learning, creator god and Venus as morning star and/or evening star. Quetzalcoatl was also a powerful symbol of city and legitimate royal authority for urban peoples throughout Postclassic Mesoamerica (c.AD 900–1521).

D. Carrasco: Quetzalcoatl and the irony of empire. Myths and prophecies in the Aztec tradition (Chicago, 1982).

PRI

quipu Mnemonic device used by the INCA people of South America for accounting by means of a series of knotted strings recording numerical information in a decimal system. A quipu generally consisted of a series of cords attached to a main cord; each string represented a single number in a series of overhand knots with a totals string attached to the other side so that numbers and totals could be read by running the thumb nail over the knots. The colour of the cords was also apparently important in encoding. Quipus were used for keeping accounts of all kinds, and could also be used to preserve nonnumerical information, although the means of encoding such data is now lost. Quipus appeared in Peru in the Middle Horizon and were still used in some isolated communities.

M. Ascher and R. Ascher: The code of the quipu: a study in media, mathematics, and Culture (Ann Arbor, 1981); C. Mackey, ed.: Quipu y yupana: colección de escritos (Lima, 1990).

KB

Quiriguá A small (4 sq km) LOWLAND MAYA centre of the Classic period (c.AD 200–900) lying on the floodplain of the Motagua River in the lowlands of southeastern Guatemala. Famed for its beautiful STELAE the site’s ceremonial architecture includes a ballcourt (see BALLGAME), an acropolis, and numerous temple-pyramids and palaces arranged in groups around plazas. Quiriguá is believed to have been founded during the Early Classic period (c.AD 300–600) by an elite group from Petén, perhaps to control riverine commerce that represented highland, lowland and Central American interests. Quiriguá’s prosperity occurred during the reign of the ruler Cauac Sky (AD 724–784), who in AD 737 captured and executed the ruler of COPAN, 18 Rabbit. Much later, the arrival of a new ruling group may be signalled by the recovery of a CHACMOOL from the site, but Quiriguá seems to have been abandoned around AD 900.

R.J. Sharer: Quiriguá, a classic Maya centre and its sculptures (Durham, NC, 1990).

PRI

490 QUMRAN

Qumran Cave site near the remains of Khirbet Qumran, to the northwest of the Dead Sea in Israel, about 13 km south of Jericho. It was here that the Dead Sea Scrolls, comprising fragments of leather inscribed with sections of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, were discovered by a goatherd in 1947. Khirbet Qumran was the religious settlement of a group of Jews known as Essenes, which was destroyed by the Romans in c.AD 66–70. One of the rooms at Khirbet Qumran has been tentatively identified as the ‘library’ in which the Dead Sea Scrolls would have originally been stored, before being hidden away in the nearby caves when the community was first threatened by the Romans.

Despite the appointment of an editorial team in 1953, the manuscripts are still only partially published.

J.P.M. van der Ploeg: Excavations at Qumran (London, 1958); J.M. Allegro: The Dead Sea Scrolls: a reappraisal

(Harmondsworth, 1964); P.R. Davies: Qumran (Guildford, 1982); R.H. Eisenman and M. Wise: The Dead Sea Scrolls uncovered (Shaftesbury and Rockport, 1992).

IS

Qustul see BALLANA

Quynh Van see COASTAL NEOLITHIC

R

al-Rabadha Islamic settlement in Saudi Arabia, located to the west of Medina on the pilgrim road known as Darb Zubayda (after the consort of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad, AD 786–809). Al-Rabadha was the first major Islamicperiod site to be investigated in Saudi Arabia, and its occupation sequence may be of relevance to sites further west around Medina and elsewhere in the Hijaz.

The pilgrim road ran from AL-KUFA in Iraq to Mecca, with a branch to Medina, and although much older as a trans-Arabian caravan route, it was greatly developed in the late 9th century AD with numerous sites expanded with facilities to ease the passage of pilgrims to Mecca. There was a preIslamic settlement at al-Rabadha where copper was smelted in small quantities. The site was a major camel pasturage before Islam, and great quantities of camel bones were retrieved. Under the Muslims, al-Rabadha became a state pasturage for camels. The pre-Islamic levels produced ceramics that had affinities with the pre-Islamic Arabian traditions better known in the south, but with the Umayyad period, ceramics of the types known from Jordan begin to appear. In the Abbasid period the site went through a phase of massive expansion, with a large public water-tank and an extraordinarily large number of small water tanks under houses and other structures. In the 9th century, lustreware and other fine glazed ceramics were imported in quantities from Iraq, and this process of bringing in luxury wares probably holds true at the numerous stations all along the Darb Zubayda.

S.A. Al-Râshid: Darb Zubaydah: the pilgrim road from Kufa to Mecca (al-Riyâd, 1980); ––––: Al-Rabadhah: a portrait of early Islamic civilization in Saudi Arabia (alRiyâd, 1986).

GK

Rabita de Guardamar An Islamic settlement situated near Alicante in southeastern Spain, which was excavated in 1984–7. It comprises three separate long structures, possibly belonging to a caliph recorded in AD 944. Three phases of stone-

built structures were identified, of a type now recognized as early Arabic in southern Spain and the Balearic islands. The excavations have special importance for the sequence of 9thto 11thcentury pottery, including jars, amphorae, lamps and red-painted tableware. A number of Arabic inscriptions and graffiti were found in the excavations.

R.A. Ruiz: La Rabita Califal de las Dunas de Guardamar

(Alicante, 1989).

RH

racemization see AMINO ACID DATING

radiocalcium dating Scientific dating technique for bone based on the formation of 41Ca by the interaction of cosmic-ray neutrons with 40Ca in the top metre or so of soil. Calcium in the soil is taken up by plants and thus by animals to form bone. The HALF-LIFE of 41Ca is about 100,000 years, and the method is theoretically applicable over the past 300,000 years. On death, however, the activity of the 41Ca concentration does not simply decrease by radioactive decay, as is the case for 14C (see RADIOCARBON DATING). Instead, cosmic rays can continue to form 41Ca in the bone unless it is well shielded by an overburden of a few metres of soil or rock. Other problems are, firstly, that the initial activity of 41Ca is not well known but depends on the local and variable soil make-up, and, secondly, that the activity is very low (typically 1 part 41Ca to 1014 of 40Ca).

M. Raisbeck and F. Fiou: ‘Possible use of 41Ca for radioactive dating’, Nature 277 (1979), 42–4; R. Middleton, D. Fink, J. Kelin and P. Sharma: ‘41Ca concentrations in modern bone and their implications for dating’, Radiocarbon 31 (1989), 305–10.

SB

radiocarbon dating Scientific dating technique based on the amount of the radioactive isotope of carbon, 14C, (relative to stable 12C or 13C) left in an organic sample. 14C is formed in the upper

MASS SPECTROMETRY

492 RADIOCARBON DATING

atmosphere by the action of cosmogenic neutrons on 14N. It forms carbon dioxide and rapidly mixes through the atmosphere; it enters plant life via photosynthesis and animal life via the food chain. Assuming a constant production rate, there is an equilibrium between formation and decay so that the biosphere has a known 14C/12C ratio. After death of a plant or animal, exchange with the biosphere ceases, and the 14C level decreases by radioactive decay with a HALF-LIFE of 5730 years. Relative to a modern standard, the measured 14C/12C ratio will in principle yield the age of the sample. In practice, production varies because of varying cosmic ray flux caused by changes in the earth’s magnetic field and sunspot activity. The radiocarbon age of a sample is therefore not the same as calendar age. A plot of radiocarbon dates on tree rings versus their

DENDROCHRONOLOGICAL ages (a calibration

curve) over the past 7000 years shows a broad, approximately sinusoidal variation superimposed on which are relatively short-term wiggles (due to magnetic field and sunspot effects respectively). Thus at about 5000 BC radiocarbon results are some 700 years too young, but at around 50 BC there is no major difference.

Datable samples are organic materials, such as bone and wood. Each type of sample must be appropriately pre-treated to remove possible carbon-containing contaminants, such as calcium carbonate, from the burial environment, and is then converted to whatever form needed for the particular measurement process used (see ACCELERATOR

and CONVENTIONAL RADIOCARBON DATING). Modern reference

standards (14C/12C ~ 10-12), made from oxalic acid, are also measured, as are background samples having no 14C activity left. A fractionation correction is applied to the measured 14C/12C ratio using

the δ13C value (see CARBON ISOTOPE ANALYSIS).

Apart from the problems of calibration (below), specific problems arise for particular types of sample and environment. Only the protein part of bone is accurately datable, this precludes cremated bone, as the protein has been lost. Treerings cease exchange with the biosphere shortly after formation, hence radiocarbon dating of wood or charcoal from a mature long-lived species does not date the time of felling or burning but formation of the specific rings dated, indeed the result can be in error by many centuries. Marine species also show radiocarbon ages that are too old because they take up carbon, directly or indirectly, from the oceans, and the upwelling of 14C depleted deep water means that surface water has an apparent radiocarbon age relative to the atmosphere: this

amounts to about 400 years, but the effect is variable. Freshwater molluscs and aquatic plants are subject to the hard-water effect: the uptake of carbon, of various sources and ages, from groundwater. This is often associated, but not directly correlated, with the presence of calcium ions resulting from dissolution of calcium carbonate which, in radiocarbon terms, is infinitely old.

The upper age limit is determined by the ability to detect very low 14C levels above background; typically it is in the region of 40,000 years, but with isotopic enrichment on a large sample it has been possible to extend the method to 75,000 years. The lower limit is about 200 years because of the mutual interference of the fossil fuel effect (depletion of the atmospheric 14C/12C ratio by burning of large quantities of fuel such as coal which started in the 19th century) and the bomb effect (production of large quantities of 14C by nuclear weapons testing). The error terms achievable on the radiocarbon result depend on the sample size, but are typically 50–100 radiocarbon years; high precision dating can achieve ±20 radiocarbon years (but requires 3 to 4 times more sample than normal CONVENTIONAL RADIOCARBON DATING). The calibration of a radiocarbon result plus associated error, however, gives one or more age ranges, the length of which depends on the form of the calibration curve at that point. It may have a steep or shallow slope, or it may be wiggly, giving rise to several possible calendar dates corresponding to one radiocarbon result. Radiocarbon results cannot, therefore, be used to give a relative chronology other than in a crude way and where the events are separated by several centuries.

Calibration curves are constructed by highprecision radiocarbon dating of groups of tree rings (usually 10 or 20) for which there are dendrochronological dates. At present there is a continuous curve going back some 8000 years (a further 2000 are yet to be replicated). Calibrated dates can only be faithfully represented by probability distributions which fully take account of both the error term on the radiocarbon results and the effect of wiggles in the calibration curve. To generate probability distributions requires the use of a computer program. Such programs implicitly use Bayesian methodology with the eminently reasonable a priori assumption that, in the absence of any information to the contrary, all calendar ages for the event being dated are equally likely.

The established convention for quoting radiocarbon results gives them in uncalibrated years (uncal) BP, where 0 BP is 1950 AD. They are rounded to the nearest 10 years (5 if the error term is less than

BLACK AND RED WARE

50 years) and calculated on the ‘Libby half-life’ of 5568 years (named after the founder of the technique). Each result is ideally quoted with its error (±1 σ), and its laboratory reference e.g. 2020 ±50 BP (BM-2558). Calibration corrects to the more accurate 5370 year half-life. The accepted convention for quoting specific individual calibrated results is cal BC or cal AD with the confidence level and calibration method.

W.G. Mook and H.T. Waterbolk: Handbook for archaeologists No. 3, European Science Foundation, Radiocarbon Dating (Strasbourg, 1985); S. Bowman: Radiocarbon dating (London, 1990); C.E. Buck et al.: ‘Combining archaeological and radiocarbon information: a Bayesian approach to calibration’, Antiquity 65 (1991), 808–21; S. Bowman: ‘Using radiocarbon: an update’, Antiquity 68 (1994), 838–43; See also the journal

Radiocarbon.

SB

radiometric dating Any scientific dating technique in which the age is directly determined by radioactive decay (or grow-in): see RADIOCARBON

DATING, URANIUM SERIES DATING, POTASSIUMARGON DATING, RADIOCALCIUM DATING,

FISSION TRACK DATING.

Rajghat Settlement site of the GANGES CIVILIZATION, consisting of several mounds located on a small plateau to the east of the sacred city of Varanasi (modern Banaras) in Uttar Pradesh, India. Excavations by the Banaras Hindu University (1957–69) documented occupation from the 8th century BC onwards, characterized by a local tradition of ceramics, followed by

NORTHERN BLACK POLISHED WARE (NBPW) lev-

els of the 6th–3rd centuries BC. No PAINTED GREY WARE period is found at this site, and the NBPW appears to have been incorporated into a local ceramic tradition, in which Black and Red Ware and other local plain wares continued. The site attained urban status only near the end of the NBPW period, and reached its maximum extent in the 1st–3rd centuries AD, from which period the remains of mudand fired-brick structures have survived. This latest phase was also characterized by mould-made human and animal terracotta figurines, seals, sealings and die-struck coins. The site was occupied until the 12th century AD.

A.K. Narain and T.N. Roy: Excavations at Rajghat (Varanasi, 1976); T.N. Roy: The Ganges Civilization (New Delhi, 1983), 50–3, 96–8.

CS

AL-RAQQA 493

Ramesseum Mortuary temple of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II (c.1290–1224 BC), located on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes (modern Luxor). The principal building – where the funerary cult of the king was celebrated – is a typical stone-built New Kingdom temple, consisting of two successive courtyards (each entered through a pylon), a hypostyle hall with surrounding annexes, leading to a room for the sacred ‘bark’ (a ritual boat containing a cult image) and the sanctuary. The complex includes the remains of a royal palace and large numbers of mud-brick granaries and storerooms. The Ramesseum is among the most prominent of the West Theban monuments. Its reliefs and architecture, as at other funerary complexes such as MEDINET HABU, provide a great deal of evidence regarding the rituals relating to the royal funerary cult.

J.E. Quibell: The Ramesseum (London, 1898); W. Helck:

Die Ritualdarstellungen des Ramesseums I (Wiesbaden, 1972).

IS

ranch boundaries Term sometimes applied in Britain to linear earthworks constructed from the 2nd millennium BC that are assumed to mark out prehistoric land divisions and/or to have controlled livestock. They are most apparent on downland (e.g. the Berkshire Downs), perhaps simply for reasons of preservation. ‘Ranch boundaries’ are often associated with smaller rectangular enclosures of the later Bronze Age and with banjo-shaped enclosures of the later 1st millennium BC – both of which seem to have been used to corral livestock, although they might also have divided arable land.

RJA

rank If a certain VARIABLE, such as length or weight, is measured on a set of archaeological objects, the RANK of a chosen object is its position when the objects are arranged in order (either increasing or decreasing) of their values of that variable (e.g. 5th smallest, 3rd largest). See NON-

PARAMETRIC STATISTICS.

CO

rapid silt see PRIMARY SILT

al-Raqqa Islamic-period site in Syria, at which excavations commenced in 1982, exposing a large area of the extensive ruins. Al-Raqqa is the most important Abbasid (AD 750–1258) palace and town to have been examined in recent years, its

494 AL-RAQQA

importance being on the level of SAMARRA. The recent excavations have defined both early Abbasid al-Raqqa and also Harun al-Rashid’s town and palace at al-Rafiqa, exposing the walls and towers of the fortifications. Earlier assumptions regarding the date of the well-known Bab Baghdad have been overturned and it is now associated with the mediaeval rather than the early Abbasid period. The excavations have also clarified the nature of the town in the Ayyubid period when kilns producing fine glazed wares were established to the south of the Friday Mosque. The excavation at these kilns along with recent work at other north Syrian sites is likely to greatly improve the dating and spread of the socalled ‘Raqqa-wares’ in the 12th–13th century.

M. Meinecke: ‘al-Rakka’, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edn (Leiden, 1971); V. Porter: Medieval Syrian pottery (Raqqa ware) (Oxford, 1981).

GK

Ras Mkumbuu see SWAHILI HARBOUR TOWNS

Ras Shamra

see UGARIT

raster format

see GIS

ratio variable

see VARIABLE

recumbent-stone circles Regional group of

Neolithic stone circles found in County Cork and County Kerry in Ireland, so-named because each ring contains a single horizontally placed stone. There are usually two orthostats, acting as ‘portals’, opposite the recumbent stone, while the rest of the megaliths are graded down in height toward the recumbent. Barber (1973) held that the axes of the circles were oriented in an astronomically significant manner; Heggie (1981) summarizes the arguments against this.

J. Barber: ‘The orientation of the recumbent stone circles of the south-west of Ireland’, Journal of the Kerry archaeology and history society, vi (1973), 26–39; D. Heggie: Megalithic science (London, 1981), 182–4.

RJA

‘Red Lady of Paviland’ Misnomer for a famous ruddle-stained skeleton of a young man found at PAVILAND CAVE on the Gower Peninsular, south Wales.

reduction of data An analytical approach to archaelogical DATA, advocated by Ehrenberg,

which seeks to reduce large amounts of DATA to a much smaller number of ‘summary statistics’ which still give a good impression of the overall pattern of the data. This approach concentrates on producing tables of summary statistics in which any pattern is, hopefully, obvious to the reader. The most common summary statistics of a single VARIABLE are its

MEAN and its STANDARD DEVIATION. The collec-

tive term ‘descriptive statistics’ is also used.

J.E. Doran and F.R. Hodson: Mathematics and computers in archaeology (Edinburgh, 1975), 38; A.S.C. Ehrenberg:

Data reduction (London, 1975); S. Shennan: Quantifying archaeology (Edinburgh, 1988), 33–5.

CO

refuse deposition The study of refuse deposition has played an increasingly important role in archaeology, not only in terms of excavation but also

in terms of ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY and other forms of ACTUALISM.

For example, Lewis Binford (1983: 144–92) has studied the behavioral patterns among modern Nunamiut and Bushmen in order to obtain a better understanding of prehistoric hunter-gatherers’ use of camp-space, including such depositional features as ‘drop zones’, ‘toss zones’ and ‘aggregate dumping areas’. Since the 1970s, William Rathje’s Garbage Project has used archaeological techniques to analyse patterns of refuse disposal in modern Tucson, Arizona (Rathje 1974).

According to the model of site formation processes put forward by Michael Schiffer (1976;

see BEHAVIORAL ARCHAEOLOGY), there are three

basic modes of refuse deposition: primary (i.e. material discarded at point of use), secondary (material moved away from point of use as a result of maintenance or cleaning) and de facto types of refuse (material deposited at the time of a site’s abandonment). Some PROCESSUAL archaeologists have therefore argued that the understanding of the mechanisms of deposition relies largely on the ability to distinguish between these three modes of refuse disposal. By the early 1980s it was clear to many archaeologists that this was too simplistic an approach; Binford, for instance, argued that when Schiffer’s model was applied to the Joint Site (Arizona), it was incapable of distinguishing between (a) the de facto refuse left behind by a sedentary community at the time of a site’s abandonment, and (b) the primary refuse subsequently left by groups reusing the ruins as a camp-site (Binford 1981).

Trigger (1989: 360) argues, on the basis of ethnographic research, that ‘artifacts and artifact debris