A Dictionary of Archaeology
.pdfK. Popper: The logic of scientific discovery (London, 1934/1959); T.S. Kuhn: The structure of scientific revolutions (Chicago, 1962); K. Popper: Conjectures and refutations (London, 1963/1972); C.G. Hempel: Aspects of scientific explanation and other essays in the philosophy of - science (New York, 1965); ––––: Philosophy of natural science (Princeton, 1966); I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave, eds:
Criticism and the growth of knowledge (Cambridge, 1970); P.J. Watson, S.A. LeBlanc and C.L. Redman: Explanation in archaeology: an explicitly scientific approach (New York and London, 1971); D.L. Clarke: ‘Archaeology: the loss of innocence’, Antiquity 47 (1973), 6–18; M.H. Salmon:
Philosophy and archaeology (New York, 1982); M.B. Schiffer: Behavioural archaeology (New York, 1976); L. Binford: In pursuit of the past (London 1983); G. Gibbon:
Explanation in archaeology (Oxford, 1989); B. Trigger: A history of archaeological thought (Cambridge, 1989); I. Hodder: Theory and practice in archaeology (London, 1992); K.R. Dark: Theoretical archaeology (London, 1995).
RJA
Thera (mod. Santorini) Island in the Cyclades that was partly destroyed by a massive volcanic explosion in the mid 2nd millennium BC, the ash from which buried and uniquely preserved a major Cycladic port of the Middle Bronze Age. The ancient settlement, now often referred to as Akrotiri after the nearby modern village, began to develop during the Early Cycladic period, and by the Middle Bronze Age had developed into a major town. Theran material culture reflects its geographical position – the pottery retains a Cycladic character (see CYCLADIC CULTURE), while wallpaintings, architectural features and luxury craft items reveal the influence of the MINOAN civilization of Crete and the MYCENAEAN civilization of the Greek mainland. (It is possible that the town became prosperous as a nodal point in trade between the two civilizations.) The houses, which are often preserved up to their second storey, were built of unworked stone and clay with timber and ashlar reinforcements. There was no rigid townplan, and instead the houses line winding alleys and irregularly shaped ‘squares’. Only a small part of the town has been excavated, but it appears to have been a rich quarter, with a number of houses containing wall murals – the wall paintings of Akrotiri are second only to those of KNOSSOS. The most remarkable painting is the ‘Flotilla’ or ‘Ship Procession’ scene: the ships sail across a sea full of dolphins between two festive towns (one of which may be Akrotiri itself) in what seems to be a nautical procession or ritual.
Dating the explosion. The ancient town was first excavated in the 1960s by Spyridon Marinatos, who believed that the volcanic explosion which
THERMAL COLOUR TEST 575
destroyed Thera (and preserved its archaeological remains) was also responsible for the destruction of the Minoan civilization on Crete. However, while most of the Cretan palaces were abandoned during the pottery phase known as Late Minoan IB, the evidence from Akrotiri suggests that the eruption happened at least two or three generations earlier during Late Minoan IA. Furthermore, the only ashy layers found on excavation sites on Crete that could have been caused by the volcano distinctly predate the end of Minoan civilization. Vulcanologists have also thrown doubt on the severity of the disturbances likely to have been caused so far away (Crete is about 110 km distant). The third international conference on Thera (Hardy et al. 1990) therefore dismissed the connection between the Theran eruption and the final wave of destruction on Crete. The eruption may have taken place around 1520 BC, but more probably occurred about a century earlier in 1620 BC.
C. Doumas: Thera (London, 1983); L. Morgan: The miniature wall-paintings of Thera (Cambridge, 1988); D.A. Hardy et al.: Thera and the Aegean World III, 3 vols (London, 1990); K.A. Wardle: ‘The palace civilizations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000–1200 BC’,
The Oxford illustrated prehistory of Europe, ed. B. Cunliffe (Oxford, 1994), 202–43.
RJA
thermal analysis Blanket term which encompasses a range of firing temperature determination methods for ceramics. This includes thermal shrinkage and thermal expansion methods of re-firing, which examine the dimensional changes of pottery during re-firing. In these, once the original firing temperature is exceeded, sintering and densification of the ceramic body are resumed and shrinkage becomes marked. Other methods of thermal analysis include SEM
(SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY) of sherds or
clays re-fired to different temperatures, DTA (differential thermal analysis), which measures temperature changes in experimentally heated
clays, and THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS.
M.S. Tite: ‘Determination of the firing temperature of ancient ceramics by measurement of thermal expansion: a reassessment’, Archaeometry 11 (1969), 131–43; R.B. Heimann: ‘Firing technologies and their possible assessment by modern analytical methods’, Archaeological ceramics, ed. J.S. Olin and A.D. Franklin (Washington, D.C., 1982), 89–96.
PTN
thermal colour test Technique of ceramic analysis based on the temperature-dependent
576 THERMAL COLOUR TEST
colour changes of clays caused by their mineral content and impurities. Clay briquettes are fired at intervals and their hue, value and chroma recorded,
using a MUNSELL COLOUR CHART, after each
successive firing. The results are then plotted; similar clays should yield similar graphs. The clay briquettes can then be compared with sherds which have been similarly heated in stages, though here change will occur only above the original firing temperature. Where the latter stages of the graphs for the clay briquettes correspond to those for the sherds, a similar clay is indicated. The technique can also be used to estimate ancient firing temperatures, since if the clay can be ascertained then the temperature at which the original sherd colour is reached can be discovered from comparison with the relevant clay briquette.
B. Hulthén: ‘On thermal colour test’, NAR 9 (1976), 1–6.
PTN
thermal gradients see THERMAL STRESS
thermal prospection, thermal sensing
Method of AIRBORNE REMOTE-SENSING which
depends on slight temperature variations (comprising tenths of a degree centigrade) of deposits overlying buried structures, the thermal properties of which differ from the surrounding soil. Usually undertaken from an aeroplane (although groundlevel measurements can also be made), this technique has mainly been applied to large structures such as prehistoric enclosures.
A. Clark: Seeing beneath the soil (London, 1990), 122.
IS
thermal stress The difference in temperature between the surfaces and interior of, for example, a ceramic vessel wall, which occur during firing, cooling and use. For example, heating over a cooking fire will lead to differences in temperature across the profile of a vessel wall which will lead to stresses in the material as the outer surface expands more rapidly than the inside. Such stresses can eventually break the vessel. Thermal gradients can be reduced by producing thin walled vessels and vessels with a non-angular profile.
P.M. Rice: Pottery analysis: a sourcebook (Chicago, 1987), 363–5.
PTN
thermogravimetric analysis Means of determining the weight-loss in ceramics while re-heating to 1000°C. A significant weight change ac-
companies the dehydroxylation of the clay, typically between 500 and 700°C, and if this loss is exhibited by a sample it indicates an original firing temperature below 700°C, insufficient for complete dehydration. Such low temperatures may either result from the potter’s deliberate attempt to conserve fuel or from the fact that a higher temperature would have achieved no benefit for the particular type of vessel being produced. Coarse vessels to be used in cooking, and therefore subject to thermal stress, are often low fired. Problems from rehydration of fired pottery during burial may be encountered however, and this, along with the loss of organic material from some ceramic bodies, can make the results of this technique difficult to interpret with certainty.
P.M. Rice: Pottery analysis: a sourcebook (Chicago, 1987), 388.
PTN
thermoluminescence (TL) dating Scientific dating technique applicable to ceramics, burnt stone, calcite (particularly stalagmites and flow stones) and sediments. The decay of naturally occurring uranium, thorium and potassium (40K) produce alpha, beta and gamma radiation; because of the long half-lives of these isotopes the radiation flux is constant over the periods of interest (there is also a small cosmic ray contribution). On passage through matter, this radiation produces electrons which can become ‘trapped’ at defects in the crystalline lattice of minerals in the sample (there is a net deposition of energy in the crystal – the ‘radiation dose’). If the sample is heated, the electrons are released and some re-combine at so-called luminescence centres with the emission of light i.e. thermoluminescence. To a first approximation, this TL (known as the ‘natural’ TL) is proportional to the radiation dose-rate, the sample sensitivity to radiation (i.e. TL per unit of radiation dose) and the time elapsed since the ‘traps’ were last emptied.
In pottery, the elapsed time is the age of the ceramic, as the act of firing to a temperature in excess of about 400°C is sufficient to empty the traps. For calcite, the zero-time point is the formation of the crystal. For sediments, it is the exposure to light (‘bleaching’) prior to deposition and covering with other layers. Light bleaching of the TL signal is not very efficient and there may be
a |
substantial, and unknown, residual signal |
on |
deposition: OPTICALLY STIMULATED |
LUMINESCENCE circumvents this problem. The age equation is often expressed in terms of the ratio of ‘archaeological dose’ (or palaeodose) relative to
‘effective radiation dose-rate’. The archaeological dose is the amount of beta or gamma radiation required to produce the signal equal to the natural TL, while the ‘effective annual radiation dose-rate’ is all radiation contributions incorporating sensitivity relative to beta or gamma radiation.
Sample collection requires care. Because of the different ranges of the radiations involved, evaluation of the radiation dose-rate is simplified if the outer 2 mm of sample is removed. Sherds, for example, therefore need to be more than about 8 mm thick to be accurately datable. The gamma ray contribution is largely from the burial environment, which may be inhomogeneous; in situ measurement by the TL scientist is best. The radiation dose-rate internal to the sample is inferred by laboratory measurement of the uranium, thorium and potassium contents: U and Th contents are measured indirectly by counting alpha-particles emitted, for example, and K2O by flame photometry, or
NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS for all three.
The water content of the sample and soil is also important as this attenuates the radiation dose. Samples (sediment in particular) must not be exposed to light during collection.
TL dating has a number of variants depending on the grain type and size selected for measurement (e.g. fine-grain polymineral, quartz inclusion, feldspar inclusion). The effective radiation dose-rate received in each case varies largely because of the differing internal radioactivities of the grains and the short range of alpha particles (typically 25 μm). Measurement of the TL signal produces a ‘glow curve’ (TL versus temperature). The TL sensitivity of the sample to both alpha and beta radiation is measured by applying known radiation doses and determining the TL induced at a given temperature or over a temperature range; the growth of TL with dose is also plotted, and correction is made for any non-linearity. The traps used for dating must be deep enough for electrons to remain trapped for periods well in excess of the date of interest; such traps produce TL at temperatures greater than or about 300°C. Tests for trapped electron stability include the ‘plateau test’ (comparison of the shape of the natural TL signal with one induced by laboratory radiation) and tests for ‘anomalous fading’ (rapid and usually short-term loss of TL signal, which on kinetic grounds should be stable): feldspar minerals in volcanic lava flows are particularly prone to anomalous fading, but quartz is usually immune.
The precision on a TL age is typically between
± 5 and ± 10% of the age (i.e. ± 100–200 years for an object 2000 years old). This precision is usually
THIN SECTIONING 577
achieved by averaging the TL dates for several samples from the same context. TL dating can be used for pottery samples ranging from a few hundred years old to the earliest ceramics, and for burnt flint the age range can be extended into the Lower Palaeolithic period. Precise definition of the age range is not possible, as it depends on the specific sample (signal stability and how many traps are available) and its radiation exposure (how rapidly the traps fill).
It is possible to use TL for authenticity testing of ceramics, despite not knowing their environmental radiation history. A TL authenticity test is not very accurate in the sense of determining the true age of a particular object, but it is usually sufficient to allow discrimination between modern and ancient manufacture. A sample (50–100 mg) is drilled from an inconspicuous area; because of the hardness of porcelain it must be cored.
M.J. Aitken: Thermoluminescence dating (London and Florida, 1985); S.J. Fleming: Authenticity in art (London and Bristol, 1985).
SB
thermoremnant magnetism see
ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING
Thiessen polygons Branch of SPATIAL ANALYSIS which divides a region into areas, each associated with a site. It works by drawing a line at right angles through the mid-point of the join of each pair of sites. Each line is extended until it meets another line. The effect is to surround each site by a polygon, such that each point inside it is nearer to that site than to any other. The technique can be used to study settlement patterns, although the equation of polygons with catchment areas (see SITE CATCHMENT ANALYSIS), for instance, is not automatic.
I.R. Hodder and M. Hassall: ‘The non-random spacing of Romano-British walled towns’, Man 6 (1971), 391–407; I.R. Hodder and C.R. Orton: Spatial analysis in archaeology (Cambridge, 1976), 59–60.
CO
thin sectioning Technique used by archaeologists as a means of examining the provenance of stone or ceramic artefacts via their petrology. The technique of preparation is essentially that employed by geologists, and involves cutting and consolidating a section from the artefact which is then mounted on glass and ground to 0.03 mm. At this thickness the minerals will exhibit characteristic optical properties when viewed under the polarizing microscope. These properties facilitate
578 THIN SECTIONING
the identification of the mineral. Thin sections can also be used to investigate the technology of pottery making, and to separate different ceramic fabrics from one another according to their inclusions and the size and shape of their grain. For ceramic objects the technique provides information on inclusions in the clay, not on the clay itself. In addition to rock and ceramic specimens, soils can also be examined in thin section, often under fluorescent light as well as with the conventional polarizing microscope.
D.R.C. Kempe and A.P. Harvey, eds: The petrology of archaeological artefacts (Oxford, 1983).
PTN
tholos (pl. tholoi) Form of tomb with beehiveshaped chambers and domed roofs, built using a fine CORBELLING technique. The classic tholoi are those of the MYCENAEAN culture of Bronze Age Greece (e.g., ORCHOMENOS). In their archetypal form, these consist of the tholos itself (ie the circular, dome-roofed burial chamber), a dromos (an open passageway leading to the tholos) and a stomion (a narrow doorway covered with a massive lintel slab). Mycenaean tholoi are usually sunk into a hill-slope or level ground up to the level of the lintel slabs; the dome may be covered with an earth mound. Remarkable examples include the Treasury of Atreus (c.1375) and the slightly later Tomb of Clytaemnestra, both robbed out during ancient times. By analogy, the term tholos is often applied to any Mediterranean ancient tomb with a carefully corbelled beehive-shaped chamber, for example the megalithic example at ANTEQUERA in Spain. The similarity of form between Neolithic tombs such as this and the much later Mycenaean examples is no longer taken to imply any cultural connection.
RJA
Three Age System see SERIATION
Thule tradition Arctic tradition which existed from about AD 1 to 1600, and included the OLD BERING SEA, Okvik, Punuk, Birnirk and Thule cultures. It is characterized by a novel foraging tactic, which involved the use of large skin boats and drag floats in the hunting of large sea mammals in open water. Another major Thule innovation was the use of dog traction.
Thule communities sometimes spent the winters in large communities of semi-subterranean houses, subsisting on a stored surplus that was typically obtained by hunting Bowhead whales. The earliest
sites are on islands in Bering Strait, and exhibit an almost complete reliance on maritime resources. However, the later sites demonstrate a reliance on both maritime and terrestrial resources.
This kind of adaptation of the Thule tradition developed around Bering Strait; it spread, primarily through migration, to practically the entire Arctic region by AD 1000. After the 13th century AD, there seems to have been a climatic deterioration; this is generally credited with causing the Thule to modify their way of life into that of the various Historic
INUIT groups. See also NETTILLING LAKE.
L.R. Binford: ‘Willow smoke and dogs’ tails: huntergatherer settlement systems and archaeological site formation’, AA 45 (1980), 4–20; D. Damas, ed.: Handbook of North American Indians V: Arctic (Washington, D.C., 1984); J.M. Savelle: Collectors and forages: subsistencesettlement system change in the Central Canadian Arctic, AD
1000–1960 (Oxford, 1987).
RP
Thunderbird PALEOINDIAN site in northwestern Virginia (USA) on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, where the presence of CLOVIS fluted, later Paleoindian and Early Archaic projectile points indicates that occupation of Thunderbird started about 9000 BC and continued intermittently during the Early Archaic period (c.7000 BC). The Thunderbird Site is one of a series of sites (quarry, reduction station, base camp, maintenance site and hunting camps) comprising the so-called ‘Flint Run Paleoindian complex’. Thunderbird is a base camp consisting of more than 20 artefact concentrations which have been interpreted as household activity areas. An important activity was the refurbishing of toolkits with new flaked stone tools manufactured from jasper collected from a nearby quarry.
W. Gardner: ‘The flint run Paleo-Indian complex and its implications for eastern North American prehistory’,
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 288 (1977), 257–63; ––––: Lost arrowheads and broken pottery: traces of Indians in the Shenandoah Valley (Front Royal, 1986).
RJE
Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) Site in the Bolivian Altiplano that flourished between c.AD 300 and 700. The cultural successor to PUCARA, Tiahuanaco formed a large political unit which politically and culturally dominated much of Bolivia, southern highland Peru, and northern Chile. Tiahuanaco itself was an urban centre with a ceremonial core featuring several huge temples, a pyramid, and many palace structures decorated with cut stone lintels and adorned with large statues in a distinctive style. The Tiahuanaco major deity (best known
from reliefs on the monolithic ‘Gateway of the Sun’) was represented as a male with a rayed headdress and two staves, evidently derived from the Staff God of CHAVÍN.
Investigations in the Bolivian altiplano, centred on the site of Tiahuanaco and with its supporting hinterland, have shown that an important aspect of the economy of the ancient city, permitting the growth of a large sedentary population, was an immense (82,000+ ha) system of raised fields surrounding Lake Titicaca. These fields were formed by cutting deep canals in the low lying, often waterlogged, soils along the lake, throwing up the soils to form long low mounds which have improved drainage and which are warmer than the surrounding dry lands as the water in the canals acts as a solar sink, blanketing the fields in warmer air on freezing nights. Canal sediments were used to fertilize the fields, lessening soil alkalinity, which along with freezing is a major agricultural problem in the region. Pollen analysis has shown that these fields were used to grow potatoes and quinoa, still major crops among the indigenous Aymara and Quechua speaking peoples of the altiplano. Modern experiments, growing into full-scale projects involving local peoples, have demonstrated that greatly increased yields and even double cropping are still possible if these canals and raised field systems are used.
I.Z. Garaycochea: ‘Agricultural experiments in raised fields in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru: preliminary considerations’, Pre-Hispanic agricultural fields in the Andean region, ed. William M. Denevan et al. (London, 1987), 385–402; C. Erickson: ‘Raised field agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin: putting ancient agriculture back to work’, Expedition 30/3 (1988), 8–16; A. Kolata and C. Ortloff: ‘Thermal analysis of Tiwanaku raised field systems in the Lake Titicaca basin of Bolivia’, JAS 16 (1989), 233–63; J. Albarracín Jordan: Asentamientos Prehispanicos del Valle de Tiwanaku (La Paz, 1990); L.J. Arellano: ‘The new cultural contexts of Tiahuanaco’, Huari administrative structure: prehistoric monumental architecture and state government, ed. W. Isbell and G.F. McEwan (Washington, D.C., 1991), 259–80; A.L. Kolata: ‘The technology and organization of labor production in the Tiwanaku state’, LAA 2/2 (1991), 99–125.
KB
Tien culture (Dian) see SHIH-CHAI-SHAN
Tighénif see TERNIFINE
Tikal The largest known Maya centre of the Classic period (c.AD 300–900), located in northcentral Petén, Guatemala. Tikal was the site of a
TIKAL 579
massive mapping and excavation project carried out by the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania from 1956 to 1967. Several years of mapping at the start of the project revealed that the site’s civic-ceremonial architecture covers an area of some 16 sq. km and comprises more than 3000 constructions, including 3 acropolises, 5 SACBES, 9 reservoirs, a ballcourt (see BALLGAME), a sweathouse and countless temple-pyramids, plazas, complexes, residences and more than 200 stone monuments, including stelae.
The beginnings of settlement in Tikal date to the Middle Preclassic (Formative) period (c.600 BC), with recovery of refuse deposits and a few simple burials. Growth of ceremonial architecture at the site was underway by the beginning of the Late Preclassic. Recent excavations by Guatemalan archaeologists have been directed toward the Early Classic structures in the Mundo Perdido complex and the connections between Tikal and TEOTIHUACAN. Most of what is known about the site comes from the massive and abundant structural remains dating to the Late Classic period, including the elite residences of the Central and South Acropolises and the spectacular royal burials in the North Acropolis and under the largest temple-pyramids at Tikal. Although scattered Postclassic finds have been found, Tikal seems to have been largely abandoned during the 9thcentury LOWLAND MAYA collapse.
Tikal’s centre had an estimated population of 60,000 people, but residential settlement spreads over another 60 sq. km around the centre. This area of rural settlement was investigated by means of what was at the time an unusual survey and sampling technique in the Maya lowlands: transects. Four long trails were cut through the forest, extending out from the site centre to the cardinal directions. Four kilometres north of the centre a low wall and ditch – probably defensive – extended between the swampy areas (bajos) bordering the site on the east and west. The distribution of residential structures around the site suggests a rural population estimated at 30,000. The total population of the Tikal state, including secondary centres within its political orbit (such as Yaxhá and Naranjo), is estimated at 425,000 (Culbert et al. 1990: 117). (See figure 57.)
University of Pennsylvania: Tikal Reports, 22 vols (Philadelphia, 1958–); W.A. Haviland: ‘Population and social dynamics: the dynasties and social structure of Tikal’, Expedition 27 (1985), 34–41; P.D. Harrison: ‘Tikal: selected topics’, City States of the Maya, ed. E.P. Benson (Denver, 1986) 45–71; T.P. Culbert, L.J. Kosakowsky, R.E. Fry and W.A. Haviland; ‘The population of Tikal,
580 TIKAL
8
9
4
2 7 1
3
10
11
12
5
6
13
14
Figure 57 Tikal Map of the central part of the Mayan city of Tikal, Guatemala; (1–5) Temples I–V, (6) Temple of Inscriptions, (7) Great Plaza, (8–14) Reservoirs. Source: M.D. Coe: The Maya, 2nd ed. (Thames and Hudson, 1980), fig. 53.
Guatemala’, Precolumbian population history in the Maya lowlands, ed. T.P. Culbert and D.S. Rice (Albuquerque, 1990) 103–21.
PRI
Tikopia Small island (4.6 sq. km) lying 200 km north of Vanuatu and 200 km southeast of the Santa
Cruz Islands in the Pacific. A study of the island by Pat Kirch and Doug Yen (1982), based mainly on archaeological data but complemented by anthropological evidence, forms a classic example of the principal focus of archaeological work in the Pacific: the casual cycle linking landscape, society and subsistence.
Tikopia is formed mainly of a volcanic cone rising some 360 m above the sea, with reefal growth to the west in the lee of the volcano on which sands and volcanic debris have accumulated. The island was the subject of a long period of anthropological study by Raymond Firth, who looked at the clan structure, agricultural practices and religious beliefs of the Polynesian population (Firth 1936). In 1977 and 1978 Kirch and Yen undertook a joint study of the systems of settlement, agriculture and society that have evolved during the 3000-year occupation of the island. The present day land-use is a complex mixture of tree and root crops. Trees such as breadfruit, canarium (Pacific almond) and coconut are planted both for food and for soil conservation measures. The soil erosion has largely been caused by the (now total) clearance of natural forest in order to plant root crops such as taro and the introduced manioc. Tree cropping, common throughout the Pacific, is found in a particularly complex form in Tikopia: the planting of small and large trees together mirrors the upperand under-storeys of the natural rainforest.
Many islands of the Pacific have been cleared of their natural vegetation, which has been replaced by species introduced by people, giving rise to the concept of ‘transported landscapes’. Not only have people taken with them all the plant and animal (chiefly pig, dog and chicken) species on which they lived, but also bodies of knowledge on how to combine these species in a manner that is productive and appropriate for provisioning the social system. The Tikopia evidence shows that people went further, and transformed the physical structure of the landscape. When people arrived on Tikopia, roughly 3000 years ago, they found an island which looked very different from that of today. The cone was in its present form, but the lowlands to the west of the island, on which much present day agriculture takes place, were far smaller. The earliest colonists relied heavily on marine resources (fish, turtle and shellfish) and land birds – some of which they wiped out
– while they established their agricultural systems. (This heavy reliance on wild resources is typical of the earliest phase of colonization across the Pacific.) The earliest material culture assemblages, particularly the pots, fit into the LAPITA CULTURAL COMPLEX found throughout the western Pacific.
Around 2000 years ago the pottery changed to that of the MANGAASI styles, also widespread throughout the Pacific region. In this phase, the agricultural system seems to have been well established, as evidenced by plant remains and bones, but there are also indications of soil erosion from the slopes of the volcano, presumably due to forest
TIKOPIA 581
Kiki phase c. 500 BC
Sinapupu phase c. AD 1000
Tuakamali phase c. AD 1600
Hilly terrain (Volcanic) |
Swamp |
Settlement area |
Lowland (Calcareous) |
Reef |
|
Figure 58 Tikopia Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Tikopia environment at three points in time Source: P. Kirch and D.E. Yen: Tikopia: The prehistory and ecology of a Polynesian outlier (BMP, 1982), fig. 124.
582 TIKOPIA
clearance. Soil from the slopes built up on the lowland areas to the west and formed new areas of cultivable land.
Between 2000 and 800 years ago there was a marked switch from wild to cultivated foods, a more intensive concentration on pigs, and the expansion of settlement. During the final phase of Tikopia’s prehistory, after 800 years ago, there was further aggradation of the shoreline to the west and a much larger build-up of soil on the western flats. Agriculture seems to have taken on its modern form, with storage of breadfruit starch in pits. Pigs disappear from the faunal record, which fits in with oral historical evidence suggesting that the pig herd was deliberately wiped out because of its destructive effect on gardens. Monumental architectural forms, such as MARAE, appear during this phase.
Kirch and Yen estimate that around one million cubic tons of soil have been eroded from the volcano and deposited on the lowlands, much of it in the last 1000 years. This has increased the area of land useful for horticulture by about 40%. Thus Tikopia today represents an ecology in which humans have substantially introduced the communities of plants and animals, and have also altered the physical relief of the island.
R. Firth: We, the Tikopia (London, 1936); P.V. Kirch and D.E. Yen: Tikopia: The prehistory and ecology of a Polynesian outlier (Honolulu, 1982).
CG
Timargarha see GANDHARA GRAVE CULTURE
Timber-grave culture (Srúbnaya) Bronze Age culture first identified by V.A. Gorodtsov (1900 to 1903) in the Seveski Donets area. Later, sites belonging to this culture were studied by Russian and Ukrainian scholars, including N.Ya. Merpert, O.A. Krivtsova-Grakova, and A.I. Terenozhkin and were identified in a vast area, stretching from the Middle and Lower Volga in the east to the lower Danube in the west and dated to c.1600–1200 BC. The main characteristic of the culture is a rectangular timber burial chamber (or ‘srub’, in Russian), 1.8–2.2 m long, 1.2–1.4 m wide and 0.4–0.6 m high, beneath a kurgan or mound. Stone cists were also common. The dead were usually laid in a contracted posture on their left side, the head facing east. The grave-goods are usually restricted to one, rarely two, ceramic vessels. The few richer graves that are known contain bronze knives, and ornaments such as rings, and wooden vessels with bronze inlays. Animal bones are often found in the graves (e.g. six bull skulls in kurgan no. 5 at Kamushevakha, near
the town of Bakhmut on the Severski Donets). The barrows form small groups (numbering 5–10), usually along the edges of the plateaux.
More than 100 settlements belonging to the Timber-grave culture are known in the Seveski Donets catchment alone; they are usually situated on dunes or on small hills along the river valley and consist of semi-subterranean houses of square or rectangular shape (e.g. 7 × 7 or 6 × 8 m) arranged in one or two rows. The remains of fortifications have been found in a few cases. The economy was based on stock-breeding, agriculture and metallurgy. The faunal remains consisted of the bones of cattle, sheep/goat, pig and horse. Flint and bronze sickles, pestles and quern stones are indicative of agriculture. At the site of Usovo Ozero (near Donetsk), G.A. Pashkevich (1991) has identified the grains of einkorn and club wheats, six-row barley, rye, oats and Italian millet. Metallurgy was particularly developed in the area close to the copper mines of the Donets Basin: near the villages of Klonovoe, Pilipchatino, Kalinovka and Pokrovskoe. These sites contained the remains of workshops, furnaces, slag, ingots, fragments of crucibles and clay moulds.
Many scholars, e.g. A.I. Terenozhkin (1976) and B.N. Grakov (1977), identify the Timber-grave culture with the historically-attested ‘Cimmerians’, who were said to live north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea in the period between 714 and c.500 BC.
S.S. Berezanskaya and N.N. Chernichenko: ‘Srúbnaja kul’tura’ [The Timber-grave culture], Arheologiya Ukrainskoi SSR [The archaeology of the Ukrainian SSR], ed. D. Ya. Telegin (Kiev, 1985), 462–72; B.N. Grakov: Rannii zˇeleznyi vek [The early Iron Age] (Moscow, 1977); A. Häusler: Die Gräber der älteren Ockergrabkultur zwischen Ural and Dnepr (Berlin, 1974); G.A. Pashkevich:
Paleoetnobotanicˇeski nohodki na territorii Ukrainy (neolitbronza): Katalog [Palaeoethnobotanic finds in the territory of the Ukraine (Neolithic – Bronze Age): catalogue] (Kiev, 1991); A.I. Terenozhkin: Kimmeriicy [The Cimmerians] (Kiev, 1976).
PD
Timna Copper-mining site in the Wadi Arabah (at the edge of the Sinai peninsula in southern Israel, about 30 km north of Eilat), which has been excavated by Beno Rothenberg since 1959. The earliest mines (at site F2) possibly constitute the earliest metallurgical workshop in the world, since they have been dated to the 5th or 6th millennium BC by associated pottery assigned to the ‘Qatifian’ Neolithic culture. Site F2, to the west of Mount Timna, consists of a small area of slag lumps and
nodules of copper ore, scattered in the vicinity of a granite mortar with which the ore had been crushed. The method of copper extraction is described as ‘a rather primitive, unsophisticated technology, which appears to be at a stage near the threshold of iron ore flux utilization’ (Rothenberg and Merkel 1995:5), but it is uncertain whether iron ore was being added deliberately.
The Chalcolithic mining and metallurgical operations at the site were probably undertaken by the local inhabitants of southern Palestine, although the analysis of copper implements at the late Predynastic site of MAADI suggest that the Egyptians were already using copper obtained from Timna. By the Ramessid period (c.1307–1070 BC), the Egyptians had become heavily involved in the mining itself, and a chapel was constructed for the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who was regarded as a protectress of mining and quarrying areas. The Timna mines were later reutilized by the NABATAEANS, Romans and Arabs.
B. Rothenberg: Timna: valley of the Biblical copper mines (London, 1972); ––––: The Egyptian mining temple at Timna I (London, 1988); ––––: The ancient metallurgy of copper (London, 1990); –––– and J. Merkel: ‘Late Neolithic copper smelting in the Arabah’, Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies Newsletter 19 (1995), 1–7.
IS
Timnað see ARABIA, PRE-ISLAMIC
Tintagel Spectacular headland on the north coast of Cornwall which was the subject of systematic excavations in 1933–4 by C.A. Ralegh Radford, who identified a sub-Roman monastery with Mediterranean trade connections. As a result, the distinctive Late Roman ‘A’ wares (tableware) and ‘B’ ware amphorae became diagnostic type fossils for identifying other sub-Roman/early christian settlements in the Irish Sea zone. The function of Tintagel itself has been the subject of much speculation. Having been associated with the Arthurian legend, it is not surprising that some scholars interpret the monastic site as a secular elite settlement engaged in long-distance trade. The site was later occupied by a 13th century castle, built by Richard of Cornwall, younger brother of King Henry III.
C. Thomas: Tintagel (London, 1991).
RH
tipline Stratigraphic layer formed by the gradual sliding of material (e.g. dumped refuse) down the side of a feature (e.g. a pit or mound).
TOGARI-ISHI AND YOSUKEONE 583
Tiryns Mycenaean citadel and palace situated on a low-lying hill in the Argolid, Greece. Tiryns began as a palace in the Late Helladic IIIa period. Subsequently, the ‘Middle Citadel’ area was fortified with notably thick, strong walls, and a fortified gate added. In the final phase of construction the circuit walls were greatly extended to form the Lower Citadel. In the 1960s, excavation revealed two passages under the northwest section of the wall leading to a spring – presumably fulfilling the same function as the ‘secret cistern’ at Mycenae. Like that at Mycenae, the palace structure at Tiryns contains a large MEGARON with a central hearth, approached from a court via two anterooms. Houses outside the circuit walls included a large megaron-type structure with hearth. Like Mycenae, there are few stratified deposits that can be reliably associated with the main structures, so that the history of the site is rather tentative. The citadel seems to have ceased to be used after about 1200 BC.
K. Muller: Die Architektur der Burg und des Palastes
(Tiryns III) (Augsburg, 1930).
RJA
TL see THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING
Togari-ishi and Yosukeone Pair of Middle Jomon (c.3500–2000 BC) sites in Nagano prefecture, Japan, which form part of the classic settlement cluster located on the southwestern slopes of the Yatsugadake volcanic massif. Togari-ishi was excavated between 1930 and 1942 by Miyasaka Fusakazu. The remains of some 85 buildings have been recovered from the site. At Yosukeone, 27 buildings were excavated between 1946 and 1952. Togari-ishi was the first site in Japan to be interpreted and reconstructed as a primitive settlement, and Yosukeone was the first primitive settlement to be excavated on a broad scale. Important in the history of Japanese archaeology, these sites continue to be central to theories about Jomon period community organization. In 1952 they were granted the status of sites of national historical importance, and a number of reconstructed Jomon houses and a museum have now been built at the sites. The use of detailed ceramic, artefactual and architectural typologies in the attempted reconstruction of the occupational history of the sites are typical of the methods used in social and settlement archaeology in Japan.
Masayoshi Mizuno (1969) presented an analysis of Yosukeone as part of his seminal work on the nature of Jomon settlement. Mizuno suggested that the social structure of the settlement of Yosukeone
584 TOGARI-ISHI AND YOSUKEONE
could be reconstructed as two extended families of two or three nuclear families each occupying a pit house. This model has since become the norm for reconstructing Jomon community structure. Mizuno distinguished two phases of occupation from the overlapping of pit houses and the presence or absence of stones outlining the hearths. He assumed that the hearth stones had been taken from buildings of the first phase and re-used in those of the second. He divided the buildings of the second phase into two clusters, east and west, each of which were occupied by an extended family. These clusters were then divided into smaller groups of two or three buildings, which represented smaller family units. The whole settlement was taken to represent one community.
Mizuno went on to suggest that various classes of rituals were performed by different parts of the community on the basis of the spatial distribution of pottery figurines, stone bars and standing stone altars. These included non-funerary ceremonies performed in the central plaza (in which the whole community participated) and funerary rituals carried out both by the whole community and within the extended families. Gender-specific rituals associated with hunting, sexual potency, growth and ancestors (involving standing stones and stone bars) were male, while those associated with motherhood and gathering involved the pottery figurines and were female.
While Mizuno’s work continues to be influential, he has been criticized for not taking into account details of pottery typology, which threw into doubt the contemporaneity of the buildings. Support for his ideas concerning community structure was, however, provided by the results of a Q-mode factor analysis of buildings at Yosukeone performed by Takeru Akazawa and Kazuro Hanihara in 1978. The buildings fell into three clusters on the basis of the analysis of 60 variables concerning the structure of the buildings and associated artefacts. This study received a mixed reception but remains one of the few applications of explicit statistical methods to Jomon archaeology.
E. Miyasaka: Togari-ishi (Chino, 1957) [in Japanese]; M. Mizuno: ‘Basic guidance towards settlement research for the Jomon period’, Kodai Bunka 21/3–4 (1969), 1–21 [in Japanese]; T. Akazawa and K. Hanihara: ‘A statistical analysis of the Yosukeone site in Nagano prefecture’, Kikan Jinruigaku 9/2 (1978), 76–100 [in Japanese].
SK
Tolita Series of estuarine-adapted local cultures on the coasts of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador, dating to the Formative and Regional
Developmental Periods (c.3000 BC–AD 500). Their modelled ceramics, mainly found washing out of the fill of house platforms (tolas), depict an exuberant world of lovers, dancers, musicians, supernatural felines, dragons and folkloric figures. They are also noted for their use of gold and platinum, especially in small tools.
J.-F. Bouchard: Recherches archéologiques dans la region de Tumaco, Colombie (Paris, 1984); F. Váldez: La Tolita: proyecto arqueológico (Quito, 1987).
KB
Toltecs Early Postclassic culture that flourished in northcentral Mexico in AD 900–1200. The Toltec capital of Tollan is believed to be the archaeological site of Tula, located in Hidalgo, northwest of the BASIN OF MEXICO. The remains at Tula include several groups of civic-ceremonial architecture, including a temple-pyramid with serpent columns (Pyramid B), a COATEPANTLI (‘serpent-wall’), two courts for the BALLGAME, a CHACMOOL sculpture and numerous apartment-like multi-family residential structures. Architectural similarities with CHICHÉN ITZÁ are noteworthy, but disputed (Kubler 1961; Lincoln 1986).
Much of what is known about the history of the Toltecs in Mesoamerica is filtered through later AZTEC myths and histories, which they wrote and rewrote to glorify their own accomplishments, and many contradictions complicate the picture. The Toltec heritage developed out of indigenous central Mexican – and particularly TEOTIHUACAN
– elements, combined with those of the peoples known as CHICHIMECS, who are thought to have begun sporadic incursions into the basin sometime around AD 700.
The early history of the Toltecs is murky at best; the ending is recorded in more detail. According to myth, a Chichimec leader conquered the town of Culhuacan and married a local noblewoman. Their child, Ce Acatl (calendar name ‘One Reed’, the year of his birth) Topiltzin, became the priest-king Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl in Tollan/Tula, where he was head of the Quetzalcoatl cult. In these histories, as variously told, the downfall of Tula came soon after Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl lost a dispute with rival god/cult Tezcatlipoca and/or dynastic leader Huemac. Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl was forced to leave the city in disgrace, probably in the early 12th century and sometime later so did Huemac, who subsequently killed himself. Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, however, journeyed to CHOLULA and thence to the sea, vowing to return to his people at some time in the future during a year One Reed.