A Dictionary of Archaeology

There is much speculation that in the mind of the Aztec king Motecuhzoma (‘Montezuma’), this anticipated return was linked with the arrival of the Spaniard Hernán Cortés in 1519, a year that corresponds to One Reed in the Aztec calendar (see

CALENDARS, MESOAMERICAN).

The Toltecs were fabled throughout later Mesoamerica as the originators of civilization, as mythic heroes, larger than life, as expert craftsmen and skilled farmers. They seem to have assumed control of mining and distribution of the valuable OBSIDIAN mines previously dominated by Teotihuacán. They participated in widespread trading networks throughout Mesoamerica and into the southwestern United States. They may have been involved in the spread of metallurgy in Mesoamerica. Contacts with the Maya are suggested by the marked architectural similarities between Tula and the northern LOWLAND MAYA site of CHICHÉN ITZÁ. Yet there is little archaeological or historical evidence to suggest that the Toltecs maintained control of any vast territory that might be described as an ‘empire’.

For the Aztecs, the Toltecs played a critical role as a great ancestral civilization. In order to legitimize their kings and establish their own noble lineages, the Mexica – likewise of Chichimec ancestry – contrived to marry into the descendants of Toltec nobility in the basin of Mexico. Indeed, throughout Late Postclassic Mesoamerica – including the highland Maya region – rulers attempted to claim dynastic ties to the earlier Toltecs in order to legitimize their claims to power.

G. Kubler: ‘Chichén Itzá y Tula’, Estudios de cultura Maya

1 (1961), 47–79; N. Davies: The Toltecs until the fall of Tula

(Norman, 1977); R.A. Diehl: Tula, the Toltec capital of ancient Mexico (London, 1983); C.E. Lincoln: ‘The chronology of Chichen Itza: a review of the literature’,

Late lowland Maya civilization, ed. J.A. Sabloff and E.W. Andrews (Albuquerque, 1986), 141–96; D.M. Healen, ed.: Tula of the Toltecs: excavations and survey (Iowa City, 1989).

PRI

tomba di giganti (‘giant’s grave’) Local name for a type of megalithic collective tomb associated with the nuraghic civilization of Sardinia (see NURAGHI). The tombs have a long, narrow chamber (up to c.15 m long) made of megaliths and/or drystone and covered with a mound. Access to the chamber is usually through an arched opening in a tall entrance slab carved with relief moulding; these may be imitations of the entrances to earlier rockcut tombs on the island. Many examples have approximately semi-circular or ‘horned’ forecourts

TONGA 585

N

0 5 m

Figure 59 tomba di giganti Plan of tomba di giganti, Li-Mizzani, Palau, Sardinia. Source: R. Joussaume: Dolmens for the dead (London, 1987), fig. 53.

in front of the tomb entrance. The first examples may have been built late in the 3rd millennium BC, and the tradition may have continued into the 1st millennium BC.

R. Whitehouse: ‘Megaliths of the Central Mediterranean’,

The megalithic monuments of Western Europe, ed. C. Renfrew (London, 1981), 49–53; G. Lilliu: La civiltà nuragica (Milan, 1982).

RJA

Tondidarou see AFRICA 2

Tonga On the boundary of Polynesia, Tonga was first settled during the period of the LAPITA CULTURAL COMPLEX, just over 3000 years ago. There is widespread evidence for early settlement, but this is much sparser after 2000 BP; after this date, pottery was apparently no longer made. About 1000 years ago, the first stone-built monuments appear, but the developments in the previous thousand years are little known. Monumental architecture, connected with the rise of the Tongan ‘empire’, known from both archaeological and oral historical evidence, dominates the last 500 years. During this period Tongatapu became the centre of a polity encompassing the more northerly Tongan islands, and extensive trade relations developed with Fiji and Samoa. ‘Langi’ tombs, rectangular stone-faced mounds believed to be the burial places of the Tui Tonga (the royal line in Tonga), are most numerous around Tongatapu.

586 TONGA

J. Davidson: ‘Samoa and Tonga’, The prehistory of Polynesia, ed. J. Jennings (Canberra, 1979), 82–109; P.V. Kirch: The evolution of Polynesian chiefdoms (Cambridge, 1984), 215–42.

CG

Tongling see T’UNG-LING MINES

Tonglushan see T’UNG-LÜ-SHAN

Toprakkale see URARTU

Torihama Incipient and Early Jomon site in Fukui prefecture, Japan where waterlogging has preserved evidence of horticultural practices as well as many bone and wooden artefacts such as dugout canoes, paddles, bows, tool hafts, wooden bowls and lacquer combs. Remains of gourds and beans from 5000 to 3000 BC suggest mid-Holocene extension of control over plant foods in Western Japan well before the adoption of rice agriculture (see ITAZUKE) and disturbance of the environment encouraged new human-plant relationships. SITE CATCHMENT ANALYSIS showed that the great range of food resources available in the area was being exploited.

T. Akazawa: ‘Maritime adaptation of prehistoric huntergatherer and their transition to agriculture in Japan’, Senri Ethnological Studies 9 (1981), 213–60 [site catchment analysis]; M. Nishida: ‘The emergence of food production in neolithic Japan’, JAA 2 (1983), 305–22.

SK

Toro Late Yayoi (AD 100–300) village site in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, considered typical of a wet rice-growing community since its excavation in 1948 by the Japanese Archaeologists’ Association. Excavated pit houses and granaries with raised floors have been reconstructed, along with paddy fields that were found adjoining the habitation area. Many wooden agricultural tools were also preserved.

Nihon Kokogaku Kyokai Kenkyukai: Toro, 2 vols (Tokyo, 1949–54) [in Japanese with English summaries]; C.M. Aikens and T. Higuchi: The prehistory of Japan (London, 1982), 226–38; G.L. Barnes: ‘Toro’, Atlas of archaeology, ed. K. Branigan (London, 1982), 198–201.

SK

torre Drystone circular towers of the Corsican Bronze Age, probably built from the 3rd millennium to mid-2nd millennium BC. Comparable to the Sardinian NURAGHI and the talayots of the

Balearic Islands, torre are often part of, or occur near to, fortified settlement sites (known locally as castelli). The material culture associated with torre is not well known, although graves thought to be broadly contemporary have yielded assemblages similar to Beaker assemblages (but without beakers) found elsewhere in the Early Bronze Age Mediterranean (see ‘BEAKER PHENOMENON’).

J. Lewthwaite: ‘The Neolithic of Corsica’, Ancient France 6000–2000 BC, ed. C. Scarre (Edinburgh, 1987), 168–71.

RJA

‘tortoise’ core see LEVALLOIS TECHNIQUE

Toteng see BAMBATA POTTERY

Toumbian see CAP MANUEL

Toutswemogala Large flat-topped hill near Palapye in eastern Botswana, where excavations have revealed ceramics from the third phase of the Gokomere tradition (Gokomere-Zhizo-Toutswe; c.AD 1000–1300). The thick deposit of vitrified cattle dung, middens and village debris is covered by a specific grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) which is adapted to enriched soils. Denbow’s detailed aerial and ground survey of similar sites shows that Toutswemogala was the capital of a chiefdom consisting of at least three hierarchical levels. Large-scale excavations with an earth-moving machine at a small site, corresponding to level one in the hierarchy, uncovered an almost complete

example of the ‘CENTRAL CATTLE PATTERN’,

including males buried on their right-hand side in the cattle byre and women buried on their left side behind huts. Two other large hilltop capitals lay 100 km south and west. Other than a unique cache of glass beads, trade imports were conspicuously absent, and these political hierarchies arose through the control of cattle wealth. Toutswemogala was contemporaneous with K2 and MAPUNGUBWE, and its hilltop location may have been defensive.

J. Denbow: ‘Cenchrus ciliaris: an ecological indicator of Iron Age middens using aerial photography in eastern Botswana’, SAJS 76 (1979), 405–8; ––––: ‘The Toutswe Tradition: a study in socio-economic change’, Settlement in Botswana, ed. R. Hitchcock and M. Smith (Johannesburg, 1982), 73–86; ––––: ‘A new look at the later prehistory of the Kalahari’, JAH 27 (1986), 3–29.

TH

Town Creek Short-lived centre of the Southern Appalachian Mississippian tradition of the Pee Dee

culture that dates to about AD 1300–1400, consisting of a temple mound surrounded by a palisade. Several nearby farmsteads may be outliers of this ceremonial, political and social centre. The site is thought to be affiliated with Muskhogean-speaking Indians and represents the northernmost extension of Mississippian peoples into North Carolina.

M.A. Mathis and J.J. Crow: The prehistory of North Carolina: an archaeological symposium (Raleigh, 1983); J. Coe: Town Creek Indian mound: a Native American legacy

(Chapel Hill, 1995).

WB

trace elements Elements present in mineral crystals in very low concentrations, less than 0.1%. Trace elements are usually measured as parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb). Where the concentration is less than 1 ppm the term ‘ultratrace’ may be used. Trace elements, if accurately measured, are often a key to the source of the mineral or rock, and their analysis is therefore one of the methods of certain provenance studies. Since the elements are present in such small amounts, they are obviously not deliberate additions to alloys, pottery fabrics etc. – this makes them especially valuable to the archaeologist. They can be detected by many techniques including OPTICAL EMISSION

SPECTROMETRY and X-RAY FLUORESCENCE.

P.M. Rice: Pottery analysis: a sourcebook (Chicago, 1987), 314, 325.

PTN

tradition Term used to describe a set of industries that are technologically or aesthetically similar enough to imply an underlying cultural or historical connection. The term is often used to describe a set of industries related across time, so that, in effect, a tradition forms the ‘genealogy’ of any given industry. The recognition of a group of traditions in different technological areas (flint knapping, bone carving) which occur together repeatedly may lead to the identification of a CULTURE. Sometimes, the term is used more loosely to describe a sequence of related cultures, or cultural trait, over time.

RJA

Tra Kieu see CHAM

‘transported landscapes’ Term used in the archaeology of Oceania to describe the way in which the natural flora and fauna of many Pacific islands has been substantially replaced by introduced species. Migrants took with them not only all the

TREND SURFACE ANALYSIS 587

plant and animal (chiefly pig, dog and chicken) species on which they lived, but also the knowledge of how to combine these species so as to provision their social systems. See TIKOPIA for extended example and discussion.

CG

TRB (Funnel Beaker culture) Prominent regional material culture complex of the Early and Middle Neolithic in Northern Europe and parts of Central Europe, from the Czech republic through Poland and Germany into south Scandinavia and Holland. In the central and southern areas of this distribution, it succeeds the Early Neolithic LBK and post-LBK cultures, while in south Scandinavia it represents the first farming culture. The culture dates from c.3500 to 3000 and so is roughly contemporary with the other key cultural complexes of the Middle Neolithic in Europe, the Chassey (France), Michelsberg (Rhineland) and the Cortaillod (Switzerland). The TRB is characterised by the Trichterrandbecher, a highly distinctive globular vessel with a long, funnel-like neck. There are many local and chronological variants of the assemblages as a whole, but they tend to contain bowls, amphorae-like vessels, and in some regions pedestalled vessels; tools include ground-stone axes, some with perforated holes for the shafts. The TRB assemblage is closely associated with early examples of megalithic and earthern graves in many regions, notably the early KUJAVIAN BARROWS and passage graves such as the HUNEBEDDEN.

In the later stages, copper artefacts begin to be found among TRB assemblages, particularly in the southeast region. The TRB was succeeded by the more widely spread CORDED WARE complex of the 3rd millennium BC in northern Europe and by the Baden culture in southeast Europe. Many researches now believe that the TRB is ancestral to the Corded Ware complex, although the sequences seem to overlap in part and the dating is unclear.

A. Whittle: Neolithic Europe: a survey (Cambridge 1985), 204–6, 241; J.A. Bakker: The TRB West Group: studies in the chronology and geography of the makers of Hunebeds and Tiefstich pottery (Amsterdam, 1979); K. Randsborg: ‘Resource distribution and the function of copper tools in early Neolithic Denmark’, The origins of metallurgy in Atlantic Europe, ed. M. Ryan (Dublin 1980), 303–18.

RJA

tree ring dating see DENDROCHRONOLOGY

trend surface analysis Branch of SPATIAL ANALYSIS which represents the spatial behaviour

588 TREND SURFACE ANALYSIS

of a VARIABLE by a smooth surface, the height of which gives the value of the variable at each location, for example, the proportions of a certain type of pottery at sites in a region (see REGRESSION). The surface may be formed by local smoothing (grid generalization) or by attempting to fit a mathematical equation to the data values. The latter approach has rarely been successful in archaeology, although examination of the reasons for its failure may be fruitful (compare GOODNESS-OF-FIT). For case-study see MASK SITE.

I.R. Hodder and C.R. Orton: Spatial analysis in archaeology (Cambridge, 1976), 155–74

CO

trepanation Surgical procedure involving the removal of a small piece (strictly, a disk) of the cranium. Surprisingly, trepanation is known from prehistoric cultures, although the motivation behind the operation is unknown. The regrowth of bone indicates that many individuals survived the procedure.

Triple alliance see AZTECS

Tripolye (Cucuteni; Cucuteni-Tripolye) Distinctive Eneolithic (Neolithic to Copper Age) farming culture which developed in the Ukraine, Moldova and eastern Romania between perhaps 4600 BC and 3000 BC. The culture was named after the type sites of Cucuteni (Romanian Moldovia) and Tripolye (Dniepr valley, Ukraine) by Romanian and Russian scholars respectively. Both Cucuteni and Tripolye make up a single entity, but two separate chronologies based upon local pottery styles and other elements of culture have been established (these are correlated in the table below). In its developed stage (Tripolye B), the cultural

assemblage included vessels painted boldly in red, black and white, the spiral and its derivative being the main decorative motifs. Tripolye pottery is technologically precocious and on some sites there is evidence for the use of updraught kilns and specialized manufactories (large ground-floor workshops with drying lofts above). Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay figurines are another important element of the culture; female figurines were particularly common.

Chronology and early Tripolye. The culture was first distinguished by V.V. Khvoiko (Chvoika) in the 1890s, after the excavation of sites in the Middle Dniepr area, including the site of Tripolye (Tripil’ye) near Kiev in the Ukraine. At about the same time, the first excavations of Cucuteni sites were conducted in Romania by N. Belduceanu, Gr. But¸ureanu, D. Butulescu and H. Schmidt. A large number of important Tripolye sites were excavated by T.S. Passek and by S.N. Bibikov from the 1930s to the 1960s. Passek was the first to suggest the conventional chronological division of Tripolye, which comprises three stages: early (A), middle (B) and late (C) with subdivisions. At the same time, Bibikov put forward a socioeconomic interpretation of the Tripolye sites.

An independent chronological division was suggested for the Cucuteni sites by Romanian archaeologists, including Vl. Dumitrescu, and M. Petrescu-Dîmovita. According to the latest radiocarbon measurements, a unified chronology may be suggested; as set out in table 19.

Early Tripolye sites tend to cluster on the low terraces of the rivers Prut, Dniestr and Southern Bug and their tributaries. The settlements were rather small; they included large plaster platforms (‘plošcˇadka’) which are now recognized as the foundations of rectangular houses. Each house was flanked by a storage pit. At the site of Luka-

Age C-14	Age C-14	Ukraine,	Romania
BP uncal	BC cal	Moldova
6000	5250		Precucuteni I
6000	4750	Tripolye AI	Precucuteni II
5700	4500	Tripolye AII	Precucuteni III
5000	4370	Tripolye BI	Cucuteni A 1-3
5200	4250	Tripolye BII	Cucuteni A–B 1-2
5000	3750	Tripolye CI	Cucuteni B1-3
4500	3250	Tripolye CII	Gorodiste,
4200	2750	Tr.CII-‘Symbol’ II	Floresti I

Table 19 Tripolye Correlation and dating of Tripolye and Cucuteni phases.

rublevetskaya, the houses were semi-subterranean and formed a row (over 200 m) along the bank of the Dniestr. A child was buried under the hearth of one of the houses, while in an another house a bull’s skull was found. The ceramics included bowls, beakers, biconical and other vessels with covers; anthropomorphic vessels also occurred, as did female figurines made of clay to which grains of wheat had been added. The lithic inventory retained a Mesolithic character, and wild animals made up 50% of the total faunal remains. However, towards the end of the Early Tripolye stage, evidence for metallurgy and metal-working begins to emerge (e.g. the KARBUNA hoard).

Middle to Late Tripolye. In the Middle Tripolye, the culture expanded east of the Dniestr, penetrating to the valley of the Southern Bug and reaching the Dniepr. The settlements are located either on the floodplain or on the promontories of higher terraces. In several cases, settlements occupy an area of 10–40 ha. In the Middle Dniepr area, the houses tend to form circles, and often number 30–40; the largest rectangular houses at Kolomiišcˇina reach a size of 30 × 6–7 m.

West of Dniestr, two-storied dwellings appeared, and furnaces began to be used for firing pottery; painting the pottery before firing also became more common. Female figurines were still the dominant form of sculpture, but the number of male representations increased. Copper-working became more developed, and ornaments and at least two types of celt were produced. Two large hoards containing metal implements (axes and ornaments) have been found in western Ukraine (Gorodnicy II near Ivano-Frankovsk, and Ryngach near Chernovitsi). Copper-silver alloys came into use by the end of the Middle Tripolye.

The Middle Tripolye economy developed a predominantly agricultural character. Hulled wheats (emmer, einkorn and spelt) and hulled barley were the dominant crops; garden pea and vetch were the most common pulses. The bones of domesticates – cattle, sheep/goat and pig, in that order of importance – constituted more than 80% of the total faunal remains.

During the Late Tripolye, there was a gradual fragmentation, and a wider dispersal of the cultural tradition. One of the local groups (the Vykhvatiuntsy-type sites) gradually spread from the Middle Dniestr to the south, to the steppe areas of the northwestern Pontic Lowland. Later, this group developed into the Usatovo variant of the Late Tripolye. Subsequently, the Usatovo sites spread over a vast area of the Prut-Dniestr- Southern Bug interfluve, and further west into the

TRIPOLYE 589

lower Danube valley and into Romanian Moldova. Simultaneously, another Tipolye group, Brynzeny, spread to the north, to eastern Volhynia, where the Troyan variant emerged, and then the Sofievka variant in the Middle Dniepr area.

The economy of Usatovo was largely dependent on stock-breeding, especially of horse and sheep/ goat. Cattle-breeding was more important among the groups that settled in the Middle Prut and Dniestr area (the Brynzeny type). This type of mixed agriculture was equally typical of Volhynia and the Middle Dniepr region.

In the late Tripolye culture, metallurgy and metalworking acquired the status of an independent craft. E.N. Chernykh (1970) distinguishes two main centres of metalworking in the Late Tripolye: the Usatovo and Sofievka. Usatovo metallurgy used ores that mostly came from the Carpathians and from the Balkan peninsula; as for Sofievka, its metal tools were manufactured mostly from the Caucasian ores.

The settlements and cemeteries of Usatovo are usually located on high terraces, on the edges of watershed plateaux high above the Black Sea. The most important sites, Usatovo and Majaki, lie on the edge of a high cliff of the Dniestr liman (estuary), west of Odessa. Two groups of kurgan barrows and two cemeteries with flat graves were located near the settlement of Usatovo; only the graves under the kurgans contained rich inventories. The central graves in kurgan cemetery I contained ornaments made of Baltic amber and Near Eastern antimony, numerous rings and beads of silver and copper, arsenic-copper daggers, copper flat-axes and chisels (Zbenovich 1976). All of this evidence suggests marked social stratification in Late Tripolye society. It seems clear that the common people buried their dead in simple flat graves, while the social elite were interred in impressive tombs with exotic prestige goods.

H. Schmidt: Cucuteni (Berlin, 1932); T.S. Passek:

Periodizacija tripol’skih poselenii [The periodization of the Tripolye settlements] (Moscow, 1949); S.N. Bibikov:

Rannetripol’skoe poselenie Luka-Vrubleveckaja na Dnestre

[The early Tripolye site of Luka Vrublevetskaya on the Dniestr] (Moscow, 1953); M. Petrescu-Dîmovita: Cucuteni (Bucharest, 1966); E.N. Chernykh: O drevneiših ocˇagah metalloobrabotki jugo-zapada SSSR [On the most ancient centres of metal-working in the southwest of the USSR] KSIA 123 (1970), 23–31; T. Sulimirski:

Prehistoric Russia: an outline (London, 1970); V.G. Zbenovich: Pozdnetripol’skie plemena Severnogo Pricerniˇ - mor’ja [The Late Tripolye tribes of the North Pontic area] (Kiev, 1976); S. Milisauskas: European prehistory (New York, 1978), 133–41, 161–5; S. Marinescu-Bîlcu: Tîpesti BAR IS 107 (Oxford, 1981); L. Ellis: The Cucuteni-

590 TRIPOLYE

Tripolye culture: a study in technology and the origins of complex society. BAR IS 217 (Oxford, 1984).

PD

TRM see ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING

Troy see HISARLIK

Ts’ai Hou Luan tomb (Caihouluanmu) Tomb of the Marquis (hou) of Ts’ai in China, probably dating to the 5th century BC, which came to light unexpectedly in May 1955, during the excavation of earth inside the Western Gate of Shou-hsien, Anhui, China. The workmen had unearthed some 30 bronze yung-chung-bells, ting-cauldrons, chien- basins and other artefacts before the importance of the site was realized by the municipal authorities, and qualified personnel were able to take over. Thus few of the original non-metal objects from the tomb were recovered, and although the coffin and coffinchamber were apparently painted with lacquer designs and gold leaf, only jade ornaments and a sword survived to indicate the position of the tomb’s occupant. Altogether, 486 bronze ritual vessels and numerous other bronze artefacts were unearthed. Three long inscriptions identify the tomb occupant as the Marquis Luan of Ts’ai, an ancient state which was engulfed by Ch’u in 447 BC. The tomb was probably constructed in the Early Chan-kuo period (c.450 BC).

Anon.: Shou-hsien Ts’ai-hou-mu ch’u-t’u yi-wu [Relics unearthed from the Marquise of Ts’ai tomb, Shou-hsien] (Peking, 1956); Kuo Mo-jo: ‘Yu Shou-hsien Ts’ai-ch’i lun-tao Ts’ai-mu ti nien-tai’ [On the date of the Ts’ai tomb of Shou-hsien with reference to the inscribed bronzes therein], KKHP 1 (1956), 1–5; N. Barnard: The Ch’u silk manuscript – translation and commentary

(Canberra, 1973).

NB

Tseng Hou Yi tomb (Zenghouyimu) Undisturbed burial dating to the late 1st millennium BC (c.433–400BC), which was excavated in 1978 at Lei- ku-tun, near Sui-chou, in the northern part of the Hu-pei province, China. Its total of 105 tonnes of bronze artefacts is an unsurpassed illustration of the immensity of bronze production in ancient China. The outer sarcophagus of the main occupant of the tomb contained no less than 6 tonnes of bronze. The finds included a carillon of 75 chung-bells (some consisting of up to 100 characters) bearing inscriptions which have thrown extremely valuable light on the musicological terms employed in the period.

Anon.: Tseng-hou Yi mu, 2 vols (Peking, 1989); N. Barnard: ‘The entry of cire-perdue investment casting, and certain other metallurgical techniques (mainly metalworking) into South China and their progress northwards’, Ancient Chinese and Southeast Asian bronze cultures, ed. D.N. Bulbeck (Taipei, 1996), 1–94.

NB

Tsubai Otsukayama Large mounded tomb of the Early Kofun period (AD 250–400) in Kyoto prefecture, Japan, containing nearly 40 bronze mirrors which were probably cast from the same mould. As the same type of mirror has been discovered in mounded tombs from north Kyushu to eastern Honshu, the person interred here is thought to have been at the centre of an elite prestige network, the mirrors being a symbol of political alliance. See figure 25 (p. 316).

C.M. Aikens and T. Higuchi: The prehistory of Japan (London, 1982), 255–63.

SK

Tsukumo Shell midden and cemetery in Okayama prefecture, Japan, dating mainly to the Late Jomon period (2500–1000 BC). It was discovered in 1867, and over 170 bodies were excavated between 1918 and 1924. Most of the skeletons showed evidence of tooth mutilation, patterns in which are interpreted as reflecting postmarital residential patterns. The burials were both flexed and extended, and many were adorned by body ornaments.

H. Harunari: ‘Rules of residence in the Jomon period, based on the analysis of tooth extraction’, Windows on the Japanese past, ed. R. Pearson, K. Hutterer and G.L. Barnes (Ann Arbor, 1986), 293–315.

SK

Tuc d’Audoubert see LE TUC D’AUDOUBERT

Tula see TOLTECS

tumbaga Alloy of gold, in which either silver or copper may be added or occur as natural impurities. Copper lowers the temperature at which the material can be melted and easily cast. Artefacts of tumbaga, such as bells and ornaments, were manufactured in Costa Rica and Panama (at sites such as SITIO CONTE) and traded throughout the region, including into Mesoamerica.

W. Bray: ‘Maya metalwork and its external connections’,

Social process in Maya prehistory, ed. N. Hammond (New York, 1977), 365–403; D. Hosler: ‘Ancient west Mexican

metallurgy: South and Central American origins and west Mexican transformations’, American Anthropologist 90 (1988), 832–55.

PRI

Tumulus complex (tumulus culture) Central European complex of the Middle Bronze age, defined by a custom of burial under round barrows and dating to perhaps c.1800–1500 BC. It succeeds, and seems to have developed from, the flat-grave

Uneˇtice tradition (which itself	is occasionally
associated with rich barrows, see	ˇ
	UNETICE) of the

Early Bronze Age, and precedes the URNFIELD CULTURE of the later Bronze Age. Centred on the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and southern Germany, the period of the Tumulus complex is an era of increasing trade and craftsmanship: amber from the Baltic flowed south through the Tumulus complex region, while bronze-working (e.g. casting) and decoration became more complex and gave rise to numerous regional styles; bronze hoards also become more numerous.

RJA

Tuna el-Gebel Egyptian religious and funerary site which includes a rock-cut ‘boundary stele’ of Akhenaten (see EL-AMARNA), an unusual freestanding Greek-influenced tomb-chapel belonging to a priest of Thoth, Petosiris, and his family (c.320 BC), as well as a temple of Thoth and extensive catacombs of ibis and baboon mummies dating mainly to the Persian, Ptolemaic and Roman periods (c.525 BC–AD 395).

G. Lefèbvre: Petosiris, 3 vols (Cairo, 1923–4); D. Kessler:

Die heiligen Tiere und der König (Wiesbaden, 1989).

IS

T’ung-ling mines (Tongling)	Area on the east-
ern slopes of the T’ung-ling	‘Copper Ridge’,

JUI-CH’ANG-SHIH, in the Chinese province of Chiang-hsi, where a mining complex of the Middle Shang period (1650–1400 BC) was discovered in late 1988. The excavations have revealed mining structures and associated equipment of a standard comparable with those at the T’UNG-LÜ-SHAN and Kang-hsia-ts’un mines. It is now evident that standards of mining practice in this area, in about 1500 BC or earlier, were comparatively advanced. Moreover, the study of the T’ung-ling mines should provide a better understanding of the probable sources of copper for bronze production in the vicinity of the Shang city-state of AN-YANG. The

TURNER 591

mining complex is almost exactly comparable, in principle and construction, with those described and depicted in Georgius Agricola’s De re metallica (AD 1556) and Lazarus Ercker’s Treatise on ores and assaying (AD 1574).

Anon.: ‘Chiang-hsi Jui-ch’ang T’ung-ling Shang-Chou ku’ang-ye yi-chih ti-yi-chi’i fa-chüeh chien-pao’ [Brief report on the first season of excavation of the Shang and Chou mining and smelting remains at T’ung-ling, Juich’ang, Chiang-hsi], CHWW 3 (1990), 1–12; Hua Chüeh-ming, Liu Shih-chung, J. Head and N. Barnard: ‘The ancient mines of T’ung-ling, Jui-ch’ang, Chiang-hsi’ (in preparation).

NB

T’ung-lü-shan (Tonglushan; ‘copper verdigris mountain’) Early mining complex covering an area of 2 sq. km near Ta-yeh-hsien, in the Hu-pei province of China. The workings date from the WESTERN CHOU period to the Han dynasty (c.1122–200 BC) and the scale of production was immense, producing an accumulation of slag totalling some 400,000 tonnes. The amount of copper produced over the period of operation is assessed to have been in excess of 80,000 tonnes, and more than 50 smelting sites had been surveyed by 1980. Comparison with ancient Western mining activities, such as the Laurion mines of c.600 BC, suggests that the overall technical standards attained at T’ung-lü-shan were certainly no less advanced, and in many respects the illustrations and descriptions in Agricola’s De re metallica (published in 1556) can be seen to fit the T’ung-lü-shan reconstructions of shaft and gallery structures, including such features as the drainage troughs, windlasses, and stone, wood and metal implements employed (see Barnard 1989).

D.B. Wagner: ‘Ancient Chinese copper smelting, sixth century BC: recent excavations and simulation experiments’, Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society, London 20 (1986), 1–16; N. Barnard: ‘From ore to ingot – mining, ore-processing, and smelting in ancient China’,

Proceedings of the Second international Conference on Sinology, 1986 (Taipei, 1989), 141–205.

NB

tupu Long straight pins with a flattened or decorative head used by Andean women to hold their dresses and shoulder cloths together.

Turner Middle WOODLAND mound and earthworks complex (c.200 BC–AD 400) located on the banks of the Little Miami River in Hamilton Country, Ohio (USA). The primary earthwork

592 TURNER

consists of an oval enclosure measuring 455 m long and 290 m wide that is connected to a smaller elevated circular earthwork by means of a graded roadway. Within these earthworks are two smaller earthen circles and fourteen mounds. Additional mounds and earthworks are located outside. Excavations conducted during the 19th and early 20th centuries recovered hundreds of artefacts associated with the HOPEWELL cultural manifestation including copper bracelets, beads, and cones, clay figurines, mica cut into zoomorphic designs, and Hopewell-series ceramics.

C. Willoughby and E. Hooton: Turner group of earthworks, Hamilton County, Ohio (Cambridge, MA, 1922).

RJE

Tushka see ESNA; QADAN

Tushpa see URARTU

Tutankhamun see VALLEY OF THE KINGS

Tutub see KHAFAJEH

Tyre see PHOENICIANS

tzompantli (Mayan: ‘skull-rack’) Mesoamerican ceremonial structure of the Postclassic period (c.AD 900–1521), usually comprising a low platform near a temple. The heads of sacrificial victims were displayed on a wooden rack on the platform, either suspended or strung on horizontal poles. Tzompantlis are found at sites in northwestern Mexico, at Tula and TENOCHTITLAN, and

at CHICHÉN ITZÁ, in the MAYA area.

O.P. Salazar: ‘Eltzompantli de Chichén Itzá, Yucatan’, Tlatoani 1 (1952), 5–6.

PRI

Tz’u-shan (Cishan) Neolithic culture dating to the period of 6500–5000 BC, which was named after its type-site located in Wu-an-hsien, in the southern region of the Chinese province of Hu-pei. Material of this type (typically including stone grinders and rounded three-legged bowls) was first excavated in 1976–7 and recognized as evidence of a culture pre-dating the YANG-SHAO phase (c.6000–4500 BC). Further Tz’u-shan-culture sites have since been reported in central Ho-nan province, including P’EI-LI-KANG, where the most extensive excavations have been undertaken.

Chang Kwang-chih: The archaeology of ancient China, 4th edn (New Haven, 1986), 87–95.

NB

U

Ubaid Type-site for the major Neolithic culture originating in southern Mesopotamia (c.5000–3800 BC), which was first identified by Henry Hall and Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. The most diagnostic feature of the Ubaid period was the pottery, often over-fired and usually decorated with brown or black geometrical motifs, which were probably related to Hajji Muhammed ware. The most extensive Ubaid stratigraphic sequence was excavated at ERIDU, where platform temples (antecedents of the ZIGGURAT) have been found in strata dated to

Figure 60 Ubaid Male and female baked clay figurines of the Ubaid period (5th millennium BC) from Eridu and Ur (drawn by Tessa Rickards). Source: J. Black and A.

Green: Gods, demons and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia: an illustrated dictionary (BMP, 1992), fig. 64.

Ubaid 4. Two shrines of the Ubaid period have also been found near the ‘White Temple’ at URUK.

The excavations at Tell el-Awayli (Tell el- ‘Oueili) (Huot 1983) revealed eleven upper strata dating to the four phases of the Ubaid period, as well as nine lower levels containing very early ceramic material (similar to SAMARRA ware) which the excavators describe as preor earlier Ubaid (i.e. ‘Ubaid 0’). Ubaid domestic architecture has been excavated at a number of sites, including Tell Madhhur in the Hamrin Basin and TEPE GAWRA in northern Mesopotamia. Although there are certain differences between the Ubaid remains of northern and southern Mesopotamia (particularly in terms of burial customs), it is a relatively homogeneous culture, and its widespread influence in the Near East as a whole is indicated by the presence of imported Ubaid ceramics at sites such as UGARIT in the Levant and BAHRAIN in the Persian Gulf.

H.R. Hall and C.L. Woolly: Al-ðUbaid (London, 1927); T.E. Davidson and H. McKerrell: ‘The neutron activation analysis of Halaf and ðUbaid pottery from Tell Arpachiyah and Tepe Gawra’, Iraq 42 (1980), 155–67; F. Safar, M.A. Mustafa and S. Lloyd: Eridu (Baghdad, 1982); J. Huot, ed.: Larsa et ðOueili: travaux de 1978–1981 (Paris, 1983); E.F. Henrickson and I. Thueson, eds: Upon this foundation: the Ubaid reconsidered (Copenhagen, 1989).

IS

Ugarit (Ras Shamra and Minet el-Beida) One of the most important CANAANITE sites on the Levantine coast during the Bronze Age, with traces of previous settlements stretching back as early as the ACERAMIC NEOLITHIC (c.8500–7000 BC). The tell site at Ras Shamra has been excavated by French archaeologists since 1928, revealing numerous large ceremonial buildings, including one of the largest surviving royal palaces in the Near East, at the west end of the site, and temples of Baal and Dagan on an acropolis at the eastern end. A number of extensive archives of cuneiform tablets have been discovered, including some written in the ‘Ugaritic’ script, which is the earliest known alphabetic version of CUNEIFORM. The city of Ugarit appears to have been destroyed in c.1200 BC, at the time

594 UGARIT

of the SEA PEOPLES, but the nearby harbour site of Minet el-Beida continued to be occupied until at least the Hellenistic period.

C.F.A. Schaeffer et al.: Ugaritica I–VI (Paris, 1939–69); C. Virolleaud and J. Nougayrol: Le palais royal d’Ugarit, II–VI (Paris, 1949–70); G. Saadé: Ougarit, métropole Canaanéenne (Beirut, 1979); A. Curtis: Ugarit: Ras Shamra (Cambridge, 1985).

IS

Ugwuele-Uturu Stone workshop site near Okigwe in southern Nigeria, excavated by F.N. Anozie and his colleagues in 1977–8 and 1981. The site comprised a dolerite ridge, the northern end of which took the form of a virtual scree, a massive accumulation of artefacts up to 6 m deep. The site contained no pottery and no fragments of polished stone tools were found. Among the artefacts, according to Anozie, there were distinctive triangular preforms or roughouts for bifacial tools, as well as large numbers of flakes and some cores. He classified the site as ACHEULEAN, since in his view handaxes – most of them broken – constituted 80% of the tools, plus cleavers, picks, sidescrapers and other miscellaneous items. An alternative view expressed is that the bifacial artefacts themselves may be no more than preforms for ground stone axes, the more successful examples of which were removed for further working elsewhere.

F.N. Anozie, V.E. Chikwendu and A.C. Umeji: ‘Discovery of a major prehistoric site at Ugwuele-Uturu, Okigwe’, WAJA 8 (1978), 171–6; J.D. Clark: ‘The 9th Panafrican Congress on prehistory and related studies, Jos, Nigeria, 11–17th December 1983’, NA 23 (1983), 1–4; P. Allsworth-Jones: ‘The earliest human settlement in West Africa and the Sahara’, WAJA 17 (1987), 87–128.

PA-J

ultratrace see TRACE ELEMENTS

Ulu Burun see GELIDONYA

Uluzzian Early Upper Palaeolithic culture found in southeast Italy which, like the CHÂTELPERRONIAN identified in France, and the SZELETIAN identified in eastern Europe, differs markedly from the classic culture of the period, the ubiquitous (and apparently intrusive) AURIGNACIAN culture. Moreover, all three ‘indigenous’ assemblages are markedly different from one another – while the Châtelperronian, for example, is dominated by projectile points, the Uluzzian is characterized by the manufacture of crescent-shaped bladelets. The Uluzzian also runs

parallel to the Aurignacian in Italy for much longer than the Châtelperronian coexists with the Aurignacian in France. Although there is, as yet, only one hominid associated with such ‘indigenous’ assemblages, the NEANDERTHAL from St Césaire, it appears that these three cultures represent a parallel development of Upper Palaeolithic blade technology, perhaps in response to the appearance of the Aurignacian. Identified in 1965 (di Cesnola, 1965–6), Uluzzian assemblages consist of lithics diagnostic of the MOUSTERIAN (side-scrapers, Mousterian points, flake technology) which gradually disappear in favour of Upper Palaeolithic type artefacts appear (endscrapers, burins, blade technology).

P. di Cesnola: ‘Il paleolitico superiore arcaaico (facies Uluzziana) della Grotta del Cavallo, Lecce’, Revista di Scienze Preistoriche 20 and 21 (1965–6), 33–62, 3–59; C. Farizy, ed: Paléolithique moyen récent et paléolithique supérieur ancien en europe (Nemours, 1990).

PG-B

Umm an-Nar Island in Abu Dhabi, near the southeastern coast of the Arabian peninsula, which was occupied during the 3rd millennium BC. The site was at first identified with Magan, a foreign toponym in texts from Mesopotamia, but this term is now considered to refer to the entire Oman peninsula in the 3rd millennium BC (although, confusingly, it is later used to refer to Egypt in neo-Assyrian texts). The area of Magan was an important source of timber, stone and copper for the Second LAGASH and UR III dynasties of Mesopotamia. Two seasons of survey and excavation at Umm an-Nar in 1959–60 revealed a cemetery consisting of tumuli dated to c.2800–2400 BC, each containing multiple burials (36 in one instance). The surviving artefacts include Early Dynastic pottery from southern Mesopotamia and it has been suggested that Umm an-Nar may have been a settlement through which the SUMERIANS’ copper and chlorite trade-routes passed, en route from quarrying and mining sites in the Arabian interior. Since the site also includes artefacts from the INDUS CIVILIZATION (Potts 1990: 150), it is likely that a down-the-line form of trading was in operation in the Persian Gulf. The excavations suggest that Umm an-Nar was deserted by 2000 BC, when trade probably transferred to BAHRAIN.

K. Thorvildsen: ‘Gravrøser pä Umm en-Nar’ [Burial cairns on Umm an-Nar], Kuml: Journal of the Archaeological Society of Jutland (1963), 190–219; D.T. Potts: The Arabian Gulf in antiquity I (Oxford, 1990), 93–150.

IS