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A Dictionary of Archaeology

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cerning Wu and Yüeh (the two not being easily distinguishable) but also indicates the comparatively advanced nature of the indigenous cultures.

The Wu walled city of Han, located near Yangchou and dating to the Ch’un-ch’iu period (771–481 BC), was excavated sporadically from 1956 to 1972, revealing an almost square enclosure comprising inner and outer hang-t’u walls with a moat between the two and a further moat surrounding the outer wall (the lengths of the outer moat and inner wall being 6 km and 5 km respectively). Among the various reported finds were GEOMETRIC POTTERY, glazed pottery, stone plough-shares of rectangular

WU-WEI 615

shape, wooden boats and bronze artefacts.

N. Barnard: ‘A recently excavated inscribed bronze of Western Chou date’, Monumenta Serica Nagoya 17 (1958), 12–46; Li Hsüeh-ch’in: Eastern Zhou and Qin civilizations, trans. Chang Kwang-chih (New Haven, 1985); N. Barnard: ‘Bronze casting technology in the peripheral “barbarian” regions’, BMM Sendai 12 (1987), 3–37.

NB

Wu-kuan-ts’un (Wuguancun) see AN-YANG

Wu-wei (Wuwei) see HUANG-NIANG-NIANG-

T’AI

X

X Group see AMARA; BALLANA; BLEMMYES;

QASR IBRIM

Xia see HSIA

Xian see CH’IN

Xiaotun see AN-YANG

Xibeigang see AN-YANG

Xichuan, Xiasi see HSI-CH’UAN, HSIA-SSU

Xingan, Dayangzhou-xiang see HSIN-KAN,

TA-YANG-CHOU-HSIANG

Xinyang see HSIN-YANG

Xiongnu see HSIUNG-NU

Xizhou (Hsi Chou) see WESTERN CHOU

X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) Technique for mineralogical or structural chemical analysis, which identifies the crystalline compounds in a material. It is also possible to estimate the approximate quantity of major components. Applications include the identification of inorganic compounds or minerals such as corrosion products on metals, pigments and mineral phases of ceramics and slags. The technique relies on the diffraction, or angular reflectance, of monochromatic X-rays by the planes of atoms in the lattice of crystalline materials. For a given source of X-rays the reflectance angle is proportional to the spacing of the lattice plane. In most crystalline materials there are a number of planes with different but consistent spacings which produce a characteristic diffraction pattern from which the material may be identified.

In X-ray powder diffractometry, a small sample,

in the microgramme range, is mounted on a support, such as a gelatine filament, in the centre of a cylindrical camera and then exposed to a narrow beam of X-rays. The diffraction pattern produced is recorded on a strip of photographic film, inside the camera, as a series of lines. The spacings of these enable the components of the material to be identified. This is the method usually used for the identification of CORROSION PRODUCTS, pigments, inlays, gemstones and CYLINDER SEALS (Sax and Middleton 1992), since the sample required is small.

M. Bimson: ‘The examination of ceramics by X-ray powder diffractionary’, Studies in Conservation 14 (1969), 83–9; M. Sax and A.P. Middleton: ‘A system of nomenclature for quartz and its application to the material of cylinder seals’, Archaeometry 34 (1992), 11–20.

MC

X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF)

Widely used technique for elemental chemical analysis utilizing the non-destructive phenomenon of X-ray emission from material subjected to a source of X-rays. The incident X-rays ionize atoms in the material and, in the subsequent electron rearrangement, energy is released as fluorescent X-rays with specific energies characteristic of the elements present. The X-ray emission is instantaneous and ceases when the source is removed: there is no residual activity. The intensity of emitted radiation is proportional to the quantity of each element and the technique is both qualitative and quantitative. Standards need to be measured under the same conditions for quantitative analysis.

All elements undergo XRF, but those with very low atomic numbers are difficult to detect and hence the technique is not generally suitable for organic materials but has been extensively applied to metals, ceramics and glass etc. However, unless equipped with a vacuum chamber enclosing the X-ray source, specimen and detector, light elements such as sodium and magnesium will not be detectable. An important limitation of XRF is that

it provides only a surface analysis, typically probing not deeper than 100 μm (0.1 mm). The different methods of detecting and analysing the fluorescent X-rays have led to the development of two types of instrument: the EDXRF and the WDXRF.

The energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence

(EDXRF) instrument uses a spectrometer with a solid state detector which registers the complete spectrum of fluorescent X-rays simultaneously. Particularly suited to rapid non-destructive in situ qualitative and quantitative analysis of complete artefacts or small areas on them and normally considered a technique for major and minor rather than trace element analysis. Since XRF is a surface method, and as artefact surfaces are rarely representative of the bulk, for in situ analysis the surface must be abraded to obtain accurate quantitative results unless the surface itself is of interest, as in the case of platings, EDXRF is the most commonly applied XRF technique to archaeological material.

The wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence

(WDXRF) technique uses a spectrometer with a

XRF 617

diffracting crystal and detector which scans sequentially over an X-ray wavelength range to measure individual element peaks. It is less suited to in situ analysis, compared with EDXRF, because of limitations governed by the geometry of the crystal and specimen but it has been used in this mode on coins for example. Samples are normally required although the technique is more precise than EDXRF and has better detection limits into the trace element range. It has therefore been used extensively for provenance studies on pottery and lithics.

E.T. Hall, F. Schweizer and P.A. Toller: ‘X-ray fluorescence analysis of museum objects, a new instrument’, Archaeometry 15 (1973), 53–78; E.P. Bertin: Principles and practice of X-ray spectrometric analysis (New York, 1975).

MC

X-ray powder diffractometry see X-RAY

DIFFRACTION ANALYSIS

XRF see X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY

Y

Yahudiya Tell el- (anc. Naytahut, Leontopolis) Egyptian town-site in the eastern Delta, dating from at least as early as the Middle Kingdom until the Roman period (c.2000 BCAD 200). It has given its name to a particular type of juglet found not only in Egypt but also in Cyprus, Syria-Palestine and Nubia (see Kaplan 1980). The site is dominated by a rectangular enclosure of uncertain date (probably late Middle Kingdom) and unknown function, which was first excavated by Edouard Naville and Flinders Petrie, and perhaps has some connection with the HYKSOS occupation. Among the other remains at Tell el-Yahudiya are a temple built by Ramesses III (c.1198–1166 BC) and a small settlement established by Onias, an exiled Jewish priest, which flourished between the early 2nd century BC and the late 1st century AD.

H.E. Naville: The Mound of the Jew and the city of Onias

(London, 1890); G.R.H. Wright: ‘Tell el-Yahudiya and the glacis’, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 84 (1968), 1–17; M.K. Kaplan: The origin and distribution of Tell-el-Yahudijah-ware (Gothenburg, 1980).

IS

Yamato Ancient name for the Nara prefecture in Japan, where the first Japanese state developed and which, in the 4th–8th centuries AD, was the centre of Japanese art and politics. The ruler of the Yamato court had, by the 5th century AD, established some degree of hegemony over a loose confederation of chiefdoms through a combination of warfare, diplomacy and marriage alliance.

G.L. Barnes: Protohistoric Yamato: archaeology of the first Japanese state (Ann Arbor, 1988).

SK

Yan Alternative (older) name for Peking.

Yang-shao (Yangshao) Term applied to several of the earliest Neolithic cultures in China (c.6000–4500 BC). The type-site, in the middle Huang-ho region, was discovered in the 1920s by peasants of the village of that name, near Mien-ch’i-

hsien in the province of Ho-nan, and was first investigated by J.G. Andersson shortly afterwards. The villages of this prehistoric culture, among which the site of Pan-p’o is the best known, were located on the banks of rivers. Agriculture was the main source of subsistence, based on the cultivation of millet of various types supplemented by the hunting of such animals as deer, horse, bear, turtle and rhinoceros. Domesticated animals included dogs and pigs. Kilns of somewhat rudimentary structure, utilitarian and painted pottery of distinctive design, some with incised markings (which may be embryonic Chinese characters), spinning whorls, basketry, and a considerable variety of stone and bone implements, characterize the general culture.

Numerous Neolithic sites, datable on the basis of calibrated radiocarbon assessments falling within the time span of 6000–3000 BC, have been excavated in recent decades. At the beginning of this period, the Yang-shao coexisted with several other distinct cultures, including TA-WEN-K’OU, Ma-Chia-

Pang, HO-MU-TU, TA-P’EN-K’ENG, and Ta-Hsi, and

varying degrees of influences spread from one cultural area to another during the period between 4000 and 3000 BC (see Chang 1986).

Chang Kwang-chih: The archaeology of ancient China, 4th edn (New Haven, 1986), 107–56 and passim.

NB

Yarim Tepe Neolithic site of the HASSUNA culture (c.5800–5500 BC), consisting of several small mounds located 7 km southwest of Tell Afar in the Jebel Sinjar region of Iraq. Mound I at Yarim Tepe, about 100 m in diameter, is made up of 13 building strata. Since 1969 it has been excavated by archaeologists from the former Soviet republics; in the earliest levels there are the remains of both circular and rectangular houses built of pisé or of crude unmoulded blocks of mud. There are also sets of parallel low walls which may have served as the foundations for drying racks (‘granaries’), a common feature of Neolithic societies as far as JEITUN in Turkmenistan. The evidence of subsistence at Yarim Tepe includes einkorn, emmer

JAPAN 3.

wheat, bread wheat, club wheat, barley, lentils, peas and flax, and the domesticated animals included cattle, sheep, goat, pig and dog (although wild species of sheep and goats as well as deer, gazelle and leopards were evidently still being exploited). The dead appear to have been buried in cemeteries outside the settlement, since few bodies have been found either at Yarim Tepe or Tell Hassuna itself.

N.Y. Merpert and R.M. Munchaev: ‘The earliest levels at Yarim Tepe I and Yarim Tepe II in northern Iraq’, Iraq 49 (1987), 1–36; N. Yoffee and J.J. Clark, eds: Early stages in the evolution of Mesopotamian civilization: Soviet excavations in northern Iraq (Tucson, 1993).

IS

Yayo see AFRICA 1

Yayoi period (300 BCAD 300) Japanese protohistoric period following the JOMON, named after a

YEHA 619

location in Tokyo where Yayoi pottery was first discovered. See

Yazilikaya (1) see HITTITES; (2) see PHRYGIANS

Yeha Urban and cultic site of the pre-Axumite and Axumite periods (c.500 BCAD 100 and c.AD 100–1000 respectively), located some 50 km northeast of AXUM in the Ethiopian highlands. It was excavated by Francis Anfray between 1960 and 1973. The pre-Axumite material – including temples, inhumations and settlement remains – shows evidence of strong South Arabian cultural influence. The principal surviving pre-Axumite monument is a rectangular stone-built temple dated to about the 5th century BC by the South Arabian inscriptions on a pair of stelae. Jospeh Michels undertook a stratified random sampling survey in a

Figure 61 Yayoi Yayoi period bronze bell-shaped dotaku from Sakuragaoka, Hyogo prefecture, Japan. Source: M. Komoto and S. Yamasaki: Yayoi Jidai no Chisiki (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijustsu Kokogaku Shirizu, 1984), fig. 28-1.

620 YEHA

500 sq. km area of the Axum-Yeha region, revealing new evidence for Axumite settlement patterns (Michels 1979; see AXUM and SAMPLING

STRATEGIES).

F. Anfray: ‘Les fouilles de Yeha (mai-juin 1973)’, Travaux de la Recherche Coopérative sur le Programme 230 4 (1973), 35–8; J.W. Michels: ‘Axumite archaeology: an introductory essay’, Aksum, ed. Y.M. Kobishchanov (Philadelphia, 1979), 1–34; H. de Contenson: ‘Pre-Aksumite culture’, General History of Africa II, ed. G. Mokhtar (London, Berkeley and Paris, 1981), 341–61.

IS

Yerevan see URARTU

Yi General name given during Shang and Chou times (2000–771 BC) to the ‘barbarian’ peoples inhabiting regions in China outside the territory of

the MIDDLE STATES.

Yin see AN-YANG; CHINA 2

Yin-hsü (Yinxu)

see AN-YANG

Yorgan Tepe

see NUZI

York see COPPERGATE

Yoshinogari Large double-moated village site of the Yayoi period (300 BCAD 300) in Saga prefecture, Japan. Broad-area excavation since 1986 for the first time exposed a settlement with clear evidence for the social complexity suggested in contemporary Chinese texts describing Yayoi polities such as Yamatai, with which this site has been mistakenly identified. Five jar burials contain-

ing unusual grave-goods, including beads and a bronze sword, were discovered in the top of a large burial mound dating to the early 1st century BC. This is the largest and also one of the oldest burial mounds of the Yayoi period, and is probably the resting place of an powerful family or group. Over two thousand ordinary jar burials have been discovered in cemeteries near the settlement which consisted of pit houses, watchtowers and storage facilities.

M. Hudson and G.L. Barnes: ‘Yoshinogari – a Yayoi settlement in northern Kyushu’, Monumenta Nipponica 46/2 (1991), 211–35.

SK

Yosukeone see TOGARI-ISHI AND YOSUKEONE

Yüeh (Yue) Ancient name given to the various ‘barbarian’ peoples inhabiting the eastern coast and southern areas of China in the 1st millennium BC. The name Pai-Yüeh was applied to the Yueh along the eastern coast (Nan-Yüeh being used to describe those in southern China). Yüeh is also the name of the state in the Pai-Yüeh region, where the rulers used the Chinese title for ‘king’. Both Yüeh and the neighbouring state of WU are best known for their intricately manufactured swords, often inscribed with ‘bird-script’ characters and inlaid with gold. In recent years many of these swords bearing inscriptions with the names of kings such as Kou-chien (496–465 BC) and Lu-ying (464–459 BC) have been unearthed.

Li Hsueh-ch’in: Eastern Zhou and Qin civilizations, trans. Chang Kwang-chih (New Haven, 1985).

NB

Yümüktepe see MERSIN

Z

Zaachila see ZAPOTECS

Zabid The first Islamic-period site to have been excavated in Yemen. Situated on the Red Sea coast, it provides good stratigraphy and chronology for local ceramics, thus providing a framework for much future work in Yemen. The excavations were initiated with the avowed intention of examining ‘the dynamics of an Islamic city and its hinterland’. The programme of research also included the recording of the town’s mosques; this was a particularly valuable contribution as it is now very much more difficult to enter them.

Later seasons’ work included consideration of the significance of pipes and whether they indicated the use of hashish or the arrival of tobacco directly from the Portuguese via the Indian Ocean in the 16th century AD instead of via Europe in the 17th century. Other issues relate to the discovery of iron cannonballs and the question of whether they were manufactured in Yemen or abroad. In effect, the problems of (1) the date of introduction of tobacco and (2) the use of artillery ammunition as a dating tool are both part of the pre-modern area of archaeology to which later Islamic sites are connected, in much the same way as late European sites. These areas are significant and require further research, following on the questions raised at Zabid. The Zabid project has been distinguished by the degree to which petrographic analysis of pottery has been undertaken in post-excavation study, marking the future direction of ceramic studies and giving points of reference for other research in the area.

E.J. Keall: ‘Zabîd and its hinterland: 1982 report’, PSAS 13 (1983), 53–69; ––––: ‘The dynamics of Zabîd and its hinterland: the survey of a town on the Tihâmah plain of North Yemen’, WA 14/3 (1983), 378–92; ––––: ‘A preliminary report on the architecture of Zabîd’, PSAS 14 (1984), 51–65; J.R. Hallett, E.J. Keall, V. Vitali and R.G.V. Hancock: ‘Chemical analysis of Yemeni archaeological ceramics and the Egyptian enigma’, Journal of Radio-nuclear Analytical Chemistry Articles 110/1 (1987), 293–302; J.R. Hallett, M. Thompson, E.J. Keall and R.B. Mason: ‘Archaeometry of medieval Islamic glazed ceramics from Yemen’, Canadian Journal of Chemistry 66

(1988) 266–72; R.B. Mason and E.J. Keall: ‘Provenance of local ceramic industry and the characterisation of imports: petrography of pottery from medieval Yemen’, Antiquity 62 (1988), 452–63; E.J. Keall: ‘A few facts about Zabîd’, PSAS 16 (1989), 61–9; R.B. Mason, J.R. Hallett and E.J. Keall: ‘Provenance of Islamic pottery from Yemen: INAA and petrographic analysis’, 25th International Archaeometry Symposium, Proceedings (Athens, 1989), 543–50; E.J. Keall: ‘Drastic changes in 16th century Zabîd’, PSAS 21 (1991), 79–96; ––––: ‘Smokers’ pipes and the fine pottery tradition of Hays’, PSAS 22 (1992), 29–46.

GK

Zagros Mountainous range in northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran, roughly corresponding to the area now occupied by the Kurds. The sites in the Zagros range, a forested area intersected by four tributaries of the River Tigris, include SHANIDAR (a Middle Palaeolithic rock-shelter containing MOUSTERIAN artefacts and the remains of nine NEANDERTHAL skeletons) as well as several settlements of the EPIPALAEOLITHIC and ProtoNeolithic periods (c.18000–8500 BC) where some of the earliest evidence for agriculture in the Near East has been excavated (e.g. Karim Shahir and ZAWI CHEMI SHANIDAR). In later times the foothills of the Zagros formed the northern sector of the heartland of ASSYRIA (c.1800–612 BC).

J. Braidwood and B. Howe: Prehistoric investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan (Chicago, 1960); D. Oates: Studies in the ancient history of northern Iraq (London, 1986); P.E.L. Smith: Palaeolithic archaeology in Iran (Philadelphia, 1986); D. Olszewski and H. Dibble, eds: The Palaeolithic prehistory of the Zagros-Taurus (Philadelphia, 1993).

IS

Zanzibar see SWAHILI HARBOUR TOWNS

Zapotecs One of two major cultural and linguistic groups in Oaxaca, Mesoamerica (along with the sometimes-rivals, sometimes-allies MIXTECS), the Zapotecs are associated with the site of their capital at Monte Albán during the Late Classic period.

622 ZAPOTECS

Zapotec royal families intermarried with Mixtec royalty as well as into distant Mexica dynasties after becoming a tributary state of the AZTECS. As known archaeologically from Monte Albán, Zapotec culture is most distinctively characterized by elaborate ceramic funerary urns with sculptured deity figures on the front, painted murals, stone sculpture and limited hieroglyphic texts.

Monte Albán, perched on a high ridge overlooking a confluence of rivers, was occupied from at least 500 BC to AD 1500, with its peak in c.AD 500–750. It was the focus of an intensive mapping and surface collection project carried out to obtain information on the foundation and collapse of the city, and about the characteristics of the social groups occupying it. Investigators (e.g. Blanton 1978) believe that it served throughout its history as a regional capital, and as the hub of a military confederacy uniting several centres in the Oaxaca valley. The low-relief Formative period carvings found on stone slabs at Monte Albán, and known as the Danzantes, are believed to represent prisoners or sacrificial victims.

By Postclassic times, the focus of Zapotec power and royal residence is believed to have been the small site of Zaachila to the south, while the larger site of Mitla (near Monte Albán) may have been a religious capital. Known particularly for its mosaic ‘fret’ or ‘greca’ designs on building facades, Mitla consists of several stone plazas and a defended fortress-like mesa (flat-topped hill).

I. Bernal: ‘Architecture in Oaxaca after the end of Monte Alban’, Handbook of Middle American Indians III/2, ed. G.R. Willey (Austin, 1965), 837–43; J.W. Whitecotton:

The Zapotecs: princes, priests and peasants (Norman, 1977); R.E. Blanton: Monte Albán: settlement patterns at the ancient Zapotec capital (New York, 1978); J.F. Scott: The Danzantes of Monte Albán, 2 parts, Studies in PreColumbian art and archaeology 19 (Washington, D.C., 1978); K.V. Flannery and J. Marcus, eds: The cloud people: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations

(New York, 1983).

PR

Zaskal’naya see AK-KAYA

Zawi Chemi Shanidar Open-air EPIPALAEOLITHIC site in the ZAGROS region of northern Iraq, close to SHANIDAR Cave. It was excavated at the same time as the latter by Ralph and Ruth Solecki in the 1970s, and it has been suggested that Zawi Chemi may represent the summer encampment of the same group who were probably spending their winters at Shanidar Cave, where a number of human burials have also been found. The

Epipalaeolithic deposits at Zawi Chemi, immediately underlying Iron Age strata, are about 1–2 metres deep, with refuse pits cut into ‘natural’ at the base. The remains of circular stone huts have survived, as well as huge quantities of animal bones, which have been used to demonstrate a gradual shift in subsistence from the hunting of red deer to the domestication of sheep. In the more recent levels there is also some evidence of artefacts used in the preparation of plant food (e.g. querns and sicklehafts).

J. Mellaart: The Neolithic of the Near East (London, 1975), 70–3; R.L. Solecki: An early village site at Zawi Chemi Shanidar (Malibu, 1980).

IS

Zawiyat Umm el-Rakham see MERSA

MATRUH

Zendjirli see ZINJIRLI

Zenghouyimu see TSENG HOU YI TOMB

Zhenla culture Polity in Southeast Asia between AD 550 and 800. It is known from Chinese sources to have succeeded the polity of FUNAN, but the meaning of the Chinese references is not clear, and the location of Zhenla is therefore debatable. Most agree that it was centred in Cambodia between the junction of the Mekong and the Bassac to the south, and the Dangraek range to the north. The archaeological sites identified with the Zhenla culture include Isanapura and Thala Borivat.

Isanapura, situated in the tributary valley of the Stung Sen, covers an area of 400 ha enclosed by double walls, outside which is a reservoir. Three walled precincts have been traced, each containing single-chamber brick temples which are dedicated to the worship of Siva and decorated with motifs of Indian origin. Associated inscriptions describe the military success of Isanavarman and record that he founded the temples. The site of Thala Borivat, near Stung Treng on the Mekong River (where the San and Srepok rivers give access from the Mekong valley to the territory of the CHAMS) incorporates several sanctuaries with impressive lintels stylistically slightly earlier than those from Isanapura.

M.H. Parmentier: ‘L’art Khmer primitif, 2 vols (Paris, 1927); P. Levy: ‘Thala Borivat ou Stung Treng: sites de la capitale due souverein Khmer Bhavavarman 1 er’, JA 257 (1970), 113–29; C. Jacques: ‘“Funan” “Zhenla”. the reality concealed by these Chinese views of Indochina’, Early South East Asia, ed. R.B. Smith and W. Watson (Oxford, 1979), 371–9; W.J. van Liere: ‘Traditional water

management in the lower Mekong Basin’, WA 11/3 (1980), 265–80; P. Wheatley: Nagara and Commandery (Chicago, 1983), 119–63.

CH

Zhongguo (Chung-kuo) see MIDDLE

STATES

Zhongyuan see CHUNG-YÜAN

Zhou dynasty see EASTERN CHOU; WESTERN

CHOU

Zhou-kou-dian see CHOUKOUTIEN

Zhouyuan see CHOU-YÜAN

ziggurat (Akkadian ziqqurratu) Type of Mesopotamian religious monument consisting of a series of stepped mud-brick platforms, which, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, were surmounted by a shrine (although there is no surviving archaeological evidence of this, since most surviving ziggurats are severely eroded). The ziggurat has its origins in the platform temples of the UBAID culture (c.5000–3800 BC), which were evidently designed to raise the shrine of the god nearer to heaven (Busink 1970). The White Temple at URUK, dating to the late Uruk period, c.3150 BC, appears to be part of an early predecessor of the ziggurat (Frankfort 1970: 20). Depictions on cylinder seals suggest that the earliest true ziggurats were probably constructed in the Early Dynastic period (c.2900–2350 BC). Although there are traces of Early Dynastic large stepped temples at Kish, Nippur and UR (Crawford 1991: 74), the first definite surviving ziggurat is the Temple of Sin built by Ur-Nammu at Ur in c.2100 BC, which consists of three platforms of unbaked brick (cased with outer layers of baked brick), the lowest stage covering an area of almost 3000 sq. m and reaching a height of 11 m at its centre. The uppermost stages and shrine were, however, eroded away.

The typical early ziggurat – found mainly in southern Mesopotamia – had a rectangular base, and built against one of its sides were three ascending staircases forming a T-shape. A later type, found at more northerly sites such as KHORSABAD, NIMRUD and Tell Rimah (the latter located in the Afar Sinjar plain) was directly attached to the rear of a larger temple complex. Perhaps the most famous ziggurat is the temple of Etemenanki at

ZINJIRLI 623

BABYLON, which is traditionally equated with the Biblical ‘Tower of Babel’, but ironically this is the worst preserved. There are remains of ziggurats at 16 sites in Mesopotamia, ranging in date from the Ur III period to the Assyrian empire (c.2112–612 BC). Examples of similar stepped temples have also been found at sites outside Mesopotamia, such as

CHOGA ZANBIL in Iran and ALTINTEPE in

Turkmenia, but these may well have been independent developments, bearing only a superficial resemblance to the Mesopotamian ziggurats.

H. Lenzen: Die Entwicklung der Zikkurat (Leipzig, 1941); T.A. Busink: ‘L’origine et l’évolution de la ziggurat Babylonienne’, Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux 21 (1970), 91–142; H. Frankfort: The art and architecture of the ancient Orient, 4th edn (Harmondsworth, 1970), 20–2, 138–40; M. Roaf: Cultural atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (New York and Oxford, 1990), 104–5 [distribution map of ziggurats]; H. Crawford: Sumer and the Sumerians (Cambridge, 1991), 71–6.

IS

Zimbabwe culture see GREAT ZIMBABWE

Zinchecra see AFRICA 1

Zinjanthropus see OLDUVAI

Zinjirli (Zendjirli; anc. Sam’al) Iron Age townsite located in southeastern Turkey (near the border with modern Syria), consisting of a hilltop citadel incorporating a number of neo-HITTITE palace buildings dating principally to the 8th century BC. Excavated by a German expedition in 1881–91, Zinjirli is the most complete surviving north Syrian city of its period. The citadel, probably founded as early as c.1500 BC, is surrounded by a 3.5 m thick mud-brick double wall, 800 m in diameter and incorporating a number of circular towers. It was entered through an inner and outer gateway, the latter protected by pairs of lions and bulls sculpted in relief on the orthostats. The five main palaces were built in the typical BIT-HILANI style, and one of them was probably occupied in the 7th century BC by an ASSYRIAN governor. Since the city appears to have been largely populated by ARAMAEANS, the art and architecture are essentially a synthesis of Aramaean and neo-Hittite styles. A series of Aramaic inscriptions found at the site have enabled the dynasty of local rulers to be reconstructed.

F. von Luschan: Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, 5 vols (Berlin, 1893–1943).

IS

624 ZULLA

Zulla see ADULIS

Zvejnieki Extensive prehistoric cemetery located on a morainic hill in northern Latvia, 110 km northeast of the city of Riga. The earliest burials are late Mesolithic and contained bone spears with short blades, symmetrical barbs and long shafts, leaf-shaped spearheads, bone daggers, stone knives, scrapers, blades and pendants made of perforated animal teeth. In the Early Neolithic graves, the deceased were buried with spearand arrowheads, while pendants made of animal teeth were the most common ornaments. In one grave, a female figurine

made of bone was found. The largest group of graves, in the southeastern section of the cemetery, belong to the Middle and Late Neolithic and contained hunting and fishing equipment such as spearand arrowheads, with some items deliberately broken, as well as flint scrapers, bone harpoons, chisels and awls. Ornaments included amber beads, pendants and discs. Ceramics included PIT-AND-COMB, NARVA and Piestina styles and, in the Late Neolithic, various styles of

CORDED WARE pottery.

F. Zagorskis: Zvejnieku Akmens Laikmeta Kapulauks

(Riga, 1987).

PD