Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (102 page)

A pointed tool of flint or stone with a transverse (chisel) edge made by the removal of one or more flakes. Used for working bone, antler, and ivory, and perhaps for engraving. Common in Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic stone industries.

 
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Burkitt , Miles Crawford
(1890–1971)
[Bi].

British prehistorian whose speciality was the Palaeolithic period throughout the Old World and who spent a lifetime teaching others and instilling students with enthusiasm for study and archaeology. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a lecturer in the faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University from 1926 until his retirement in 1958. During this time he published many books and papers, notably
Our early ancestors
(1926, Cambridge: CUP) and
The Old Stone Age
(1933, Cambridge: CUP). He travelled extensively in Spain, Russia, Africa, and Turkey and played an important role in opening up the study of the Stone Age in Africa. He studied the French and Spanish caves under the direction of Abbé Breuil , he was at various times President of the Prehistoric Society and Section H of the British Association, and he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1923.
[Obit.:
Antiquaries Journal
, 52 (1972), 443–4]

 
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The action of rubbing the outer walls of a partially dried, unfired pot with an instrument such as a pebble or a bone. This gives the surface of the pot a smooth, faintly lustrous appearance (i.e., burnished).

 
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A substantial mound representing the accumulation of burnt or fire-crazed stones, ash, and charcoal, usually situated beside a river or lake. Within or adjacent to the mound there are usually hearths and some kind of trough or basin capable of holding water. They are found in many parts of the British Isles, being especially numerous in Ireland, and date mainly to the 2nd and 1st millennia
bc
. There is much debate about their function, some authorities maintaining that they are cooking sites, while others prefer to see them as sweat-houses or perhaps even retreats for ritual observance and taking hallucinogens.

 
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A large early Bronze Age round barrow about 1km southwest of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in southern England. The mound has a bush growing out of it, hence its name, and has done since at least the 18th century
ad
. The barrow was excavated by William Cunnington in 1808 and was found to contain the remains of a single inhumation, probably an adult male. Accompanying the burial was a rich collection of grave goods including: a gold belt fastener, a gold lozenge-shaped breastplate, a small gold lozenge, a stone macehead with bone handle mounts, two bronze daggers (one with its hilt decorated with gold pins), and a flanged axe. The burial is widely interpreted as that of a powerful local chief, and has been taken to exemplify the early phase of the
WESSEX CULTURE
.
[Sum.: P. Ashbee , 1960,
The Bronze Age round barrow in Britain
. London: Phoenix, 76–8]

 
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A two-roomed cottage, strictly speaking one with an outer and an inner room.

 
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