Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (12 page)

The part of a church on either side of the nave or chancel.

 
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A timber structure in which the weight of the roof is borne on rows of internal posts which divide the interior into a ‘nave’ and flanking ‘aisles’. The regular plan for north German and Scandinavian houses in the migration period, the type has an ancestry which runs back to the 4th or 5th millennium
bc
.

 
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A class of Roman villa in which a simple rectangular building was divided into a nave and two flanking aisles by lines of timber roof supports. Sometimes divided by internal partitions, these houses seem to have belonged to the poorer families. Some aisled houses had specific agricultural or industrial functions rather than a domestic use.

 
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Sixth main phase of settlement recognized in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico, broadly dating to the period 1500–830 bc. Agriculture is believed to have provided about 40 per cent of the food consumed, the remainder being derived in roughly equal parts from hunting and gathering. Settlements took the form of hamlets and were occupied all the year round, although by this time the Tehuacán Valley was already becoming marginal to the more complex societies developing in other parts of Mexico.

 
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A Buddhist shrine in central India where a series of 28 rock-cut temples were constructed along the northern shore of the Waghora River between the 1st century
bc
and the 5th century
ad
. On the walls are scenes from the Jatakas, stories about the lives of the Buddha in earlier incarnations. At its height, Ajanta was home to more than 200 monks.
[Sum.: R. Gupte and B. D. Mahajan , 1962,
Ajanta, Ellora and Aurangabad caves
. Bombay: Taraporevala]

 
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Earliest main phase of settlement in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico, dating to 9500–7000 bc. This phase was characterized by Palaeo-Indian communities using spears with leaf-shaped points to hunt horse, antelope, and deer. The tool kit is dominated by butchering and hide-working equipment. In the early part of the phase there is little evidence for the use of plant resources; the exploitation of the valley seems to have involved small mobile hunting groups. About 8000 bc, horse, antelope, and several other animal species became extinct, perhaps because of over-hunting, forcing the population to greater reliance on plant food.

 
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