Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (138 page)

The earliest Upper Palaeolithic traditions in southern and western France beginning about 34000 years ago (
PERIGORDIAN
I), perhaps derived from earlier mousterian traditions in the region. Named after finds from a cave site in Allier, central France. The characteristic implement is a type of flint knife with a straight blade and a curved blunted back.

 
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Poet and courtier. Born
c.
ad 1340, the son of a London vintner, he served in the entourage of the duchess of Lancaster and rose to prominence as a royal official, knight of the shire (1386), clerk of the king's works (1389–91), and in other administrative positions. Chaucer is known now for his writings, especially his
Canterbury Tales
(1387 and later). He died
c.
ad 1400.

 
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Early Horizon communities living in the northern highlands and the northern and central sections of the coast of Peru in the period 900–250 bc. Recognition of the Chavín Culture is based on similarities in architectural styles (temples), iconography (especially the representation of the ‘Staff God’), and ceramic forms between sites, and this is taken as evidence of interregional political and social integration, perhaps the articulation of chiefdom-style social organization. In such a system the chiefs of each community developed access to luxury goods and adopted common iconography as a way of expressing their power and standing. The focus of the Chavín Culture is the site of
CHAVÍN DE HUANTÁR
, Peru.

 
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Ceremonial centre situated at 3200m above sea level on a tributary of the Rio Maranon in the Cordillera Blanca. Dating to the period 900–500 bc, the site consists of a civic centre covering 6ha with an attached residential area of 50ha.
The main complex consists of a sunken paved courtyard 48m square with low platforms on the north and south sides and a great terraced platform 75m square and 13m high, known as the Castillo, on the west side. Some small buildings stood on the summit of the Castillo, but over a third of the mound was hollow and may have served as a funerary place.
Numerous carved stones in the early Horizon style have been found in the central area, most notable among which is the Lanzón stela. This stela is 4.5m high, in outline the shape of a knife, and the decoration depicts a grimacing fanged jaguar-man with an eccentric eye, long curved fingernails, and hair in the form of snakes.
[Sum.: R. L. Burger , 1992,
Chavín and the origins of Andean civilization
. London: Thames & Hudson]

 
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This narrow gorge contains numerous caves and rock-shelters occupied during the Upper Palaeolithic, especially the period 25000 to 12000 years ago. The complete skeleton of an adult male was found in Gough's Cave in 1903 and it was initially believed to be the remains of a Palaeolithic person. It is now known to be the remains of an adult male dating to around 8000 bc, the early Mesolithic.
[Sum.: R. Jacobi , 1982, Ice Age cave-dwellers 12000–9000 bc. In M. Aston and I. Burrow (eds.),
The archaeology of Somerset
. Taunton: Somerset County Council, 11–13]

 
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Type of later Upper Palaeolithic flint tool found in the British Isles, named after examples found in the Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. Made on a relatively narrow flint blade, both ends are worked to produce an elongated trapezoidal form with the long side of the blade left unworked and the shorter side blunted. Possibly used as knife blades.

 
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