Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (284 page)

Roman emperor from ad 367. He spent much of his time devoted to the defence of the Rhine frontier and in ad 375 he pulled out of the imperial election to let his brother Valentinian II win while he remained in Gaul. In ad 383 he was over-thrown by Magnus Maximum and killed while trying to escape southwards.

 
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Adena Culture burial mound in the Ohio Valley, probably the largest humanly produced ancient mound in the Americas. The mound is about 21m high with a basal diameter of 73m. It contains an estimated 54500 metric tons of soil (70000 cubic metres). Around the mound was a moat 10m wide and 1.5m deep. It is a mortuary mound over a high-status burial, constructed in the 3rd or 2nd century
bc
.
[Rep.: T. Hennings , 1984, Investigations at Grave Creek Mound 1975–76: sequence for mound and moat construction.
West Virginia Archaeologist
, 36.2, 349]

 
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Objects placed with the deceased at the time of burial and left with the body in the grave when it is covered and left. Archaeologically, disentangling the origins and meanings of the things included in graves can be tricky. Some objects are clearly dress fittings and personal items worn by or on the clothing of the deceased and raise the question of how the person was dressed and what in. Other things are also personal items, but it is not always clear that they belong to the deceased; they may have been placed as gifts by the mourners. These and related problems make the task of determining rank and status on the basis of grave finds fraught with difficulties.

 
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Medium to large particles of more than 2mm across forming constituent components of natural and anthropogenic sediments and deposits. Gravel is often subdivided into: granular, pebble, cobble, and boulder gravel.

 
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A stone or metal chisel-like tool with a sharp narrow blade that can be used to score incisions and grooves in wood, bone, or any other relatively soft material.

 
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A major Upper Palaeolithic industry identified in Europe on the basis of distinctive flintworking technology that includes backed blades, scrapers, points, and, in some areas, burins. It is named after the site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France. Geographically, the tradition has been recorded from Spain in the west to Russia in the east. Chronologically, Gravettian industries span the period
c.
27000 to 19000 years ago. In France the Gravettian is known as the Upper Perigordian.

 
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