Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (289 page)

 
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Broken and crushed fragments of pottery, brick, or other fired ceramic materials recycled as a tempering agent in other ceramic products.

 
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A Roman surveying instrument comprising four arms fixed at intervals of 90 degrees around a central post. Plumb-lines hanging from each arm allowed right angles and lines to be accurately set out during road-building and the construction of street plans and structures.

 
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A technique of working bone and antler widely used in Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic times in northern Europe, but found in other contexts too, in which long thin strips of bone are produced by cutting slots or grooves longitudinally along the bone and then levering out the sections between the slots causing them to splinter at the end where they break off.

 
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Type of later Neolithic pottery found widely in the British Isles, formerly known as
RINYO–CLACTON WARE
. Dating to the middle and later 3rd millennium
bc
, the typical forms comprise flat-based, straight-walled, tub-shaped, and bucket-shaped vessels. Some are plain, but many are elaborately decorated with surface grooving and applied cordons. Grooved ware pottery is found on settlement sites and in later passage graves, but is also well represented at
HENGES
and
HENGE ENCLOSURES
.

 
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A method of remote sensing by geophysical survey that can be used to provide a three-dimensional view of a buried site. The method works by systematically traversing a survey area with a portable radar that is directed downwards into the ground. A short pulse or wave of electromagnetic radiation is transmitted from the system into the ground. A receiver then records the reflected energy returned from interfaces between materials with differing conductivity or dielectric constants. The travel times of the reflections are also recorded and converted into depth measurements to provide a geo-electric depth section. By piecing together readings from across the survey area its is possible to produce, in visual form, vertically or horizontally sliced cutaways through the subsurface deposits. The reflections detected by the radar relate to changes of material at the interface of deposits and can thus be used to differentiate refilled pits and ditches, graves, buried paths and roads, air-filled chambers, and wood, metal, and stone artefacts.

 
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