Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (323 page)

An administrative division of a
SHIRE
and the forerunner of the modern district in England. Particularly important in Saxon times but gradually declined as other forms of administration developed. A court was held monthly within the hundred at a fixed open-air location. It was presided over by the hundred reeve, representing the king, and consisted of freeholders who considered minor criminal and civil cases. It could also levy taxes. Manorial and shire courts gradually took over the functions of the hundred court, but as a unit of administration it formally survived until the Local Government Act of 1894. In origin, a hundred was either a hundred hides or a hundred families.

 
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The Dutch name for the Neolithic
PASSAGE GRAVES
found in the northern part of the Netherlands. These tombs are associated with
TRICHTERBECKER
C material.

 
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Nomadic people from Asia forming one of the barbarian tribes which destroyed the Gothic kingdoms of southern Russia in the last quarter of the 4th century
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. United briefly in the 440s
ad
and early 450s by Attila, the Huns invaded Gaul and Italy but were driven back to their homelands in Hungary and soon afterwards split up into small tribal units, amalgamating with other nomadic peoples.

 
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Early Iron Age culture of the middle Rhineland named after two regions flanking the Moselle. The culture is known mainly through its burials which in the early La Tène period included a number of outstanding princely burials. Characteristic pottery of the culture includes the pear-shaped pedestal vases, the appearance of which coincides with that of the potter's wheel.

 
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A distinctive variety of calcite-gritted pottery limited to a range of distinctive forms, made in east Yorkshire from the 1st century
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through to the 4th century
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. The fabric is black or dark brown, and the dishes and jar bodies were hand-made. During the late 4th century an extremely common form was a thick-walled cooking pot with a heavy curved rim, often with a groove on the inside of the lip.

 
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A popular style of Roman colour-coated beaker with a decorative scene, usually depicting dogs hunting stags or hares, executed in
BARBOTINE
.

 
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