Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (324 page)

A general term used to refer to societies whose mode of subsistence is gained from hunting animals, fishing, and gathering edible plants. Most commonly associated with the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and a simple
BAND
level of social organization, it is a way of life that should not be pigeonholed as a stage in social development and must certainly not be seen as in any sense ‘primitive’. As American anthropologist Marshal Sahlins pointed out, many hunter-gatherer societies represent the original affluent society because only a small proportion of their time was spent obtaining food and the basic needs of life. At one time all of the inhabited world was occupied by hunter-gatherer groups, something which no subsequent economic mode has achieved. In that sense agricultural and industrial societies have, at various times, established themselves on the edge of the hunter-gatherers' world.

 
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South American farming cultures found in the Rio Ucayali area of Amazonia and tentatively dated to
c.
200–1 bc. Characterized by their ceramic assemblages which belong to the Incised Rim Horizon Style of the Amazon basin. At the site of Yarinachocha, Peru, incised rim and plastic ornament decoration are found together in the Hupa-Iya Phase, in association with the first tangible evidence for bitter manioc processing. Spindle-whorls also appear in the archaeological record at this time.

 
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Communities from the mountainous regions of the Caucasus who settled in northern Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium
bc
to form a series of small kingdoms. Their language was non-Semitic and non-Sumerian and in origin may have been related to the Jura-Araxes Culture. By the 2nd millennium
bc
they had been absorbed into the local Mesopotamian cultures.

 
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A circular or oval depression in the ground with traces of a low wall around it representing the stone foundation of a round house whose superstructure was of timber and thatch. Found in large numbers in upland regions of the British Isles, most date to the 2nd millennium
bc
.

 
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Hutton , James
(1726–97)
[Bi].

British traveller and pioneer geologist. He argued the
UNIFORMITARIAN
view of geological processes, notably in his
Theory of Earth
, published in 1785.
[Bio.: J. Playfair , 1997,
James Hutton and Joseph Black: Biographies
. Edinburgh: RSE Scotland Foundation]

 
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The Turkish term for a
TELL
.

 
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