Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (480 page)

BOOK: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
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northern black polished ware
[Ar].
A type of pottery found in the lower Ganges and Punjab regions of India and Pakistan that dates to the period between 500 bc and 100 bc. Distinctive in being a very fine grey coloured ware with a lustrous black surface that was created using an alkali flux applied to the surface of the vessel before it was fired in a reducing atmosphere.
Northumbria
[Ge].
A Saxon kingdom occupying the northeastern part of England. Established in the 7th century
ad
by the amalgamation of the earlier kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira. Following the conversion of King Edwin to Christianity in ad 626, a number of monasteries were established in the kingdom, including Jarrow and Monkwearmouth. From the later 7th century Northumbria was an important and influential kingdom, especially through its schools, arts, monumental sculpture, and production of illuminated manuscripts.
Northwest Coast Culture
[CP].
Archaic Stage hunter-gatherer communities occupying large tracts of what is now British Columbia, the Yukon and southern Alaska in the northwest of North America from about 5500 bc down to recent times. Characterized by bone harpoons. Roy Carlson divided the culture into three subphases: early period (5500–4000 bc), middle period (4000 bc–ad 500), and the late period ad 500 down to the last century.
Norton Tradition
[CP].
Archaic Stage hunter-gatherer communities centred on the coastal regions of Alaska in the period
c.
1000 bc to ad 800. The Norton Tradition succeeds after a short hiatus the Arctic Small Tool Tradition of the same area, but was probably not descended directly from it. Rather, Norton Tradition communities probably originated among contemporary cultures living in Siberia. Norton groups were heavily reliant on both coastal and terrestrial resources: caribou, small mammals, fish, and sea mammals.
Many Norton settlements lay beside major salmon streams. Their houses mainly comprise square semi-subterranean dwellings with short sloping entrances, central hearths, and pole and sod roofs. Material culture includes the earliest pottery in Alaska: check-stamped ware showing affinities with broadly contemporary Asian wares. Stone lamps were also introduced.
Chronological subdivisions of the Norton Tradition include the Choris Stage (1000–500 bc), Norton Stage (500 bc–ad 800), and the Ipiutak Stage (ad 1–800).
nosed scraper
[Ar].
Notitia Dignitatum
[Do].
A document usually dated to about ad 395 (although only existing today as 15th-century
ad
and later copies). It is a list of the principal civilian and military officials of the Roman empire. Details are given of the stations within each military command and their garrison. It is, therefore, an invaluable document for the study of the late Roman army.

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