Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (53 page)

The distribution of ages in an animal population that results from selective hunting or predation.

 
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Egyptian god, one of the great creator gods of Egypt. Main cult centre Heliopolis, but worshipped all over Egypt. Always represented in human form as man leaning on a stick. An ancient god who become identified with
RA
.

 
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Atwater , Caleb
(1778–1867)
[Bi].

American antiquarian whose pioneering work included surveys of the burial mounds and earthworks around Cleveland, Ohio, which were disappearing during the early 19th century. Atwater was the postmaster at Circleville, Ohio, and devoted much of his spare time to studying earthworks in the neighbourhood. His careful descriptions and plans earned him great respect among his peers and later generations, although some of his speculative interpretations involving migrations of Hindus from India are clearly incorrect.
[Bio.:
American National Biography
, I, 728–30]

 
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Aubrey , John
(1626–97)
[Bi].

Best known of the British 17th-century antiquaries, a pioneer of field archaeology, who was also a scientist, biographer, and writer. Born in Kingston St Michael in north Wiltshire, Aubrey went to school in Blandford, Dorset, before going up to Oxford in 1642. His studies were interrupted by the Civil War so that throughout the 1650s and 1660s he lived as a country gentleman in Wiltshire. Lawsuits and a disastrous courtship reduced him to poverty, however, and in the early 1670s his life changed and he devoted himself to scholarship. His researches were centred mainly on Wiltshire, in particular on the sites of Stonehenge and Avebury, and were written up in his unpublished
Monumenta Britannica
. While at Stonehenge he recognized the presence of shallow pits just inside the inner lip of the bank; these are now known to be postholes but have been named the ‘Aubrey Holes’. He was one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society in 1663.
[Bio.: M. Hunter , 1975, John Aubrey
and the realm of learning
. London: Duckworth]

 
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A boring tool for removing samples of sediment or rock from the ground. A number of different kinds are widely used in archaeology. The
screw auger
comprises a screw thread attached to a bar and surmounted by a cross-handle. The thread is twisted into the ground, thus drilling a hole (typically 2–4 cm in diameter) while trapping the deposit being drilled through in the thread. By repeatedly drilling in and pulling out the auger a sample of deposit can be examined. For shallow holes a
posthole auger
, either hand-powered or attached to the power takeoff on a Land Rover or similar vehicle, provides a good and quick glimpse of what is below the ground. A
gouge auger
is similar, but instead of a screw thread there is a sharp-ended tube with a slot cut in the side. This can be pushed into the ground, twisted, and then carefully extracted with a thin sample of the material through which the auger has passed trapped in the tube. For deep deposits of soft material where samples are needed, a
Hiller auger
can be used. This has a chamber at the end of the main shaft, and usually extension bars can be added to achieve depths of up to 20m.

 
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Church Father, born
c.
ad 354, who, after a varied life as a teacher and philosopher, was ordained bishop of Hippo, Africa, in ad 395. His letters, polemics, and theological and philosophical works transformed the Christianity of the west, and his autobiographical
Confessions
(
c.
ad 400) inspired generations of writers. He died
c.
ad 430 in the early stages of the Vandal conquest of Africa.