Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (532 page)

Arrangements of rock or boulders on the ground surface that when viewed from afar or from the air make up the outline of an animal, mythological figure, or other kind of distinctive shape.

 
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See
ROCK ART
.

 
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The study of rocks and their mineralogy through the examination of thin sections under a petrological microscope in either plain or polarized light. The thin sections comprise slices of rock samples 0.003mm thick which have been fixed to glass microscope slides for easy handling. One of the first applications of this technique to archaeological problems was by H. H. Thomas when in 1923 he demonstrated that the bluestones at Stonehenge originated in the
SPOTTED DOLERITES
of the Prescelly Mountains of southwest Wales. Since then many studies of stone and pottery (which is actually only fired rock) from archaeological contexts have led to the recognition of source areas and allowed distributions to be plotted.

 
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The products of a small local factory near Pevensey, Sussex, which made imitations of
OXFORDSHIRE
and
NEW FOREST
type pottery in a very hard orange-red fabric and a deep red colour coat.

 
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A grey-coloured metal alloy based on tin with lead, copper, antimony, and various other metals. Used from Roman times onwards mainly for domestic utensils.

 
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See
PROTRUDING FOOT BEAKER
.

 
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