Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (633 page)

Stone coffin, frequently highly decorated, in which mummified or wrapped bodies were placed for burial. Less commonly, lead, wood, or terracotta were used. The term comes originally from a Greek word meaning ‘flesh-eating’ and in strict usage refers to a limestone credited with the power of destroying flesh without trace.

 
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The founder of the
AKKADIAN
empire in the 24th century
bc
, the first successful empire-builder in Mesopotamia. Born around 2330 bc he was originally associated with Kish, but subsequently founded a new capital at Agade. Died around 2280 bc.

 
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Late variant of the LBK ceramics in western Bohemia around 4000–3900 bc. Sarka vessels were painted with black spirals on buff fabric before firing.

 
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Hard crystalline sandstone found as boulders scattered across the chalk downland of central southern England, seemingly the remnants of now-eroded geological strata that once covered the chalk. Sarsen slabs were extensively used in the construction of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments.

 
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An extensive series of Neolithic enclosures in Funen, excavated between 1971 and 1984 by Neils Andersen . The earliest and largest enclosure covers 8.5ha and is known as Sarup I. It belongs to the Fuchsberg Phase of the Danish early to middle Neolithic (
FUNNEL NECKED BEAKER CULTURE
) around 3400 bc. This enclosure comprised a palisade fence, a fenced enclosure built onto the outside of the palisade, a fenced entrance passage, and two parallel rows of interrupted ditches. The material found in front of the palisade fence, in the ditches, and within the interior suggested to the excavator that the site was used for ritual, ceremonial, and funerary purposes by a fairly large group of people. Sarup II, dating to around 3250 bc, was a similar structure but smaller (3.5ha) and of slighter construction. It was a ceremonial site serving a population that lived on a number of small settlements in the Sarup region.
[Rep.: N. H. Andersen , 1997,
Sarup, vol. 1: The Sarup enclosures
. Moesgaard: Jysk Arkaeologisk Selskab]

 
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Ša
al , Jaroslav
(1924–88)
[Bi].

Slovenian scholar and archaeologist. Born in Ljubljana he was a student of Professor Klemene at Ljubljana University and taught himself in the archaeology department from 1951 to 1962. In 1962 he was appointed to the Slovenian Academy in Ljubljana, having special responsibility for Roman epigraphy. He published many reports and papers, including a magnificent archaeological gazetteer of Slovenia in 1975, to earn himself an international reputation. He undertook excavations at Emona, the forerunner of modern Ljubljana.
[Obit.:
Antiquaries Journal
, 68 (1989), 390]