Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (648 page)

 
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The complex of buildings and courtyards which makes up the palace of a Sultan.

 
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A method used to place artefacts in approximate chronological order based on the recognition of small-scale incremental changes in form or style. It is assumed that single artefacts or assemblages that are most similar are closest to one another in time and space. Sequences based on seriation can be tied to absolute chronologies if one or more of the artefacts can be dated.

 
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See
GREAT SERPENT MOUND
.

 
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Egyptian goddess of writing and keeper of the royal annals, shown as a woman with horns reversed on her head over a star. She assisted the king to lay out the foundations of temples.

 
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Egyptian god of perfumes, known from the Old Kingdom onwards. In the
Book of the Dead
, Seshmu is said to be a torturer.

 
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Neolithic tell near Volos in the Plain of Thessaly in northern Greece excavated between 1956 and 1970 by D. R. Theocharis . Nine main phases to the settlement were recognized, beginning with a Pre-Pottery Neolithic that included domesticated animals and cereal remains. The early Neolithic phases (EN I–III) yielded very few traces of structures, and it is only because EN III was destroyed by fire that any remains of mud-brick houses were preserved. The main phase of settlement dates to the middle Neolithic (MN I–III), the 6th millennium
bc
, and comprises closely grouped houses of mud brick set on stone foundations. Each house has a domed oven in the centre. The site gives its name to a distinctive style of pottery comprising a fine white slipped fabric decorated with painted red geometric designs. The Classic Sesklo levels are succeeded by a late Neolithic horizon (Dimini) and a Chalcolithic horizon (Rachmani).
[Rep.: M. Wijnen , 1982,
The early Neolithic I settlement at Sesklo: An early farming community in Thessaly, Greece
. Leiden: Universitaire Pers Leiden]