Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (768 page)

xee
VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY
.

 
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Very coarse pottery. xee
BRIQUETAGE
.

 
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A window having three apertures, of which the central one is much larger than the lateral ones, separated from one another by slender piers.

 
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A deeply stratified sequence of cave deposits representing a series of occupations and use from 10000 bc down to about 5000 bc. Excavated by Emil Haury in 1941, the earliest levels yielded projectile points of Clovis/Folsom types. A single grinding stone is suggestive of some interest in plant foods. Later levels include Desert Tradition finds.
[Rep.: E. W. Haury , 1950,
The stratigraphy and archaeology of Ventana Cave
. Tucson: University of Arizona Press]

 
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Relating to the front or lower surface. In describing a struck flint or stone blade or flake it refers to the face that was most recently attached to the core, usually with visible traces of ripples and the bulb of percussion.Compare
DORSAL SURFACE
.

 
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Ventris , Michael
(1922–56)
[Bi].

British scholar who, in 1952, deciphered the linear b script found in Mycenaean and Minoan contexts, showing that it was an early form of Greek. An architect by profession, he became interested in the problem of
LINEAR B
after hearing a lecture by Sir Arthur Evans . During WW2 he served as a navigator in the Royal Air Force, but after the war he resumed his spare-time study of ancient scripts, collaborating with John Chadwick in Oxford. In 1953 he published his conclusions in the
Journal of Hellenic Studies
and they were greeted with acclaim. He was made an OBE in 1955, received an honorary degree from the University of Uppsala, and was made an Honorary Research Associate of University College, London. Tragically, he was killed in a road accident in September 1956.
[Bio.:
Dictionary of National Biography
(1951–60), 1009–10]

 
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