Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (784 page)

Wedlake , William James
(1904–89)
[Bi].

British amateur archaeologist who worked mainly in the southwest of England. His early life was spent on a farm at Camerton in Somerset where he developed a passionate interest in the countryside and the early history of Somerset. In the 1930s he took part in the excavations at the Meare Lake Village and later became foreman to St George Gray at Combe Beacon and Burrow Mump. During the pre-war excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorset, Wedlake was the foreman and assistant to Sir Mortimer Wheeler , and he later worked with Wheeler on many other sites in England and northern France. While working for the Admiralty in Bath from 1940 until his retirement in 1972, Wedlake excavated the Romano-British settlement at Camerton, and in 1947 founded the Camerton Club to carry out work around Bath. His last major excavation was the Romano-British temple at Nettleton, near Bath, Avon.
[Obit.
Antiquaries Journal
, 70 (1990), 527–8]

 
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Distinctive species of plants that grow amongst cultivated cereal crops as a result of contamination either through seeds getting into the main crop before sowing, remaining in the ground after the soil has been cultivated, or being introduced to an emergent crop by windaction or animal transportation. The main species are cleavers (Galium aparine), charlock (Sinapis arvensis), members of the thistle family (Cirsia), fat hen (Chenopodium album), poppies (Papaveraceae), hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), and, on acid soils, red shank (Polygonium persicaria) and pale persicara (Polygonum lapathifolium). The presence or absence of these species allows detailed insights to the nature and extent of crop processing and agricultural practices.

 
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Final glacial advance in northern Europe, named after a major north German ice-sheet present during the period 120000 to 10000 bc. The Weichselian glaciation corresponds to the
WÜRM
in the Alpine sequence, the
DEVENSIAN
in the British Isles, and the
WISCONSIN
in North America.

 
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1
Stone, wooden, metal, or clay object that when suspended by a rope or cord acts to stretch, tension, or pull tight some kind of fabric or material (e.g. thatch weight; net weight).
2
Stone, clay, or metal object of standard weight used in measurement on balances or scales of some kind.

 
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A means of fusing together two or more pieces of iron or other kinds of metal with similar properties. In ancient times welding was achieved by pressing heated pieces of metal together at high temperature (i.e. white-hot but not melted), usually by hammering. This is commonly known as fire-welding; early examples include iron jewellery from late Helladic contexts in Greece. In more recent times welding is usually achieved by bringing the pieces of metal together in molten form by melting the contact zones using an electric arc or hot-burning gases. Fillers and fluxes may sometimes be used in this process. See also
SOLDERING
.

 
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Pit or shaft, sometimes lined with stone or wood, dug from the ground surface to a point below the local water table so as to allow the bottom of the well to fill with water as a small reservoir accessible by lowering a bucket or receptacle down from above. Some wells are fitted with a cover, others with a protective wall around the top. Some are fitted with a winding mechanism to raise and lower the bucket, or a pump to raise the water by suction. Recesses in the top section of the well shaft were sometimes built as storage places for foodstuffs that are best stored in cool conditions. Wells are sometimes associated with special powers or as links to the underworld.