| Amphitheater | A Roman structure with tiers of seats around an arena, forming a curving, normally freestanding shell, for example, the Colosseum, not to be confused with a Greek theater. |
| Amphora | A large two-handled Greek or Roman pottery vessel commonly used for storage of wine, oil, water, and grain - the cargo cask of antiquity. |
| Amulet | An object commonly worn as a pendant to ward off evil or bring good luck, for example, a figurine of an animal or a god. |
| Apse | A semicircular or polygonal recess in a building. |
| Byzantine | Refers to the culture and architectural style of the continuing Roman Empire, withits capital at Byzantium (Constantinople), beginning in the fifth and sixth centuries. |
| Chalcolithic | The copper-stone age, in Palestine roughly 4500 to 3000 B.C., when copper and stone tools and weapons were used side by side. |
| Codex | A manuscript produced in book form (with pages) on papyrus, parchment, or vellum. |
| Cuneiform | Wedge-shaped charactes used in writing a large number of Near Eastern languages, for example, Sumerian, Assyrian, Persian; presumably invented by the Sumerians at the end of the fourth millennium B.C. |
| Demotic | A script or cursive form of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about the sixth century B.C. to fifth century A.D.; it appears in the middle register of the Rosetta Stone. |
| Epigraphy | The study of inscriptions on such things as monuments, statues, coins. |
| Helladic | Refers to the Bronze Age culture of the Greek mainland. |
| Hellenic | Refers to things Greek during classical times. |
| Hellenistic | Refers to Greek culture internationalized by Alexander the Great and his followers. Though commonly applied to the fourth to second centuries B.C., it can slo denote many aspects of later Greco-Roman culture. |
| Hieratic | A form of writing used by priests of ancient Egypt from about 700 B.C. to second century A.D; a simplification of hieroglyphics. |
| Hieroglyphics | Means sacred or priestly writing and refers especially to the picture writing of ancient Egypt (used c. 3000 B.C. to A.D. 4) but also may denote picture writing of other peoples, for example, Hittites. |
| Krater | A Greek seramic bowl for mixing wine. |
| Mesolithic | New Stone Age, when polished stone implements were used and when settled village sites, domestication of animals, and cultivation of crops supposedly began. Apparently started in some places in the Near East during the eighth millenium B.C. |
| Palaeolithic | Old Stone Age during which men used crudestone implements and were food-gatherers. Commonly considered to have begun a half million or more years ago. |
| Wadi | An Arabic term used to describe a stream bed that is dry except in the rainy season. |
| Ziggurat | A brick temple tower, normally rectangular, built in principal Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cities. The earliest ones date to the fourth millennium B.C. and were single raised platforms. Gradually they rose to several stages, with a temple on the top stage. |
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Extracted from Archaeology in Bible lands, pg. 389 - 394. |
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BGST LIBRARY