Glossary of Terms
Agrarian
Relates to the cultivation of land for farming purposes, whether it is for planted crops, or livestock, either for self-consumption, or for trade and distribution to others.
Barbarian
Contemptuous term referring to an uncivilized, brutish, person, or persons. Differing from that of savage, in that a barbarian chooses to maintain his or her way of life, despite having contact with further developed cultures, whereas a savage is wilfully ignorant of such.
Barrow
Artificial mound, usually man-made and constructed of earth, although stone barrows are also known. Usually covering one, or more burials. Earlier Neolithic barrows tended to be long, trapezoid shape, whereas later Bronze Age barrows are almost always round.
Beaker Culture
A general term for widely scattered groups of late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age communities, usually defined by their use of a distinctive decorated pottery known as Beaker Wear and new styles of metalworking which are seen to distinguish them from earlier Neolithic cultures.
Before Common Era (B.C.E.)
Before Common Era, abbreviated to B.C.E., is a non-religious notation system used to refer to dates before year 1. See also Common Era.
Bronze Age
The period in human development when metalworking technology advanced to the smelting of copper and tin ores to create a bronze alloy. In Europe it refers to the period of 2,300 B.C.E. to 600 B.C.E. Generally regarded as the second in the three-age system of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age first developed in the 19th Century, which divides prehistoric societies according to the major technology at that time.
Burial Mound
An artificially constructed hillock of earth or rocks into which human communities deliberately interred their dead, either as inhumations or cremations.
Cairn
Deliberate mound formed of rocks. Generally, but not always, used to cover a burial and can vary greatly in size and structure.
Causewayed Enclosure
A ditched enclosure built in the Neolithic era found generally in southern and eastern Britain, of which the characteristic feature is the presence of frequent breaks or causeways in the boundary ditch.
Classic Society
The Classic Societies are generally accepted as being those of Ancient Greece (1,100 to 146 B.C.E.) and the Roman Empire (27 B.C.E. to 476 C.E.) and are considered to be the seminal cultures, which provided the foundations of the Western Civilization as it appears today.
Common Era (C.E.)
A notation system for time, beginning at year 1 of the Gregorian calendar, to the present day. The numbering system is identical to that of Anno Domini (A.D.). Common Era has been commonly adopted in academic and non-Christian cultures wishing to use a system that does not make reference to religious titles for Jesus in its notation.
Copper Age (Chalcolithic)
A transitional period in human development outside the three-age system of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. It occurs between The Stone Age and Bronze Age, and is relatively short lived in Britain as technology seems to have quickly advanced to the smelting of copper with tin to produce the stronger alloy bronze.
Cup-marked Stone
A type of rock art motif found widely in Britain and elsewhere comprising of a small cup-shaped mark, or cupule, deliberately pecked out of the surface of a rock. Their purpose and significance is unknown.
Cursus
A mid-Neolithic linear earthwork of parallel banks. The purpose is unknown, but believed to have been ritual. Varying in size, with some as long as 9km.
Embanked Stone Circle
A type of stone circle which typically consisting of a ring of standing stones or orthostats that are set on the internal edge of retained rubble bank.
English Heritage
Formally known as the Historic Building and Monuments Commission for England, English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It was set up under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983 and is best known as the steward of a large number of significant historical and archaeological sites throughout England. It also maintains a public archive, the National Monuments Record (NMR).
Fertile Crescent
A term devised in 1916 to describe the roughly crescent-shaped area of land between Egypt, through the Levant, into southern Anatolia and onto Mesopotamia and the Zagros Mountains. This area is one of the first to have seen the development of many aspects of an agrarian lifestyle.
Freestanding Stone Circle
Typically consisting of a ring of stones set upright in the ground without any kind of embankment.
Henge
An approximately circular ritual earthwork built in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, consisting of a bank and ditch.
Hut Circle
A circular or oval depression in the ground, found widely in upland regions of Britain, with traces of a low wall around it representing the stone foundations of a round house whose superstructure is generally thought to have been made of timber and thatch.
Iron Age
The period that followed the Bronze Age, extending from 600 B.C.E. to 50 C.E. Generally defined as the stage in the development of any people in which the main ingredient for tools and weapons was iron.
Limestone Plateau
The oldest and lowest areas of the Peak District, made from rocks formed during the Carboniferous age by the actions of a shallow clear sea. They are easily recognized by its almost white or grey colour and today is commonly used for agriculture.
Megalithic
Relates to, or denotes, prehistoric monuments made by erecting one or more stones. Also relates to the cultures that built such monuments.
Menhir
A Breton name for a tall, standing stone erected in prehistoric times in certain areas of Western Europe.
Mesolithic
Relates to the middle part of the Stone Age, between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic, 11,500 B.C.E. to 5,000 B.C.E. and is derived from the Greek words mesos, meaning ‘middle’, and lithos, meaning ‘stone’. It generally refers to the transitional period between hunter/gatherer societies to the onset of farming.
Milstone Grit
Millstone Grit is a stratigraphic gritstone that can be seen in higher upland areas of the Peak District. Formed in the Carboniferous period by the actions of a shallow clear sea. It has been widely used for mill stones to grind flour, paper pulp and for sharpening blades and is also quarried for building material.
National Trust
Founded in 1895 to act as a guardian for the nation in the acquisition and protection of threatened coastline, countryside and buildings. Today it protects and opens to the public over 300 historic houses and gardens and 49 industrial monuments and mills in Great Britain.
Neolithic
The New Stone Age, 4,500 B.C.E. to 2,200 B.C.E. which saw the introduction of farming, pottery and the building of megalithic monuments in Western Europe.
New Stone Age
See Neolithic.
Old Stone Age
See Palaeolithic.
Orthostat
A large updstanding stone stone used in the construction of megalithic tombs to support the roof, or as an upright in stone circles.
Outlier
A standing stone outside and at some distance from a stone circle.
Palaeolithic
The Old Stone Age, spanning a period of three and a half million years of human evolution from the advanced hominids to the end of the last ice age around 12,000 years ago. It covers roughly 99% of human history and is distinguished by development and use of the first stone tools.
Ringcairn
A circular cairn generally made of rubble stones, which define an open-air central space in which human cremated remains can be found. The rubble bank generally has one or more entrances.
Robbed Cairn
A man-made pile of rocks covering a burial that has had much of its structure removed for other purposes, such as the building of drystone walls, or by those seeking treasure. What is left behind is usually a faint ring of rubble stones.
Robbed Tumulus
Similar to a robbed cairn, it is a man-made pile of earth or rocks, but without the burial beneath that has had much of its structure removed for other purposes, such as the building of drystone walls, or by those seeking treasure. What is left behind is usually a faint ring of rubble stones.
Rock Art
Generally accepted as any artificially created mark that is cut, engraved, incised, gouged, ground or pecked out of a rock surface. Individual marks are known as motifs where a carved design is a petroglyph and painted one is a pictograph. Rock art is known to have existed since the lower Palaeolithic times.
Solstice
Either of the two times per year, summer solstice or winter solstice, when the sun is at its highest or lowest point in the sky at midday, marking the longest and shortest days of the year.
Stone Circle
A circular ring of upright stones, sometimes set into a low earth or rubble bank, usually dating from the Late Neolithic Early Bronze Age (LNEBA). Used for ritual and depositional purposes, although the full extent of their use is unknown.
Tumulus
An artificial prehistoric mound of earth and rocks, the use of which is uncertain.