Glossary: A Terms

The site of El Arenal-1 in Chile, contains documented evidence of precolumbian contact by Polynesian seafarers to the coast of Chile.

Aspero is the name of a large mound site, part of the Caral-Supe Tradition located on the central coast of Peru and dated to approximately 5,000 years before the present.

The Sierra de Atapuerca is an ancient karst topography region of Spain, where several caves are located with evidence of very old occupations.

The tell site of Atchana was an Early to Late Bronze Age trading center in Syria.

The Aterian is a distinctive stone tool industry of North Africa, dated between 90,000 and 40,000 years ago, and made by anatomically modern humans.

Áth Cliath is a Viking longphort established at least as early as 841 AD at what was to become Dublin, Ireland.

The Athabaskans were late prehistoric and historic period peoples of the American southwest, considered ancestral to the Navajo and Apache and other modern groups.

Surely among the most well known of archaeological sites, the ancient capital of the Greek civilization Athens was first occupied during the Neolithic period.

Atlantis is a fictional kingdom described by Plato in two of his dialogues, Timaeus and Critias.

The atlatl is a sophisticated combination hunting tool or weapon, formed out of a short dart with a point socketed into a longer shaft.

The Aurignacian period (40,000 to 28,000 years ago) is an Upper Paleolithic stone tool tradition

Australopithecus is one of several species of hominins who may or may not be Homo sapiens direct ancestor.

The Avar culture is the name given to Slavic nomads living near the Danube River basin from the 6th through 9th centuries AD.

Avebury is an ancient megalithic site, dated to the Late Neolithic period and located in in central south England.

The avocado was domesticated in central Mesoamerica and has spread far and wide from there.

An axe is a stone wood working tool, used as modern day axes are, to cut down trees, horizontally slicing through the wood.

The Axumite civilization is a Coptic pre-Christian state in Ethiopia, from about AD 100-800.

Ayer Pond, excavated by workmen in 2003, contains what appears to be a bison butchered by pre-clovis people.

The Aymara are a modern cultural group of the Andes in Peru, and the descendants of the Tiwanaku Empire in the Lake Titicaca region of Bolivia and Peru (400-1500 AD).

Ayn Qasiyya is an Epipaleolithic site where an unusual burial was identified, located in the Azraq Oasis of Jordan.

Aztalan is a large Mississippian site located on the west bank of the Crawfish River near Lake Mills in the midwestern US state of Wisconsin.

The Aztec Calendar Stone, aka the Aztec Sun Stone, is a basalt sculpture with politically-motivated carvings related to the sun god Tonatiuh.

The Aztec civilization is the collective name given to seven Chichimec tribes of northern Mexico

Aztlan is the name of the mythical (and perhaps historical) homeland from which the Aztec/Mexica migrated to the Valley of Mexico in the 13th century.