Glossary: D Terms
Dian Culture
The Dian Kingdom arose from the Bronze Age Dian Culture, until it was conquered by the Han Dynasty in 109 BC.
Dian Kingdom Burials
Archaeological evidence of the Dian kingdom is known best from the excavations of cemeteries.
Dibba al-Hisn (Sharjah, UAE)
Dibba al-Hisn is a tomb discovered in a private courtyard in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) and dated to the pre-Islamic period.
Diring Yuriakh (Siberia)
Diring Yuriakh is a somewhat controversial hominid site in Siberia, where stone tools have been found dated more than 260,000 years ago.
Guide to Dilmun
Dilmun is the ancient name of a trading center and perhaps polity controlled by and in partnership with Mesopotamia located on the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.
Dhar Tichitt (Mauritania)
Dhar Tichitt is the name of a group of villages located along the edge of a limestone cliff in south central Mauritania from between 2000-800 BC.
Dian Kingdom
The Dian Kingdom is the name of a Chinese Bronze Age culture and dynasty with evidence of iron-forging, in eastern Yunnan province of southwestern China (ca. 1000-1 BC).
Diaspora
Archaeologists use the term 'diaspora' to refer to any large scale migration, whether voluntary or forced.
Diffusion
Archaeologists use the word "diffusion" to mean the movement of ideas over space and time.
Dikili Tash (Greece)
The Neolithic site of Dikili Tash (also called Philippoi) is a tell located in the Drama plain of eastern Macedonia in northern Greece.
Dmanisi (Georgia)
Dmanisi is a very old archaeological site located in the Caucausus region of the Republic of Georgia, about 85 kilometers southwest of the modern town of Tbilisi, where lived some of the earliest of our human ancestors from Africa.
Dinggong (China)
Dinggong is a Longshan village site in Zhouping County of Shandong Province, China, dated to the Late Neolithic period.
Diring Yuriakh (Russia)
Diring Yuriakh is a controverial early hominid site in the Siberian region of Russia, believed to have been occupied around 300,000 years ago, with an Olduvai-like pebble tool assemblage.
Diuktai Cave (Russia)
Diuktai Cave is an archaeological site on the Aldan River, a tributary of the Lena in eastern Siberia, occupied by a group that may have been ancestral to some Paleoarctic people of North America.
Dong Son Culture
The Dong Son culture is a Bronze age culture including all of southeast Asia and into the Indo-Malaya Archipelago from about 1000 to 1 BC.
Domestication
Domestication is the process of genetically adapting an animal or plant to better suit the needs of human beings; this page includes a definition of domestication and a table of domestication dates for animals and plants in the world.
Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic)
The Gravettian site of Dolní Vĕstonice is located near the modern town of Brno in the region of Moravia in the eastern part of what is now the Czech Republic.
Dong Dau (Vietnam)
The site of Dong Dau is a deeply stratified Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological site, located in the coastal plains of the Red River of central Vietnam.
Dongshanzui (China)
Dongshanzui is the name of a Hongshan culture site in Kazuo county, Liaoning province, China, occupied between 4700-2920 BC.
Northwest Coast Dugout Canoes
Dugout canoes are a type of fishing technology used by the Early Native American for navigation along the Pacific Northwest coast
Dorestad (The Netherlands)
Dorestad is the name of a Medieval coastal trading site located in the delta region of the Rhine and Maas rivers in the Netherlands, occupied between about 675-875 AD.
La Draga (Catalonia, Spain)
La Draga, located on the shore of Lake Bayoles in Catalonia, Spain, is an early Neolithic lake dwelling, occupied for about 80-100 years about 7,000 years ago..
Dorian Culture
The Dorians were an Iron Age ethnic group in classical Greece
Dowth (Ireland)
Dowth is the name of a Megalithic passage tomb in the Brugh na Bóinne valley of Ireland, dated to the Early Neolithic period.
Doumenzhen (China)
Doumenzhen was a capital of the Chou (or Zhou) Dynasty, China (1050-256 BC).
Dzudzuana Cave
Dzudzuana is a rockshelter with important, stratified Early Upper Paleolithic occupations, located in the western part of the Republic of Georgia, 5 kilometers east of the similarly dated Ortvale Klde.
Dumpokjauratj (Sweden)
Dumpokjauratj is the name of an Early Mesolithic (Komsa complex) dwelling located on Lake Dumpokjauratj in the Lappland region of inland Sweden.
Dura-Europos (Syria)
Duro-Europos is the name of a Greek colony on the Euphrates River near the modern town of Salhiyé in Syria, and the site of the earliest known Jewish diaspora synagogue.