Glossary: H Terms
Huaca La Florida (Peru)
Huaca La Florida is one of the earliest ceremonial centers in Peru.
Hacienda Tabi
Hacienda Tabi is a large plantation sites located in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where during the 18th and 19th centuries the descendents of the Spanish Conquistadors exploited hundreds of indebted native and immigrant workers.
Hacinebe Tepe (Turkey)
The archaeological site of Hacinebi Tepe is located in southeastern Turkey, on the bluffs overlooking the east bank of the Euphrates River.
H3, Al Sabiyah (Kuwait)
The region of As-Sabiyah in what is now Kuwait is the home of nearly sixty archaeological sites belonging the Mesopotamian period, including evidence of early sailing at the Ubaid period site at As-Sabiyah, known as H3.
Hallstatt Culture
The Hallstatt culture is the period in central Europe when local chiefs grew in power, perhaps as a direct result of their interaction with the blossoming of the Mediterranean Iron Age civilizations.
Hamanaka 2 (Japan)
Hamanaka 2 is a multicomponent (Okhotsk and Jomon) archaeological site on Rebun Island, Hokkaido province, Japan.
Hamdallahi (Mali)
Hamdallahi is the capital city of the Islamic Fulani caliphate of Macina (also spelled Massina or Masina), occupied between 1820 and 1864.
Harappa (Pakistan)
Harappa is a large city of the Indus Civilization, and one of the best known sites in Pakistan, located on the bank of the Ravi River in Punjab Province.
Hammerstone
A hammerstone is the archaeological term used for an object used as a prehistoric hammer, to create percussion on another object.
Harris Matrix
The Harris Matrix is a tool developed by British archaeologist Edward Cecil Harris in 1973 to assist in the examination and interpretation of the stratigraphy of archaeological sites.
Han Purple
The color known as Han or Chinese Purple was a manufactured pigment used in China between about 500 BC and 220 AD, most famously on the terracotta soldiers of the Qin emperor.
Hayonim Cave (Israel)
Hayonim Cave is Natufian and Mousterian aged site located on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, in a limestone bluff about 250 meters above modern sea level.
Hawk Bell
Hawk bells were copper or bronze objects used in medieval falconry in Europe, but also as a trade good to Native American groups met by early explorers and conquistadors to the American Continent.
Hero Twins
Hunahpu and Xbalanque known as the Hero Twins, a story of the Maya civilization narrated in the Popol Vuh,the sacred book of the Maya Quiché of Guatemala
Heat Treatment
Heat treatment in stone tool making (or flint knapping) refers to the controlled use of fire on raw lithic material to improve its flaking quality.
Hidden Falls Site, Alaska
Hidden Falls is an Archaic and Pacific period site in southern Alaska, and best known for its early evidence of the use of marine resources.
Heuneburg (Germany)
Heuneburg is the name of an Iron Age hillfort located on a steep hill overlooking the Danube River in southern Germany.
Hibabiya (Jordan)
Hibabiya was a village in the eastern desert of Jordan, where nomadic pastoralists occasionally lived, grew crops and grazed their animals on their yearly migrations
Henge or Stone Circle
A henge is the term given to a large prehistoric earthwork, usually but not always circular, whether of stones, wood, or earth.
Hemuda (China)
Hemuda is a Neolithic archaeological site and the type site of the culture of the Yangtse River valley in China
Hierakonpolis (Egypt)
Hierakonpolis is one of the largest predynastic towns ever discovered in Egypt.
Hirschlanden Figure (Germany)
The Hirschlanden Figure is a life-sized, three-dimensional statue of a man with an erect penis, carved during the early Iron Age and recovered from a burial mound in Germany.
Hieroglyphic Symbols
Hieroglyphic symbols are a form of writing which uses little pictures to represent actions or things.
Hilazon Tachtit (Israel)
Hilazon Tachtit is the name of a set of human burials which date to 12,000 years old, and include what was likely a shaman.
Hill Forts
Hill forts in archaeology describe villages built with defensive structures such as enclosures, moats, or ramparts.
Hinds Cave
Hinds Cave (Smithsonian catalog no. 41VV456) is a dry rockshelter located in the Still Canyon of southwestern Texas, about 1.3 kilometers north of its confluence with the Pecos River.
Hochdorf (Germany)
Hochdorf, Germany is an Iron Age archaeological site, where a Celtic chieftain lived and was buried.
Hisarlik (Turkey)
Hisarlik is the modern name for the ancient site of Troy, located in what is now Turkey.
History Definition
Historians study the past by examining and analyzing the written documents of what people have written about past events. Here is a collection of the definition of history.
Hittites - the Hittite Empire
The Hittite empire ruled much of Anatolia--roughly what today is Turkey--between about 1340-1200 BC.
Hoabinhian Period
The Hoabinhian Period is the name given to that section of Southeast Asian prehistory from about 13,000 to 3000 BC.
Hoards and Caches
"Hoards" or "caches" refer to collections of objects which were intentionally gathered together and buried underground.
Hofstaðir
Hofstaðir is the name of a Viking settlement located in northeastern Iceland, where archaeological and oral history reports a pagan temple was located.
Horticulture
The archaeological use of the term horticulture is used to describe a subsistence strategy between hunting and gathering and full fledged agriculture.
Hominid
Hominid is the word used by paleontologists up until recently to refer to humans and our immediate ancestors.
Hohokam culture
The Hohokam culture is the name given to farming people of the American southwest between AD 200 and 1450.
American Holly (Ilex spp)
The American holly plant was an important stimulant used in rituals in both South and North America.
Huitzilopochtli
Huitzilopochtli is the Aztec god of war and sacrifice, and one of the most important gods of the Aztec pantheon
Howburn (Scotland)
Howburn, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, has evidence of one of the earliest occupation in Scotland: Late Upper Paleolithic.
Hominin
Over the last few years, the word ‘hominin’ has crept into the public news stories about our human ancestors. This is not a misspelling for hominid; this reflects an evolutionary change in the understanding of what it means to be human.
Hohle Fels (Germany)
Hohle Fels is an Upper and Middle Paleolithic site located in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany, located 20 kilometers southwest of the town of Ulm.
Howiesons Poort and Stillbay Industries
The most advanced industries of the Middle Stone Age are those of the Howiesons Poort and Stillbay industries of southern Africa
Huandacareo (Michoacan, Mexico)
Huandacareo is a Tarascan empire site in Michoacan, Mexico, dating to the Postclassic period
Hrísbrú (Iceland)
Hrisbru is the name of a chiefly residence dated to the Viking period and located in the Mosfell valley of Iceland.
Huaca Colorada (Peru)
Huaca Colorada is a Moche culture archaeological site, located in the Jequetepeque Valley of the arid desert of northern coastal Peru.
Howick (United Kingdom)
The Howick Mesolithic site is one of the earliest recorded residential structures in Britain.
Huaca de la Luna (Peru)
Huaca de la Luna is a large Moche settlement located within the greater Moche site and adjacent to the Huaca del Sol.
Huaca del Sol (Peru)
The Huaca del Sol is an enormous adobe brick Moche civilization pyramid, built in at least eight different stages between AD 0-600.
Huaca Prieta (Peru)
Huaca Prieta, located on the arid desert coast of Peru near Trujillo, was built a 3,000 year construction period and represents one of the earliest mound constructions in Peru.
Hughes H. Jones Site (Pennsylvania, USA)
The Hughes H. Jones Site (36Gr4) is a Late Prehistoric Monongahela Tradition (c. A.D. 1000–1640) habitation site located in Pennsyvlania
Huldre Fen Woman (Bog Body, Denmark)
The Huldre Fen woman (also called Huldremose) is a bog body found in a bog called Huldre Fen in northern Denmark
Hunter-gatherers
Hunting and gathering was the lifestyle of all human beings until the invention of agriculture about 8000 years ago; and, to state it simply, hunter-gatherers hunt game and collect plant foods.
Human Behavioral Ecology
Archaeologists use the theoretical method of Human Behavioral Ecology to study specific human groups as they change over time (decades, centuries, millennia).
Hyrax Hill (Kenya)
The archaeological region of Hyrax Hill is an area investigated by Louis and Mary Leakey that receives little attention
Hurrian Culture
The Hurrian culture was an Early Bronze Age (third and second millennium BC) culture in Syro-Mesopotamia.
Husn al-Qadisiyah (Iraq)
Husn al-Qadisiyah is the ruins of an Abassid walled fort in Iraq.
Hyksos
The Hyksos were the ruling dynasty of Egypt between the 13th and 18th dynasties of the Second Intermediate Period