Archaeological Glossary Entries between Maadi and Mezhirich

Maadi (Egypt)
Maadi (sometimes spelled Ma'adi) is the name of one of the first fully excavated predynastic sites in Egypt

Maadi Culture
Maadi is the name of the Egyptian predynastic culture (and the type site) of Lower Egypt, the northern region (i.e., the lower Nile river delta), from about 3900-3500 BC.

Mabila
Mabila, located somewhere in the US state of Alabama, is the place where the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and the Mississippian warrior Tascalusa met in a great fierce battle in 1540.

Maguey
The ancient maguey plant (or agave) is one of 200 different species, and it was domesticated in ancient Mesoamerica.

Maisabel, Puerto Rico
Maisabel is a pre-Columbian Taino and Saladoid culture archaeological site in Puerto Rico.

Macuahuitl: the Aztec "Sword"
Macuahuitl is a Nahua term, which refers to an offensive weapon used by the Aztecs in combat.

Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is a medieval Welsh document, consisting of eleven stories.

Maguey Plan
The Maguey Plan (also known as the Plano en papel de maguey) is a 16th century map of part of a city within the Aztec empire, drawn on paper made of agave fibers.

Malinalco (Mexico)
Malinalco is an important Aztec archaeological site and ceremonial center on a hilltop, just south of Mexico City. It is best known for its temples carved out of the natural bedrock of the hill and its jaguar and eagle scultpures related to Aztec warfare, nobility and imperial power....

Makapansgat (South Africa)
Makapansgat is a series of veryy ancient archaeological sites in the Makapansgat valley of South Africa, with evidence for Australopithecus

Manis Mastodon
At the Manis Mastodon has been discovered evidence of people hunting extinct elephants in North America around 13,000 years ago. Shocking at the time of the discovery, Manis has joined the growing number of accepted pre-clovis sites.

Mammoths and Mastodons
Mammoths and mastodons are both extinct forms of elephant that roamed the world before the end of the Pleistocene period.

Mapungubwe (South Africa)
Mapungubwe is a middle to late Iron Age in Africa, and the seat of power for the region during the 13th century AD.

Manis Mastodon Site (USA)
The Manis Mastodon site is located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state in the northwestern United States, important for the history it provides on climatic change in glacial areas 12,000 years ago.

Marcaya (Peru)
Marcaya is the archaeological ruins of an Early Nasca civilization site, located in the foothills of the Andes of south coastal Peru.

Marine Isotope Stages (MIS)
Marine isotope stages, often abbreviated MIS and sometimes known as oxygen isotope stages, or OIS, are are part of an ancient clock identified by paleoclimatologists for the past 2 1/2 million years.

Mawangdui (China)
Mawangdui is the name of a Han dynasty [206 BC-AD 24] archaeological site situated in China in a suburb of the modern town of Changsha, Hunan Province.

Maisières-Canal (Belgium)
Masieres-Canal is an important Upper Paleolithic site in southern Belgium, with evidence for tanged points dated to the Gravettian period.

The Ancient Maya or Mayans?
On the web the two terms "Maya" and "Mayan" are often used interchangeably; but in scholarly circles, there is a decided difference.

Maritime Archaeology
The study of ships and sea-faring is often called maritime archaeology

Martin's Hundred (USA)
Martin's Hundred is an archaeological site in Virginia in the southeastern United States, consisting of a British colonial village first occupied in 1619.

Mayahuel, The Aztec Goddess of Maguey
Mayahuel is the Aztec goddess of maguey, the agave plant from which pulque and mezcal are produced.

Mayapan (Mexico)
Mayapan is an important Maya site in the Yucatan Peninsula, and one of the last capitals of the ancient Maya civilization

Mas d'Azil (France)
The paleolithic cave site known as Mas d'Azil is located in the Pyrénées of France, and was excavated by Edouard Piette.

Masada (Israel)
The archaeological site of Masada is among the most politically-charged archaeological ruins in the world, and that's saying a lot.

Material Culture
The term "material culture" is often used by archaeologists as a nonspecific way to refer to the artifacts or other concrete things left by past cultures.

Maya Blue
Maya Blue is the name of a pigment, used by the Maya civilization to decorate pots, sculpture and panels

Maya Civilization and Timeline
The Maya Civilization occupied much of the central North American continent between 2500 BC and AD 1500.

Maya Codices
There are three surviving Maya codices known in the world: Dresden, Madrid, and Paris, named because that's where the codices ended up, in museums in those cities.

Meadowcroft Rockshelter (USA)
Meadowcroft Rockshelter was one of the first archaeological sites in the United States to contain evidence of pre-Clovis populations.

Meare (United Kingdom)
Meare is the name given to two fabulously preserved Iron Age villages--fabulously preserved until recent localized environmental changes.

Mean Ceramic Date
A mean ceramic date is a method of determining the age of a historical artifact assemblage using the average dates of the pottery sherds collected from the site.

Megalithic Monuments
Megalithic structures are immense collections of stone, earth and wood, some of which were built during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods of Europe.

Megafauna
Megafauna is a term used by archaeologists and paleontologist to refer to large-bodied mammals, that is, any mammal weighing more than 100 pounds (45 kilograms)

Megafaunal Extinctions
Megafaunal extinctions refers to the massive die-out of large bodied mammals that occurred at the same time as human colonization of new continents, and massive global climate change.

Mehrgarh (Pakistan)
Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (7000-3200 BC) site on the Kachi plain of Baluchistan, Pakistan, and one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in south Asia.

Meindling (Germany)
Meindling is a long-term Linearbandkeramik site in Lower Bavaria, Germany, with LBK occupations between 6030 and 6380 RCYBP.

Megiddo (Israel)
The archaeological site of Megiddo, known as Tell el-Mutesellim, has at least thirty urban settlements within its layers, the earliest about 3500 BC.

Merv Oasis (Turkmenistan)
The Merv Oasis is located in the delta of the Murghab River in what is today southeastern Turkmenistan, about 200 kilometers north of the town of Takhta Bazar.

Meidum Pyramid
Meidum (also spelled Maidum) is an Old Kingdom pyramid, begun during the 3rd dynasty by Huni, and completed during the 4th Dynasty (2613-2494 BC) by his son Sneferu (or Snofru).

Mesa Verde (United States)
Mesa Verde ("green table" in Spanish) is a high stone cliff in southwestern Colorado near the Four Corners region of the United States Southwest.

Mexica
Mexica is the correct name for the Aztecs. The name Aztec inaccurately defines the ancient inhabitants of the city of Tenochitlan or the inhabitants of the Valley of Mexico.

Menkaure's Pyramid at Giza
The last pyramid built at the Giza Plateau was also constructed during the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom Egypt, in honor and to hold the remains of the pharaoh Menkaure

Mesoamerican Ball Game
The Mesoamerican ballgame was an exciting, dangerous game played by most cultures in central America.

Mezhirich (Ukraine)
The archaeological site of Mezhirich is an Upper Paleolithic site located in Ukraine near Kiev, and it is one of the best preserved sites of its type excavated to date.

Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is an ancient civilization that took up pretty much everything that today is modern Iraq, a triangular patch wedged between the Tigris River, the Zagros Mountains, and the Lesser Zab River. M

Metallurgy
Metallurgy, when used by archaeologists, is the study of the ancient processes of producing objects made of metal, including quarrying, mine construction, and smelting. Copper and gold-working were clearly part of ancient daily life for some civilizations.