Glossary: R Terms

Race and Racism
The plague of racism was at first enhanced, and then debunked, by the study of anthropology. Too bad we can't seem to convince people that the idea that some people are better than others ought to be permanently shelved.

al Rafiqa (Syria)
The archaeological site of al-Rafiqa is an Abbasid site in Syria

Al-Rawda (Syria)
The archaeological site of Al-Rawda is an outlier of the northern Mesopotamian civilization located in the dry steppe zone of interior Syria southeast of Aleppo.

Racemization Dating
Racemization dating is a process which uses the measurement of the decay rate of carbon protein amino acids to date once-living organic tissue.

Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon dating is a technique for dating organic materials, based on the nuclear decay rates of the carbon isotopes.

Ramapithecus
Ramapithecus is one of our pre-human ancestors from between 12 and 14 million years ago.

Ramesseum (Egypt)
The Ramesseum is a massive temple built by the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II during his New Kingdom reign (1279-1213 BC).

Ranking and Social Inequality
The study of ranking and social inequality in archaeology is based on the anthropological and economic studies of Elman Service and Morton Fried.

Rano Raraku (Easter Island)
Rano Raraku is one of two main quarries from which the Easter Island statues called moai were carved.

Ras Hafun (Somalia)
The archaeological site of Ras Hafun, Somalia, is probably the ancient trade center of Opone on the east coast of Africa, mentioned in Egyptian records about 40 AD.

Ras Budran (Egypt)
Ras Budran is the name of an Old Kingdom fort, located in the el-Markha Plain on the west coast of the South Sinai peninsula.

RCYBP
RCYBP (Radio Carbon Years Before the Present) is a shorthand reference to the calibration (or rather, lack of it) for that particular date.

Ras Mkumbuu (Tanzania)
The archaeological site of Ras Mkumbuu was a 10th century trading port on the east coast of Africa with a substantial Muslim occupation.

Real Alto (Ecuador)
The archaeological site of Real Alto is a Valdivia culture site, located on the Chanduy Valley less than 3 kilometers in from the coast of southwestern Ecuador.

Recumbent Stone Circles
Recumbent Stone Circles (a.k.a. RSC) are a specific form of Neolithic/Early Bronze Age megalithic monument, found in northeastern Scotland and southwestern Ireland.

Recuay Culture
The Recuay Culture is one of several fairly advanced pre-inca societies of the first millennium AD in Peru.

Red Bay (Canada)
At Red Bay, Labrador, Basque whalers from France and Spain launched whaling ships and processed whale meat and blubber between 1530 and 1600.

Refits
To an archaeologist, a refit involves painstakingly putting the broken pieces of an object back together, decades, centuries or millennia after the object was broken.

Regensburg (Germany)
The modern city of Regensburg, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers in Bavaria, has the largest Iron Age Roman fortification in the region.

Red Tower (Israel)
The Red Tower, also known as al-Burj al Ahmar, is a small castle built during the crusades in the central Sharon Plain of Palestine.

Remedello Culture
The Remedello Culture refers to a Bronze Age culture in northern Italy and Switzerland between about 2800 and 2600 BC.

Religion in Archaeology
The study of religion in archaeology is not an easy matter, and not just in a political sense of the word.

Remote Sensing
Remote sensinghttp://archaeology.about.com/od/remotesensing/Remote_Sensing_Applications.htm Remote Sensing Applications refers to sensing or imaging of distant phenomena.

Repatriation and Reburial
Repatriation refers to the return of human remains, grave goods, sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony to the individuals, groups, or nations that represent the original owners.

Replication
Archaeological replication, also known as experimental archaeology, involves performing a process of the past (flint knapping, for example).

Rhafas Cave (Morocco)
Rhafas Cave is a Mousterian and Aterian site located in the Mahgreb region of northern Africa, in the northeastern part of the Oujda Montains in Morocco.

Rescue Archaeology
Rescue Archaeology, also known as Cultural Resource Management or CRM archaeology, is generally state or federally funded archaeological research, completed because a particular parcel of privately owned property is to be purchased by the state for use in a road, bridge, or other public works project.

Ribe (Denmark)
The town of Ribe is said to be the oldest city in Denmark, founded in AD 825 by Vikings.

Richey-Roberts Site (USA)
The East Wenatchee site, also known as the Richey-Roberts site, is a cache of finished and unfinished Clovis projectile points, found in Washington State.

Ridanas (Sweden)
Ridanäs is the name of a 6-12th century AD Viking settlement located on the island of Götland, Sweden.

Rift Valley
The Rift Valley of eastern Africa and Asia is an enormous geological split in the crust of the earth.

Roquepertuse (France)
Roquepertuse is an Iron Age site, with evidence tracing the history of both beer- and wine-making, not to mention its Celtic shrine with a Janus-headed sculpture and friezes.

Rock Art
Rock art is the collective term used for various forms of artistic expression by humans and their immediate ancestors

Roman Roads (Viae Publicae)
Roman roads (called Viae Publicae in Latin) were an extremely important construction project for imperial Rome, as they allowed for communication and control of the vast Roman empire throughout Europe.

Rome (Italy)
The ancient capital of Rome on the Tiber River in Italy was traditionally founded by the twins Romulus and Remus in the year 754 BC

Rose Cottage Cave (South Africa)
Rose Cottage is a Middle Paleolithic (Howiesons Poort) cave site located in the eastern Free State of South Africa.

Royal Purple
Royal Purple is the deep purple pigment used for elite clothing beginning in the Roman period and illuminated manuscripts through the Middle Ages.

Rudabánya (Hungary)
The paleontological site of Rudabánya, Hungary has been dated to the Miocene epoch of some 9-10 million years ago.

Rougiers (France)
The medieval rural walled hilltop village near Rougiers, France was occupied in the 12th century, and then deserted.

Royal Road of the Achaemenids
The Royal Road was a major intercontinental thoroughfare built by the Achaemenid king Darius the Great (521-485 BC), to allow access to their conquered cities. It is also the road that Alexander the Great used to conquer the Achaemenid dynasty.

Runic Writing
Runic writing is the name of the script used by the Scandinavian Vikings by the end of the 11th century AD, on monoliths and rock faces.

Rössen Culture
The Rössen Culture is the name given to a Neolithic culture dated between 4500-3500 BC.

Rujm el Hiri (Syria)
The archaeological site of Rujm el Hiri, Syria, is a curious Chalcolithic or Early Bronze age structure in the Golan Heights which researchers believe is an astronomical observatory.

Riverton (Illinois, US)
Riverton is a large shell midden, occupied about3700 years ago with early evidence of domesticated chenopodium.