Glossary Entries between the Scientific Method and Settlement Patterns

Schlep Effect
The 'schlep effect' is the term used by archaeologists to refer to the postulated reason for patterned bone deposits at field butchery sites and home base sites for prehistoric peoples.

Science Fiction and Archaeology
For some strange reason, some of the great science fiction writers have been drawn to write about archaeology and archaeologists.

Scientific Method
Using the scientific method can mean two different things in terms of archaeological studies: philosophy and practice.

Scythians
The Scythians were a nomadic horse-riding society that pretty much ruled all of Central Asia during the 6th and 7th centuries BC.

Sea Peoples
Sometime in the late 13th or early 12th centuries BC a loose confederation of people from the Mediterranean Sea caused attacked and caused great havoc throughout the Mediterranean: the Sea Peoples.

Seasonality
Archaeologists use the term 'seasonality' to mean the part of a year a particular activity takes place.

Sechin Alto (Peru)
The archaeological site called Sechin Alto is the capital of a pre-incan culture located on the northwest coast of Peru, occupied between approximately 1800-900 BC.

Secondary Products Revolution
The Secondary Products Revolution (or SPR for short), is what archaeologists theorize happened when humans realized that there are more qualities about animals and plants to exploit than just meat and grain.

Seddin (Germany)
An urfield cemetery site at Seddin near Pritzwalk in northeastern Germany has a single burial in a large mound called the "King's Grave".

Sedentism
Sedentism is the term archaeologists use to describe the process of settling down.

Seleucid Empire
After Alexander the Great died, his empire fractured into numerous satrapies, one of which was the Seleucid Empire

Selk'nam People
The Selk'nam were hunter-gatherers who lived in Tierra del Fuego at the very southern end of the South American continent.

Seljuk Dynasty
The Seljuk Dynasty was an Islamic empire which occupied central Asia and the middle east between the 11th and 14th centuries AD.

Sepphoris (Israel)
The site of Sepphoris (known as Zippori in Hebrew) was the capital of the Galilee region at the time of the Roman occupation.

Semitic Tribes
The term Semitic tribes (or Semites) refers to several groups of nomads and camel pastoralists who spoke related Semitic languages and included Arabs, Aramaeans, Jews, Carthaginians, Ethiopians, Abyssinians, and Phoenicians.

The Serpent Mound, or Alligator Mound, located in southern Ohio in the American midwest, is a large earthen spiral structure in the shape of a partially coiled serpent (or at least that's our interpretation).
Serpent Mound, a.k.a Alligator mound is located in southern Ohio in the American midwest, and it is a large earthen spiral structure in the shape of a coiled serpent, built in the 12th century AD.

Serabit el-Khadem (Egypt)
The archaeological site of Serabit el-Khadem is on the Sinai peninsula, on a small plateau north of the modern town of al-Tor.

Seriation
The technique of dating archaeological sites and materials by seriation was invented by William Flinders-Petrie.

Serovo-Glazkovo Culture
The Serovo-Glazkovo culture refers to a Siberian Late Neolithic to Bronze Age culture (4200-3200 BP) located in the Baikal area.

Settlement Patterns
One of the core concepts of the study of archaeology is settlement pattern studies.

Settefinestre (Italy)
The archaeological site of Settefinestre is located in the Tuscany region of Italy, and contains a 15th century villa built on top of the ruins of a Roman villa.