Glossary Entries between Shamanism and SIte Formation Processes

Shawnee Minisink (USA)
The deeply buried, stratified Shawnee Minisink archaeological site is located on the Delaware River in northeastern Pennsylvania in the United States.

Shaman
A shaman is a type of religious specialist who uses altered states of consciousness to directly interact with gods and supernatural agents.

Shamanism
Shamanism is the term given by anthropologists to the most basic and universal form of religion: the ritual specialist or shaman.

Shang Dynasty (ca. 1700-1046 BC)
The Bronze Age Shang Dynasty in China is roughly dated between 1700-1050 BC

Shanga (Kenya)
The archaeological site of Shanga is located on an island in the Lamu archipelago off the coast of Kenya in eastern Africa.

Sheep (Ovis aries)
The sheep (Ovis aries) is one of the first animals domesticated by humans, about 10,000 years ago.

Shi Huangdi's Tomb (China)
The emperor Shi Huangdi [246-210 BC] was the Tiger of Qin, the first emperor of China, who unified the warring tribes into one group; his tomb includes the fabulous terra cotta army.

Shell Middens
A shell midden is a type of archaeological site made almost entirely of mussel shells.

Ships and Sea Faring
The study of ships and sea-faring is often called maritime archaeology

Shield Archaic Tradition
The Shield Archaic Tradition is the name given to a prehistoric culture of the boreal forests of the northern Canadian Shield between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay.

Shi Ji
The Shi Ji is the name given to an enormous history of China's dynastic empires, written during the second century BC.

Shieling
A shieling is a summer pasture, and a part of the landnam system of farming used by the Vikings in the 8th century AD.

Shizhaishan (China)
The Shizhaishan site, located in Yunnan Province, is a cemetery site dated between 250 BC-250 AD, and belonging to Dian people of the Warring States and Han periods.

Shilla
Shilla was an early Buddhist state in what is now North and South Korea, between 57 BC and AD 935.

Shillourokambos
Shillourokambos is an important Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Cyprus, where early identification of cat domestication has been discovered, including a cat burial and the sculptured face of a cat-human.

Sidon (Lebanon)
The archaeological site of Sidon includes the ruins of what was an important city-state of the Iron Age civilization of Phoenicia also called Canaan, and the center port for trade between Assyria, Egypt, Cyprus and the Aegean Sea between the sixth and fifth centuries BC.

Sican Culture
The Sican culture is the name archaeologists have given to one of several gold-working people who predated the Inca in what is now Peru between about 900-1300 AD.

Shona Chiefdoms
The chiefdoms of the Shona were located between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers in southern Africa between 1100 and 1500 AD, where they built Great Zimbabwe.

Siberian Upper Paleolithic
The last gasp of the Siberian upper paleolithic period (ca 18,000-11,000 BP) is an important one to understanding the colonization of the American continents.

Sibudu Cave (South Africa)
Sibudu Cave is an extremely important Middle Stone Age (MSA) rockshelter located on the Tongati River near the KwaZulu coast of South Africa.

Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain)
The Sierra de Atapuerca is an ancient karst topography region of Spain, where several caves are located with evidence of very old occupations.

Sidun (China)
Sidun is an archaeological site in Jiangsu province, China, belonging to the Liangzhu culture and dated between 3300-2200 BC.

Silbury Hill (UK)
The site of Silbury Hill is a gigantic flat-topped earthwork, in Wiltshire, England, and it is in fact the largest prehistoric man-made mound in prehistoric Europe.

Sigatoka Sand Dunes (Fiji)
The Sigatoka Sand Dunes on Fiji have archaeological evidence of the household-production of salt for trade in the 7th century AD.

Similaun Man (Italy)
The Similaun Man (also known as the Iceman) was found in the Tyrolean Alps in 1991, a Bronze Age hunter lost in a storm between 3350-3300 BC

Sipan (Peru)
The Sipán site is a large Moche culture administrative and religious center, located in the lower Lambayeque Valley on the northern coast of Peru.

Silk Route or Silk Road
The Silk Route (or Silk Road) is the name given to a network of trade routes crossing Asia, first reported to have been used during the Han Dynasty [206 BC-220 AD] in China

Sinú Culture
The Sinú culture of South America is another of several gold-working communities located on the Colombian coastline between about AD 300-1550.

Sinanthropus pekinsis (China)
The Homo erectus skull cap first called Sinanthropus pekinsis or Peking Man was found in 1927 in the cave known as Zhoukoudian by the Chinese archaeologist W.C. Pei.

Sirikwa Holes
The term Sirikwa Holes is the local name for depressions found throughout the western highlands of Kenya and in northern Tanzania; they represent late Iron Age hut locations.

Siraf Mosque (Iran)
The archaeological ruins of the Congregational Mosque of Siraf are located in the port city of Siraf on the gulf coast of Iran.

Sima Del Elefante (Spain)
Sima del Elefante is an important Lower Paleolithic site, discovered in a railway trench in the Atapuerca valley of Spain in the first decade of the 20th century