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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Agger: a mound of earth forming a rampart

Archivolt: a moulding, sometimes decorated, around the front of an arch.

As: bronze unit of Roman currency.

Assegai : weapon of pointed jet on a long shaft.

Badegoulian : new name for the early Magdalenian period around 15,000 B.C., owing its name to the deposits of Badegoule in the Dordogne.

Balsamarium: vial in glass or clay designed to contain a balm or perfume.

Biface: elongated triangle or almond-shaped stone tool shaped by percussion on both of its two faces and a cutting edge around its entire perimeter or just at the end.

Biturige Cubi: Gaulish tribe who occupied the territory of today's Berry. Their main oppidum was Bourges (Avaricum).

Bonding-course: system of construction characterised by the overlapping configuration and assembly of hard materials to make a wall

Bract: a specialised leaf with a single flower growing in its axil;

Carbon 14: radioactive isotope of carbon which allows the accurate dating of organic materials.

Castrum: a term used during the Middle Ages for a fortified town.

Cavea: tiers of terracing in a theatre or amphitheatre on which spectators would sit.

Cella: sanctuary in a temple in which an image of the deity would be placed and reserved exclusively to priests, generally closed on three sides.

Cinerary urn: funeral vase in a variety of shapes to conserve the charred bones of the dead, sometimes placed in a coffer and accompanied by other vases and objects.

Civitas: in Gaul a territorial, political and administrative unit carrying the name of a tribe and possessing a certain amount of autonomy tolerated by the Roman authorities.

Clavy: the centre-piece of an arch or vault shaped as a corner

Cob: material formed from sticky earth, chopped straw and water, used as a filling for walls (as in half-timbered buildings).

Cognomen: a surname added to the family name by Roman citizens; foreigners were only allowed one name.

Daub : mixture of clay, straw, dung and water used as a filling for walls made with wattle (woven branches)

Decumanus : a transverse street in a Roman grid town plan, could run either east-west or north-south, often a main axis and often colonnaded.

Defrutum: wine made by reducing must to a third of its original volume, an ingredient in a number of recipes.

Denarius : silver Roman coin with a value of ten as. Some Gaulish copies were struck in the guise of a half denarius.

Depositum : in archaeology a ditch where artefacts that have been thrown away are found.

Dolium: large storage receptacle, often buried in the ground up to its neck.

Domus: a house of the urban aristocracy, based on Roman designs.

Doucine : body of a moulding with an s-shaped profile whose extremities stretch theoretically to the horizontal.

Duumvir: magistrate elected for one year by the decurions (squads of ten soldiers) of a city and given executive powers. As the name implies, this role was carried out in the company of a colleague.

Edile: a magistrate in charge of municipal administration.

Entablature: the part of a classical temple above the columns, having an architrave, a frieze and a cornice.

Evaporite: any sedimentary rock formed by the evaporation of former seas or saltwater lakes.

Evergete: noble, magistrate and/or priest, donor of a major gift.

Fabrica: in later antiquity, this word for manufacture tended to be applied to the production of arms for the State.

Fanum: traditional Celtic temple consisting of a cella and a portico, or a perimeter corridor whose sloping roof leans back against the cella, or with a rectangular courtyard.

Fibula: clasp or brooch joined by a spring or a hinge whose point is fixed to the end of an arc, used to hold together clothes, often worn in pairs.

Flamen: a priest attached to a cult or god.

Fusaïole: small, thick, perforated disc, often in clay, traditionally considered to be evidence of spinning.

Frons Scaenae: backdrop or proscenium of a theatre.

Garum: a fish-based sauce also know as liquanem or muria produced by the decomposition of fish in a warm damp atmosphere, with a flavour similar to a very strong salty and dense Worcestershire sauce.

Hemiobole: half an obole.

Hypocaust: Roman method of central heating. The floor was raised, usually on pilae, and flue-tiles acting as 'chimneys' were built in the thickness of the walls. The draught created by these flues enabled hot air to be drawn from the stoke-hole where brushwood or other fuel was burnt, to circulate under the floor, and to escape up the wall-flues to the air outside. In the channelled type of hypocaust, the hot air circulated not around pilae but through narrow channels built under the floor.

Impedimenta: the equipment of an army.

Insula : a building type from the ancient Roman society made up of a block with shops and light industry at the ground level and apartments above. These structures ranged in height from four to seven stories.

Jus Peregrinus: the Roman legal system applicable to the free peoples of the empire who did not enjoy Roman citizenship.

Levallois : method of flaking flint tools, which appeared in the Acheulian period, so that one side of the core is flat and the other domed.

Loophole: vertical slit in a wall for shooting arrows through, sometime cruciform in shape in which case it's known as a crosslet.

Ludi Scaenici: literally “scenic games”, the term was applied to theatrical productions during the Roman era.

Maenianum : series of terraces separated by horizontal circular passages.

Magdalenian: a collection of cultural features, particularly in France, from the latter part of the Upper Palaeolithic, characterised by major developments in bone working and the quality of cave and wall art.

Massaliote : relating to Marseille at that point in history when it was a Greek colony.

Membra Disjecta: scattered remains, often applied to the decorative remains of a monument.

Merrain : the central stem of a stag's antler.

Misericord : a sculpted wooden ledge projecting from the underside of a hinged seat of a choir stall in a church on which the occupant can support himself whilst standing.

Moenia: ramparts – the term often being used for later, urban ramparts.

Munera: a gift and, by extension, the gladiatorial combats presented to the people by an emperor or noble.

Murus Galicus: an expression employed by Caesar to describe the Gallic ramparts.

Nave: the central space of a church extending from the narthex to the chancel and often flanked by aisles.

Navette: cylindrical object made from reindeer horn with a slit at one or two extremities. These artefacts which are found in the Magdalenian levels probably served as handles for small stone tools such as scrapers.

Neolithic: term denoting the passage from predatory societies to productive economies based on agriculture and to new forms of dwelling such as villages. In Europe, the Neolithic is generally held to be between the 6th and 2nd millennia BC.

Obol : coin of Greek currency. Weighing .72gms the Marseille obol was used through a large part of Gaul and was subsequently copied by several tribes.

Oenoche : bronze pitcher used for serving and drinking wine.

Olla: a pot or casserole

Oppidum : term used by Caesar during the Conquest of Gaul to describe a fortified town. In archaeological terms it tends to describe a pre-Roman or indigenous town.

Orchestra : semi-circular flat space comprising the stage and first few rows of a theatre.

Orthostate : in a classical temple, any of a number of large stone slabs revetting the lower part of the cella.

Palaeolithic: term created in 1865 to describe the Old Stone Age. The Palaeolithic begins with humans shaping stones and covers the majority of the Quaternary period, about 2,000,000 years, and includes all human development since the Pleistocene.

Paredre: said of inferior deities whose cult is associated with those of more powerful gods.

Parentalia: annual feast in honour of the dead.

Pars Rustica: the name given to those buildings on the villa associated with agricultural activities (storerooms, cattle pens, workshops, etc.)

Parodos : side entrance giving onto the orchestra, open to the skies in Greek theatres and covered in Roman, supporting the extremities of the seating.

Patera : small basin with handle used in serving wine.

Pendage: incline of a sedimentary layer.

Peregrinus: a foreigner, i.e. not a Roman citizen.

Pilaster : column or pillar incorporated in, but projecting from, a wall.

Podium : very thick wall constituting a platform on which the first rows of seats were built in amphitheatres for crowd security, also a raised platform in temples.

Pomoerium: consecrated ground which marked the limit of a town.

Portico : a colonnaded open gallery situated on the ground floor.

Postscaenium: a building behind the stage in a theatre acting as wings

Potin : originally an alloy of copper, tin and lead to which was added other elements in varying quantities.

Proedria: theatre seats reserved for officials and priests located on the edge of the orchestra, often low and wider than those in the cavea with individual seats.

Pronaos : portico that preceded the sanctuary in classical Greek temples.

Sacerdos Arae : priest at the federal altar of Augustinian Rome in Lyon.

Sanctuary : temple or more generally a collection of enclosed sacred buildings.

Sapa: a cooked wine made by a reducing the must by two thirds, used as a preservative.

Scraper: a stone tool made from a flake, with one or more working edge.

Segusiavi : Celtic tribe of Gaul who inhabited the Lyonnais and the Forez.

Sepultura : place where the remains of the dead were disposed of; could be a ditch, an urn, a stone coffin etc.

Sevir: a priest of the imperial cult; sevirs were freemen.

Sigillum pottery: fine Roman or Gallo-Roman pottery coated with a brilliant red. It gets its name from the Latin sigillum meaning seal because the potters used stamps to decorate and sign their work.

Simpulum: ladle with vertical handle used in the service of wine.

Stater: Greek monetary unit. Staters of Phillip II of Macedonia were used as templates for Gaulish coinage weighing 8.6gms.

Stele: stone slab erected over a tomb, generally carrying an inscription and/or decorated with a relief.

Swing Plough: a primitive single-bladed instrument for ploughing.

Tabletterie: the craft of producing carved objects in bone or ivory.

Tegula: a convex covering tile of a roof, usually proof that a site dates from ancient times.

Tène: archaeological site in Switzerland which gives its name to the Celtic civilisation in the late Iron Age.

Torc: necklace or armband made from twisted metal ending in two large balls, used by the Celts.

Transept: either of the two wings of a church at right angles to the nave.

Tria Nomina: the collection of three names - forename, family name and surname - as used by every Roman citizen.

Tribunal or tribune: raised platform overhanging the covered part of the parodos where the quality spectators sit.

Tuileau : powder of crushed tiles or ceramic forming part of the composition of a damp-proof mortar.

Umbo: the conical boss of a shield.

Urne cinéraire : vase funéraire de forme variable servant à conserver les ossements calcinés d'un défunt, parfois placé dans un coffre et accompagné d'autres vases et objets.

Venatio: a hunt or wild beast show conducted during gladiatorial games in which bestiarii fought wild animals in an arena for sport.

Vergobret : supreme magistrate amongst certain Gaulish tribes.

Vicus : small town or village subject to the capital of a civitas.

Villa: a Roman farm or country estate which included residential buildings.

Volumen : ancient form of book made from skin or leaves of papyrus rolled around a wooden bar.

Vomitory : a passageway in an ancient Roman amphitheatre that connects an outside entrance to tier of seats.