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
Glossary

Accessioned
An accessioned object is one that has been formally added to a museum's collection.

Aisle
An aisle is a passageway with columns or pillars on at least one side.

Amber
Amber is the fossilised sap from pine trees. The main source for amber in Europe is along the south east coast of the Baltic Sea.

AMS
AMS stands for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. This is a scientific technique that can date samples of carbon after they have been converted to gas or graphite. Carbon is often found as charcoal on archaeological sites.

Amulet
An amulet is an object used for good luck or as charm against evil.

Anglo-Saxon
430-1070 AD. The country was divided into a number of warring kingdoms. The richer people liked gold and silver jewellery. They buried their dead in barrows. Christianity was introduced from the continent and gradually replaced older beliefs.

Annealing furnace
An annealing furnace was used to cool glass slowly so that it was less likely to crack.

Antiquarian
'Antiquarian' is a general word for someone, usually from the 18th and 19th century, with an interest in old objects and sites.

Antiquity
'Antiquity' is a general word for 'ancient times'.

Anvil
An anvil is a block of material, usually iron, on which metal is worked.

Archaeological context
An object's archaeological context is made up of the material it is found in, it's position, and any other objects found with it.

Archaeological layers
Archaeological layers are separate layers which suggest human activity. An example is a burnt building, which may leave a layer of burnt wood and charcoal in the ground.

Archaeologist
A person who studies evidence for our human past, usually by excavation.

Archaeology
The study of evidence for our human past, usually by excavation.

Augustine
St Augustine arrived in Kent in 597 AD, and is credited with beginning the conversion of the English to Christianity. He was the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

Avenue
An avenue is a type of archaeological site. It is made up of lines of banks, ditches, stones, timber posts or trees. Avenues often seem to mark out a route to another monument.

Awl
An awl is a small pointed tool used for making holes in leather and other material.

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Backfill
Backfill is earth that is put back into the hole where it was dug from.

Backfilling
Backfilling is the process of putting earth back into the hole where it was dug from.

Barbed and tanged arrowhead
Barbed and tanged arrowheads are triangular shaped. One side has a central tang that attaches to the arrow, and two barbs on either side.

Barrow
A barrow is an earthen mound, usually containing at least one human burial or cremation inside.

Baulk
A baulk is an area of earth, usually a strip, that is left untouched during an archaeological excavation. It can provide an area to walk on, and also a cross section through the archaeological layers.

Beaker
Beakers are a type of pottery vessel often found with Bronze Age burials. Their sides are S-shaped and they are often decorated with incised lines.

Beehive quern
Beehive querns were used for grinding grain. They are made of two stones sat upon each other. Grain was fed between the stones and crushed when the top stone was rotated with a handle.

Bess of Hardwick
c. 1527-1608. Elizabeth Hardwick and her second husband, Sir William Cavendish, owned Chatsworth estate in Derbyshire. She had been widowed three times before she married George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.

Blade
Blades are flakes of flint or some other stone that are longer than they are wide. They were used as tools. Smaller tools called microliths could also be made from them.

Blast furnace
Blast furnaces were used for smelting iron, and caused a major expansion in its production. Instead of using charcoal from trees, they used coke. Coke is coal which has been heated to burn off impurities, leaving carbon behind.

Bloomery
Iron bloomeries were places where iron was smelted before the invention of the blast furnace. Impurities were removed from the iron ore, leaving iron 'bloom' behind.

Boca
A Boca is a name for a hole in the side of a glass furnace. This hole could be opened or closed to control the amount of heat in the furnace.

Bronze Age
2500-900 BC. In this period most people were farmers. They built stone circles, and wealthier people were buried with objects in round burial mounds. The working of bronze was developed over many centuries.

Burin
Burins are flint or other stone tools. They have a small sharp edge like a chisel. They were used for engraving bone and wood.

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Cairn
A cairn is made up of stones piled on top of each other. In the Bronze Age, cairns could cover a human burial or cremation.

Calcined
An object that has been 'calcined' is one that has been burnt.

Capstone
A capstone is the top covering stone of a cist. A cist is a setting of stones, containing a human burial or cremation.

Cardinal Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey became Archbishop of York in 1514. In 1515 Henry VIII made him Lord Chancellor, and the Pope made him a Cardinal. When he was unable to divorce Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon he was to be tried for treason, but died before the trial.

Cist
A cist is a setting of stones containing a human burial or cremation. Cist can be various shapes and can be buried underground or covered with an earth mound.

Cistercian
The Cistercians were a religious order of monks and nuns. The order was founded in 1098.

Cistercian ware
Cistercian ware was first made by monks in Yorkshire around the 15th century. It often has a brown glaze with patterns of yellow slip.

Coarse ware
Coarse ware pottery was used for cooking, food preparation and storage. It was often made locally.

Collared urn
A Collared urn is a type of Bronze Age pottery vessel. They have a thick 'collar' at the rim, and are often decorated with cord impressions.

Corded Beaker
A Corded Beaker is a type of pottery vessel from the Bronze Age. They are decorated with impressions made by pieces of cord.

Core
A core is a lump of stone from which other pieces of stone are struck off to make tools.

Core rejuvenation flake
A core rejuvenation flake is a piece of stone that is struck off a core (a lump of stone). When the flake is removed it provides a new surface from which other stone tools can be made.

Cortex
The original surface of a lump of stone is its cortex. This is removed to give a fresh surface for removing pieces of stone for tools.

Cove
A cove is made of three or more standing stones close to each other. They form a roughly rectangular structure open in one direction.

Cremation
This is the funerary act of burning the dead. The remains of a cremated person are also called a cremation.

Crucible
A crucible is a container in which raw materials can be heated to a high temperature, for example in glass making.

Cruciform
Cruciform means that an object is shaped like a cross, or crucifix.

Cullet
Cullet is broken pieces of glass that are recycled by melting and used to make new glass objects

Cup-mark
A cup-mark are circular pits in the shape of a cup. They are a type of carved rock art from the Bronze Age and possibly earlier.

Cutler
A cutler is a person who makes cutlery.

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Denticulated
A denticulated stone tool with one or more notches along one side.

Disturbed burial
A disturbed burial is one that has been damaged or altered in some way from its original state.

Drystone wall
Drystone walls are made of lumps of stone without any mortar holding them together. They can survive for hundreds of years.

Dutch Oven
A Dutch Oven is a pottery container used for re-heating food in front of the fire.

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Electron probe microanalysis
Electron probe microanalysis is a scientific technique used to identify the minerals in a sample.

Embossed
An object is 'embossed' if it has decoration standing out from its surface.

Escutcheon
An escutcheon is a fitting from a hanging bowl. It disguises the part where the chain attaches to the bowl.

Excavation
Excavation is the process of digging into the earth, for example to find archaeological remains.

Excavator
An excavator is a person who digs into the earth, for example to find archaeological remains.

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Faience
Faience is made of sand and clay mixed together. This is heated until the materials fuse together to form a blue-green glassy surface. It was mostly made into small objects, like beads.

Feedpipe
A feedpipe is a vertical hole in the upper stone of a quern, which is used for grinding grain. The grain was put into the quern via the feedpipe.

Ferrule
A ferrule is a metal collar or cap used to strengthen the end of, for example, a stick.

Fieldwalking
Fieldwalking is the systematic walking of a field in order to find archaeological artefacts. The location of any finds is recorded and concentrations of artefacts can be studied.

Flake
A flake is a piece of stone struck of a core (a lump of stone).

Flue
A flue is a passage through which gases or heat can move. They are used, for example, in kilns, furnaces and heating systems.

Food vessel
A Food vessel is a type of Bronze Age pottery vessel. They tend to have sides sloping to a narrow base and are decorated with herringbone-shaped patterns.

Fosse
A fosse is a narrow ditch or trench, often used in fortifications.

Furnace
A furnace is a structure with a chamber inside that can continuously heat raw materials to a very high temperature. It is used, for example, in metalworking.

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Garnet
Garnet is a type of stone. Its deep red variant is used as a gemstone.

Geophysical survey
Geophysical survey measures the properties of the earth, for example magnetism, to find underground structures and features. Types of geophysical survey include resistivity survey and magnetometry.

George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury
c. 1528-1590. George Talbot became the richest nobleman in the north of England. At the request of Elisabeth I, he kept Mary Queen of Scots at Tutbury Castle, South Wingfield Manor, Chatsworth and at Sheffield Castle. His second wife was Bess of Hardwick.

Gilded
Gilding is a metalworking technique. It involves adding a layer of gold to an object made of another material.

Glaze
Glaze is a glassy liquid used to decorate pottery. When it is fired on the pot it gives it a shiny surface.

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Haematite
Haematite is ferric oxide ore. It is a type of mineral that gives off a red colour when rubbed onto something else.

Hammer scale
Hammer scale is tiny fragments of metal produced by hammering.

Hasp
A hasp is a hinge or loop. With a pin, bolt, or padlock it is used to fasten, for example, a lid to a box.

Hayman Rooke
Major Hayman Rooke was an antiquarian who dug at various sites in the Peak District in the late 1700's. He described some of his work in early archaeological journals.

Henge
A henge is a circular or almost-circular area with a bank on the outside and a ditch, usually on the inside. They have at least one entrance. Henges have timber or stone circles inside.

Hillfort
A hillfort is an Iron Age enclosure on a hill, surrounded by one or more substantial banks, ramparts and ditches.

Hopper
A hopper is a dished hollow on the top of a quern, used for grinding grain. Grain is put into the hopper and goes down a pipe to the centre of the quern.

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Inhumation
An inhumation is a burial, and is different to a cremation, when the dead are burnt.

Interment
'Interment' is another word for a burial.

Iron Age
1000BC-100 AD. In this period the climate began to get worse, and there was a shortage of good land. The first fortified settlements, called hillforts, were built. Iron was used for tools and weapons, and people traded with mainland Europe.

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J. F. Lucas
John Fossick Lucas of Fenny Bentley, Derbyshire, was an associate of Thomas Bateman. He continued to dig barrows in the Peak District after the death of Bateman in 1861.

J. P. and J. C. Heathcote
The Heathcotes were a father and son team who excavated archaeological sites mainly on the Peak District moors. They published the results of their work and the finds were housed in their museum at Birchover. These are now in Weston Park Museum.

James Ruddock
1813-1858. Ruddock was a taxidermist from Pickering, Yorkshire. He was employed to excavate barrows in North Yorkshire by Thomas Bateman, but his excavations are not well recorded.

John Fox
1682-1738. The Fox family were involved in glass making. John Fox ran the Bolsterstone glasshouse for a while, before running a pottery kiln at Sheffield Manor.

Josiah Wedgwood
1730-1795. Wedgwood is famous for inventing fine, high quality "jasperware" and "black basalt" pottery. He built his own pottery in Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1759.

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Kerb
A kerb is an edging of stones, sometimes found around burial mounds.

Kiln
A kiln is used for heating clay to a high temperature to make pottery vessels. Kilns can also be used for making glass and drying out corn to stop it germinating.

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Lathe
A lathe is used for turning materials like wood and bone when they are being worked.

Lead vein
Lead veins are naturally occurring lines of lead that run through the ground.

Lehr
'Lehr' is another word for an annealing furnace. This was used for cooling glass slowly to make it stronger and less likely to crack.

Leslie Armstrong
1878-1958. Albert Leslie Armstrong surveyed, researched and excavated at various important archaeological sites, including Sheffield Castle and Creswell Crags in Derbyshire. Some of the stone tools from his collection are in Weston Park Museum.

Leslie Butcher
-1975. Leslie Butcher surveyed and discovered many important archaeological sites in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. His archive of drawings and plans are in Weston Park Museum.

Llewellynn Jewitt
1816-1886. Jewitt was an illustrator, writer and editor from Rotherham. Around 1860 he was employed by Thomas Bateman to paint watercolours of many of the artefacts in his collection. These were bound in a volume called "Relics of Primeval Life".

Lucet
A lucet is used for making braids out of wool or other fibres.

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Macehead
A macehead attaches to a handle and can be used as a heavy weapon or ceremonial object.

Manor ware
Manor ware is a type of pottery made at Sheffield Manor. The vessels were coloured with a mottled brown lead glaze.

Mary Queen of Scots
1542-1587. Mary Stuart's political problems in Scotland led her to go to England for sanctuary. Elizabeth I kept Mary as an unwilling prisoner-guest, and she spent fourteen years in and around Sheffield under the guard of the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.

Mattock
A mattock is a tool a bit like a pick, but pointed at one end and chisel-shaped at the other.

Medieval
1066-1600 AD. In this period the monarchy and the church were more powerful, and owned large areas of land. People lived in towns and on farms. Trade and industry developed, but most people depended on farming to live.

Mercia
Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It's borders probably changed, but in the 7th century included the Midlands, the land to the Welsh border on the west, and to the North Sea on the East.

Mesolithic
7000-3000 BC. In this period the climate got much warmer. Forests spread across the landscape, and wild animals and plants flourished. People moved around the landscape and used these natural resources. They used flint to make tools.

Microburin
Microburins are created as a by-product of microliths, which are very small stone tools.

Microlith
Microliths are very small stone tools. They seem to have been used together to form a multi-part tool with lots of cutting edges.

Mineralised
'Mineralised' means that minerals have 'soaked' into another material, such as bone, and helped preserve it.

Mortlake ware
Mortlake ware is a type of Neolithic pottery. It has a rounded base with a thick rim, and can be decorated.

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'Nailsea' glass
'Nailsea' glass is made of black glass with white chippings added. The glass is heated to melt the two glasses together. When the glass is blown to make an object, the white chippings are stretched to produce streaks.

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Neolithic
3500-2000 BC. In this period farming begins and develops, and trees are cleared for fields. Permanent homes and communities developed, and pottery was used for the first time. Groups of people used burial and ceremonial sites, and trade networks.

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Ore
Ore is the natural form of a metal. The pure metal has to be extracted from the ore.

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Peak District
The Peak District National Park is between Sheffield and Manchester, and covers parts of six counties. It was established as the first National Park in 1951.

Penannular brooch
A penannular (or open ring) brooch is made of a hoop, with a pin for attaching it to clothing.

Peterborough ware
Peterborough Ware is a type of Neolithic pottery. It is often decorated with impressions, for example, from cord.

Ploughshare
The ploughshare is the part of the plough which cuts into the soil to form the furrow when ploughing.

Pommel
A pommel is a knob on the end of a dagger or sword hilt.

Porringer
A porringer is a small vessel for eating soup or broth.

Posset pot
Posset pots were used for drinking posset, which was a drink made from hot spiced milk, with wine, beer, or honey.

Post-Medieval
1580-1850 AD. In this period there was greater industrial development, powered by water and later steam. Workshops and factories are built, with towns for the workers. Trade bought objects in from around the world, but most people remained poor.

Prehistoric
Prehistoric is usually taken to mean the time period before writing. In this country this is before the Roman conquest, which began in 43 AD.

Prehistory
Prehistoric is usually taken to mean the time period before writing. In this country this is before the Roman conquest, which began in 43 AD.

Primary burial
The primary burial is the first burial to be placed in a grave. Other secondary burials may sometimes be added later.

Principia
'Principia' is the Roman term used for the headquarters building in the centre of a fort.

Pygmy cup
Pygmy cups are a type of Bronze Age pottery vessel. They are small vessels, and are mostly found with cremation burials.

Pyre
A pyre is a funeral fire for burning the dead.

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Quern
A quern is a hard stone or stones used for grinding grain to be made into flour.

Quernstone
A quernstone is part of a quern. A quern is a hard stone or stones used for grinding grain to be made into flour.

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Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a scientific dating method that measures the amount of radioactive carbon (C14) in a sample of material. The dates need to be adjusted or calibrated to give a final date range in years.

Refactory clay
Refactory clay is specially prepared clay that can withstand very high temperatures when heated.

Retouch
A stone tool with retouch on an edge is one where the edge has been reworked, for example to make in sharper.

Retouched
A retouched stone tool is one where the edge has been reworked, for example to make in sharper.

Ridge and furrow
Ridge and furrow is a series of long, raised ridges separated by ditches. These were created by regular ploughing of the same field in the Medieval period.

Ring bank
A ring bank is a circular enclosure with a bank round the edge, but no ditch.

Rivet
A rivet is a nail or bolt for holding metal plates together.

Rock cut grave
A rock cut grave is a grave dug down into the natural rock surface.

Roman
43-450 AD. The Roman invasion influenced all parts of the country. They built roads and towns and introduced a money-based economy. They developed the first large manufacturing systems, producing pottery and lead.

Romano-British
43-450 AD. The Roman invasion influenced all parts of the country. Local people adopted some aspects of Roman life, such as building villas and wearing Roman jewellery. Farming and everyday life continued much as before.

Rooke Pennington
J. Rooke Pennington was a 19th century solicitor and antiquarian from Bolton. The contents of his Castleton museum and his papers are in Bolton Museum and Art Gallery.

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Saggar
Saggars are containers that held pottery vessels when they were being fired inside the kiln. They separated the pottery vessels from each other.

Samual Pegge
Reverend Samual Pegge was an antiquarian and Rector of Whittington, near Chesterfield. He described archaeological sites in Derbyshire in the late 1700's.

Samuel Carrington
1798-1870. Carrington was a schoolmaster and antiquarian from Wetton, Staffordshire, and an acquaintance of Thomas Bateman. Carrington excavated barrows on his behalf, especially after 1850 when Thomas Bateman became ill.

Samuel Mitchell
1803-1865. Mitchell was a Sheffield solicitor who excavated with William Bateman in the Peak District and surrounding area. He also excavated barrows independently, and later passed details of his work to Thomas Bateman.

Scabbard
A scabbard is a sheath for a sword, dagger or knife, and protects its cutting edge.

Scraper
A scraper is a type of stone tool, with at least one working edge. They were probably used for wood-working or scraping animal hides.

Slag
Slag is the left over material from metalworking. It is made up of the impurities that have been separated from the metal.

Slipware
Slipware pottery is from the Post-Medieval period (1580-1850 AD). It is very decorative, with a pale yellow glaze and patterns of tan-coloured slip.

Snuff
Snuff is powdered tobacco that is sniffed up the nostrils.

Spindle whorl
Spindle whorls were an essential tool for the processing of sheep's wool. Spindles were used to spin the wool. A whorl was attached to the bottom of a spindle to keep it turning as long as possible.

Stone circle
A stone circle is a roughly circular or oval setting of upright stones. Stone circles can have other stones circles inside them.

Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo is a very famous Anglo-Saxon ship burial site in Suffolk. It contained many beautiful objects in gold, many of which are on display in the British Museum.

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Tang
A tang is the part of a sword, dagger, spear, or arrowhead that is attached to the handle.

Tankard
A tankard is like a big solid drinking mug.

Thomas Bateman
1821-1861. A gentleman antiquarian, from Middleton, Derbyshire, and son of William Bateman. He excavated many barrows in the Peak District and surrounding area. Many artefacts from his personal collection were bought by Weston Park Museum in 1893.

Thomas de Furnival
The Furnival family became the lords of Hallamshire at the end of the 12th century. Thomas de Furnival obtained a royal charter to hold a market in Sheffield. He also granted a charter that set out the rights of his townsmen.

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Undisturbed burial
An undisturbed burial is one that is found to still be in its original state.

Urn
An urn is a pottery vessel like a vase that can be many different shapes and sizes.

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Vallum
A vallum is another word for a bank or rampart of earth.

Vicus
Vicus is the Roman word for a type of civilian settlement found outside a Roman fort.

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Whetstone
A whetstone is a stone used for sharpening the edges of tools.

William Bateman
1787-1835. William Bateman was a gentleman antiquarian, who lived at Middleton, Derbyshire. He excavated barrows in the local area and collected artefacts. William was the father of Thomas Bateman.

William de Lovetot
William de Lovetot was the lord of Hallamshire in the 1100's. He seems to have built Sheffield Castle and developed the town. He built a mill, the original Lady's Bridge (later rebuilt in stone), a hospital on Spital Hill, and a new church.

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XRF
X-ray fluorescence analysis is a scientific technique used to measure the elements in a sample of material.


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