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A B C D E F H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W
A
Alignment
A series of standing stones set in a more or less straight line.
Antechamber
First section of a megalithic tomb, separate from the chamber, but with same width and height.
Archaeoastronomy
The study of astronomical practices amongst ancient societies.
Avenue
Two parallel rows of standing stones leading to a ceremonial centre such as at Callanish.
B
Barrow
Also tumulus. Round or long mound of earth generally covering a burial tomb. It can be of many different shapes and it is often surrounded by a ditch.
Beaker
Distinctive and elegant pot with a rounded lower part narrowing to a neck. It is usually decorated with incised patterns. Beakers were often buried with the dead under round barrows. A particular culture (Beaker people) was associated with this kind of pottery. They first entered Britain around 2600 BC and they may have been the first metal-users in the British Isles.
Broch
Round tower-like drystone defensive structure, confined mainly to the North and West of Scotland, and dating back to the Iron Age. There are often galleries and cells within its walls.
Bronze
Alloy of copper (dominant) and tin or lead.
Bronze Age
In Britain the period from 2500-2000 to 750-500 BC, after the Neolithic and before the Iron Age, characterized by the use of bronze for the manufacture of tools and weapons.
Burial chamber
The burial or funerary chamber is a stone or wooden construction greater than 2 x 1 m externally and 1 x 1 m internally: these measures distinguish it from the cist. The chamber usually contains collective graves, either inhumations or cremations; a single internment is much rarer.
C
Cairn
Round or long mound of small stones, often covering a chamber (chambered cairn) or a burial. Sometimes the word is used for 'earth mound'.
Capstone
Horizontal stone on top of chamber, passage or dolmen.
Carbon-14 (C-14)
Substance found in all living material which gradually disappears from the moment life ceases. Its measurement enables any organic matter to be dated (radiocarbon dating).
Chambered cairn
Chamber tomb covered by a mound of stones.
Chamber tomb
Common form of tomb, comprising orthostats, sometimes with interstices filled with drystone walling, and a megalithic capstone over a burial chamber. It is often approached by a passage.
Cist
Small box-like square or rectangular grave. It is usually lined and covered with stone slabs.
Clava-type tomb
Tombs found in the Inverness area. They are of two different plan-forms: 'passage-grave' (with a central circular burial chamber approached through the cairn by a low passage) and 'ring-cairn' (with no passageway to the central chamber). Both types are surrounded by a ring of stones.
Clyde-type tomb
Cairn with a forecourt of upright stones.
Compartment
Internal subdivision of a burial chamber, usually obtained with stone slabs.
Corbelling
Beehive-shaped style of roofing formed by horizontal stones which overlap each other as they rise and are closed off at the top.
Cove
Three standing stones, one at the back, two at the sides like an unroofed sentry-box.
Crannog
Lake dwelling, built on a small artificial island.
Cremation
Burning of the dead, before burial or disposal. Ashes often placed in urns.
Cupmark
Cup shaped depression carved out from stone. Often grouped together, they are the result of a repeated ritual gesture of unknown significance.
Cup-and-ring marking
A cupmark with one or more concentric rings carved around it. Its meaning is unknown.
D
Dolmen
Simple burial chamber with three or more uprights and one or more capstones. A dolmen is often the denuded core of a chambered cairn or mound.
Drystone
Walling built without any cementing material. The stones are arranged carefully in courses, with many smaller stones filling the gaps between.
Dun
Gaelic for "fortified place". A small drystone fortification, usually dating to the Iron Age or later, and found mainly in western Scotland.
E
Earth-house
Underground storerooms for domestic settlements, used in Scotland from 800 BC to about AD 200. Also known as souterrains.
F
Façade
Setting of upright stones flanking the entrance to a chambered tomb.
Flanker
One of two standing stones on either side of the prostrate stone in a recumbent stone circle. The flankers are often the tallest stones in the circle.
Flint
A hard glassy rock which flakes easily and can be worked to produce a sharp cutting edge. Used in prehistoric times for the manufacture of tools and weapons such as scrapers and arrowheads.
Forecourt
The space in front of the concave façade of certain monuments.
Four-poster
A small stone circle of four stones, sometimes set in a rectangle shape.
H
Henge
Late Neolithic earth enclosure consisting of a ditch and an external bank. It can be circular or oval in shape and sometimes it encloses a stone circle as at Ring of Brodgar (Orkney). A Class I henge has one single entrance; a Class II has two or more entrances.
Hillfort
Hilltop enclosure fortified by one or more ramparts and ditches. Many contain the outlines of huts and were probably defended villages.
Horned cairn
Many megalithic long mounds present a concave façade with its two extremities ending in extensions known as horns (or wings). They define a partly enclosed space described as the forecourt, probably used for ceremonies commemorating the dead.
I
Inhumation
Burial of a dead body (as opposed to exposure or cremation). Position may be extended, flexed or crouched, prone, supine or on its side.
Iron Age
Final period of prehistory beginning around 500 BC and lasting into the early centuries of the first millennium AD. Iron superseded bronze as popular material for the manufacture of tools and weapons.
J
Jet
Black soft stone used for jewels in ancient times.
K
Kerb
Ring of retaining stones against mound or cairn base.
L
Lintel
A stone across the top of two uprights, often placed over an entrance.
M
Megalith
"Great stone" from the Greek mega (large) and lithos (stone).
Menhir
French word for a single standing stone.
Mesolithic
Middle Stone Age, between Palaeolithic and Neolithic. From about 7000 to 4500 BC.
Mica
A group of minerals that crystallize in thin, flexible and easily separated layers.
Monolith
Single stone block, monument or pillar. From the Greek monos (one) and lithos (stone).
Mound
Of either earth or stone pebbles, generally covering a burial chamber or deposit.
N
Neolithic
Period when settled farming superseded nomadic life, from around 4500 BC to 2200 BC.
O
Ogham (ogam)
Ancient alphabet, in which letters are formed of parallel lines which meet or cross a base-line. Possibly of Irish origin (2nd century AD).
Orthostat
Large stone or slab, set vertically in a structure often supporting the capstone of a dolmen.
P
Palaeolithic
Old Stone Age: it begins around 500.000 years ago and ends with the Mesolithic around 7000 BC.
Passage
Usually narrow and low gallery (sometimes with lateral chambers) leading to a broader burial chamber within a mound or a cairn. Façaded forecourt entrance common.
Paving
Stone slabs on passage and chamber floors. In a megalithic tomb paving stones superimposed on each other may indicate several phases of use.
Portal stones
Large stones forming the entrance to a structure, usually a tomb.
R
Radiocarbon dating
Measurement in ancient material of the Carbon-14 that enables it to be dated.
Rampart
Large bank of earth or stones or both forming the defence of a fortified site such as a hillfort.
Recumbent stone circle
Unique Scottish and Irish circle with one large stone (the recumbent) lying horizontally between two uprights (the flankers).
Rock-cut tomb
A monument hollowed out of solid rock, and generally designed to take a collective burial. Rock-cut tombs are found in the Mediterranean basin. The only one in the British Isles is Dwarfie Stane on Hoy island (Orkney).
Runes
Norse alphabet dating from before the 2nd century AD.
S
Schist
Fine-grain rock altered after formation by heat or pressure or both so that it can be split into thin plates.
Setting
Arrangement of stones which does not fit into any megalithic categorie, such as Achavanich in the Highlands.
Sherd
Fragment of pottery.
Slab
Flat comparatively thin dressed stone.
Souterrain
Underground or semi-subterranean storage chamber or gallery used in Scotland from 800 BC to about AD 200. Also known as earth-house.
Standing stone
Stone set vertically by man. Also called a menhir when single.
Stone circle
Ring which may not be circular, of spaced or contiguous standing stones.
Stone row
Sometimes alignment. Line of regularly spaced standing stones.
T
Tomb
From the Latin "tumba", meaning a burial stone, simple or monumental. Generally it is used in very broad terms to denote megalithic graves.
Tumulus
Latin for mound or barrow; generally covers a burial.
U
Urn
A pot used from about 2000 to 1000 BC to contain cremated human bones in burials.
V
Vitrification
Fusing together of stones by heat. Vitrification is still visible in some hillforts, for example Craig Phadrig (Highlands).
W

Wheelhouse
Scottish Iron Age circular stone house with internal walls radiating from the centre.

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