Archaeological words

There are some words you will read all the time on Buckinghamshire's Heritage Portal. See if you can work out what these words mean by looking at the glossary. Put them into your own words:

An artefact, in this case a medieval peg tile

Word	Description
Artefact
Earthwork
Monument
Landscape
Feature
BC
AD

A monument, in this case the Saxon barrow at Taplow

Archaeologists use some strange words to describe the ancient remains of past peoples. These words can be useful to describe something very specific that otherwise you would need lots of words to describe. Look through the glossary terms and do a search on Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal and see if you can work out what these are descriptions of. You can draw a picture of them too:

Word	Description	Picture
	A mound of earth built over a burial. They can date to the Bronze Age, Roman and Saxon periods. They are also sometimes known as tumuli.
	A Roman building, sometimes a farm and sometimes a wealthy person’s country house. They often have baths and farm buildings attached and had under-floor heating.
	A set of buildings for a medieval religious community, which could include a church, dining hall, a dormitory (shared bedroom) and guest rooms. People who lived here were called monks.
	A post-medieval garden feature that was basically a large ditch, sometimes fortified with brick walls. They were dug instead of building banks, which would have blocked the view of the garden.

Here’s another challenge. From looking at the glossary terms on Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal organise these terms into whether they refer to artefacts, buildings, earthworks or archaeological techniques. Add a short definition under each.

Geophysical surveying at Claydon House

Test-pit	Hillfort	Hollow-way	Minster	Fieldwalking
Moot	Sceatta	Scaramax	Geophysics	Dowsing
Cursus	Cruck	Palstave	Icehouse	Imbrex
Motte	Almshouse	Fibula	Dendrochronology	Hypocaust
Radiocarbon	Peg tile	Berm	Aviary	Ampulla

Yewden Roman villa

Artefacts	Buildings	Earthworks	Techniques

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