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Digital documents - Archaeology UK glossary Category: Sciences > Archaeology Date & country: 14/10/2007, UK Words: 217

Leacht
An outdoor altar made from a pile of stones, normally square, which may mark a special grave.

Light
A window opening.

Lintel
A horizontal beam or stone bridging an opening.

Lintel
Horizontal wood or stone over a fireplace, door, etc.

Lintel
wooden beam or stone slab lying horizontally above a doorway (or window)

Longhouse
A building with dwelling area and byre under the same roof-alignment, usually separated by a cross-passage. The commonest type of Viking house.

mansio
an inn, especially for government officials

Manus Dei
Literally 'the hand of God'. Visual symbol in the form of a hand emanating from a cloud representing God.

Midwall shaft
A shaft dividing a window of two lights, which is placed exactly centrally in the wall.

Minster
The church in a monastery; a church of major importance in the region.

Misericord
Decorated shelf placed on the under side of hinged seat in choir stall, to provide support against which to lean while standing.

Misericorde
Additional monastic refectory in which special food was permitted.

monogram
set of letters combined into one (used of Chi-Rho)

Monolithic
Made of one stone.

mosaic
floor composed of pieces of coloured tesserae to form geometric or figured designs

Narthex
Enclosed vestibule or covered porch at the entrance to a church.

Narthex
Western compartment of church.

Nave
The main body of the church.

Nave
Main body of church, normally west of sanctuary, transept and choir.

Newel
Central post in a circular staircase.

Norman
Used in England as a synonym for 'Romanesque', it covers the style of architecture current between 1066-1200.

Norman
Style of architecture developed by the Normans which flourished in England after the Norman conquest to about 1200.

Ogham
A type of alphabet current in Ireland and in the Irish settlements in Britain in the Dark Ages, a variant of which was used by the Picts (see p. 44).

Oratory
A chapel without an altar.

palaestra
exercise-yard of a public bath-house, in Britain sometimes covered

Parapet
A low wall intended to protect a sudden drop, for example on a church or house top.

parapet
top of a Roman fortification consisting of a wallwalk and battlements

pediment
triangular gabled end of a roof (usually used of temples)

Pelta
A curvilinear shape, derived from that of a Roman shield.

Perpendicular
A style of English Gothic architecture current between c. 1350-1530.

Perpendicular
Style of English Gothic architecture which flourished in England c. 1350-1550.

Pier
A mass of stonework or brickwork, usually of square section, which serves as a support instead of a column.

Piers
Mass of upright masonry supporting arches, a pillar.

pilae
pillars of brick (or stone) supporting the floor of a room with a hypocaust

Pilaster
A shallow pier attached to a wall.

pilaster
column or pillar incorporated in, but projecting from, a wall

Pinnacle
A small turret at the upward termination of a buttress, wall or roof, etc.

piscina
swimming-bath in a public bath- house

Plinth
The projecting base of a wall or column. Pointed In English Gothic architecture, First Pointed is a style current in the Early English period.

plinth
projecting course at the foot of a wall; also used of a base, e.g. for an altar

podium
raised platform (especially used of temples)

portal
doorway or carriageway, especially of a fort-gateway

Porticus
A side chapel or chapels. In the early Anglo-Saxon church it was not permitted for burials to be made in the body of the church, but they were allowed in the flanking chapels or porticus.

post-hole
hole dug to receive a wooden upright

postern
minor gate or door in a late Roman town- or fortwall

posting-station
small town on a main road, where travelling officials could find an inn (mansio)

Presbytery
Part of the church around the high altar to the east of the choir.

principia
headquarters building of a Roman fort

Prior's Lodging
Rooms set aside for use of the prior.

procurator
government financial administrator

putlog holes
row(s) of square or rectangular holes in a masonry wall which held horizontal scaffolding timbers during construction; on completion of the work they were plugged with loose material, since fallen out

Quoin
The corner of a building; also used of the individual stones (dressed) making up the corner.

Range
Block of buildings.

Rebate
A recess cut in wood or stone to take the edge of another member that is to be secured in it.

Relieving arch
An arch constructed above a door or window to take the thrust of the masonry. Renaissance The first period of classical revival, usually taken to begin c. 1453. Architecture influenced by it.

relieving arch
arch built as part of a solid wall to take the weight of the construction above, and to divert it from weak points such as doors and windows lower down revetment. facing of one material given to a structure of a different material (eg stone wall given to an earth bank) roundel. circular panel containing a design (eg on mosaics)

Reredorter
Annex to monastic dormitory containing garderobes or latrines.

Respond
Half-pier bonded into a wall and carrying one end of an arch.

Reveal
The part of the jamb which lies between the door (or glass, in a window) and the outer wall surface.

Revetment
A facing of stone or timber in a rampart to stop it collapsing or eroding.

Ring-chain
A type of ornament popular in Anglo-Danish times.

Ringwork
A type of circular earthwork consisting of rampart and external ditch broken by an entrance. Constructed mainly by the Normans in Britain. Romanesque In England called Norman, a style of architecture influenced by the Roman. Current in the eleventh to twelfth centuries. Some Anglo-Saxon architecture is called, misleadingly, pre-Conquest Romanesque.

Romanesque
Style of architecture which was prevalant in Western Europe c. 950 - 1150. In England it was known as Norman .

Rood
Cross or Crucifix.

Rose Window
Circular window with radiating tracery resembling spokes in a wheel.

Rune
Alphabet of twig-like signs used by both the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. Variant forms exist.

sacellum
shrine in a fort's headquarters building

Sacristy
Room close to an altar where sacred vessels and vestments were kept.

samian
high-quality, red-coated pottery, imported from the continent (mainly from France)

sarcophagus
coffin of stone or lead

Saxon Shore
coast of SE England exposed to Saxon pirate raids

Scalloped
capital Type of capital in which the semi-circular surface is carved into a series of truncated cones.

School
A term used in art history to denote a group of artists working in a similar style or tradition.

Screen
A partition (of stone or wood). A rood screen was at the western end of the chancel, below a rood. A 'parclose screen' separated the rest of the church from a chapel.

Scriptorium
A place where manuscripts were copied.

Scriptorium
Room in which scribes did their writing and copying of manuscripts.

Shrine
A structure of stone or metal in which a relic of a saint was placed.

sleeper wall
low wall supporting a raised floor, especially in a granary

Solar
Upper living room in a medieval building.

Spindle whorl
A round weight, used to make the spindle revolve more readily and smoothly in spinning with a hand distaflf.

Splay
A chamfer, usually on the jamb of a window.

springer
the voussoir which rests on the cap above a jamb and marks the beginning of an arch stoke-hole. furnace-area for a hypocaust

Squint
A hole cut in a wall or pier to allow the main altar to be viewed from where it otherwise could not be seen.

Squint
A hole through a pier or wall so that the high altar could be seen from a place where otherwise the view would be blocked.

street- grid
regular pattern of streets crossing at right-angles

String course
Projecting horizontal length of masonry.

String course
A projecting band or moulding set horizontally in a wall.

sudatorium
hot room (dry heat) in a bath-suite

tepidarium
warm room (moist heat) in a bath-suite

tessellated
composed of tesserae, usually of a floor without decoration tesserae small cubes of coloured stone, glass or tile, of which a mosaic or tessellated floor is composed

titulum
short detached stretch of rampart (and ditch) protecting the gateway of a marching camp

Tower
A tall structure generally set above the crossing of the church or the west front.

Tracery
Decorative open patterns in the stonework at the heads of Gothic windows, etc.

Transept
Transverse portion of a cruciform church.

Transept
Cross arm of a cruciform church, normally running N-S.

Transitional
A period of architecture which marked the period between the Norman and Gothic styles when both were inter mingling. Late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries.

Tread
The flat part of a step.

Trefoil
A cusped decoration of three lobes.

tribunal
platform for commanding officer in principia, or on a parade-ground

triclinium
dining-room