Dolmen	01/09 Prehistory and Early Cultures	“A type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table".”
Hunter-Gatherer	01/09 Prehistory and Early Cultures	“A type of subsistence lifestyle that relies on hunting and fishing animals and foraging for wild vegetation and other nutrients like honey, for food.”
Neolithic Era	01/09 Prehistory and Early Cultures	“An archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Europe, Asia and Africa. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This ‘Neolithic package’ included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement.” -- 8000 - 4500 BCE
Paleolithic Era	01/09 Prehistory and Early Cultures	Period marked by the predominance of stone tools; circa 2.6 million years ago - about 10,000 BC; literally “old stone”.
Post and Lintel	01/09 Prehistory and Early Cultures	“A building system where strong horizontal elements are held up by strong vertical elements with large spaces between them.”
Stone Age	01/09 Prehistory and Early Cultures	“The Stone Age marks a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone tools. Lasting roughly 2.5 million years, the Stone Age ended around 5,000 years ago when humans in the Near East began working with metal and making tools and weapons from bronze.”
Tensile Structure	01/09 Prehistory and Early Cultures	“In structural engineering, a tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending.”
Axis Mundi	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“The mythological concept representing “the connection between heaven and earth” or the “higher and lower realms.”” “The line or stem through the earth’s center connecting its surface to the underworld and the heavens, and around which the universe revolves.”
Benben	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	A representation of the sacred stone in the Temple of Ra at Heliopolis on which the first rays of the sun fell.” It is thought to have been the prototype for obelisks and the capstones of pyramids.
City State	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	"An independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory."
Cunneiform	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“A logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East, in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form their signs.”
Mastaba	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“A type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks or limestone. These edifices marked the burial sites of many eminent Egyptians during Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom.” Taken from the Arabic word meaning ‘stone bench'."
Necropolis	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“A large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek work ’necropolis’, meaning “city of the dead”."
Polytheism	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“The belief in and/or worship of more than one God.” Often gods and goddesses are arranged into pantheons, and each god and goddess has their own sects and rituals associated with them.
Pyramid	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“A structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single point or step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense.”
Stepped Pyramid	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid.”
Ziggurat	01/14 Birth of Civilizations	“An ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty, stepped pyramidal structure with outside staircases and a shrine at the top”
Bronze Age	01/16 The Bronze Age	“A prehistoric period (approx. 3300-1200 BC) when certain weapons and tools came to be made of bronze rather than stone. It followed the Stone Age and was preceded by the Iron Age.”
Cyclopean Architecture/Masonry	01/16 The Bronze Age	A type of stonework found in Mycenaean architecture, built with massive, typically unworked, limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with minimal clearance between adjacent stones and with clay mortar.
Megaron	01/16 The Bronze Age	The great hall in very early Mycenaean and ancient Greek palace complexes. Architecturally, it was a rectangular hall surrounded by four columns, fronted by an open, two-columned portico, with a central, open hearth venting though an oculus in the roof.
Tholos/Beehive Tomb	01/16 The Bronze Age	A round, beehive shaped tomb structure famously built by the late Bronze Age Mycenaeans.
Rock-Cut Tomb	01/21 Monuments	“A burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation. An example of rock-cut architecture, they are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground.”
Apadana	01/23 Cosmos	“A large hypostyle hall in Persian architecture, specifically in Persepolis.”
Citadel	01/23 Cosmos	“The fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress or fortified center.”
Hypostyle Hall	01/23 Cosmos	“From the Greek word meaning ‘under columns’, it is a hall with a roof supported by columns.”
Protomes	01/23 Cosmos	“A type of adornment (in architecture, sculpture or pottery) that takes the form of the head and upper torso of either a human or an animal”
Relief Sculpture	01/23 Cosmos	“A sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material.”
Shedu / lamassu	01/23 Cosmos	“An Assyrian protective deity.” “It is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian relgion bearing a human head, symbolizing intelligence, a bull’s body symbolizing strength, and the wings of an eagle to symbolize freedom.”
Stambha	01/23 Cosmos	“A pillar or column employed in Indian architecture. It sometimes bears incscriptons and religious emblems.”
Stupa	01/23 Cosmos	“A mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (often sacred buddhist relics associated with the Buddha or other saintly persons) that is used as a place of meditation and prayer.” “A dome-shaped structure serving as a Buddhist shrine”
ACROPOLIS	01/28 Government	“A citadel or fortified part of an ancient Greek city, typically built on a hill.”
AGORA	01/28 Government	“Literally meaning ‘gathering place’ or ‘assembly,’ it was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states, and was the center of the athletic, artistic, business, social, spiritual, and political life in the city.”
CORNICE	01/28 Government	In general, it refers to any horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building. In classical architecture, it is the topmost element of the entablature
ENTABLATURE	01/28 Government	The superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above the columns. They are commonly divided into three major parts: the architrave, the frieze, and the cornice
FRIEZE	01/28 Government	In classical architecture is is the wide, central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic and Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs
KARYATID	01/28 Government	A sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar, supporting an entablature on her head
METOPE	01/28 Government	A rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze
PEDIMENT	01/28 Government	A form of gable in classical architecture, usually of triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice or entablature.
PERISTYLE	01/28 Government	“A continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or courtyard.”
POLIS	01/28 Government	Greek term for ‘city,’ ‘urban place,’ ‘state,’ or ‘community.’
STOA	01/28 Government	A column lined, covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use
TRIGLYPH	01/28 Government	A term for the vertically channeled tablets that alternate with metopes on the Doric freize, so called because of their angular channels
Aqueduct	01/30 Imperialism	“A part of Roman infrastructure designed to carry water from outside sources into cities and towns. Aqueduct water supplied public baths, latrines, fountains, and private households; it also supported mining operations, milling, farms, and gardens.”
Barrel Vault	01/30 Imperialism	“An architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves) along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design.”
Forum	01/30 Imperialism	“a public square in a Roman city, reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls.”
Groin Vault	01/30 Imperialism	“A vault produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. The word "groin" refers to the edge between the intersecting vaults.”
Roman Concrete	01/30 Imperialism	“The concrete used in construction in ancient Rome. Like its modern equivalent, Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement added to an aggregate.”
Triumphal Arch	01/30 Imperialism	"A free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, typically crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be mounted or which bears commemorative inscriptions."

Arch&UD -- Key Terms