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Anthropomorphic: having characteristics of the human form, although the form itself is not human.

Archaeology: the scientific study of ancient people and cultures principally revealed through excavation.

Cong: a tubular object with a circular hole cut into a square-like cross section.

Henge: a Neolithic monument, characterized by a circular ground plan. Used for rituals and marking astronomical events.

Lintel: a horizontal beam over an opening.

Megalith: a stone of great size used in the construction of a prehistoric structure.

Menhir: a large uncut stone erected as a monument in the prehistoric era; a standing stone.

Mortise and tenon: a groove cut into stone or wood, called a mortise, that is shaped to receive a tenon, or projection, of the same dimensions.

Shamanism: a religion in which good and evil are brought about by spirits which can be influenced by shamans, who have access to the spirits.

Stele (plural: stelae): an upright stone slab used to mark a grave or a site.

Stylized: a schematic, non realistic manner of representing the visible world and its contents, abstracted from the way that they appear in nature

Apadama: an audience hall in a Persian palace.

Apotropaic: having the power to ward off evil or bad luck.

Bent-axis: an architectural plan in which an approach to a building requires an angular change of direction, as opposed to a direct and straight entry.

Capital: the top element of a column.

Cella: the main room of a temple where the god is housed.

Cuneiform: a system of writing in which the strokes are formed in a wedge or arrowhead shape.

Facade: the front of a building. Sometimes, more poetically, a speaker can refer to a ‘side facade’ or ‘rear facade’.

Ground line: a baseline upon which figures stand.

Ground plan: the map of a floor of a building.

Hierarchy of scale: a system of representation that expresses a person’s iomportance by the size of his or her representation in a work of art.

Lamassu: a colossal winged human-headed bull in Assyrian art.

Lapis lazuli: a deep-blue stone prized for its color.

Negative space: empty space around an object or person, such as the cut-out areas between a figures legs or arms of a sculpture.

Register: a horizontal band, often on top of another, that tells a narrative story.

Relief sculpture: a sculpture that projects from a flat background. A very shallow relief sculpture is called a bas-relief (bah-relief)

Stele (plural stelae): a stone slab used to mark a grave or a site.

Votive: offered in fulfillment of a vow or pledge.

Ziggurat: a pyramid-like building made of several stories that indent as the building gets taller, thus ziggurats have terraces at each level.

Amarna style: art created during the reign of Akhenaton, which features a more relaxed figure style than in Old and Middle Kingdom art.

Ankh: an Egyptian symbol of life.

Axial plan: a building with elongated ground plan.

Clerestory: a roof that rises above lower roofs and thus has window space beneath.

Engaged column: a column that is not free standing but attached to a wall.

Hierarchy of scale: a system of representation that expresses a person’s importance byu the size of his or her representation in a work of art.

Hieroglyphics: Egyptian writing using symbols or pictures as characters.

Hypostyle: a hall that has a roof supported by a dense thicket of columns.

In situ: a latin expression that means something is in its original location.

Ka: the soul, or spiritual essence of a human being that either ascends to heaven or can live in an Egyptian statue of itself.

Mastaba: Arabic for ‘bench’, a low flat-roofed Egyptian tomb with side sloping down to the ground.

Necropolis: literally, “city of the dead”- a large burial area.

Papyrus: a tall aquatic plant whose fiber is used as a writing surface in ancient Egypt.

Peristyle: a colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing in a courtyard.

Pharoah: a king of ancient Egypt.

Pylon: a monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple marked by two flat, sloping walls between which is a smaller entrance.

Reserve column: a column that is cut away from rock but has no support function.

Sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi): a stone coffin.

Sunken relief: a carving in which the outlines of figures are deeply carved into a surface so that the figures seem to project forward.

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