Absolute chronology: the dating of archaeological finds which has derived from reliable historic, calendar or archaeometric methods.

Amphora: closed vase with two vertical handles which begin from the shoulders and reach the mouth.

Apsidal building: rectangular building with a narrow semicircular side and one or two interior walls.

Askos: closed vase that appears in the Aegean from the Neolithic Age. The Early Cycladic and Middle Cycladic askoi had a characteristic squat body with a small, cylindrical rimmed spout placed on the side.

Bothroi: round or elliptical pits, the sides of which are sometimes covered with clay or limestone plaster, that served as litter pits.

Ceramic ware: a group of ceramics presenting the same manufacturing and aesthetic traits. Although the grouping in wares, may correspond to specific types of vases, it concerns the decoration, the arrangement of the surface of the vessels as well as the manufacture elements and not the vase shapes. Examples of Middle Helladic ceramic wares are the Minyan and the Matt Painted.

Crucible: clay utensil used in metallurgy from which smelted metals were cast into dies.

Electrum: an alloy of gold and silver.

Fine pottery: ceramics with thin walls, made of fine clay and without many stone inclusions.

Firing conditions: the appropriate firing procedures of ceramics arranged by the potter (e.g. temperature, air-intake) in order to achieve the desired result.

Firing in reducing atmosphere: firing vessels in a hearth by providing a reducing atmosphere so that the ceramics acquire a grayish colour. The reducing atmosphere is acheived by shutting the air-intake of the hearth to exclude the oxygen supply.

Frying pan: typical vessel of Middle Cycladic pottery with a shallow cylindrical body and lid resembling a frying pan. The lid is often decorated with incised marine motifs and other symbols.

Grave goods: material goods, mainly vases, jewellery and weapons, which are placed in the graves as offerings to the dead.

Hair-coil: metal wire used for fixing the hair.

Hydria: closed vase with verticly and horizontal handles.

Inclusions: the non plastic parts of the ceramic mass. The admixtures which are usually sand and small stones are added to the clay to make ceramics harder and more durable to high firing conditions and to make vessels less fragile when used.

Intramural: within the frontiers of the settlement. The expression is employed to distinguish the burials in the settlement from the ones in cemeteries beyond the frontiers of the settlement.

Macroscopic examination: the examination of archaeological finds with the naked eye.

Megaroid building: rectangular building with successive internal partitions and an entrance on the short side.

Magoula: a hill that has been formed by the concentration of successive settlement strata.

Matt Painted pottery or decoration: pottery decorated with opaque paint. The texture of this characteristic paint is acquired by the addition of colours of a manganese basis.

Mortar: stone plaque with a small carving in the centre used for the rubbing of cereals and workshop ingredients with pestles to be ground to dust.

Mudbricks: building blocks made of clay and straw. These blocks - of the same size as today's cement blocks - were not fired in a furnace but dried in the sun.

Paleodemography: science which examins the population growth and the demographic evidence of periods for which there is no statistic or historical evidence.

Paleopathology: a branch of diagnostic medicin which is applied to human bone remains of past times. The goal of paleopathology is the recomposition of the pathology of individuals or social groups, the tracing of hereditary predispositions, the degree of kinship and the life expectancy.

Petrographic analysis: archaeometric method of examining the stone inclusions in pottery clay in order to define its origin.

Plastic decoration : applied clay decoration.

Plundered grave: a grave which has been deprived of all or only the precious grave goods before archaeological research.

Pestle: stone tool of a round shape which served in chruching cereals and workshop ingredients.

Relative chronology: the dating of archaeological finds that results from comparison and correspondence with other objects of definite dating, namely absolute chronology.

Retaining wall: a wall built on a hill slope to prevent the soil from erosion creating at the same time flat surfaces.

Rhyton: ritual vase with a hole at the bottom which served in libations.

Shaft Grave period: the period from the Middle Helladic III to the Late Helladic IIA, that is the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.

Spouted vessel: a vessel with a mouth shaped in a way to enable liquid flow.

Stamnos: closed vase with horizontal handles placed on the shoulders.

Stratigraphy: the correlation of the successive strata of settlement or usage of an area. The objective of stratigraphical studies is the classification of the finds in a time sequence and the recomposition of the history of settlement.

Surface surveys: archaeological field survey which consists of collecting in a methodical way the visible finds on the surface of the soil.

Trephenation: operating on the skull.

Typology: the grouping of archaeological objects of the same or similar shape. Middle Helladic vase types are the two-handled bowls, the amphoriskoi, etc.

Wheelmade pottery: pottery made with a rotating potter's wheel.