Archaeology Vocabulary Words in Spanish

Translating Archaeology Words: Spanish to English

Following is a list of archaeology vocabulary words in Spanish. The Spanish word is listed first, followed by the English word and the definition. Also, some words are the same in both languages:

• Artefacto - Artifact: an object that was made by humans
• Biface - Biface: a tool that is flaked on two sides but is not a knife or axe
• Característica - Feature - something that can’t be removed from a site, like a hearth, architecture, or a storage pit
• Datación por radiocarbono - Radiocarbon dating: a way of determining the approximate age of a feature or artifact by using the half-life of Carbon-14
• Chert - Chert: a rock that is used in making tools which is usually brown, white, gray, or has a pink hue.
• Core - Core: a stone from which flakes has been removed to make a tool
• Endurezca - Temper: a substance added to clay before firing it to make it stronger
• Excavación - Excavation: the process of uncovering artifacts from an archaeological site.
• Flake - Flake: a fragment that has been removed from a stone to make a tool; the action of removing a flake
• Lithic - Lithic: this means stone or referring to stone
• Mano - Mano: a small handheld stone used to grind grains on a stone slab
• Metate - Metate: a large stone slab where grains were ground
• Reuniуn - Assemblage: a group of objects recovered from the same site
• Sherd - Sherd: a piece of ceramic pottery
• Sitio - Site: an area of archaeological investigation which is usually an excavation site, but not always.
• Strata - Strata: layers of sediment rock
• Stratigraphy - Stratigraphy: The study of strata which helps archaeologists determine time lines of events that made the layers of deposits
• Tipología - Typology: organizing artifacts into groups according to function, composition, or other attributes
• Varves - Varves: layers of alluvium that was left by glaciers

Archaeology Finds in Spain and South America

Now that you have a list of archaeology vocabulary words in Spanish, perhaps you would like to know about some of the archaeological sites from Spain and South America.

Spain

Can Llobateres - There were fossilized remains of an ape that was determined to be 9-10 million years old found at this site.

Gran Dolina - This site had evidence of humans from around 780,000 years ago. It is the second oldest site in Europe for human remains and the oldest discovery of cannibalism.

L'Arbreda Cave - This has evidence of Neanderthals and later of modern Homo sapiens.

South America

Peru: Caral has been discovered to be the oldest city in the Americas, starting at about 2600 B. C. The civilization flourished for about five centuries.

Columbia: San Agustin has the largest group of huge sculptures in South America. There are many sculptures of gods and mythical animals which date from the first to the eighth century.