composite tool: a tool formed of two or more joined parts, e.g. "composite toggling harpoon head".

　　concentration: a notable accumulation of archaeological materials in a small area, such as a "concentration of flakes" etc.

　　contour line: a line on a map connecting points of equal elevation.

　　contoured level: an excavation level with a floor parallel to the slope of the ground surface.

　　cultural anthropology: a subdiscipline of anthropology concerned with the non-biological, behavioral aspects of society; i.e. the social, linguistic, and technological components underlying human behavior. Two important branches of cultural anthropology are ethnography (the study of living cultures) and ethnology (which attempts to compare cultures using ethnographic evidence). In Europe, it is referred to as social anthropology.

　　cultural deposit: sediments and materials laid down by, or heavily modified by, human activity.

　　cultural ecology: a term devised by Julian Steward to account for the dynamic relationship between human society and its environment, in which culture is viewed as the primary adaptive mechanism.

　　cultural group: a complex of regularly occurring associated artifacts, features, burial types, and house forms comprising a distinct identity.

　　cultural materialism: the theory, espoused by Marvin Harris, that ideas, values, and religious beliefs are the means or products of adaptation to environmental conditions ("material constraints").

　　cultural relativism: the ability to view the beliefs and customs of other peoples within the context of their culture rather than one‘s own.

　　cultural resource management (CRM): the safeguarding of the archaeological heritage through the protection of sites and through salvage archaeology (rescue archaeology), generally within the framework of legislation designed to safeguard the past.

　　culture-historical approach: an approach to archaeological interpretation which uses the procedure of the traditional historian (including emphasis on specific circumstances elaborated with rich detail, and processes of inductive reasoning).

　　D

　　datum: a fixed reference point on an archaeological site from which measurements are taken.

　　deductive nomological (D-N) explanation: a formal method of explanation based on the testing of hypotheses derived from general laws.

　　deep-sea cores: cores drilled from the sea bed that provide the most coherent record of climate changes on a worldwide scale. The cores contain shells of microscopic marine organisms (foraminifera) laid down on the ocean floor through the continuous process of sedimentation. Variations in the ratio of two oxygen isotopes in the calcium carbonate of these shells give a sensitive indicator of sea temperature at the time the organisms were alive.

　　diachronic: referring to phenomena as they change over time; i.e. employing a chronological perspective (cf. synchronic).

　　diatom analysis: a method of environmental reconstruction based on plant microfossils. Diatoms are unicellular algae, whose silica cell walls survive after the algae die, and they accumulate in large numbers at the bottom of rivers and lakes. Their assemblages directly reflect the floristic composition of the water‘s extinct communities, as well as the water‘s salinity, alkalinity, and nutrient status.

　　diffusion: when elements of one culture spread to another without wholesale dislocation or migration.

　　domestication: the process by which people try to control the reproductive rates of animals and plants by ordering the environment in such a way as to favor certain species.

　　E

　　early man: in the New World this term refers to the oldest known human occupants - i.e. prior to ca. 8,000 B.P.

　　ecological determinism: a form of explanation in which it is implicit that changes in the environment determine changes in human society.