Glossary Archaeological method and dating
Terminus ante quem
Also called: TAQ
Latin for 'limit before which': the latest possible date for an object or deposit, set by a dated event that sealed or followed it.
Anything sealed beneath a dated destruction, or built into a structure of known date, must be older than that event. The terminus ante quem is an upper limit on the date, and together with a terminus post quem it can bracket a deposit between two points. In shorthand either limit is sometimes called simply a terminus.
A clear Cypriot case is the Persian siege mound at Palaepaphos, raised during the siege of 498 BCE in the Ionian Revolt. Its builders filled it with sculpture and inscribed stones from a demolished sanctuary nearby, so everything in the fill is earlier than 498, a rare fixed point for Archaic limestone sculpture and for the Cypriot syllabary.
Related terms
- Terminus post quem
Latin for 'limit after which': the earliest possible date for a deposit, set by the latest datable object found in it.
- Horizon
A level or span of time marked by the same event or type of material across many sites, such as a destruction horizon or a pottery horizon.
- Absolute chronology
A chronology expressed in calendar years (BCE, CE or years before present), fixed by scientific dating or by links to written history.