1204 Glossary gerontocracy A form of social organization in which the oldest men and women in a society are expected to guide and lead the community because of their wisdom gerousia A council of elders in Sparta, made up of 28 prominent citizens over the age of 60 ghee Clarified butter, created by boiling unsalted butter and drawing off excess water; used as lamp fuel in ancient India glacial maximum The time of maximum extent of ice sheets during an ice age glacier A river of ice flowing slowly downhill gladiator A slave who fought as a professional soldier in combats staged for entertainment glaze A glasslike coating that seals the surface of a ceramic object and decorates it glyph A symbol, such as a hieroglyph, carved into stone gnomon “Indicator,” the vertical bar that casts the shadow of the sun on the face of a sundial gorget An ornamental collar or throat covering gourd Dried and hollowed out shell of a fruit from the squash or pumpkin family that is converted into a vessel grafting The practice of attaching the stalk of one plant to the root stock of another to provide strong roots to a plant that would naturally have weak roots grammaticus In ancient Rome, a public secondary-school teacher grammatistēs A teacher of reading, writing, arithmetic, and poetry in ancient Greece granary A storehouse for harvested crops granulation A method of decorating metal with patterns made up of small balls of the same metal, usually gold gravitas A dignified bearing, one of the Roman virtues greave Armor that protects the legs below the knees griot In ancient Africa, an oral historian who recounted cultural tradition through song groin vault A ceiling formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults, which are in turn supported by piers that are either freestanding or set into a wall groma A device that allowed Roman builders to ensure that vertical elements, such as columns and piers, were set at right angles to the horizontal grotto A cave enclosing a body of water guano Bat dung; used as fertilizer gur In the ancient Near East, a measure of the value of an item that was approximately equal to 43 gallons of barley guru A teacher in the Hindu tradition, seen as a god in human form and as the sole source of knowledge for his students gurukula A school in the Hindu tradition gymnasium An area devoted to intellectual and athletic pursuits gymnastics In ancient Greece, any athletic training gynaikeion Living quarters for women in ancient Greek homes haft The handle of a knife, an ax, or another weapon or tool halberd A battle-ax mounted on a long handle handfasting Engagement to marry hangul The system instituted in 1446 to write Korean phonetically; originally used along with Chinese characters but now generally used exclusively haniwa Small ceramic figures, usually depicting people, made by the ancient Japanese to surround tombs, protecting the tombs from evil spirits harmika A finial, or ornamental projection from the top of a wall or column, found in the architecture of India harpy eagle A large bird of prey native to Central and South America haruspex (pl haruspices) Literally, “men who look at guts”: Roman diviners who read the will of the gods by examining the entrails of sacrificed animals heddle A rod on a loom used to guide threads heliacal rise The first appearance of a star near the eastern horizon just preceding sunrise, following a period of nighttime invisibility due to proximity to the sun heliocentric Having the sun at the center of the solar system, orbited by Earth and other planets Hellenization The process of “becoming Greek.” helot In ancient Greece, a slave of the Spartans hemp A tall herb with tough fibers used to make durable cloth and ropes hen In ancient Egypt, the measure of a volume equal to half a quart or less, with a value that could vary according to the substance or liquid to be measured; generally regarded as equal in value to one deben henotheism The worship of a single most important deity without denying the existence of others hep Egyptian term for law, abstract moral order, normative custom, and every kind of rule, either natural or juridical, general or specific, public or private, literary or oral herm A statuette of the god Hermes, usually placed at house gates or as a marker on roads hero In ancient Greece, a great mythical or legendary human being who was usually considered the offspring of a god and a mortal and whose spirit was worshipped much like a god hestia A Greek cooking stove hetairai (or hetaerae) In ancient Greece, courtesans, often valued for wit and education as well as beauty; these women occupied a social space between that of a prostitute and a mistress hexameter A poetic meter that has six feet per line hierarchical society A society characterized by multiple levels of authority and status hieratic Sacred; associated with priests; also a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs used for all domestic texts and records hieroglyph The Greek word for “sacred carving,” describing the Egyptian writing system, which consisted of pictorial signs, used phonetically and pictorially