Human populations evolved throughout the Old World for over 1 million years. However, anatomical characteristics of modern humans are thought to have evolved only in Africa in the last 200 thousand years. To this day, the extent to which archaic human populations contributed to the modern human gene pool is largely unknown. This work explores the evidence of genetic contribution from archaic populations at two loci in chromosome 12. Two different archaic humans, Neandertal and Denisova, living respectively in West Eurasia and in East Asia, have been indicated as potential contributors to anatomically modern human populations outside of Africa. This research shows the presence in non-Africans of two distinct introgressive alleles from archaic populations at the immune genes OAS1 and STAT2. In addition to the detection of patterns of genetic variation previously proposed as indicators of genetic introgression from archaic populations, it was possible to use the sequence of archaic individuals to infer a recent common ancestry between the introgressive modern allele and the archaic sequences. The analysis of genetic variation at the genomic region containing the gene STAT2 shows the presence of introgressive Neandertal-like and Denisova-like haplotypes. The elevated frequency in Melanesian populations of the haplotype introgressive from Neandertals suggests that this haplotype has been adaptive in Melanesians (APPENDIX B). A haplotype of the gene OAS1, nearly restricted to Melanesian populations, provides evidence of introgression from a population with genetic affinities to Denisova. The introgressive haplotype carries non-synonymous variants predicted to have functional significance and a block of very deep divergence with the remaining modern sequences (APPENDIX A). A second haplotype, observed mostly in Eurasian populations, shows evidence of having introgressed recently from Neandertals. The Neandertal-like haplotype also contains a block with very deep divergence with the remaining modern sequences (APPENDIX C). Blocks of very deep divergence within introgressive haplotypes suggest an important role of ancient population structure in the evolution of humans.

This thesis examines the place, influence, and deployment of archaic Greek thought in Sophocles’ extant tragedies, paying close attention to the ethical and theological content of the plays as well as to their dramatic and literary fabric. I use archaic thought as an umbrella term for a constellation of ideas on the human condition and the gods which is first attested, in Greece, in Homeric epic, but has a long and variegated existence in other contexts and after the archaic period. The thesis consists of six chapters, divided in two parts. The first part provides a general conceptual framework, which is then applied in the detailed readings of Sophocles constituting the second part. The first chapter examines some of the main texts of archaic Greek thought, and offers an interpretation of it as a coherent nexus of ideas gravitating around the core notions of human vulnerability, short-sightedness, and the principle of alternation. Using the examples of Homer’s Iliad and Solon’s Elegy to the Muses, I argue that the narrative structure of archaic poetry can be used to formulate and “perform” archaic ideas. The second chapter formulates the principal argument of the thesis: that archaic thought is central to the ethical and religious content of tragedy as well as to its dramatic and literary fabric, that is, to the form of tragedy as a complex artefact designed to be performed on stage. I explore possible models for the interaction between archaic thought and literature and tragedy, from Aristotle’s Poetics to recent interpretations of tragedy as a hybrid of other literary and intellectual forms. I then examine the ways in which archaic ideas are deployed and performed in tragedy, both in passages that are explicitly archaic in content and diction, and in the complex interactions of dramatic form and intellectual content. This general discussion is illustrated with preliminary readings of four Sophoclean plays: Ajax, Oedipus Tyrannus, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. The third chapter contextualises the approach adopted in the thesis as a whole by exploring two interpretations of Sophocles in German Idealist thought: Solger’s reading of Ajax and Hölderlin’s reading of Oedipus Tyrannus. It argues that these analyses, albeit under anachronistic conceptual categories such as “the tragic”, seize on some of the fundamental questions of archaic and tragic ethics and theology: the relationship between the human and divine spheres, and the limits of language and human understanding. In Chapters 4, 5, and 6, I offer detailed readings of Trachiniae, Antigone, and Electra, three plays chosen to reflect the diversity of contexts in which archaic ideas exist in Sophocles. I argue that archaic thought is central to the intellectual and dramatic fabric of all three plays, even though the deployment and emphasis of archaic patterns and ideas differs from one tragedy to the next.

This research employs a sample of archaeological sites from three ecological zones to investigate the mobility strategies of hunter-gatherer groups in Late Archaic southwestern Idaho. The sample sites are organized into site types based on an independent evaluation of site components and existing site records. Ceramic assemblages at each site were analyzed to quantify the investment in ceramic technology, as a proxy for mobility. These measures were then compared to expectations generated from three proposed mobility patterns for hunter-gatherer groups in southwestern Idaho. Some of the predictions were met and these data allude to an archaeological record with a multitude of settlement patterns that may have changed over the course of seasons, years, and even decades.

The Jot-em-Down Shelter (15McY348) was excavated by U.S. Forest Service archaeologists in 1986. The present study concentrated on the lithic assemblage, with a particular focus on the chipped stone debitage. The Jot-em-Down Shelter lithic assemblage was compared to assemblages recovered from four nearby sites, open sites 15McY570 and 15McY616, and rockshelter sites 15McY403 and 15McY409; and rockshelter sites located in and near the Red River Gorge, Cold Oak Shelter (15LE50) and Rock Bridge Shelter (15WO75). This study determined that Jot-em-Down Shelter was a multicomponent site utilized by mobile groups of people from the Early Archaic through Mississippi periods. Use of the site intensified around the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods. Prehistoric peoples who occupied the shelter had contact with other groups from the surrounding area, hunted nearby, and processed hides.

This thesis will argue that the development of early Rome can be described using a sequence of large, socio-political dichotomies based on Rome's activity in the sphere of warfare. The use of dichotomies in early Roman history is not new,and indeed the confrontation between two opposing groups, typically the patricians and plebeians, can be found at the heart of even the earliest extant histories of the period. The problem which plagued these early models, and indeed many subsequent models based on their premise, is that they assumed that the same prescriptive set of social and political divisions which existed in the late Republic and early Empire also existed in early Rome. This study will discard this highly anachronistic assumption and redefine the dichotomies present in early Rome using active characteristics (i.e. behavior), rather than the prescriptive labels assigned by late republican authors. In particular, this study will attempt to view early Rome through the lens of warfare, where the formation of distinct 'in-group' and 'out-group' biases is most evident, in an effort to redraw the divisions of early Roman society. The end result of this redefining process will be an entirely different, albeit related set of socio-political groupings; for example 'mobile' vs. 'sedentary' and 'Roman' vs. 'Latin', whose interaction is visible behind much of Rome's early development.

This thesis reconstructs the landscape evolution of the Billy Big Spring site (24GL304, Glacier County, north-central Montana) from the last glacial maximum to present through the analysis of sediment and soil samples collected from a transect of auger tests that bisected the site and surrounding landforms. Interpretations were drawn from stratigraphy, pedologic data, sedimentologic analysis and radiocarbon dating. The site landscape came into being in the late-Pleistocene, after Wisconsin-age glaciers retreated. Glacial retreat left a meltdown depression on the land that filled with water to form a pond, which persisted through the early-Holocene. The onset of the mid-Holocene (Altithermal) occurred before ~8,415 cal. yrs. BP, when increasingly arid conditions caused the water level to drop. The first radiocarbon dated human occupation of this site occurred during the Altithermal, ~7,030 cal. yrs. BP, after the eruption of Mount Mazama (~7,633 cal. yrs. BP). Arid conditions continued until ~7,000 cal. yrs. BP, when pond water re-expanded across the basin, marking the transition to the cooler late-Holocene. Sometime before 2,100 cal. yrs. BP, dry conditions returned, and the extent of the pond water decreased again. Since this time, overland alluvial processes have deposited sediments in the basin. Many hypotheses on how the Altithermal impacted the people of the Northwestern Plains have been proposed since the 1950s, but little agreement has been reached. This is due to the fact that there was great variation in how the Altithermal expressed itself throughout the Northwestern Plains. The human reactions to this phenomena cannot be explained simplistically for the region as a whole. This study shows that the Billy Big Spring site experienced drying during the Altithermal, but despite this, people continued to occupy this site. This evidence adds to the argument that the Altithermal climate of the Northwestern Plains did not have severe enough impacts to impose much hardship on its occupants.

The Early Agricultural period (EAP) has been a central focus of study in the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico for the past 30 years. This long interval, also considered as part of the Late Archaic in the greater region, comprises the introduction of maize agriculture and the development of sedentary agricultural communities over the course of more than 2000 years. Radiocarbon ages on maize indicate that maize was regularly cultivated by 2100 cal BC in the Tucson Basin; several recently dated specimens from the site of Las Capas suggest maize may have been grown here even earlier, between 2500 to 3700 cal BC. The shift from a mobile hunter-forager economy to a subsistence economy built around maize agriculture was long, and did not follow the trajectory of other agricultural societies world-wide; the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Southwest was a slow process, prefaced by some 2500 years of agriculture, and did not occur simultaneously across the region. This dissertation comprises three articles that address the EAP in in southern Arizona. The first presents a review of the current status of research on the Archaic in the Tucson Basin, with a focus on the EAP and the past 30 years of work by both academic and Cultural Resource Management institutions. The second article places the EAP and development of agricultural communities in the context of Network Theory and Cultural Niche Construction theory; although regional populations were small, communities throughout northwestern Mexico and the Southwest US were connected by social and economic ties that facilitated the transmission of goods, information, and people, all of which were fundamental to the spread of agriculture and its associated societal consequences. The third article presents a chronological analysis of EAP sites in the Tucson Basin. OxCal is used to model the ages of 12 sites that date to the Silverbell interval and San Pedro phase; 160 radiocarbon ages, most obtained from carbonized maize, are used in the analysis. Temporal variation among sites and their locations along the Santa Cruz River floodplain are evaluated in light of changes in river geomorphology and the cumulative effects of community investment in agricultural infrastructure.

In the present body of work two primary subjects have been addressed, both individually and in their correspondence, namely 1) the potential for Neanderthals to have contributed to the Modern Human population, and 2) the genetic diversity of one of the most prehistorically impactful human popuations, the Armenians. The first subject is addressed by assessing 1000 mutations in 384 current humans, particularly for those mutations which appear to derive from the Neanderthal lineage. Additionally, the validity of the Neanderthal sequences themselves is evaluated through alignment analysis of fragementary DNA derived from the Vindija Cave sample. Armenian genetic diversity is analyzed through the autosomal short tandem repeats, y-chromsome single nucleotide polymorphisms, and y-chromosome short tandem repeats. The diversity found indicates that Armenians are a diverse group which has been genetically influenced by the various migrations and invasions which have entered their historic lands. Further, we find evidence that Armenians may be closely associated with the peopling of Europe.

Transverse radiopaque lines, often referred to as transverse lines (TL's), are a type of hard-tissue pathology which develop in subadult long bones after episodes of nonspecific stress such as nutritional or metabolic insult. This pathology is well documented in archaeological contexts and is used as a tool for making paleo demographical inferences about the general health of populations. Stable isotope studies have suggested that early modern humans were exploiting a wide range of dietary resources by the mid-Upper Paleolithic, while Neandertals appear to have utilized a narrower spectrum of resources, expending more energy on large game. This may have been a significant factor in differential survival success, frequency of transverse line formation, and age of initial transverse line formation. Because archaic humans may have been more susceptible to seasonal resource fluctuations, they may have suffered increased nutritional and metabolic stress compared to early modern humans. This study evaluates differences in the frequency and timing of initial transverse line formation among archaic, early modern human, and recent human (Holocene) subadult populations. Radiographs of the tibial distal shafts of 200 archaic, early modern humans, and recent modern humans were scored as displaying or not displaying TL's. TL's were counted, and age-at-formation was calculated. Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric tests were used to compare the frequency of occurrence of TL's and age-at-formation among the three groups. Results indicate that both archaic and early modern humans exhibited less transverse lines than the recent human group. This may be related to sampling bias in the recent human dataset. There is no difference in the number of transverse lines among the recent human samples, and it seems possible that all three of the recent human populations sampled for this study were experiencing high levels of stress. Thus, it seems that for the archaic and early modern human groups, transverse line formation may have been more closely related to differences in subsistence strategies, while transverse line formation in the recent human group may have been more closely related to high frequencies of metabolic diseases and poor diet. Further analysis revealed that archaic humans developed their first transverse lines earlier in life than both early modern and recent modern humans. The age at first line formation is frequently related to weaning age in studies of archaeological population, and this (and other possible explanations) are evaluated relative to Late Pleistocene Neanderthals and early modern humans.

Archaeological data has increased significantly with Cultural Resource Management agencies finding and recording archaeological sites all across Utah. With the site data from the Utah State Historical Preservation Office, I examine the expansion of Archaic sites in the Eastern Great Basin from the Early Archaic through the Late Archaic, through the lens of elevation and ecological zones and proximity to wetland resources. I argue that the aridness of the Middle Holocene caused the people to expand into the mountains of Utah, and that the expansion continued into the Late Archaic period, even though the environment became more moist again. I also argue that the people of the Archaic stayed near to wetlands and wetland resources throughout the Archaic.