This PhD research challenges current scholarly debate on religion and religious architecture during the Roman Empire by offering a new understanding on the role of rural sanctuaries and a new approach on the subject. It re-evaluates the socio-economic significance of rural sanctuaries, and of the society that they represent, to a regional level and in a wider context of the Near East. This research can be seen as innovative because scholarly work on Syrian sanctuaries from the Roman period has, up to the present day, mainly discussed their religious connotations, including their architecture and deities, with no reference to their potential socio-economic significance. Furthermore, these studies have mostly focused on sanctuaries in cities rather than rural centres, and a comprehensive analytical overview is still lacking. This thesis demonstrates that a comprehensive analysis of archaeological, iconographic and written evidence placed within a historical and socio-economic context and landscape can provide us with a different perspective on rural cult centre, i.e. their central social and economic role in their region and within the Near East. The rural cult centres that this study looks at are from the pre-provincial to the provincial period (c.100BC-AD300) from the northern Phoenicia and the Hauran, both in Syria. Their location at cross points between neighbouring and more distant cultures makes these areas an interesting and revealing object of study to fully comprehend the social significance of rural cult centres and the connections of the study areas with other cultures. Furthermore, both study areas present direct and indirect evidence of economic activities associated with rural sanctuaries. The central socio-economic role of rural cult centres is argued because of the following aspects revealed in this study. They are: their independency from the nearby cities and from political authorities that controlled the study areas, the plurality and diversity of worshippers, their economic self-sufficiency and their organization (with personnel in charge of temple’s administrative and economic affairs), and the connections of the society of the study areas with distant cultures of the Near East.

This thesis investigates the form, function and development of assembly practices in the Ridings of Yorkshire, a region of significant Scandinavian settlement from the ninth century onwards. It investigates the extent to which these demographic and cultural changes affected existing assembly practices and also the degree to which one can identify the introduction of Nordic conciliar mores. In particular, it focuses on the assembly sites and territories associated with the hundreds and wapentakes outlined in Domesday Book. These are considered in terms of their emergence and context in early medieval law, their relations to earlier accounts of assemblies and their subsequent reception in historical scholarship. The forms and distributions of both documented and assembly-attesting place-names are assessed. These demonstrate significant Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian influence on the nomenclature. Consideration of the immediate form of the documented and place-name attested assemblies has revealed both variety and patterning, not least in terms of the recurrent cultic elements associated with trees, crosses, and plausibly mounds, each of which often served as the monumental focus of a given assembly. Consideration of the assembly territories demonstrated differing ways of framing the landscape, likely reflecting settlement and agricultural routines but also at times providing evidence for the abrupt imposition of territorial schemata. The most vital finding is the widespread prevalence of assembly in ancillary situations to significant settlements and estate-centres. The use of prominent ridgelines above and apart from settlement in the East Riding shows that there was a clear symbolic role to this separation of activities. Assemblies on estate borders appear to reflect analogous practice. Finally, Scandinavian influence was found at all levels in the surviving evidence for assembly practices in the Northern Danelaw, but this almost certainly reflects active engagement with existing practices rather than the imposition of new customs on a newly settled land.

The ability of the ancient territorial empires to control water management strategies has been proposed but not yet fully explored. Given that most of the evidence is derived from historical information, or from isolated, specific archaeological studies, a detailed map of ancient irrigation in northern Mesopotamia was needed. The present interdisciplinary study used techniques of remote sensing and GIS to generate this map. CORONA images (1960-1972) were used to identify and record known and new water management features, showing the landscape before recent agricultural and urban intensification removed archaeological remains. The results of the image interpretation were validated through DEM analysis; low resolution SRTM and ASTER DEMs were used, as well as a high resolution CORONA DEM, generated through applying photogrammetry techniques to CORONA stereopairs. A sample of the results was also investigated in the field in July 2010. Using multiple techniques to locate and validate data, the large area of northern Mesopotamia could be mapped relatively quickly and inexpensively. The results of the remote sensing analysis showed that water management developed throughout northern Mesopotamia from the Neo-Assyrian to the Early Islamic period. Detailed information about the scale and distribution of whole irrigation systems was obtained. The present study concluded that the Neo-Assyrian Empire had established changes in the landscape that promoted the development of large-scale water management; a significant peak later occurred during the time of the Early Islamic Empire. Conversely, interruptions to water management occurred at times of political instability, (with modern parallels). The powerful later territorial empires were able to impose and encourage the development of water management throughout the formerly marginal rain-fed zone.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ancient glass was frequently treated as though it was a prestigious product, owned only by the elites of society. Research was primarily art-historical, and focused on select museum pieces. As archaeology developed, it became clear that glass vessels were used at many, if not most, Roman sites, from the late first century B.C. onward, and in many different social contexts, contradicting the idea that only the rich could afford them. Scholars began to explain the increased prevalence of glass by arguing that the invention of glassblowing (circa 50 B.C.) had increased production speed while lowering production costs, making glass vessels cheap and widely available across the social spectrum This thesis explores the role of blown glass by comparing the percentages and forms produced by older casting techniques in glass vessel assemblages from military sites, civilian sites, frontier settlements, and settings at the heart of the Roman world. It seeks to understand the social and economic status of blown glass and cast glass: why did cast glass persist after the invention of cheaper blown glass? Was cast and blown glass equally accessible to different levels of society? And to what extent can the invention of glassblowing bear responsibility for the rise in glass vessel use in the Roman world? By drawing comparisons between vessels from different production methods, and from different social and geographical contexts, this thesis begins to identify emerging patterns in glass use across Roman society and finds that both cast and blown vessels were used across all levels of society and that there was no strict divide between the use of casting for luxury wares and glassblowing for cheap utilitarian wares.

The leaf shaped bronze sword is one of the most distinctive and evocative weapons of prehistory. The type appears throughout Western Europe in the final centuries of the second millennium BC only to disappear as an artefact type with the widespread introduction of iron weapons hundreds of years later. The widespread distribution of the bronze sword points to the increasingly martial nature of Late Bronze Age society, a feature echoed in Ireland by the appearance of defensive landscape features. The expansion and development of Irish archaeology in the last fifteen years has rather left metalwork and swords, in particular, behind, as the main focus has moved away from artefacts towards settlement. It is only in recent years that interest has revived in the Bronze Age and bronze metalwork. Over six hundred swords have been recovered from Ireland, the vast majority being nineteenth century finds. Most belong to the equivalent of the Ewart Park type in Britain – but there are significant numbers of early flange hilted weapons and of the late Gundlingen type. This thesis represents the first major study of the development and context of the Irish swords since George Eogan’s work (Eogan 1964). It examines, in addition to those weapons listed in Eogan’s catalogue, all of the more recent discoveries, and takes as the central theme the biography or life cycle of a sword, from manufacture through to use and deposition, with the emphasis on the latter. The thesis represents a companion to the comprehensive analysis and catalogue of Bronze Age swords in Britain, co- authored by myself and Colin Burgess (Colquhoun and Burgess 1988). Following the death of Ian Colquhoun on 7th June 2013, the thesis was compiled, formatted and submitted posthumously by his supervisors – Dr Benjamin Roberts and Dr Tom Moore.

This thesis examines how individual characterisation in the Homeric poems is informed by and reflects the traditional narrative of genealogical history which is embedded in the early hexameter tradition. By reading specific characters in the context of their place in traditional history, I move closer to how they may have been received by their earliest audiences, while also interpreting them as individual mimetic characters as may be found in a work of written literature. My aim is to demonstrate that large-scale patterns which can be seen across the hexameter tradition have relevance to the small-scale details which create a compelling character in an individual poem. In part I of the thesis I examine how the Hesiodic and Homeric poems present a narrative of cosmic history which is structured by certain repeated patterns of change over each generation. Over a vast and unspecified period of time, men become gradually more distant from the gods, and are physically weaker; but this is balanced by social strengthening and an increasing awareness of justice. Although the different poems of the hexameter tradition articulate this history in different ways, they share an awareness of these patterns. In part II I examine how this traditional narrative of genealogical history can help us to understand three Homeric characters, chosen as particularly fruitful examples because they mark crucial changes in genealogical history. I argue that the characterisation of the Homeric Helen reflects her role in the wider tradition as an instrument of Zeus’ plan to destroy the heroes, and this is one reason why she is depicted as so detached, isolated, and as uttering uniquely vehement expressions of self-hatred. I then examine the characters of Penelope and Telemachus, both of whom are subject to the competing imperatives of traditional patterns of change on the one hand, and Odysseus’ inevitable return on the other hand. While Penelope’s struggles to suspend the passage of time in her husband’s absence are rewarded on his return, Telemachus’ partial but incomplete transition to manhood leaves him frustrated. The traditional patterns of genealogical history have varying effects on each of these three characters, but in each case I show that we can gain a fuller and more coherent understanding of their presentation by placing them in the context of that wider tradition.

The likelihood of the occurrence of radiological accidents which can induce significant health consequences to the members of the public has raised the importance of developing a personal radiation dosimetry system applicable to populations not monitored by dedicated dosemeters. Mobile phones are personal devices with high ubiquity and great potential for accident dosimetry applications. Alumina surface mount resistors (SMRs) are abundant in the printed circuit board of mobile phones and their potential as fortuitous dosemeters has been investigated using thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques. The physical mechanism of the generation of luminescence of the alumina SMRs is, however, less known. The basic luminescence defects in SMRs were identified to be F-type centres and their emission process was shown to be temperature dependent and highly quenched at room temperature (RT). The trap environment of beta irradiated SMRs includes a series of closely spaced traps covering thermal depths between 0.9-1.4 eV; predicting an average lifetime for thermal fading at RT of ca 23 years. Trapped charges evicted by thermal or optical stimulation are likely to recombine at F-type centres and contribute to the luminescence response that is likely to be thermally assisted via the vibrational modes of the lattice. A phonon-assisted de-excitation of the trapped charge population could additionally be involved in the mechanism of athermal or anomalous fading. Based on the temperature dependence of the rate of fading, a model is presented for the anomalous fading observed where phonon-assisted and tunnelling effects alternate or operate simultaneously depending on the temperature of the material. A number of aspects related to the use of SMRs in dosimetry seem to benefit from the investigation of the physical processes, although for accurate dose reconstruction it is imperative to know the energy of the ionising radiation source and the position of the mobile phone relative to the direction of the source. For example, at low-energy exposures the dose may be over-estimated, not only due to the non-flat energy response of the alumina, but also due to the presence of several parts of the mobile phone which can increase the amount of energy deposited in alumina substrates due to backscatter effects. In addition, MCNP simulations indicated that for low-energy exposures, such as for 192Ir, differences of up to an order-of-magnitude between resistor and whole body dose are expected. Finally, to specify the most appropriate dose conversion coefficients that can be applied to estimate whole body dose from OSL / TL determinations, the knowledge of the exposure geometry is crucial.

In England, the 18th and 19th centuries marked an increase in urban living and the development of industrialisation. The movement of large numbers of individuals into newly created urban, industrial centres led to a decline in the standard of living conditions. In overcrowded towns, infectious disease easily spread amongst the improperly fed masses exposed to air and water pollution from nearby factories. To investigate the effects of these poor living conditions on populations in the post-medieval period, the prevalence of congenital defects, anomalies present at or before birth, were chosen for study in skeletal remains. Using an analysis of the prevalence of congenital defects, the hypothesis tested was that there should be a greater prevalence of congenital defects in people in urban centres due to the inferred poor state of health present there at the time compared to individuals from rural areas who may not have been as heavily exposed to unsanitary environmental conditions. This research focused on populations from four sites in Northeast England. The two urban sites were the Quaker burial ground, Coach Lane, North Shields (1711-1857 AD) and St Hilda’s, Coronation Street, South Shields (1816-1856 AD), both in Tyne and Wear. The two rural sites were St Michael and St Lawrence, Fewston (post-medieval-1896 AD) and St Martin, Wharram Percy (1540-1850 AD), both in North Yorkshire. Collected data showed that there was no statistical difference between prevalence rates at the urban and rural sites for individual or combined defects. This may indicate that the quality of the living conditions were similarly detrimental to health at both site types and raises the issue of how urban and rural can be better defined for the post-medieval period. Furthermore, these findings call into question the use of congenital defects as markers of overall health unless combined with “stress” indicator data and research into past living conditions.

This thesis explores the complexity and fluidity of Egyptian cultural identity in architectural form in Roman Egypt. It covers the period from the Roman conquest in 30 BC to the official recognition of Christianity in AD 325. The thesis focuses on the relationship between architectural form and layers of identity assertion. Special consideration is given to the issue of continuities and changes in Egyptian cultural traditions. Through explorations of arrangement and use of urban space and public buildings, Chapter I addresses the diversity of architecture as evidence for the complexity and permeability of cultural markers of identity, with special focus on the use of temples as centres of local identity. Being a self-evident symbol of traditional temples, Chapter II suggests that the pylon offers a good example of the complexity of identity and the dynamic nature of cultural traditions in the Roman period. Although the pylon appears on the Palestrina mosaic and classical literature on Egypt as a cliché of ancient Egyptian culture, it was not necessarily a marker of those legally defined as Egyptians. The third chapter focuses on different forms of rituals activities performed within or around the domestic space as evidence for the multiplicity of identity, the complexity of Romano-Egyptian society, and the shared cultural heritage of house occupants. Chapter IV discusses iconography in Roman-period tombs as an expression of the fluidity of cultural traits and as evidence for the biculturalism of the patrons. The final chapter deals with the correlation between architectural ornament and Egyptian cultural identity. It focuses on the torus moulding, cavetto cornice, and Egyptian composite capitals with its five-tiered band and abacus both as a reflection of the dynamic nature identity and as evidence for the hybridization of architectural ornament. In the conclusion, I summarize my work and draw out its implications, suggesting that identity was a multi-layered and dynamic phenomenon. The complexity and multiplicity nature of identity left its impact on architecture in Roman Egypt, where there was a close and extremely complex relationship between architectural form and different perceptions of identity.

Roman London has been extensively excavated, particularly over the last two decades, and substantial cemetery sites have been uncovered within and around the City. This study represents the first to undertake an integrated analysis of the palaeodemographic, palaeopathological, isotopic and funerary evidence from Roman London. This thesis seeks to identify social age transitions and the impact of these on the growing body. The specific aim of the research was to examine the perceptions of childhood and childcare in Roman London, utilising skeletal and funerary indicators of diet, health and social status. A total sample of 967 individuals formed the sample for analysis. The osteological data was obtained via the WORD database and the funerary data from archives and available publications. A further 120 number of individuals were sampled for carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of diet. The results yielded a number of interesting patterns regarding age, sex and social status, and the impact of these identities on diet and well-being. Overall, subadults at Roman London were found to have experienced higher rates of health stress than their adult counterparts, with subadults exhibiting higher prevalence rates for four of the six stress indicators examined. Causative stressors identified within the population included poor living conditions and population mobility. Within the subadult age group, differences in the level of health stress were experienced during the life course, with weaning and the introduction of occupationally related activities being pivotal points of increased health stress. An infant feeding pattern specific to Roman Britain and distinctive from Roman Italy was identified and further evidence for a special breastfeeding diet for women implicated. Distinctions in diets between males and females were identified, with females yielding greater variation, potentially linked to social stratification. Shifting dietary isotope signatures and indicators of health stress throughout the growth period were linked to social age transitions. Temporal trends within Roman London were also identified, with health in the early Roman period being worse than the preceding Iron Age period, but declining further during the later period of Roman occupation. In times of economic uncertainty the exploitation of local freshwater fish also occurred, but these supplemented the diet of children alone. No statistically significant difference between diet, health and social status were observed, which suggests that status was not simply a linear, ranked, hierarchy, but cross-cut by other aspects of the social personae such as gender and age. This integrated approach is the first of its kind to be undertaken in order to examine the Roman perceptions of childhood. It makes a number of important contributions regarding the experience of infancy and childhood in Roman Britain and the Roman life course more generally.