This thesis reconsiders the 3rd century A.D. in Egypt using labour contracts to determine if there is any evidence to demonstrate how low-status wage agreements responded to the currency changes between A.D. 235 and 305. The importance of this research is that this is a period that is typically described as a time of crisis and inflation. This research therefore explores how private wage agreements and rates responded to the debasement of the Alexandrian tetradrachm between A.D. 235 and the reforms of Aurelian in 274/5; it then examines private viticulture-labour and general labour agreements to determine how wage agreements responded to the reforms of Aurelian in A.D. 274/5, and the changes to currency that occurred between A.D. 274/5 and A.D. 299. Private labour agreements between A.D. 300 and 305 are then examined to determine if there is any evidence for inflation, and to establish how wages responded to the A.D. Edict of Maximum Prices. Finally the research examines wheat prices between A.D. 235 and 305 to determine how these prices responded to the changes in the currency and the buying power of labourer wages during the study period. The results will demonstrate that between A.D. 235 and A.D. 274/5 private wage agreements did not increase in response to the debasement of the Alexandrian tetradrachm. They will also demonstrate that between A.D. 274/5 and A.D. 299 the reforms of Aurelian saw a doubling in value of the tetradrachm, and that wages remained stable reflecting this doubling until c.A.D. 286. The results will then show that the introduction of the nummus saw the continued use of older debased tetradrachms, and that this necessitated the upward revaluation of the nummus to ensure its use as a replacement to the tetradrachm. Moreover the revaluation reduced the number of nummi paid in wage agreements to mid 3rd century rates both in terms of the coins, and the amount of silver exchanged. Finally the research will demonstrate that wheat prices per artaba reflected the revaluation of the currency, and not inflation; and that prices remained stable until A.D. 305.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the possible differences of quality of life in medieval monastic institutions based on the sex of their inhabitants, their location, and/or their ideology. The use of the term quality of life, however, is not commonly used in reference to archaeological or historical populations. This thesis explores the use of the term quality of life in a variety of fields and evaluates its use in relation to the populations being studied as well as the socio-cultural and theological implications of the medieval society that would have shaped these individuals’ lives. Eight monastic sites were chosen based on their adherence to the requirements of the research, in terms of location and ideology, as well as the availability of skeletal remains from the sites. The presence or absence of previously identified health indicators were compared, as were the proportion of different types of artefacts and contemporary financial data, to assess any differences in quality of life. It was found that there were differences between the various types of sites, but that wealth appears to have had a greater influence on quality of life than the sex of the inhabitants, location, or ideology of a particular monastic institution. These factors could play an important and influential role, but that the wealth of the institution most likely played a larger role. The conclusion of this research is that the term quality of life is appropriate when used in relation to archaeological or historical populations, but that the definition of it must be explicitly stated. It also concludes that individuals entering into medieval monasteries and nunneries could expect to have a higher quality of life than a lay person, but that their own experience would have been heavily influenced by the wealth of the particular house to which they belonged.

Early monasteries are popularly perceived as ‘otherworldly’, purposefully founded as isolated retreats far from human habitation. Such views were formed through the bias towards textual sources in early academic enquiry. Ethnographic (e.g. Gombrich 1971) and epigraphic (e.g. Schopen 1997a) research in South Asia has begun to challenge these traditional assumptions demonstrating the economic and social value of monastic communities. Recent AHRC-sponsored fieldwork in Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka), conducted by the Upper Malvatu-Oya Exploration Project (UMOEP), has identified similar discrepancies between traditional interpretations and archaeological evidence proposing that the Sri Lankan landscape was administered through Buddhist monasteries rather than secular towns. It is also postulated that monastic communities may have led the colonisation of uninhabited regions, sometimes with or without government support (Coningham et al. 2007). In response to this research context, the aim of this thesis is to test the working hypothesis that early Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka performed core administrative and economic functions in the Anuradhapura hinterland. Such roles for monasteries will be determined through a multidisciplinary approach analysing the archaeological data of UMOEP, augmented and integrated with textual, epigraphic, architectural and ethnographic evidence. From such an analysis the roles and functions of Buddhist monasteries in the Anuradhapura hinterland in relation to craft production, irrigation and agriculture will be ascertained as well as defining the patronage that monasteries received. Further to this, once such roles have been determined for the Anuradhapura hinterland, the discussion will be broadened, entering into a comparative dialogue with selective case-studies from Christian medieval Europe to inform and challenge assumptions in the wider discussion of monasticism in a global context.

The Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto are crucial for understanding Ovid’s use of myth, as he repeatedly uses mythological exempla to illustrate his own condition in exile and to characterise the authorial mask which he adopts in the exilic epistles. My doctorate approaches the author-persona relationship by investigating how Ovid utilises mythological references to construct his persona in literary terms, a methodology that rejects any attempt to reveal the “man behind the mask” and instead focuses on appreciating the complexity of the authorial exilic persona in its own right. By focusing on the mask of the author, this thesis looks in-depth at how the authorial persona is constructed by references to myth and literature, and how this often relates back to other Ovidian personae. My work focuses on the most common myths found in the exile works featuring the gods, epic protagonists, other heroes, the Underworld, and famous wives. The mythical exempla found in the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto are commonly equated with the author’s depiction of himself, or paralleled with the portrayals of his wife, friends, and enemies. As these mythical exempla are deployed, Ovid often makes allusions to other texts (Ovidian as well as those by other authors) which feature either the same narratives or characters, giving rise to a rich interplay of myth and intertextual allusions. All in all, the authorial figure in the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, the relegatus poeta, becomes increasingly mythologised as he assumes the guises of the protagonists of tragedy and epic; persecuted, abandoned, and doomed to remain away from his homeland like Ulysses, Jason, and Philoctetes.

In the nineteenth century artists patronised by national, imperial and aristocratic elites in Europe turned to Tacitus and other classical sources for inspiration in defining the national and ethnic ideal of these patrons. This is a phenomenon that was particularly evident in the German-speaking countries of central Europe, where the figure of Arminius from Tacitus' Annals was represented in many different artistic media, from painting to monumental sculpture. In the German states themselves depictions often followed a similar prescription, which took their inspiration from the plays of Freidrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Heinrich von Kleist, which dramatised the victory of Arminius (or 'Hermann') over Quinctilius Varus and his Roman army. The national context of the time was complicated by the process of unification and the reach of German language and culture beyond the borders of what was in the later century united in the new German Reich. Use was also made of figures drawn from Tacitus in nineteenth-century Britain. In this thesis I also examine how Boadicea and Calgacus were employed in national and local contexts during a period when Britain's imperial power was at its height. It is shown that here too the approach taken by artists to their subject matter in a nationalist context was not always predictable. Examining both central Europe and Britain it compares different case studies, to demonstrate something of the flexibility possible in the treatment of an – at first sight – straightforward theme from classical literature. It will also be explored how the political and artistic contexts of the respective periods in which artists lived variously affected – or did not affect - their treatment of the themes. The extent to which one can analyse their individual portrayals as 'nationalist', or under the influence of 'nationalist' themes, is explored.

Maltese religious practices in Classical antiquity are an area of research that has been neglected by scholars, particularly in recent years, in contrast to religious practices of the prehistoric periods. This has created a lacuna in Maltese archaeology that this thesis seeks to address. In doing so, the approach adopted in this thesis diverges from earlier accounts based largely on artefacts and sites divorced from their associated landscape. Instead, the approach pursued here focuses on the landscape context of religious practices of the Maltese islands. An important contribution of this thesis is the deliberately broad definition of religious phenomena in the Maltese islands to include aspects of private religion and rural religious contexts. This aim is achieved through a multidisciplinary, comparative, and interpretative approach that is widely adopted throughout the core of the thesis comprising five integrated case studies. To facilitate a better understanding and interpretation of the religious phenomenon in the Maltese islands, the thesis evaluates the case studies within the religious context of the wider Mediterranean region. Aided by syntheses and analyses of the data, this study examines ‘sacralised’ landscapes often re-worked to accommodate hybrid cults. It also identifies the religious identity(ies) of the Maltese communities as they are shaped by their different concerns or motives and as they manifest themselves in urban and in rural contexts, defines the nature of their religious practices, and establishes their character vis-à-vis other Mediterranean religious cultures. Relying on a wider set of data sources and adopting a more holistic approach, the thesis builds up a comprehensive picture of ancient Maltese religious culture and identity that, while reflecting the religious scenario of the wider Mediterranean region, was characteristically Maltese in a hybridised form. The thesis, therefore, provides a case study that may contribute towards knowledge on religious cultures and identities in the Mediterranean in general and amongst island communities in particular.

The majority of Lower Palaeolithic assemblages are recovered from lowland fluvial locations, and hence most interpretation is based around these. It is clear, however, that these represent only a small fraction of the hominin landscape and this bias is potentially limiting our understanding of hominin organisation to only a single facet of behaviour. While recent authors have recognised the importance of upland sites, and other non-fluvial contexts, research is currently limited to highly specific studies (such as Boxgrove), and often fail to extend the purview to incorporate the wider landscape. Consequently we are still a long way from answering basic questions such as: how and why were hominids utilising particular locations? How, if at all, does behaviour respond to landscape context? Is the same pattern seen in continental Europe? This research applies a landscape approach to the British Palaeolithic, combining a technological, typological and chaîne opératoire methodology to determine assemblage signatures for a variety of landscape types (lowland riverine, lacustrine, grassland plains and uplands). An exploratory Geographical Information Systems (GIS)approach is applied to the upland study areas to gain a better understanding of settlement structuring and how behaviour responds to landscape context. The results are then considered in terms of behavioural variation, site choice, specialisation and provisioning across the landscape.

Microliths are small cutting implements made from stone and found around the world in a variety of prehistoric contexts. It is assumed without question, due to their size, that these pieces were made with the intention of being hafted. Their presence in the prehistoric record is often interpreted as indicative of multi-component composite toolkit designs. While the possibility of alternative functions cannot be ruled out of consideration, they have traditionally been, and are still most commonly interpreted as having served as armatures for hunting weaponry. As a global phenomenon, the term microlith encompasses a great deal of regional variation. Traditionally, studies of microlithic assemblages have been insularly rooted within the particular research frameworks of these regions. It is only recently that the potential for comparative assessment has been highlighted as a significantly under-explored avenue for further establishing the values that made microlithic technology desirable in different times and places. This research focusses on three study regions with strong distinct trends of microlithic technology, primarily associated with hunting weaponry: northern Spain, southern Africa and interior Alaska. Using a small sample of sites from each region, variation in microlithic assemblages was assessed over time in each area relative to contemporary trends in ungulate fauna and environmental proxies. This facilitated discussion of how microlithic based hunting practices related to particular prey or conditions, or changes in these factors. Overall, the study found that it is difficult to singularly characterise conditions associated with microlithic technology, even in individual regional analyses. This supports the notion that an important virtue of microlithic armatures is their versatility, allowing for flexible weapon designs that could accommodate variable risk related stresses.

Representing a broad attempt to open up debate on an issue that has been largely overlooked, this thesis aims to explore the relationship between Atlantic Scotland’s Iron Age communities (and in particular, the broch cultures of Northern Scotland) and light – a complex, multifaceted, and universally significant facet of human existence. Thus far, the role of light has received little interest in prehistoric studies, and when such an interest does occur, it has often been restricted to entrance orientation research. Indeed, little attempt has actually been made to understand how light was orchestrated to shape social experience in the past, or how differing dimensions of light work to reveal or conceal aspects of social life; how was light experienced? What did light mean? Proposing an alternative approach to the study of light, these are questions which this thesis aims to explore; seeking to understand how Scottish Iron Age society orchestrated and manipulated light to create social experience. Due to light’s complexity, the thesis sections its study into a number of separate themes: structural orientation, the cosmological model and space, light and functionality, the psychological impact of light and dark, and light in the landscape and the influence of the weather and the environment. To explore each of these, the thesis pursues a plural methodology, combining typical data-based approaches (map-based studies, broad ranging landscape and GIS research; architectural-typological studies) with more qualitative analysis (e.g. phenomenology, ethnographic analogy, folklore analysis), attempting to explore both the physical and cognitive effects of light and darkness in the past.

In the well-researched archaeological landscape of Northern Mesopotamia, there exists a large region of little-to-no previous investigation: the Greater Western Jazira (GWJ) of northeastern Syria. This thesis takes a geographically holistic approach to investigating the GWJ, focussed on the crucial time of the late 5th to 3rd millennium BC. This period saw an initial abandonment of sedentism in the steppe during the Late Chalcolithic, and subsequent rapid settlement growth with large urban centres in the Early Bronze Age. These dynamics are examined by collating diverse ground truth data from four excavations, three surveys, and several other investigations. These are integrated with extensive remote sensing research, involving the systematic analysis of all areas of the GWJ using satellite imagery and elevation data, processed through a GIS database. During the course of this research, a refined categorisation of heterogeneous varieties of the large fortified tell settlement type commonly termed "Kranzhügel" is developed and implemented. The evidence gathered shows a complex system of sedentary habitation in the steppe, with a total of 302 sites likely dating to the period in question, 160 of which were newly identified by this thesis. Analyses carried out on site densities, settlement sizes, grain production, supporting settlements for centres, and site alignments allow several economic systems to be proposed. These show that various areas of the GWJ not only underwent very different sedentarisation (and possibly nomadisation) processes, but also owed their existence to both indigenous developments and external forces; and their survival to diverse interdependent practices including agro-pastoralism and trade. Specifically, two distinct trajectories of early and mid-EBA settlement are identified in the north and the centre-south of the region, respectively. Placing this in a wider context, it is shown that the GWJ was an integral part of the Northern Mesopotamian economic and political landscape, belying its reputation as a "marginal" area. Thus it becomes evident that this region demands greater integration into analyses and theories concerning Near Eastern archaeology.