This thesis asks a simple question of Palaeolithic art: is there more to it than meets the eye? In exploring the history of the study of Palaeolithic art, a strong bias is revealed, a fixation on how the art looks in its finished form. An object biography approach, augmented by a suite of new digital techniques, and by non-western insights into ontology concerning humans, and animals and objects, is used to explore Palaeolithic art from a different perspective. This approach is explored through its application in a detailed case study: the analysis of engraved stone plaquettes from the Magdalenian site of Montastruc, southern France. The plaquettes are assessed not only based on their visual attributes, but how they were made, used and deposited, enhanced via the use of 3D models and microscopy. Emphasis is placed on trying to re-contextualise the collection, offering an analysis of all objects from the Peccadeau de l’Isle collection held in the British Museum, c. 15,620 objects. These broad life phases are considered within a Magdalenian cosmology occupied by numerous agents, beyond the bounds of humans alone. In the creation and use of art, this non-human agency is argued to be evident, playing an active role in the choices made by the artists working at Montastruc. The plaquettes are argued to be deeply social, made close to fire and by multiple artists of varying skill. The plaquettes had a distinct life history when compared to organic art objects found at the site, highlighting the nuance that can be revealed through an object biography perspective. The rich interpretations made possible by shifting the archaeological gaze to object biography, insights from non-western anthropology, and new high-resolution digital techniques are argued to represent a significant approach that can potentially be applied to other Palaeolithic art contexts and beyond.

The aim of this thesis is to identify maritime activity and patterns of spatial organisation through archaeological survey at first millennium coastal settlements in the Zanzibar Archipelago, in order to explore the nature of proto-Swahili harbours and evaluate the role of maritime activity as a component of proto-Swahili settlement in the region. Despite frequent scholarly reference to the maritime cultural identity of the Swahili there has been little consideration of the maritime archaeology of first millennium East African coastal settlements. Although intertidal zones associated with later sites have been surveyed, no investigation has ever been conducted into the nature of proto-Swahili harbours. The work presents an inductive investigation of proto-Swahili harbours between the sixth and eleventh centuries in the Zanzibar Archipelago, based on observations of industrial and maritime activity in open areas along the shorelines of Swahili ports. This thesis focuses on the geophysical survey, GIS analysis, and evaluation of the maritime areas of three contemporary sites; Unguja Ukuu (c. 600-1100 CE) and Fukuchani (c. 550-800 CE) on Zanzibar, and Tumbe (c. 600-950 CE) on Pemba. The analysis demonstrates the existence of communal harbourfront activity areas hosting iron-working, crafting, and trade, and a previously unknown shoreline mosque. The comparison of the three sites indicates a pattern of maritime activity and settlement organisation in the Zanzibar Archipelago based on knowledgeable exploitation of the maritime cultural landscape. It is argued that the proto-Swahili coastal settlements of the Zanzibar Archipelago were deliberately located on beaches with shallow, sheltered harbours and convenient land-sea access in order to exploit the near-shore coastscape. Maritime activity therefore appears to have been an important component of proto-Swahili settlement from the earliest phases of permanent occupation, whilst the construction of shoreline mosques in the ninth century reflects the development of a syncretic maritime-Islamic coastal Swahili identity.

This study compares the heritage values of different community groups and one local authority in York as part of the Within the Walls Project (a Collaborative Doctoral Award with the City of York Council). Focusing on the UK Localism Act (2011) and redistribution of power to community groups, this study investigates values as action towards enhancing or protecting heritage in places, through which new values and collaborative relationships emerge. The study focuses on the priorities of the City of York Council and the process of Community Asset Transfers, which although is not a mechanism of the Localism Act, is demonstrated to support localism policies nonetheless. The three main contributions of this research include; demonstration through innovative visualisations that it is possible to plot the movement and creation of values within different heritage practices; evidence that physical place impacts upon collaborative relationships in heritage projects (essentially, that the existence of physical infrastructure can foster cooperative activities); and lastly, deep ethnographic insight and pragmatic recommendations were offered into the CAT process, an under-researched area of the heritage sector.

This thesis examines the administrative impact of dynastic rule in the Roman Near East. It compares administrative practice under kings and princes with the provincial administration that eventually followed. By contrasting these two manifestations of Roman imperialism, it conceptualises dynastic rule as a distinct form of governance and evaluates its role within the context of Roman imperialism in the East. Previous scholarship has maintained that dynastic rule was an intermediate stage in the development of Roman provincial territory. According to this interpretation, kings and princes, either consciously or unconsciously, were maintained in order to affect particular changes on the territories under their control, making them more suitable for direct rule. This study provides a critical evaluation of this influential perspective. The thesis thus consciously moves away from the study of kings and princes and focuses on the study of kingdoms and principalities. Each chapter deals with a different administrative activity essential to governance in the Roman world – political organisation, arbitration and enforcement, and taxation – and first considers practices under kings and princes before contrasting these with the provincial administration that followed. The study concludes that dynastic rule was, by its very nature, heterogeneous; kingdoms and principalities were organised and governed in a variety of different ways. By highlighting the contrasts between different kingdoms and principalities, on the one hand, and between dynastic and provincial rule, on the other, this thesis demonstrates that no single process of development can encapsulate the history of kingdoms and principalities in the Near East.

This research is based on 721 skeletons excavated from the complex site of the St Gertrude Church cemetery in Riga, Latvia, dating from the 15th - 17th centuries AD. The main aims of the analysis were to assess several aspects of physical health and diet of the local population and help to identify whether the people buried in two mass graves represent a different “population” group. To achieve these aims, both macroscopic and biogeochemical (isotopic) skeletal analyses were conducted. The equal distribution of prevalence of dental disease suggest a similar diet in terms of the proportion of carbohydrates for the whole population. Adult dietary isotope analysis for 96 individuals does not reveal context-specific differences in values. Incremental dentine analysis for 19 children shows that non-adults in one of the mass graves experienced nutritional stress towards the end of their lives. Similar dietary profiles of some children from both mass graves suggest that they were members of the same community. Strontium isotope analysis for the same 19 children does not yield significantly different enamel ratios between the contexts and suggests that most children buried in the cemetery were likely from Riga. The analysis of evidence for compromised physical health shows that co-occurrence of cribra orbitalia and linear enamel hypoplasia may have predisposed children in the mass graves to higher frailty. Comparison of St Gertrude’s cemetery population and other contemporary Baltic cemetery populations shows no statistically significant differences in the prevalence of dental disease. Stature estimates show that men in high-status groups were significantly taller than those buried in St Gertrude’s cemetery, while similar differences were not observed in women. The scarcity of bioarchaeological research in Eastern Europe and the need for detailed and comparable data from the region makes this project an important contribution for future population health studies in this region and beyond.

With increasing regularity archaeological humans with 87Sr/86Sr >0.714 are being excavated in Britain and are difficult to explain or identify possible places of origin. The main aim of this thesis was to identify any geological or anthropological reasons for their high 87Sr/86Sr values. Therefore, plant 87Sr/86Sr data has been obtained from several Precambrian lithologies and igneous intrusions in Britain with the aim of identifying values >0.714. Only 20 of the 151 samples measured recorded values >0.714. It was found that biosphere 87Sr/86Sr values >0.714 represented only 10% of all known British Sr-isotope biosphere data and only ~2.8% of the area of Britain. They are thus numerically and spatially rare and can also be considered agriculturally marginal for archaeological populations. Unexpectedly, plant samples collected from ancient woodlands were found to have elevated values by +0.002 compared to plant samples collected from unforested land on the sedimentary Triassic bedrock of central England. Further work is needed to replicate this result and to establish if the same trend is found on other bedrock lithologies. This finding could have major implications for how biosphere and human 87Sr/86Sr data are interpreted in archaeological migration and mobility studies, particularly in recently de-forested regions. Three British quern or millstone rock types (Millstone Grit, Pennant Sandstone and granite) were investigated to establish if they could contribute bioaccessible high 87Sr/86Sr directly in the human stomach from rock grit accidentally ingested via grinding grain, or deliberately through pica or geophagy, using the Unified Bioaccessiblity Method (UBM: Hamilton et al., 2015). The results showed that Sr in ingested rock grit is bioaccessible to humans. However, unrealistic quantities of rock grit needs to be consumed to significantly alter skeletal 87Sr/86Sr (e.g. to change the value by ±0.001 or greater). The study thus provides reassurance that non-local or unusually high 87Sr/86Sr values cannot be explained by the direct ingestion of rock grit, clays or soils.

This work examines the transmission and reception of civic origin myths of some Seleucid cities in the Near East from the Roman period until the first half of the Middle Ages. It focuses primarily on five cities founded by Seleucus I – Antioch the Great and Apamea in Syria, Seleucia on the Tigris, Edessa and Karka de Beth Selok in Mesopotamia and it uses their stories of foundation and mythical beginnings to explore how their cultural identity was re-shaped in various ways in the post-Seleucid world. It argues that memories of Seleucus I and his empire were claimed by a variety of agencies, from both the Greek-speaking and the Syriac-speaking worlds; they were used to negotiate the identity of the Seleucid cities and communities while engaging with cultural memories of Greek archaic and classical past, Alexander the Great and the Achaemenids, which characterised cultural discourses in the empires of the post-Seleucid world. The first chapter focuses on Antioch and examines how the local historian Pausanias, the rhetor Libanius, and the chronographer John Malalas recalled stories concerning the Antiochene mythical founders and Seleucus I in order to interact in wider cultural discourses within the Greco-Roman and Byzantine worlds. The second chapter looks at third-century AD Apamea and investigates how the poet Ps. Oppian adapted its origins to respond to Caracalla’s Alexander-mania. The third and fourth chapters consider Seleucid cities in Mesopotamia. The third chapter focuses on Seleucia on the Tigris and explores how memories of its Seleucid foundation were used by Appian to engage with the cultural propaganda of the Roman emperors during the Parthian wars. The fourth chapter analyses the Syriac Christian communities and how they intertwined foundation stories claiming Seleucus I as a founder with memories of Alexander and Darius III to elaborate their new cultural identities. Then, the last chapter discusses memories of the Seleucid past and Seleucus I in post-Seleucid Seleucia Pieria, Laodicea, Dura Europus and Daphne.

Morphological variation and reactivity in human bone underpins many research questions in palaeopathology, osteoarchaeology, and anthropology. Studies on the post-crania primarily pertain to the cross-sectional geometry and epiphyseal or joint morphology and diaphyseal curvature. Very few studies address diaphyseal surface morphology. This study aims to quantify morphology of the epiphyses, diaphyseal surface morphology, and cross-sectional morphology of human proximal long bones in relation to interpopulation and intrapopulation variables including sex, age, childhood stress indicators, and pathology. To provide some diversity in geography and temporality this research uses skeletons selected from the English medieval cemeteries of St. Guthlac’s Priory, Hereford and Fishergate House, York, the Sudanese medieval cemetery 3-J-18 from Mis Island, and the English postmedieval cemetery Coach Lane, North Shields. Cross-sectional geometry was collected via digital sectioning of 3D scans and morphological information was collected using Geometric Morphometrics. The resulting morphological and geometric sets were compared against inter and intrapopulation variables and qualitatively compared to each other to determine which limb and what part of its proximal bone is most reactive to given variables. Morphological variation with intra and interpopulation variables was found, and its expression varied with size, age, population, bone, and morphological or geometric set. Age and morphology vary together in both epiphyseal and diaphyseal morphology, but do not appear as related in values for cross—sectional geometry. Likewise stress indicators do vary with the morphology of the diaphysis or epiphyses but the strength of their relationship often relies on the population sampled. This suggests a wealth of impact on morphology from environment, ontogenetic trajectory and development, population affinity, health, sex, life history, and age. This research highlights variation in reactivity in different anatomical areas. Crucially, this research demonstrates the morphological plasticity of the diaphyseal surface which for some variables was very reactive and is presently largely unexamined.

The trajectory and success of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and development is regulated and/or altered by a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Both growth and development exhibit a degree of plasticity and thus may fluctuate in response to early life adversity. Non-adult skeletal remains therefore provide a tangible record of growth and health disruption as a consequence of stress in the early life course. This study represents the first extensive and integrated osteological and palaeopathological assessment of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and health disruption. It seeks to determine skeletal responses to adversity and to provide a comprehensive consideration of the potential pathogeneses, etiologies and contextual factors which can affect intrauterine and postnatal health and growth. A total of 423 individuals from 15 different archaeological and historical samples, spanning a ~2000-year time period, have been considered for analysis. Assessment reveals a complex and intricate narrative of health and growth disruption, revealing evidence of chronic early life exposure to stress, which resulted in death for these individuals. A total of 192 individuals had both dental and skeletal elements preserved and 20% (N=39) of these were found to show significant evidence of growth disruption. Individuals from all time periods are represented, but those from post-Medieval London were found to exhibit the highest frequency and severest evidence of growth disruption. Palaeopathological analysis revealed high prevalence rates of both cranial (70%) and postcranial (30%) lesions, with cranial changes consistently more common throughout all periods and samples. New bone formation was the most commonly identified type of lesion and is considered to reflect evidence of both nutritional and infectious health stressors. Furthermore, it is suggested that socioeconomic status was a dominant factor in regulating exposure to stress. Additionally, periods of rapid cultural change also correlated with increased evidence of fetal and infant stress. This thesis makes a number of important contributions regarding fetal, perinatal and infant growth and health during the early life course.

The Sasanian Empire (224 - 624 AD) covered a vast geographical area, which expanded from Mesopotamia and Southern Iran into Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Arabian Peninsula. Its highly organised socio-political and military system enabled the foundation of new urban centres, intensification of agricultural land and expansion of trade networks into farfetched regions such as India and China. One impressive aspect of the Sasanian Empire was its ability to construct and maintain complex large-scale irrigation systems, which required a significant labour force to construct. Recent investigations of the northern and southern frontiers by the Persia and its Neighbours Project have identified a wealth of evidence for Sasanian landscape investment. Irrigation systems such as surface canals and channels, and underground aqueducts (qanats) were the most prominent features identified in the lowland regions, while in the uplands, agricultural terraces and field systems dominated. The aim of this thesis was to draw upon landscape survey methodologies, combining luminescence and geoarchaeological techniques, to gain a better understanding of the timing of construction, maintenance and abandonment of key landscape features. The main methodological issues raised during this research were the complex taphonomy and landscape alterations that occur in many research areas, thus requiring intensive landscape survey, small-scale excavation and testing of samples to identify sites with the best potential for further investigation. The results of the combined luminescence and geoarchaeological methodology have demonstrated the complex formation histories of Sasanian irrigation systems. The cleaning and maintenance events identified in upcast mounds, revealed important indicators for human-environment interactions at the frontiers. The demise of the Sasanian Empire did not result in the abandonment and collapse of these irrigation systems. Alternatively, canals were maintained into the Early Islamic period, suggesting 'continuity' rather than 'collapse' of key elements of Sasanian society.