This thesis offers and applies a new theoretical and methodological framework for understanding the diplomatic relationships between the ancient court societies in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean (Egypt, Upper Nubia, Levant, Anatolia, and the Aegean) with particular focus on the Middle Bronze Age covering first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Previous scholarship on diplomacy has largely concentrated on the philological analyses of Late Bronze Age diplomatic texts and the artistic styles of luxury visual arts, attempting to identify the origins of specific artistic styles and correlate gift lists with actual material objects. This thesis departs from these prior studies by adopting a more firmly sociological and anthropological approach, focusing on the social and ceremonial contexts of diplomatic activity. In particular, the role of etiquette (ritualized and codified forms of behavior) in diplomacy is the primary focus. Via a holistic analysis incorporating material culture, texts, and art, the thesis discusses how forms of etiquette can be reconstructed from the archaeological record, if forms of etiquette transmission can be identified, and the extent to which these transmissions can be used to reconstruct diplomatic relationships.

The largest known pastoral cemetery in sub-Saharan Africa is found in the Jebel Moya massif, south-central Sudan. It was excavated from 1911 to 1914 by Henry Wellcome and first published in 1949. With more than 3100 human burials, the site provides extraordinary scope for exploring the interaction of indigenous and external cultural traditions on the southern boundary of the Meroitic state. This dissertation revises our understanding of Jebel Moya and its context. The few known archaeological localities of the southern Gezira and pre-Meroitic and Meroitic-era cemeteries are compared to elucidate the nature of pastoral social organisation at Jebel Moya. After reviewing previous applications of social complexity theory to mortuary data within and outside of Africa, new questions are posed for the applicability of such theory to pastoral cemeteries. Reliable radiometric dating of Jebel Moya for the first time by luminescence dates is tied into an attribute-based approach to discern three distinctive pottery assemblages. Three distinct phases of occupation are discerned, dating from (1) the early fifth millennium BC, (2) the mid-second to early first millennium BC, and (3) a mortuary phase from the first century BC into the sixth century AD. Analytically, new statistical and spatial analyses such as cross-pair correlation function and multidimensional scaling provide information on zones of interaction across the mortuary assemblages. Finally, an analysis of Meroitic and non-Meroitic mortuary locales from the central Sudan and Upper and Lower Nubia are examined to show how changing social, economic and power relations were conceptualised, and to highlight Jebel Moya’s potential to serve as a chronological and cultural reference point for future studies in south-central and southern Sudan.

The Upper Casamance, in southern Senegal, is a region that has witnessed dramatic socio-political changes in the last millennium, including its conquest by the Mali Empire and its prominent role in the Atlantic trade. Yet, until now this region had never been the object of systematic archaeological study. Two seasons of feldwork undertaken in 2013 revealed a landscape of shallow, short-lived sites at odds with the large permanent towns described by historical accounts and oral traditions. I argue in this thesis that the key to reconciling these two sets of evidence lies in a very particular settlement pattern, which I have named 'shifting sedentism', by which villages and towns regularly shifted a few hundred meters, while keeping the name, identity, and institutions of the community intact. Drawing from archaeological data derived from regional survey and the excavation of two sites (Payoungou and Korop), combined with oral traditions, historical documents, and ethnographic examples, this thesis pursues two main themes. First, it documents the previously unexplored archaeological record of the region, both in terms of sites and of material culture, connecting it with known historical narratives, and comparing it with other geographically and culturally relevant areas. Secondly, it explores this notion of shifting sedentism and the different site mobility patterns that have characterised the Upper Casamance over the last millennium, as well as their political and social implications. I suggest that the intersection of these multiple sources illuminates a social and political landscape much more complex than that suggested by any individual source. A landscape characterised by shifting yet permanent towns, fxed sacred sites, and fuctuating military strongholds; whose mobile yet resilient dynamics have shaped the Upper Casamance's history over the last millennium.

The aim of this thesis is to offer an initial construction of the long term past of the Upper Tapajós River, considering processes of long-term continuities as well as ruptures. I will attempt to “bridge the gap” between pre-Columbian and post-conquest occupations in the region through the study of archaeology, historical linguistics, ethnohistory, and social anthropology. The least known of these is the region’s archaeology, which constitutes the main focus of this study. The bulk of the archaeological data was generated through the analysis of ceramic complexes from two archaeological sites called Terra Preta do Mangabal (TPM) and Sawre Muybu (SM), dating initially to approximately the late seventh and the early ninth centuries AD respectively. The remains were found stratified in expanses of anthropogenic soils known as Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs). The study of these artefacts permitted not only comparisons on a wider scale but also allowed me to address questions related to ancient exchange networks and potential links to the distribution of Carib and Tupian language families. Both sites belong to territories traditionally occupied by the Munduruku Indians (in the case of SM) and the Beiradeiros of Montanha e Mangabal (in regard to TPM). The framework of Historical Ecology has provided a key vantage point from which to observe the ways in which the current inhabitants of the studied landscape engage with environments transformed by past human actions. The research has been carried out in a context of conflict and resistance by these forest peoples against planned development projects that could cause primary, irreversible alterations to the landscape in which they have lived for generations and in which their collective memory is inscribed. The role of scientists and archaeologists involved in environmental assessment studies undertaken in the context of human rights violations is questioned.

The growing human tibia is uniquely responsive to repeated activities, resulting in identifiable morphological patterns that can be applied to ancient populations. Much of the bioarchaeological research in this area focuses on the transition to agriculture, noting a decline in bone strength and robusticity with increasing levels of sedentism. However, not all human groups adopted agriculture simultaneously or uniformly, and there continues to be variation in subsistence strategy based on climate, resource availability, and cultural practice. In Sudan, groups have continued to practice nomadic pastoralism alongside agriculture, although sedentary agricultural societies tend to be the focus of most archaeological research in the region. This work examines the difference in tibial morphology between groups utilising different subsistence practices within the same geographic region and archaeological period to explore activity-based changes to the tibia, using both cross-sectional geometry and geometric morphometrics to quantify the difference between tibial cross-sectional shapes at midshaft. The results suggest that while clear differences exist in midshaft tibial shape between the Sudanese groups practicing differing subsistence strategies, there is no one shape that is indicative of nomadism or sedentism; rather, there are general trends indicating higher mobility among more members of the nomadic group and more local movement among the members of the sedentary groups. Further, there is more similarity between females of all groups than males, problematising the idea that all individuals respond to bone remodeling activity in the same way. The conclusions presented here recommend that more research needs to be conducted on tibial shape variation in Sudan and worldwide using geometric morphometrics, as it presents a more nuanced approach than cross-sectional geometry, and that bone remodeling in response to activity must continue to be explored in light of differences in age, sex, and musculature.

As the standard of living rose in South Korea a wider range of people became interested in archaeological heritage and its management. Specifically, since the 1990s, rescue archaeology became an issue of wider social concern: there was a paradigm shift from simply the protection of archaeological sites, under pressure from development, to the use of sites as a social resource. This transformation presented a number of challenges regarding unexcavated archaeological sites in the planning process, decision-making on preservation in-situ (as opposed to ‘preservation by record’), and the nature of display or reburial. This research aimed to develop a management planning model to face these challenges. The research focused on archaeological sites, partly because of their ability to engage social issues in contemporary South Korea, and partly because of the complexity of managing the resource, due to the ‘invisibility’ of unexcavated archaeology and the often fragile nature of the remains. In order to build this model, the research explored international theories and approaches, and set these within the context of South Korean Archaeological Resource Management, to produce an intellectual framework. The research explores four broad topics – who, why, what, and how – through complex issues such as identity, ownership, participation, assessment, conservation/protection, interpretation and presentation. The model involves principles for management (including participatory planning, transparent assessment of values, and defined management strategies). This leads to a road map for planning: Stage 1 (Identifying) explores activities such as team building, documentation and vision, under the principle of participatory planning; Stage 2 (Assessment) approaches the assessment of values and significance, and the role of decision-making and governance, using principles of transparency; Stage 3 (Responding) develops approaches to creating management strategies, specific to time and spatial scales; and Stage 4 (Reviewing and Revision) investigates the processes of monitoring and review, within a flexible framework.

The concentration of wealth and resources under the control of a privileged few – the elites – has shaped the ways we perceive modern societies and the ways we study ancient states. Elite groups feature prominently within the archaeological research of ancient Maya societies, not least because of the monumental architecture associated with them and the glyphic inscriptions providing us with their names and titles. The growth of an elite class through time led to the emergence of multiple elite households coexisting, sharing, and competing for the political powers within ancient Maya polities. This thesis investigates the dimensions and relationships among various elite households excavated at the ancient Maya site of El Zotz, Petén, Guatemala. The key facets of the social, economic and political networks at the site are identified through trends in consumption behaviour by five different populations through time. Theories of value underpinning the current work state that various types of objects carried different ‘values’ which ultimately affected the ways these objects were distributed within societies, and determined which population groups were granted access to distribution networks. The consumption behaviour of elites and the distribution networks at El Zotz are investigated through the study of ceramic remains. Typological and modal analyses of El Zotz pottery employed in the current research highlight the extent to which limited access to goods existed within ancient Maya societies. Multiple lines of quantitative, statistical and qualitative analysis of El Zotz ceramics prove that various households at the site had access to the distribution networks of ‘high-value’ objects, but the accumulation of wealth across elite compounds changed through time. Therefore, the elite lineages of El Zotz experienced various socio-economic shifts, much like other sites in the Petén region, which affected their ability to accumulate wealth at different points in history.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire was a complex political entity that controlled most of the Near East from the 9th to the 7th centuries BCE. This empire has been described in recent scholarship as having made a unique imprint on the regional landscape. This thesis is a re-examination of the archaeological evidence that explores the changes in settlement patterns that have been noted in surveys carried out in various parts of the Near East. It also examines excavation evidence from a number of sites in former Assyrian provinces in order to obtain a clearer picture of the rural landscape of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and to consider whether the Pax Assyriaca hypothesis provides a valid interpretative framework for the survey and excavation evidence. The thesis will reconsider the survey data from the Tigris-Euphrates Archaeological Reconnaissance Project, which was used to support the 'agricultural colonisation' hypothesis proposed by Bradley Parker, and compare this with evidence obtained from other surveys conducted in Syro-Mesopotamia and the southern Levant. It will then examine excavation evidence from a series of sites - a medium-sized tell in the upper Euphrates region, four small sites in the Upper Tigris valley, four other small sites in Syro-Mesopotamia and two small sites in the southern Levant. These sites have been selected to provide a sample of the different kinds of settlements that were established in the Assyrian countryside. The examined evidence will show that there was a definite increase in settlement in the Neo-Assyrian period, which means that these changes are likely to have been the result of Assyrian policy. The thesis will then conclude with a discussion of the different roles (either agricultural or military) played by these sites, and of the potential function of the larger buildings discovered in some of them. These findings will provide a better understanding of the countryside during this period, and a more elaborate picture of the landscape of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Iron has long been regarded as a crucial element facilitating at least two key activities at the centre of the economic and political history of lower Northeast Thailand from the Iron Age (500BC-AD500) to the fall of Angkor in AD1453: agriculture and construction of water conservation. Both sectors are thought to have been mechanisms manipulated by local and regional elites to generate and maintain wealth and power. Building upon this claim, iron production may have also had a major socioeconomic role in society. However, despite many side references to the abundance of iron-related remains in the archaeological record, little is known about the primary production of iron and its spatial distribution in this region, and the evidence has rarely been explored to its full potential to construct arguments from a technological and craft production point of view. To better our understanding of this industry and its role in the broader cultural landscape of lower Northeast Thailand, this thesis focused on iron production remains. Slag, technical ceramics, and laterite fragments (possible ore) found at slag deposits in Ban Kruat in Buriram province, and broadly dated from the Iron Age to the Angkorian Khmer period, were analysed. The aims were to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire of Ban Kruat ironmaking technology, and to use these technical with broader archaeological and historical knowledge to discuss the environmental and social embeddedness of iron and iron making in the regional setting of lower Northeast Thailand. Archaeometallurgical approaches were employed to extract relevant data from the finds, which were then discussed in social terms with the aid of conceptual frameworks from the social construction of technology and craft production. The results indicate that the whole production landscape was built upon very similar ironmaking practices, resulting in very comparable production waste and debris. The said process involved the smelting of locally available iron and alumina-rich laterite ores inside shaft furnaces under unusually high temperatures and reducing atmospheres, possibly leading to the direct production of carbon-rich iron. The low technical variability of this practice may have been critically constrained by the ore chemistry that forced the smelting practice to be formulated in such a way in order to win metallic iron from the peculiar ore available. This rendered this technology rather resistant to change or improvement, in spite of the profound changes taking place concurrently in lower Northeast Thailand, ranging from the political (chiefdoms, early state, and the empire) to the socioeconomic (community-based specialised production to Angkorian temple-based economic system).

This research examines changes in craft production on the North Coast of Peru between c.AD1000 and 1550, under first Chimú and then Inka state control. It aims to assess the extent to which North Coast craft production was appropriated and deployed by the Chimú and Inka elites to disseminate state-sponsored iconography. Previous studies of craft production and the role of prestige goods in the political economy are reviewed. From this basis I develop a methodology to identify and compare the technical and aesthetic qualities of Chimú objects made using different craft media (primarily textiles and pottery). The British Museum’s collections provide the primary database for this research, complemented by Peruvian collections from more secure archaeological contexts. The production sequence for each artefact is systematically recorded in order to pinpoint how the iconography is incorporated into the object and to compare the steps involved. This allows me to investigate the extent to which technical principles and artisanal attitudes (or agency) interact in the production of goods. My goal is to discern those Chimú traits which result from engrained North Coast craft-working traditions from those that are influenced by state-imposed demands. The focus on Chimú-Inka material permits an evaluation of Chimú artisanal agencies under Inka rulership. In fact ‘Chimú’ iconographies and technical traits were spread widely during the Inka period, reaching far beyond the boundaries of the former Chimú Empire. The Chimú visual vocabulary was adapted, in some cases merging with highland canons and occasionally with the overt imposition of Inka forms on Chimú vessels and garments, as well as a more subtle rendering of Inka imagery in Chimú techniques. I argue that particular combinations of materials, techniques, imagery and colour characterise ‘lines’ of goods which played different roles in North Coast society. Chimú and Inka influences were in some sense reciprocal, and require a more nuanced understanding of ‘state control’.