This study aims to analyse change in prehistoric funerary structures and related material culture of Bronze Age eastern Arabia (Sultanate of Oman and UAE, 3100-2000 BC) from the perspective of cultural evolutionary theory. By observing the patterning of decorative and structural elements in monumental tombs and pottery, new hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of cultural transmission can be explored. The main objective is to transcend the traditional dichotomy between early and late tomb types by creating an explanatory framework that looks at diachronic variation to lay the foundations for future inference of cultural processes. The research develops a new systematic description of tombs and ceramic materials that allows for consistent observation of change through time. Pattern-recognition methods are applied to both tombs and pottery: structural variability in tombs is observed in space and time, and the association between burials and local geology is tested for significance; variation in ceramic materials is examined, as well as their association with funerary practices. Intra- and inter-site diversity measures are used to investigate the role played by human interaction/isolation and possible demographic fluctuations in determining the mechanisms of adoption, replication and persistence of the examined cultural variants. The study relied on both published and unpublished evidence encompassing the whole study region. It also benefitted from the systematic collection of data through pedestrian survey from a previously unexplored area of northern Oman (Wādi Halfayin, ad-Dākhilyyah). By proposing a new analytical scale and by starting to research the cultural processes underlying diachronic change, this work allows for a reassessment of current classification and interpretation of prehistoric funerary practices of eastern Arabia, and generates new hypotheses on a still largely unknown archaeological context.

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This thesis offers a new perspective on the metapoetic use of magic in the love-elegies of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, a theme which, though widely acknowledged in contemporary scholarship, has so far received little comprehensive treatment. The present study approaches the motif through its intertextual dialogues with magic in earlier and contemporary texts — Theocritus’ Idyll 2, Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica, Vergil’s Eclogue 8 and Horace’s Epodes — with the aim of investigating the origin and development of love-elegy’s self-construction as magic and of the association of this theme with poetic enchantment, deceit, and failure throughout the genre. While previous commentators have noted lexical and thematic similarities between magic in love-elegy and in other Augustan and Hellenistic poetic genres, they seldom pursue these parallels or interpret them as evidence of literary interaction. By reading these correspondences as signs of intertextual relationships, this thesis provides fresh examples of magic’s metapoetic function in love-elegy — including practical rites alongside the recognised polysemy of carmina — which add to its status as a defining metaphor for the genre. This investigation tackles the subject through two complementary themes and two complementary genres. It first focuses on the relationship between magic and elegiac carmina, which develops in dialogue with Vergilian and Theocritean pastoral; it then explores magic and the beauty of the puella in her roles as narrative beloved and literary construct through its interaction with Horatian iambic. The study ends with a retrospective on elegiac love-magic via Ovidian erotodidactic elegy which unites both themes and in which the motif provides a “shorthand” for the genre. More broadly, this approach demonstrates that literary love-magic in its most recognisable form acts as an avenue for close and dynamic communication between poets.

Five Northumberland townships were subjected to map-regression in order to identify and date changes in their landscapes resulting from enclosure and agricultural improvement during the post-medieval period (1500-1900). The townships examined were selected for the presence of documentary resources, and to include a wide range of environmental and tenurial conditions. The changes identified can be grouped into five categories: enclosure, farm consolidation, changes to land-use patterns, settlement dispersal and improvement. The examination of enclosure revealed that the most formal types, such as Parliamentary Enclosure, were only used in particularly contentious situations or where specific circumstances required them. Farm consolidation occurred throughout the period, though ring-fence farms were not created in every case. Importantly, the consolidation of farms rarely resulted directly from enclosure but from a piecemeal process which straddled enclosure. It was also found that the pre-enclosure pattern of land use, one of arable core and pastoral periphery, broke down following enclosure, though this was also by a piecemeal process. This thesis has also revealed the importance of settlement dispersal without village desertion, which has been neglected by previous studies. Again settlement dynamics have been shown to be locally contingent. Finally, agricultural improvement was found to be strongly correlated with changes in farm ownership and occupation, though the people involved acted as mediators of global trends in fashion and economics. The contingency of these events upon specific local circumstances means that none can be said to be determined by any one factor such as economy, environment, human agency or enclosure itself. None the less ‘global’ or large-scale factors including fashion and economics can be seen to be important in many of the events. Consequently, it was necessary to employ an Actor-Network approach in order to describe the ways in which different agencies were mediated locally.

This research investigates the Iron Age of west central Scotland, an area that, compared with other parts of Scotland, has seen little archaeological research. Indeed, the region was described as a “black hole” in the influential research paper Understanding the British Iron Age: An Agenda for Action (Haselgrove et al 2001, 24-25). As such, this research greatly contributes to our knowledge of the Iron Age of this area, Scotland, and the British Isles as a whole. The detailed synthesis of Iron Age settlement that is created through this research demonstrates that this area is rich in well preserved and well excavated later prehistoric sites. By creating a new morphological framework, this thesis explores a number of important issues, particularly to do with the nature of settlement, regionality and identity. In addtion this allows us to investigate ideas to do with how communities are assembled and what this can tell us about how society was organised during the Iron Age in this part of Scotland.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used extensively in the past few decades to investigate the phylogeny and phylogeography of domesticates but numerous episodes of homogenisation between populations caused by human agency have no doubt obscured past genetic signals. This research statistically tests for mtDNA genetic structure and variation within modern dog, ancient dog and modern chicken populations on a global scale using Wright's F-statistics and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). It also investigates the potential of the tramp ant Tapinoma melanocephalum (ghost ant) to be used as a new proxy for human dispersals in Oceania. Based on extensive datasets combining primary analyses and secondary sources, the statistical analyses reveal differing results according to species. A distinct lack of maternal genetic structure and variation between global populations of modern indigenous dogs is observed. The analyses conducted on 88 ancient dog specimens dating prior to the 15th century, however, reveal mtDNA structure and variation between continents. Thus, it is concluded that the genetic homogenisation observed within modern dogs but absent in ancient populations most likely results from the European colonial expansion and the development of transoceanic travel. In contrast, modern maternal genetic structure was observed between chicken populations from across the world, and allowed for hypotheses to be formulated regarding the early dispersals of chickens. These studies support the fact that mtDNA fragments from modern dog populations cannot reliably infer their origin and early dispersals while analyses conducted on mtDNA fragments of modern chicken populations allow for the investigation of the origin and past migrations of chickens. Looking at the ghost ant which has been widely but unintentionally dispersed, its phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses reveal two potential introductions of this tramp species into Oceania. While the timing of their introduction cannot yet be deciphered due to the lack of working samples, the correlation between the results and historical records infer potential trading routes, revealing Tapinoma melanocephalum as a potential proxy to trace past human migrations.

This thesis argues that the spatial organisation of the built environment in north-eastern England between c. 100 BC-AD 800 reflects the complexities of culture contact, the transmission of ideas, and social change. It is suggested here that the examination of space and place in Britain between the late Iron Age (c. 100 BC-AD 43), Roman (c. AD 43-410) and Early Medieval (c. AD 410 to 800) periods can be used to analyse the changes and/or continuities in socio-cultural ideas and traditions. Two study regions to the north and south of Hadrian’s Wall within the boundaries of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria are analysed using established and innovative computational techniques to understand what affect, if any, the inhabitants of Iron Age and Roman Britain had on the shape of the Early Medieval built environment. Settlement data was compiled into a Geographical Information System and established spatial analysis techniques that focus on site placement were combined with an innovative use of Visibility Graph Analysis to quantitatively analyse the spatial organisation of households and communities between c. 100 BC and AD 800. Visibility Graph Analysis is used to statistically measure the visual arrangement of built space in order to examine continuities or disruptions to the organisation of structures and settlements. The results alter our understanding of this period by revealing broad continuities in the spatial organisation of the built environment across the analysed time periods. This suggests that regional identity was influential in the formation and use of the built environment in the two study regions between c. 100 BC and AD 800. This has significant implications for understanding how Britain was transformed over the longue durée between the Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. These findings suggest that continuities in the spatial arrangement and organisation of the built environment are indicative of gradual change rather than abrupt disruption, and adds to current debates on how regions of Britain were transformed between late prehistory and the early historic era.

Iranian archaeology has had a keen interest in exploring unexplained events occurring during the 5th to the 2nd millennium B.C. on the Central Iranian Plateau. This is represented by transformations in material culture, a differentiation in mortuary practices, and site abandonment and reoccupation, and has traditionally been explained by the influx of new populations into Central Plateau sites. The site of Tepe Hissar, the subject of this research, located in the north-east region of the Central Plateau and appears to have undergone these changes during its existence (late 5th to the early 2nd millennium B.C.). This research uses a bioarchaeological approach to tests the hypotheses that the socio-cultural-economic changes that occurred at Tepe Hissar over time, accompanied by influxes of new people into the site, particularly in Hissar periods II and III; ultimately impacted on subsistence economy, diet, and general health, and also resulted in a rise in tension and interpersonal violence. The biological affinity data suggest that the changes at Tepe Hissar were not accompanied by large scale population replacement/immigration/or invasion. Rather, there was more small scale population replacement over time, although these changes were accompanied by interpersonal violence. These changes did not greatly impact on the general health of people over time, although people in each period experienced different frequencies of stress and disease, and periods of malnutrition; both females and males were affected equally in each period. The dental disease data showed that changes during Hissar II and III had a significant impact on the oral-health of people, and Hissar I experienced better oral-health compared to later periods; this may be due to changes in subsistence economy and diet, food preparation techniques, and how the teeth were used as tools. The data indicate that males possibly suffered poorer dental health compared to females at this site; they may have had a different diet, or possibly used their teeth as a third hand more than females. The isotopic data (C/N) showed that the inhabitants had access to similar food resources across all periods; individuals from each period, both sexes from different age-categories, had a similar diet based on C3 plants and animal protein, as well as a small contribution from fresh water resources. Overall, this research suggests that the society who lived at Tepe Hissar overall may have had an appropriate social structure and adequate food resources to withstand socio-cultural-economic changes, enabling the community to be more centralised socially, economically, and politically such that the changes and events they experienced did not markedly affect their health or nutritional status.

This project sought to examine and critically evaluate current methodologies for the analysis and interpretation of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis within palaeopathology, with reference to clinical research. A compartmental recording method was developed for osteoarthritis and a distinction between degenerative joint changes and osteoarthritis was maintained. This method was applied to the analysis of five Post-Medieval skeletal populations from both rural and urban sites from northern England. An analysis of the pattern and distribution of osteoarthritis and DJC between the sites, including rural versus urban differences, age and sex-specific comparisons, and, where possible, a comparison with contemporaneous sites from southern England was undertaken. A set of diagnostic criteria for rheumatoid arthritis was developed, applied, and tested on potential cases of rheumatoid arthritis within the archaeological record. Given this condition’s scarcity within the palaeopathological context, a wider geographical and temporal analysis was conducted. Results, based on clinical research and differential prevalence rates, indicated that DJC and osteoarthritis should be assessed separately. General rural-urban patterns were similar for DJC, even when compared with age or sex, which was not the case for osteoarthritis. The compartmental approach indicated differential distributions between mobile and stable elements of ball-and-socket and between skeletal elements in hinge joints respectively, which was explained through osteophyte-development and biomechanical analysis. The results were compared with clinical research to explore the impact of degeneration on the daily lives of past individuals, while not relying on activity reconstruction. A foundation for future research on rheumatoid arthritis was created by the development of the set of diagnostic criteria and a visual comparative study of the erosive lesions between palaeopathological cases. Remarkable similarities were found in the expression of erosions in several skeletal elements (ulna, radius and cervical vertebrae). By analysing clinical, palaeopathological and historical information this project concluded that the disease is not of recent origin.

This thesis concentrates on the representation of sexual violence committed against women of differing statuses in Greek tragedy in order to discern what designated sexual violence as negative in the opinion of the Athenian audience; how they regarded the issue of women’s consent; and how they viewed the victims of sexual violence. In order to get a comprehensive picture of sexual violence in tragedy, this study contains close readings of the extant plays and relevant fragments. I look at the descriptions of sexual violence and how it is represented throughout the plays. I also examine discussions of the imminent threat of sexual violence which feature in a number of plays. I take into account a number of factors: the status, motivation and subsequent actions of the aggressor; the locations and context of the assault; the status of the victim; how the victim is represented throughout the play; the reactions of other characters to the victim and any accounts of sexual violence and possible reasons for this. In this thesis I demonstrate that although not all instances of sexual violence would have been regarded as requiring punishment in ancient Athens that does not mean the Athenians had no appreciation for the issue of women’s consent to sexual intercourse. I show that in tragedy, regardless of the circumstances, the victims of sexual violence and enforced sexual relationships are regarded sympathetically. I also demonstrate that the tragedians use actual or potential sexual victimisation to make formerly unsympathetic mythic heroines more sympathetic.