My research explores the dialectical relationship between identity and the conceptualisation/creation of history and heritage in migration by studying a socially excluded group in Greece, that of Albanian families. Even though the Albanian community has more than twenty years of presence in the country, its stories, often invested with otherness, remain hidden in the Greek ‘mono-cultural’ landscape. In opposition to these stigmatising discourses, my study draws on movements democratising the past and calling for engagements from below by endorsing the socially constructed nature of identity and the denationalisation of memory. A nine-month fieldwork with five Albanian families took place in their domestic and neighbourhood settings in the areas of Athens and Piraeus. Based on critical ethnography, data collection was derived from participant observation, conversational interviews and participatory techniques. From an individual and family group point of view the notion of habitus led to diverse conceptions of ethnic identity, taking transnational dimensions in families’ literal and metaphorical back-and-forth movements between Greece and Albania. Jiggling between the personal and the national, history making reproduced in intergenerational narratives, to fulfil individuals’ identity requirements and shifting ideologies of the present. The creation of heritage through domestic artefacts and embodied practices, revealed identity continuities and ruptures in the diasporic realm, where the remembrance of home away from ‘home’ did not imply the uncritical endorsement of its heritage. My study concludes by underpinning the salience of the personal subject developing a reciprocal relationship with the social, the cultural and the ethnic in constructing identity, history and heritage. Different personal experiences and sociocultural backgrounds lead to different narratives of negotiating identity, history and heritage meaning, explaining notions of heterogeneity and multivocality in the same ethnic group or family.

This thesis is concerned with how the myths of Prometheus came to function within ekphrastic contexts from Latin literature to Renaissance Italian art. Prometheus had many guises: the trickster that stole fire and triggered the end of the Golden Age, the keeper of a secret, the sculptor of man. Previous scholarship has tended to ignore, in particular, Prometheus’ connection to the Golden Age. After drawing fresh attention to the earliest sources in which this connection was explored, I illustrate how a development in writers’ characterisation of the god helped give rise to the idea of Prometheus as a creator capable of inspiring a new age. Ekphrasis functions as a thematic focus of the thesis. This is because Prometheus and Golden Age motifs frequently appear within or just outside of ekphrases, and because it is my contention that Prometheus, in particular, has an important metapoetic function. I argue that the ekphrastic characteristics of North Italian Renaissance Dukes’ stanzini (study/art galleries) in which Prometheus and Golden Age motifs were often employed may help redefine and clarify ancient literature about Prometheus, most particularly his metapoetic function. That relationship is explored through three diptychs, in each of which a classical text containing an ekphrasis is paired with an Italian stanzino containing an artwork inspired by that text. The diptychs are: Catullus 64 with the cam erini d’alabastro of Alfonso I d’Este in Ferrara, Vergil Eclogue VI and Ovid Metamorphoses I with Francesco I de’Medici’s Studiolo in Florence, and, as an extension of my study, Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon with the Italian Hall of Mary of Hungary in Flanders.

During the last thirty years, archaeology has become increasingly aware of the socio-­‐‑political context within which it is practiced. Theoretical advances of the discipline as well as pressure from the world of cultural resource management have contributed to this development. Greek archaeology, since its beginning, based on academic elitism of foreign scholars and schools of archaeology and on the newly-­‐‑founded state’s (1830) need to build a national identity, has barely followed this path of self-­‐‑awareness and social reciprocity and has become less relevant to both the state and the people of Greece. This thesis investigates the relationship between Greek archaeology and the people of Greece and its development since the foundation of the Greek state. More particularly, the social, political and economic role of archaeology in local communities, its public values and the actual aims and objectives of the State Archaeological Service are revealed through the examination of three case studies: the archaeological sites of Philippi in Kavala, Dispilio in Kastoria, in northern Greece, and the archaeological site of Delphi in central Greece. Factors traditionally considered irrelevant to the archaeological agenda are considered. Public perceptions on archaeology and its relevance today, locals’ relation to the neighbouring sites and the level of engagement with them and stakeholders’ interaction with local archaeology are discussed. Documentary evidence and other archival material enlighten the history of archaeology in general and in connection to these sites. The relationship between Greek archaeology and local communities is revealed to constitute an arena where a variety of agendas are projected and compete. The supreme ideal of the nation as served by archaeology for the moment seems to make the every day battle between conservation and other interests unscathed. However the public good of archaeology, as the legislator envisaged it, is still looked for.

The thesis investigates the relationship between archaeology, politics and ideology through a case-study of the prominent German archaeologist Herbert Jankuhn (1905- 1990). It addresses the following questions: what role do archaeological scholars assume in a totalitarian state’s organisational structures, and what may motivate them to do so? To what extent and how are archaeologists and their scientific work influenced by the political and ideological context in which they perform, and do they play a role in generating and/or perpetuating ideologies? The thesis investigates the nature and extent of Jankuhn's practical involvement in National Socialist hierarchical structures, and offers a thematically structured analysis of Jankuhn's archaeological writings that juxtaposes the work produced during and after the National Socialist period. It investigates selected components of Herbert Jankuhn's research interests and methodological approaches, examines his representations of Germanic/German pre- and protohistory and explores his adapting interpretations of the early medieval site of Haithabu in northern Germany. The dissertation demonstrates that a scholar’s adaptation to political and ideological circumstances is not necessarily straightforward or absolute. As a member of the Schutzstaffel, Jankuhn actively advanced National Socialist ideological preconceptions and military aims. In addition, he made use of and strengthened ideologically expedient Germanic ideologies during the 1930s and 40s. However, his scientific work can by no means be cast as mere pre- and protohistoric propaganda. For one, the thesis emphasises the extreme polyvalence of National Socialist ideology. Jankuhn adhered to and promoted his own idiosyncratic selection of politico-ideological elements. The dissertation also underlines the impact of longstanding and far-reaching intellectual, political and ideological currents on archaeological research. During the National Socialist period, Jankuhn worked with concepts that had been in currency since the nineteenth century. After 1945, his archaeological work underwent methodological and analytical changes that were transpiring well beyond Germany’s borders.

Based in the Konya Basin of Central Anatolia, the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük (East Mound) is important to our understanding of the development of early agricultural societies. Occupied between 7400-7100 cal BC to 6200-5900 cal BC, the site is notable for its extended period of occupation, large size and densely packed architecture. Research into Neolithic plant and land use has generally focused upon agricultural crops and the environments in which they are grown, and less is known about the role of wild plants and the non-food use of plants in the later Neolithic. This project used phytolith analysis, a micro-botanical technique, as a way of exploring patterns of plant and land use. Phytoliths present in sediments collected from middens and buildings were analysed to investigate plants exploited for food, fuel, craft activities, and construction. Unusually abundant macroscopically visible silicified (phytolith) remains, including from plant artifacts, also offered direct evidence for certain types and locations of plant-use. A wide range of plant-uses and pathways has highlighted how phytolith assemblages relate to different kinds of ‘input sources’, and how certain environmental habitats may be reflected in the different types of original materials found in archaeological contexts. Quantified analysis of sediments has detected temporal changes in plants present throughout the site occupation, including a dramatic increase in amounts of Phragmites australis. This increase probably reflects the invasive potential of that particular wetland reed, and may be the result of anthropogenic impact. Whilst the use of cereals, in particular wheat, is emphasised, wild plants were also stored for food and used for a wide range of other purposes. The role of wild plants in diversification strategies, together with the sustainability of their exploitation, should be further considered at other Neolithic sites and may have varied in relation to the diversity of Near Eastern environments.

Despite its world renown as an archaeological site, the past twelve years of archaeological excavations (1995-2006) by the Anglo-American Project in Pompeii (AAPP) provides one of the few examples of chronological depth in Pompeii. The main focus of this doctoral research was the analysis of the archaeobotanical assemblage recovered during the course of the excavation of Regione VI, insula I, Pompeii, Italy by the AAPP. Pompeii provides a well-situated and firmly documented historical context from which to examine issues of food distribution and consumption in a complex urban society and highlights the role that archaeobotanical analysis can contribute to studies of social and economic differentiation. This research attempted to provide a diachronic analysis of wider patterns of food consumption across contemporaneous households, from a variety of domestic and commercial contexts over the nearly three hundred year occupation of Insula VI.I. Aside from a few primary deposits there was a general paucity of archaeobotanical remains from the properties of Insula VI.I. Urban archaeobotany presents a number of problems, including the presence of intact floors, mosaics, re-building and construction events and lack of rubbish deposits or middens. The low scatter of standard Mediterranean taxa or archaeobotanical background `noise´ from the majority of contexts examined in this study suggests that they were composed of secondary fill. The archaeobotanical evidence from this study yielded no firm evidence of trade or conclusive information regarding the different cultural influences upon Pompeii. The general lack of evidence for crop-processing within Insula VI.I, from all properties examined, suggest that within this section of Pompeii cereal processing was no longer occurring and was likely taking place in the nearby countryside outside the city gates. These results support the established view that Pompeii was a fully urbanised city in the 1st century AD.

This thesis is aimed at investigating the issue of visibility of pastoral sites and landscape, and at improving our overall understanding of arid lands pastoralism as an eco-anthropological issue. This research was motivated by the recognition that ethnographic sources are extremely vague and unclear regarding the topic of pastoralists’ adaptation to marginal environments. Ethnographic literature is mostly characterized by the description of static and uniform situations where ‘models’ prevail over the ‘reality’. Unfortunately, archaeological reconstructions of the development of Holocene Saharan culture tend to refer rather uncritically to those models, providing unsatisfactory explanations. I argue that the actuality of pastoral societies is far more intricate than the classificatory systems traditionally adopted to describe it. My investigation therefore has questioned the validity of using normative models, and has used new field data to study the extent (and location) of medium and short term variability in pastoral practices within a single group. The results from the study of the Kel Tadrart have paved the way to a deep reconsideration of human frequentation in the Acacus range in historical times, to date substantially dismissed as insignificant, hence challenging the ‘paradigm’ aridity=abandonment, which is the hallmark of most of the more accredited reconstructions of middle/late Holocene cultural trajectories in the whole Sahara. Further, this thesis has successfully investigated the variability of material outcomes of Kel Tadrart occupations, both at the landscape and at the site level, explaining the nature of the various material traces that Kel Tadrart leave on the landscape, reverting some traditional assumptions (e.g. shift to increasing sedentism balanced with purchase of fodder as a strategy to survive in the mountain instead of leaving it, or the adoption of plant material instead of stone huts as sign of self-identification rather than for mobility purposes). In a more general perspective, the discussion of the resilience and the variability of the Kel Tadrart if the Acacus massif provides an important contribution to the greater debates on populations living in ‘marginal’ areas.

The onset of agriculture is an important research topic in archaeology. Nonetheless, several areas of the world still lack sufficient datasets to participate critically within this debate. This is the case for the western slope of the Puna de Atacama, where explanations about plant production have been based on limited evidence resulting in assumptions about the role of agriculture associated with the Formative. More recent research in the Americas has acknowledged the diversity of developments taking place during the Formative period, including regional differences in the degree of wild and domestic plants food production. This research identifies and analyses new evidence in order to revaluate current hypothesis and models of plant production in the Atacama. The analyses are based on the identification of plant microfossils taken from hoes and grinding tools and isotopes within human bones (δ13Ccol, δ13Cap, δ15N, δ18O, Sr87/Sr86). The result of these analyses argues that crops in the area were limited or absent and highlights different levels and managements for native plants such as Scirpus, Cactaceae and still unidentified tubers. Insights’ regarding an anthropical origin of Prosopis forests and a silvo-pastoralist system provides a new model for the Formative of this arid highlands and the American continent.

Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Central China was the scene of important cultural developments, which impacted on agricultural practices and local vegetation. Using phytolith data from 4 archaeological -sites and a survey of a further 11 sites in Henan this project investigates changing crop choices, developments in crop processing and, to a lesser extent, differing local environments both temporally and spatially. Comparisons of relative levels of phytoliths from crop husks, Panicum, Setaria and Oryza, from each site and period were compared to provide evidence of changes in crop repertoire. Results from these investigations show crop variation both over time and in different parts of the region. Millet farming predominated in the more Northern sites in the Yellow River Valley, while rice was clearly the main crop at Baligang, the southernmost site within the Yangtze catchment. However, rice became more important in the Yellow River valley during the late Neolithic and interestingly despite a changing climate making rice farming more challenging in the Early Bronze Age farmers continued rice cultivation. Crop processing stages were interpreted by examination of differing proportions of phytoliths from crop husks, weed husks and crop and weed leaves which can illustrate differing cultivation systems, harvesting and processing practices. These can be seen especially clearly in the rice data from Baligang suggesting more successful agricultural practices and possible change in social organisation in the Late Neolithic. Evidence of local environmental variation was more challenging to unpick as all the phytolith samples available were from cultural contexts. However, the results of the investigation into the changing local environment reflect other proxy data. Differences in occurrence of specific key phytolith short cell morphotypes and changes in the levels of bulliforms, and cone shaped phytolith morphotypes from Cyperaceae indicating wetland were used to interpret local vegetational change, again both spatially and temporally. Rondel and bilobe shaped short cells represent Pooid and Panicoid grasses respectively and short cell morphotypes, such as rondels, bilobes, saddles, can also be used to track variation in levels of C3 and C4 grasses, so changes in proportions of these morphotypes can indicate larger vegetational change. A comparison between the dataset from Neolithic Central China and one from Neolithic India highlighted possible variations in arable systems with millet and wet rice farming in China contrasting with dry rice in India.

This project aims to better understand the social significance of stone bead production and use, from a technological perspective, at the large Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük, Turkey. This is done by closely examining technological practices and choices, reconstructing the manufacturing process, and analysing production contexts in order to determine the organization of production at Çatalhöyük, and the presence of craft specialization, all based on a large dataset providing both synchronic and diachronic perspectives of life at Çatalhöyük. Specifically, contexts with production evidence are identified and examined, manufacture marks on finished and unfinished beads are analysed, perforating tools are examined for use-wear, and some basic bead making experiments are also conducted. More importantly, the reasons behind the presence of craft specialization, and what factors may have propelled it, are also discussed. Technology is a fundamental aspect of daily life for Neolithic people, whether it is obtaining raw materials, manipulating them into finished products, using them, or exchanging them; technology is therefore a tangible form of constructing, maintaining, and propagating social ideologies. Stone bead technologies at Çatalhöyük provide important information regarding what regions the people of Çatalhöyük were interacting with, the skillsets they possessed, and why beads were made they way they were and what significance these beads had to both bead makers, bead consumers, and Neolithic society in general. Similarly, depositional practices and contextual analyses of contexts with evidence of bead use, such as burials and placed deposits, support the idea that stone beads were multipurpose, socially valued goods that became integral to daily, ritual, and social life at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, performing important functions such as the communication of ideas, the forging of relationships, marking important transitions in the lives of people and households, and creating, maintaining and propagating identities, both communal and personal. Stone beads conspicuously performed an integral social role at Çatalhöyük; the story of their manufacture and use is inextricably linked to all aspects of Neolithic life at Çatalhöyük, including identity, technology and symbolism and ritual.