Traditionally, coins and exonumia found in archaeological contexts have been examined in a way that fails to utilize their full potential for making substantive contributions to historical questions. Often bearing dates and/or dateable iconography, these numismatic objects are used primarily to provide temporal data for archaeological contexts or sites; and, as material culture related to the economic sphere, the function of these objects is assumed. When archaeological excavations in England’s North American colonies uncover European coins and exonumia that are obsolete in their original countries of origin, they are often interpreted as items imported for the Indian trade without consideration of their full social and cultural contexts. Since 1994, archaeological excavations on the c. 1607-24 site of James Fort, the initial English settlement at Jamestown, have uncovered over two hundred Dutch and English tokens and Irish coins that are both unusual for the Virginia context and are no longer current in their original settings. This thesis examines this unusual group of base metal coins and exonumia found in the fort’s tightly dated discrete contexts as evidence of an undocumented scheme of token currency in the early English colony. The research incorporates a biographical approach to the data, weaving together numismatic scholarship, evidence from archaeological contexts, and contemporary historical accounts. The use of token currency in Bermuda and Newfoundland, two early English colonies established subsequent to Jamestown, provides evidence of parallel adaptive measures required to fulfil local needs in New World settlements. In conclusion, familial and commercial links connecting the leaders of the Virginia enterprise, English governmental officials, and the Royal Mint are suggested as agencies for the obsolete coins and tokens at Jamestown. Using numismatic objects as portals to Jamestown’s past, this study demonstrates new understandings may be gained from beginning an historical inquiry with contextually relevant material culture.

No description available.

While the ancient city of Teotihuacan (150BC-650AD) was one the most striking experiments in urbanism in the pre-industrial world, housing a population likely exceeding 100,000 inhabitants in ca. 20 km2, it is likely its inhabitants faced significant economic, social and political challenges in sustaining such dense urban society. As part of wider palaeodietary and cultural investigations at ancient Teotihuacan, organic residue analyses were performed on a wide range of systematically sampled archaeological potsherds from three localities within the city and immediate periphery: La Ventilla (n=148), San Jose 520 (n=73) and site 15:N1E6 (n=92). The main aims of this thesis were to further investigate the relative importance of various foods and food consumption patterns over time and across different parts of the city to relate differences in food consumption to social variation. Absorbed lipid extractions performed on the 313 potsherds represented different ware types and forms, including: ollas (n=144), craters (n=83), bowls (n=24) and amphorae (n=62) corresponding to the Tlamimilolpa and Xolalpan phases (ca. AD 200-550). Due to the low lipid concentrations in potsherds from Teotihuacan, a more efficient lipid residue extraction method involving the use of acidified methanol (H2S04iMeOH 2% v/v, 70°C, 1 h) was developed and applied to the archaeological ceramics from the city. GC screening of the total lipid extracts (TLE) showed 67% of the potsherds contained detectable lipids, with an average concentration of 16 flg g-l. GC-MS of lipid extracts revealed up to ten different classes of biomarkers. The presence of high concentrations of long-chain fatty acids (C22:0 and C24:0) a series of even-chain n-alkanols (C22 to C34) and/or the presence of very low concentrations of plant stanols and sterols together with characteristic Ol3C values of C4 plants suggests the lipid residues of most of potsherds derive from maize (leaf and/or kernel) or mixtures of maize with other commodities with a higher input of maize. Although the analyses provided compelling evidence for the predominance of maize oils/waxes in pottery samples from the three localities, no differences in food consumption patterns were detectable across time and socio-economic status. In addition, the production of the fermented drink, pulque, at Teotihuacan was confirmed through the identification of pine resins (post-firing waterproofing) and bacteriohopanoid (Zymomonas mobilis biomarkers) distributions in a subset of 14 potsherds from La Ventilla, suspected typologically (amphorae) to have been used in pulque production/storage/ transportation.

No description available.

Land snail middens occur widely throughout the circum-Mediterranean with a particular concentration of sites in northwest Africa They often contain abundant terrestrial molluscs, charcoal, lithics, bone and charred plants. Previous work is limited despite the potential use for addressing questions of subsistence strategies and increasing sedentism, particularly in the context of the Broad Spectrum Revolution and the associated transition to agriculture. The work presented in this thesis forms part of the ' Cemeteries and sedentism in the Epipalaeolithic of North Africa' project which aims to investigate ritual behaviour, diet, technology and sedentism in Epipalaeolithic Morocco through a multi-proxy approach which also evaluates the role of climate and environment in any cultural developments. This thesis provides the first detailed analysis of the molluscan component from Taforalt (Grotte des Pigeons) (34°48'38"N, 2°24'30"W), a large, open cave in the Beni Snassen mountain range in northeast Morocco, 40km from the Mediterranean coast Extensive previous excavation has occurred but analysis of Mollusca has been very limited. The sequence is well dated by radiocarbon and covers the Ibermaurusian period (20,000- 12,800 Cal BP). Yellow Series deposits, with episodic evidence of human occupation, and a partly natural mollusc fauna, are overlain by Grey Series deposits which are highly anthropogenic, 99% of the molluscs having been collected and consumed by people. Four main edible species are identified: Dupotetia dupoteliana, Alabastrina soluta, Cernuella globuloidea and Olala punclata. Despite the large quantities of shells, molluscs were never a staple food and formed part of a broad based diet A modem mollusc survey identifies behavioural characteristics of mollusc clustering which facilitated collection. Results from a pilot stable isotopic study indicate wetter conditions in the Grey Series, consistent with the Greenland Interstadial 1 date shown by radiocarbon. The research is set in the wider context of a review of land mollusc middens.

This thesis investigates the potential of using terrestrial molluscs for radiocarbon dating of archaeological sediments. The sequence at the Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica, in Libya provides a case study. Two strands of study were undertaken as part of the ERC funded Cyrenaica Prehistory Project: the examination of the present day radiocarbon ecology of species in the region; and an analysis of archaeological shell from the Haua Fteah cave with the aim of developing a high-resolution chronology for the upper portions of the site. Previously, the dating for many of the key lithic technological phases in the region has been reliant on a patchwork of sites which were anchored by relatively poor dating on a very small number of long sequences, of which the Haua Fteah is one of the most significant. Based on the findings of the modern study, an age offset of 584 ± 170 14C years BP was adopted for the correction of the shell reservoir effect in archaeological Helix melanostoma.The radiocarbon dating of archaeological shell from the Haua Fteah and Hagfet et Gama at a very high stratigraphic resolution found that a complex chronological pattern wf=ls present, with frequent dating reversals through the late quaternary sequence. The high resolution dating of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene archaeological sequence in the Haua Fteah provides the first truly detailed chronological analysis of the stratigraphy within the cave and has significantly improved our understanding of the relationship between key archaeological phases (Mousterian/MSA, Dabban/Upper Palaeolithic, Oranian and Capsian/Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic) at this site. It can therefore be concluded that the radiocarbon dating of archaeological shell has great promise when underpinned by radiocarbon ecological assessment of target species.

No description available.

This thesis examines the impact of the introduction of Christianity and the ensuing consolidation of the position of the Anglo-Saxon church on burial practices between c. 600-1100AD in the Wessex heartlands. At the core of this study is a survey of the burial evidence in the counties of Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire (below the Thames), Somerset and Wiltshire. This data is then used to examine the influence of the Church on the treatment of the body, grave type and grave variations, and on the commemoration of the dead. This study also examines the evidence for the development of churchyard burial. Finally, the impact of the re-emergence of urban centres on burial is investigated through the use of two cases studies focusing on early medieval Southampton and Winchester. This study demonstrates that the initial impact of the Church on burial practices was limited and that most of the changes seen in mortuary behaviour in the seventh and even eighth century should be seen predominately as the result of other factors. In contrast, by the late Saxon period, the Church appears to have had a major influence over burial practices and it had become inextricably linked with burial and commemoration. In particular, the Church had a profound impact on burial location, with the development of churchyard burial, although the transition to churchyard burial was not as rapid as once thought with burial outside churchyards persisting into the tenth century within the study area. The later Saxon period also saw the Church increasing its control over the ceremonial and ideological aspects of burial. The Church provided funerary services such as prayers and masses prior to and during burial, the dead were interred in ground consecrated by the Church and commemorated in masses and prayers conducted by the Church. This is particularly apparent in the archaeological evidence for the commemoration of the dead both in the Christian iconography seen on funerary sculpture and in the inscriptions many bear with their references to Christian beliefs in the afterlife seen on funerary sculpture in late Saxon Wessex. The Church's impact on other aspects of the funerary process, such as the grave elaboration and the treatment of the body, was more subtle and indirect, and at times inadvertent. Finally, while the primary focus of this study is the relationship between the Anglo-Saxon Church and mortuary behaviour, this work has generated a number of secondary findings. The case studies on burial in Southampton and Winchester with their multiple cemeteries and scattered isolated burials provide a graphic illustration of the complexity of burial in early medieval urban centres. The studies also demonstrate that the density and distribution of occupation within urban centres is correlated with cemetery number and location. In addition, the data generated by the survey of burial evidence in this study have allowed the chronological and geographical distribution of funerary practices within the study area to be examined. This research also confirms the findings of a number of other studies that gender and, to a lesser extent, age cease to be major factors in determining funerary provision, although social identity does continue to be signalled and to determine the nature of grave elaboration associated with many late Saxon burials.

The aim of this study is to investigate the organisation of production and exchange in the Later Iron Age, or Late La Töne period in part of Central Europe. Although a wide range of goods are considered in relation to this aim (Chapter 2), the focus of the thesis is on the slip decorated pottery which is a characteristic find on the larger settlements. Following a review of current approaches to the archaeology of the period (Chapter 1), the second chapter summarises the current state of knowledge of the Later Iron Age in the study area (Czechoslovakia, Transdanubian Hungary and Poland). The third chapter considers the theoretical frameworks employed in the interpretation of non-capitalist economic systems. These are discussed in relation to the theory and practice of archaeological interpretation. In chapters 4 and 5 the methods of analysis used in the study of the the slip decorated pottery are described. Chapter 4 focuses on the production of the pottery and the technology employed, relating this to the organisation of labour. Chapter 5 is concerned with the circulation of the pottery and the methods (petrological and typological analyses) used to interpret the distribution in terms of the actions which produced it. Chapter 6 draws together the data discussed in the second chapter and that obtained from the analysis of the slip decorated pottery. The picture of the period which emerges is at variance in a number of respects from that traditionally accepted, in that there appears to have been a high degree of continuity with the situation in the Middle la Töne in terms of the economic structures underlyinmg the emergence of sites of central character. The establishment of these sites was certainly associated with changes in economic relationships (some of which are symbolised by the production and circulation of slip decorated pottery), but these appear to be in addition to, rather than in place of, traditional forms of organisation. A number of appendices and tables summarise supporting data.

This thesis considers flint mines and their deposits within the early to late Neolithic in southern Britain. It proposes that flint mines have been perceived as peripheral to the wider changes that occurred during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, and that their deposits have suffered in equal terms from a lack of inclusion in discourses about the period. The theoretical argument aims to demonstrate that chalk art. artefacts and natural substances were a material component of Neolithic life and need to be fully integrated into our analytical categories within archaeology. This is achieved by addressing the overriding emphasis on functionality in interpretations of material culture, which it is argued has inhibited our acceptance of these important classes of material as archaeological evidence. A venues are proposed to overcome these concerns, specifically using materiality as the framing concept for an integrated approach to substances, artefacts and monumentality. These ideas are applied to an analysis of chalk art, the placement of chalk artefacts and natural substances, and the nature of architecture in southern British Neolithic flint mines. Through this, mining sites are suggested to be monumental in exhibiting deliberately created architectural spaces which were subject to symbolic use and, at times, modification. Typologies of chalk art and artefacts are proposed which facilitate a greater degree of critical analyses, and new artefact categories are created to describe natural artefacts which focus on their substance and manufacture (or biography) as opposed to perceived function. Chalk art, artefacts and natural substances are also situated within a broader regional analysis of the Neolithic in Sussex and Wessex, revealing them to have been both a rare and yet recognisable manifestation of Neolithic practice.