The tin and copper industries of Dartmoor in Devonshire are investigated through an analysis of the earthworks and ruined structures which constitute the surface evidence of mining. An entirely new body of data has been assembled resulting from field investigation, survey and documentary research, focussing specifically on the surface remains of underground mining, the dressing of the ores and the evidence for water power. This has enabled a reconstruction of key elements of the mining landscape and established the scale of the processes involved. An analytical methodology has been developed which contextualises the archaeological remains in terms of local environment and social antecedent, together with a broader framework of inference based on consumption, global trade in metals and the impact of historical capitalism on the organization of mining. This has provided a novel interpretive framework that combines the environmental and social inimitability of a mining region with contemporary global, socio-economic trends. This precise approach has not previously been applied to any mining district in the United Kingdom. The results demonstrate that for the study period c.1700 to 1914, Dartmoor shares many historical and technological similarities with other mining districts in the south-west peninsula. However, its environmental configuration of marginal ore sources and plentiful water supplies, together with a strong belief in the resources by those who strove to exploit them, following centuries of tradition, enabled an industry to survive, albeit materially small in scale, over much of the late 18th and the 19th centuries. The dynamic role of capital investment through joint adventure is also examined in the light of these considerations and the results suggest that on Dartmoor at least, the genesis and impact of capitalism had a character partly determined by locality.

As an overarching theme, this thesis is concerned with investigating archaeologically the relationships between humans and horses within the Iron Age Inner Asian society of the Pazyryk archaeological culture. Prior archaeologies of horses in Iron Age Eurasia have approached them in a segmented fashion: in either cultural/economic, social/ideological or ritual/cosmological realms. Horses have been objectified as parts of “material culture” or the “environment,” significant only as commodities exploited for culinary or technological purposes, or as symbolic proxies for human attributes and meanings. Within these narratives, I argue, lie faulty anthropocentric meta-theoretical assumptions about both the nature of “culture” and the domination of horses by humans. This thesis, then, challenges traditional archaeological and anthropological understandings of animals as absent referents within human societies, unidirectionally acted upon by humans. I adopt an alternate “human-animal studies” approach, which considers animals as partners in the interspecifically co-created, embodied worlds they share with humans. In doing this, I argue that a consideration of horses, themselves, and how they come together with humans, is a necessary prerequisite to investigating societies within which they were or are embedded. Pulling from ethological and ethnographic materials, including my own position within the sub-culture of “working riders,” I present a model of human-horse interactions— as phenomenologically lived—based upon academic models of human nonverbal and interpersonal communication. From this more holistic perspective, based upon original field work at the Hermitage Museum, I reassess the Pazyryk human-horse burials. I suggest that horses were respected as individual subjects, and that human and horse roles, statuses, identities and ideology were blended, and mutually and contingently constituted as meaningful. I conclude with fresh interpretations that are quite different from previously asserted conceptions of the Pazyryk people as “fierce warriors,” and suggest that an archaeology of relationality which includes animals holds promise for future studies.

This thesis is a study into the extent to which the comments of the classical writers regarding plaster, mortar and pigments can be tested by archaeological science applied to a data base from the Roman period in Britain. My original interest in this project was stimulated by reading Davey and Ling's excellent book on wallpainting in Roman Britain (Davey and Ling 1982), which, although very enlightening, I felt lacked some technical aspects which required proper scientific study. Whilst art historical studies are fairly common, they often contain little technical information. Technological aspects of painting and plastering have been reported on (Weatherhead 1987), but the scientific analysis of the materials is rarely encountered (Ashurst 1984; Davey 1961; Plesters in Rahtz 1963: 337 - 341; Wetzel 1980, have all commented on various selected aspects of mortar and plaster composition). The art historical aspects of wall painting are not discussed here, being detailed elsewhere by recent authors (Davey and Ling 1982; Ling 1985; 1991). Pigment and mortar analyses have been carried out in the past, notably by Sir Humphry Davy in Rome, who carried out perhaps some of the earliest detailed chemical analysis in attempting, with considerable success, to investigate the nature of Egyptian blue and other pigments (Davy 1815), and Buckman in Cirencester, who made useful studies into the composition of plaster and pigments (Buckman 1850). However, a comparative study of Romano - British material currently does not exist, and I saw the need for a systematic study into the scientific aspects as yet only touched upon. Such a study I thought would provide a data base for the comparison of past and future analyses. [Taken from the Introduction]

The focus of my research is to describe, analyze, and explain the unusual spike in the number of shell and glass beads at selected Kumeyaay sites in San Diego County during the Historic Period. The reasons for this apparent increase in bead use are problematic, but one explanation is the profound impact of Spanish colonial presence on Native populations and the resultant sociocultural transformations made by indigenous groups. I demonstrate that the demographic disruption ensuing from the Spanish incursion led to a revitalization movement which dispersed from the greater Los Angeles area to the inland areas of southern California. Called the Chingichngish cult, the new religion melded traditional ceremonial life with a new set of rituals. This new ceremonialism was infused with the intensive use of beads, and it is likely that this created the exponential appearance of larger numbers of Class H beads at numerous inland historic sites in the region. Using archaeological and historical data, I show that the beads analyzed in the various collections were tied to various exchange networks which operated over extant trails and travel corridors and that Class H shell beads were inextricably tied to the new religion. The vastly greater number of these beads at inland Kumeyaay sites is likely the result of intensified on-site ritualism and the concomitant increase in bead exchange.

Production and distribution are the two main themes of this thesis, itis not a detailed study of the uses of brick and tile. It begins byreviewing the development of brick and tiles studies in Britain anddraws attention to the lack of research in this field. The epigraphicand literary evidence for brick-making is briefly examined includingsome examples from outside Britain. The introduction of brick-makinginto Britain is discussed along with the use of unfired clay brickswhich are being found on an increasing number of sites. There thenfollows a detailed survey of civilian brick-making in Britain in whichseveral different modes of production are suggested and parallels drawnwith what is known from recent brickyards.Many of the ideas put forward in this study are based on a detailedexamination of stamped tiles found in the Cotswolds. In addition all knowncivilian tile-stamps have been listed and discussed. The distributionof the Cotswolds tile-stamps has, along wit1h the identification ofclay sources, allowed certain ideas of organisation of tile productionto be put forward. A major part of the thesis list and reviews all the sites where -tileand brick production took place and there is a plan of every known,tile-kiln in Britain., including military examples. There is also agazetteer of sites where tile production is suspected. The possibilityof clamps being used to fire tile and brick is reviewed.Finally there is a section dealing with military organisation, stampingand firing.

The period between the decline of Roman influence and the Norman Conquest in England (AD 450-1066) is recognised as a time of great change, from a largely subsistence-based economy to one more urban-oriented with growing political and social complexity. Little is understood of the human-animal interactions that existed in Saxon and Scandinavian England, and this thesis will use archaeozoological data with the aim of furthering the knowledge of social, political and economic hierarchies, cultural differences and debates regarding the nature of the urban context through the presence and spatial organisation of status, craft production and trade. To this end, both primary and secondary data were recorded from animal bone assemblages from English Saxon sites, and the subsequent relative species quantities, mortality profiles, carcass part representation, butchery and metrical data analysed. The resultant trends have illustrated the increasing social complexity and widening gap between the farming and elite classes, and evidence for cultural distinctions between the Danelaw and Saxon areas of England in the late Saxon phase. Combined with this is the demonstration of evolving economic pathways using the provisioning networks apparent between producer and consumer sites. This is core to the major changes that take place throughout the Saxon phase, from the largely self-sufficient population of the early phase, through the redistribution of animals and animal products in the middle Saxon phase, towards a fully commoditised market system by the time of the Norman Conquest.

This PhD thesis provides a multi-layered analysis of Saxon rural fortified churches from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries in Transylvania. By examining the histories and archaeologies of these poorly studied but prominent medieval survivals, the thesis explores the processes by which the Church transformed Saxon social structures and considers how far structure and form reflect that society and its evolving identities. The timeframe spans the primary Saxon colonization of Transylvania until the occupation of the region by the Turks after 1526. Critically, almost all of the Saxon villages and churches originated and were subsequently fortified during this period and many have remained relativity unaltered since. Three major research strategies are employed: (l) a quantitative analysis of data for the representative regions of Brasov and Sibiu Counties; (2) detailed analysis of the form and function of the built units; and (3) detailed assessment of two major case studies. Data were collected from published and archival reports and sources, plus interviews, newspapers and site surveys. Core to the whole is the creation of a Gazetteer of Saxon sites in Braşov and Sibiu Counties. The thesis considers Saxon fortified complexes in their site and landscape setting, but first reviews medieval to modem Saxon Transylvania, evaluating the impact of events on the Saxon peoples, and then details the nature of Saxon rights, privileges, and administration in their lands and settlements. The roles and development of the Saxon fortified churches are next explored, assessing topographic, defensive, material and economic considerations and evolutions. The final part of the thesis analyses the morphology, domestic, cultural and social life of the Saxon fortified church and village, through which we may assess other angles of evolving Saxon identity. In addition, the thesis has considered the heritage of complexes - how viewed, how maintained, issues of access, of decay - and their recognition by UNESCO and European Union departments. The thesis reveals a specific Saxon colonial form which adapted to a near constancy of threat and uncertainty. The survival of so many components of this distinctive past requires far more attention from scholars to appreciate fully the Saxon contribution.

This is a study of the alignments of Greek temples in Sicily and the implications for the study of identity and ethnicity in the Greek world of the first millennium BC. The thesis presents data from 41 temples and applies a new method of statistical analysis and presentation in order to draw conclusions as to whether or not there are any meaningful patterns of alignment related to astronomical practices. I test several hypotheses, first by determining if there is a correlation between temple alignment and sunrise, and then analysing sub-samples by location, genealogy, period of construction, type (celestial or chthonic) and gender of deity the temple is dedicated to, as well as four specific deities. Additionally I examine them in their historical and cultural contexts for evidence of hybridisation with the native inhabitants of Sicily. I find that the temples in Sicily exhibit a closer correlation with solar alignments than temples in Greece do, but that the alignments of individual temples are selected for reasons associated with local historical and topographical contexts. The study as a whole is conducted within a post-positive framework, which intentionally tackles one of the problems of interdisciplinary studies, that they can lack a coherent means of integrating data.

The Ten Thousand Islands (TTI) region of southwest Florida contains extensive prehistoric shell middens and mounds called shell works. Though shell work sites comprise some of the largest and most complicated prehistoric shell constructions in the world, prior to this study, none had been thoroughly examined in their spatial, temporal and functional contexts, and shell work sites remain very poorly understood. This thesis aims to define the archaeological characteristics of shell work sites within the TTI region, including their spatial patterns, function, geographic extent, and temporal affiliation. Though shell work sites are complex, complicated sites that are analogous to palimpsests, I argue that shell work sites are more than just large shell midden accumulations, amalgamations of shell mounds, or assemblages of features; they are distinct, socially constructed prehistoric landscapes. In order to understand these complex histories, I contend that they need to be examined on several complementary temporal and spatial scales, and I incorporate a multi-scalar landscape approach. This includes examining shell work sites as individually constructed features and sites, as human centered social landscapes, and within a larger, regional settlement pattern context. Central to my thesis is the hypothesis that shell work sites reflect changes in social complexity. I posit that shell work sites throughout the region are arranged in spatially similar patterns, ranging from small, simple shell midden rings, to massive islands completely constructed out of complex arrangements of shell. I test the theory that similarity or diversity in site layouts, and the presence or absence of certain architectural features reflects changes in community and social organization over time, and thus, social complexity.

This thesis examines the rural settlement, landscape and two rural economic activities: olive oil and amphorae production on the Tarhuna plateau of Tripolitania. This was gendered from the Late Neo-Punic through the Roman period. Tripolitania is considered one of the main olive oil production regions during the Roman imperial era. Previous studies have tended to stress that presses of the Gebel Tarhuna were totally used for olive oil production, but the new evidence identified by the Tarhuna Archaeological Survey (TAS) has addressed that the wine was also produced to some extent in this area during the Roman period. The study has shown that there was a close relationship between olive oil and wine production and amphorae production by identifying new 14 amphora kiln sites with a quite large number of amphora stamps. These stamps reveal that these amphora workshops mostly located within estates belong to the urban elite. The dissertation is divided into six chapters. The first half of the thesis is dealing with the geographic and literary background, the TAS and the ancient rural settlement on the Tarhuna plateau. After this, chapters are devoted to examine pressing facilities and the press element typology. This examination led me to estimate the capacity production of about 200 presses recorded in the Wadis Turgut and Doga with their close relationship to amphora production sites. Finally, some evaluation points are made with attention paid to the importance of future work as a key factor for improvement the knowledge about rural economic and settlement in this hinterland region of Tripolitania.