Recent palaeoecological research has demonstrated that the earliest discernible environmental impacts arising from Neolithic agriculture in south-east Europe occur several millenia after the earliest archaeological evidence for farming. Published archaeological records of domesticated animal and plant remains and Neolithic material culture suggest that the first agriculture in Europe occurred in the south-east of the continent from about 9 ka BP. In contrast, large-scale landscape clearance is not evident in palaeoecological records from south-east Europe until at least 6ka BP. A number of factors have been promoted to account for this discrepancy but the underlying source of temporal bias is suggested to have occurred through the selection of inappropriate palaeoecological methods. Basin size, proximity of palaeoecology sequences to archaeological sites and sampling resolution are identified as critical factors in the interpretation of Neolithic environmental impacts. This thesis presents multi-proxy palaeoecological data from six sedimentary sequences in Hungary, Slovenia and Greece using a modified approach designed to counter previous criticisms of unsuitable palaeoecological sampling strategies and to examine the nature of the impact of Neolithic farmers upon the south-east European landscape. Three pairs of palaeoecological sites were selected for analysis, each pair comprising an onsite sequence no more than 200m from the archaeological settlement, and an off-site sequence from approximately 10km distant. All sequences received a predominantly local pollen flux and were assessed in the field as extending back to the late-glacial. Two of these sequences were subsequently deemed unsuitable for further analysis. The remaining four sequences were subject to pollen, charcoal, geochemical, loss-on-ignition and radiocarbon analyses. Numerical routines (principal components analysis, dissimilarity coefficients, rarefaction analysis, rate of change and age-modelling) were applied to the resulting datasets. Results from these analyses show that the environmental response to Neolithic agriculture was subtle and was characterised by a shift in forest composition rather than any large-scale landscape clearance. Progressive cycles of gap creation in mature secondary forest initiated a gradual process of degradation of the forest canopy with the dominant slow-growth forest taxon being replaced by advantageous faster growing taxa. In addition, sedimentary analyses reveal that these forest compositional changes during the Neolithic did not cause any appreciable soil erosion or geomorphological instability. Rather, sediment geochemical stratigraphy during the Neolithic was dominated by site-specific processes related to authigenic productivity and deposition of organic material. Allogenic mineral influx occurred in late-glacial and in recent (post 1000 BP) sediments but not during the Neolithic, suggesting an underlying sedimentological trend of landscape stability rather than erosive influx. Results from this study imply that the selection of inappropriate palaeoecological methods for the interpretation of Neolithic impacts may contribute to some of the apparent 'invisibility' of agricultural activity in, but does not adequately explain the absence of a characteristic environmental response equivalent to that seen in northern European palaeoecological sequences for early agriculture. The magnitude of environmental impacts from Neolithic agriculture in south-east Europe appear to have been minimal, and this is principally related to the observation that contraction of woodland does not occur in south-east Europe during the Neolithic. The primary conclusion from this study is that the earliest farmers in south-east Europe were most likely to have adopted regenerative forest-use practices and naturally open spaces, rather than any large-scale clearance of forest.

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The thesis is divided into six chapters. The First Chapter highlights the general geographical and historical background with reference to the previous archaeological research in the area. Methods of the field surveys involved in our research and the general perspective of the archaeological settlement pattern studies are other features of this chapter. Chapter Two briefly explains the physiography, river system, climate, temperature ranges, soil, agriculture, traditional irrigation system and the trade routes in the Peshawar Plain with some observations on the ancient environment of the area. Chapter Three offers an introduction to the historical framework of the Peshawar plain, discussing some aspects of its political, economic, religious and cultural history. Chapter Four presents an introduction to the 67 pottery types, which have served as our chronological markers. The description of 191 selected potsherds illustrated in our Figures has been put in to Appendix 1, Volume II. This chapter also discusses other major chronological markers insofar as they have been available to us on the surface of our sites. In Chapter Five we have discussed the basic settlement pattern evidence of all the sites and their connection with possible old routes and irrigation system. This enables us to compare the relative significance of irrigation and routes as the factors behind the location of settlements in our study area. Our detailed sites listing and descriptions have been attached to this work in the form of Appendix 3. We have also taken into consideration the sizes of sites, some areas of site concentrations and the Buddhist religious sites in this analysis. In Chapter Six we have tried to put our survey of the wider context of Pakistan Archaeology. Further, we have tried to assess its role in expanding the available historical knowledge regarding the Peshawar Plain. Finally, we have discussed a few salient aspects of future research in the archaeology of the area.

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This study defines concepts of prehistoric economy and uses them as a means of understanding the integration of sites. The environmental setting is shown through a discussion of the available evidence for environmental change, and the detailed chronology is shown using Radiocarbon dates and dated stratigraphic sequences of artefact typology. The work is based on faunal analysis for Parpalló, Les Mallaetes and other sites near-the Valencian-coast, which were used during one or more periods between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago, and on the excavation and analysis of the Cueva del Niño, Albacete province. The faunal analysis shows that the pattern of exploitation of the different species in the faunal community at Parpalló and Les Mallaetes changes through time, but that over comparable periods the changes are different at the two sites, despite the similarity of the environments from which the resources were drawn. These changes are interpreted in terms of changes in the use of sites within an annual territory, and further evidence of the range of activities practised by groups in this area is shown by the site of Volcán. The excavation of the Cueva del Niño, on the edge of the inland, upland plains, showed an entirely different pattern of site use which is interpreted as the result of sporadic visits from sites of the types described earlier. It is suggested that such temporary stopping places account for a large number of sites on the edges of the plateaux. This model of differential site use is discussed in other areas of eastern Spain, from Gibraltar to the Catalan Pyrenees, and the patterns of subsistence change are discussed in the context of the later introduction of agriculture to the peninsula, and the role of technology in economic change. The work is presented in two parts: a volume of text and bibliography, and a volume of tables and figures. Specialist reports whose implications are used in the thesis, are presented as appendices in the second volume.

The development of a comparative database (CDB) based on the relative deposition of iron oxide in soils, and how this relates to variations in oxidising conditions, provides a platform for identifying differing hydrological environments within archaeological sites. The CDB is developed by using geophysical, geochemical and soil micromorphological analyses on non-archaeological sites, representing four major soil/geology types and environments. Oxidation experiments were carried out on these samples to asses the variation between differing rates of oxidation and seasonality influences. Once constructed the CDB was tested using samples taken from archaeological sites of similar soil/geology type, and includes sites ranging from the Mesolithic to the Romano-British period. Archaeological samples were collected from various features and buried soils from five sites: the Late Bronze Age enclosure at Over, the Iron Age ringwork at Wandlebury, the Iron Age enclosures at Sutton Common, the Romano-British site at Marcham-Frilford and the Bronze Age field systems at Shovel Down. The results of this project indicate that the deposition of iron oxide as identified through soil micromorphological analysis has great potential as a tool for gauging preservation of organic material in archaeological sites throughout Britain. The use of the CDB to improve the understanding of preservation and conservation issues in Britain, and beyond, will be an essential element to any future research in this field. This work will form an important part of all archaeological curators’ repertoires for assessing preservation conditions on a site, and therefore, a gauge of the appropriate level of archaeological importance and response.

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Since Sir Arthur Evans began excavating at the ‘Palace of Minos’ at Knossos in 1900, Knossos has been perceived as the ideological, cultural, and political centre of the island. In this thesis, I examine the relationship between island-wide cultural homogeneity during the Neopalatial period (<i>c</i>. 1700-1450 BC) and the assumption of political unity under Knossos. The distribution patterns of ceremonial and economic activities are examined on both intra-site and regional levels, in order to highlight the diverse types of differentiation strategies adopted by the palatial, urban, and regional elites. The few studies that have examined Neopalatial regionalism concentrate on a single activity or type of data, such as administration or architecture. In order to produce a comprehensive and contextualised picture, I have compared the distribution patterns of many kinds of evidence, such as architectural elaboration, ‘ritual’ assemblages, the production and storage of luxury goods, the production and storage of staple goods, and administration. This north-central region was selected because it contains a wide variety of sites, including palatial sites (other than Knossos), further regional centres, smaller settlements, harbours, and ritual sites. By examining the degree to which the different kinds of data correlate, or not as the case may be, a more subtle comprehensive of the nature of the Minoan elites in this area has been achieved. In particular, the role of ritual in social strategies emerged as a key issue in my thesis. This thesis also acknowledges the growing recognition that the Neopalatial period should not be treated as a static entity, and the temporal dynamics within this area are explored. Finally, a key part of my thesis has been to consider the extant to which we are able to reconstruct social strategies with archaeological data. The quality, quantity, and diversity of the evidence in this case makes it an ideal testing ground.

As an overarching theme, this thesis is concerned with investigating the symbolic relationships created between humans and animals during the Eurasian steppe Early Iron Age period. Based on first-hand experience in cooperative zooarchaeological fieldwork with the Russian Academy of Sciences, the thesis critically examines conventional theoretical models of early <i>semi-nomadic</i> and <i>nomadic</i> pastoralist development and associated social, economic and political changes connected with this phenomenon. Further to this, the thesis investigates the symbolic complexity of changing ideological and cognitive frameworks relating to mortuary behaviours and other ritual practices which have been traditionally linked to the appearance of vertically stratified warrior-based societies. These significant issues are evaluated through both a review of traditional theoretical and methodological approaches to the Early Iron Age period of the Eurasian steppe region and the presentation of original zooarchaeological analyses of faunal remains recovered from fortified settlement sites and kurgan (barrow) funerary constructions in the Trans Ural region, Russian Federation. In the early chapters of the thesis, conventional models surrounding the development of warrior nomadic societies are assessed in relation to the traditional use of rigid ethnonymic constructs and static models of neo-evolutionary societal development, which have been problematically connected with a normative view of cultural formation and development. These important concerns are addressed through a review of the development of archaeology during the Soviet and Post-Soviet periods and connected theoretical and methodological developments. It is further argued that the significance of understanding culture as a multivariate formation is crucial for extending current interpretations of the Eurasian Early Iron Age and for understanding changing patterns of material culture relating to ethnicity, ideology and socio-cultural interaction and change. Relating to this, the concept of <i>tribalisation </i>(i.e. interface between state-based and non-state based societies) is explored in relation to the intensification of cultural contact during the Iron Age with subsequent changes in both socio-economic and socio-political organisation.