This thesis reassesses the Early Islamic Trans-Saharan Trade primarily via archaeological data from the northern Sahel of West Africa. Specifically, it focuses on the trading entrepots which developed on the southern fringes of the Sahara during the Early Islamic period. This research was motivated by the recognition that historical sources, while offering useful insights into Trans-Saharan commerce, are unable to answer certain key questions due to inherent limitations in source material. Additionally, although previous archaeology at the entrepot sites has provided useful data, its analytical application has been limited. This is largely because most relevant archaeological work was done 30 or more years ago and was technologically or methodologically limited in aspects of artifactual analysis and dating. It was therefore decided that our understanding of entrepot archaeology would be best served by a new field project. Accordingly, excavation and surface collection was undertaken at the previously untested entrepot site of Essouk-Tadmekka in northern Mali. The results from Essouk provide a new perspective on the Early Islamic Trans-Saharan Trade process and make the following important contributions to research on Trans-Saharan commerce: 1) new evidence that large-scale trade was earlier than traditionally believed (c. 750-950AD) as well as fresh data on the nature of the 10th/early 11th century 'trade boom' 2) greater insight into the changing socio-economic history of the entrepot system, demonstrating specifically that the Almoravid era (c. 1050-1140AD) inaugurated a profound shift in the organization of trade, and also showing how there was a final alteration and disruption of the 'Essouk' system by the arrival of new Berber groups (c. 1300-1400AD) 3) better understanding of the movement of Trans-Saharan commodities and their archaeological correlates, including new evidence relevant to the gold trade (coin moulds) and new ways of interpreting the flow of Trans-Saharan Trade (e.g. via in-depth analyses of notionally 'local' ceramic traditions).

Metates are stone objects on which corn and other substancesa re ground with hand-held stones called manos. Metates and manos have formed part of the standard household equipment in the Americas ever since settled life began to develop there in the 2nd millennium B. C. In Lower Central America - and specifically within the area bounded by eastern Honduras in the north and the Panama Canal in the south - prehispanic peoples fashioned some of their metates in a highly individual manner, often with a display of sophisticated and complex imagery both in form and decoration. They were made in this distinctive way over a period of at least 1500 years prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. The aim of this study is to show that, in spite of their diversity, these metates represent an unmistakable cultural trait which is particular only to the isthmian region of Central America. It is proposed that, as such, the decorated metate can serve as a diagnostic marker for essentially Lower Central American cultural traditions in prehispanic times. In earlier studies, many of these elaborately carved objects from Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama have been referred to variously as 'altars', 'thrones', 'ceremonial tables', and - sometimes - as 'metates'. In the course of research for the present study it was found that the majority show traces of wear from grinding and that they can therefore be classified as metates. This thesis brings together material from the entire Lower Central American culture area and presents a comprehensive corpus of decorated metates from reported sites together with specimens available in museums and private collections. Based on some 650 examples, a classification is proposed which hasbeen organized according to formal attributes and supplemented by a stylistic analysis of recurring motifs and decorative patterns. A chronological and geographical framework has been added with the help of known data on decorated metates recovered from controlled excavations.

This thesis considers the leaden seals which were attached to textiles from the late 14th- to the early 19th century in England as part of a system of industrial regulation and taxation. Almost all of the 1,345 seals and related items which are described here individually were recovered from the ground. This total comprises all the English seals examined which refer to their place of origin in the legends (many of these are alnage seals), all the known English seals of medieval date, and the English matrices for the cloth seals. The unsorted information about each item is presented, just as recorded, in Appendix 1. The historical context and development of cloth sealing in this country are discussed, and a chronological framework for the various stamped devices and forms of seal is proposed. Following a more detailed account of the known medieval seals are brief summaries of the main aspects of local textile industries and a synthesized description of the recorded seals county by county. A concluding section assesses the information provided by the known seals, and the degree of correspondence with data from historical sources. Directions for future studies are suggested. Further appendices provide statistical tables and maps of documentary-based information on levels of textile production at different periods, detailed discussions of the provenances and findspots of the recorded seals, an account of the largest known group of English seals, and documentary evidence for the dating of some of the seals from Norfolk. For the first time information has been presented systematically, and assessed in detail, both on the extent of survival and on the potential academic value of cloth seals found during excavations.

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