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The Cyclades have been chosen as the central area of Minoan expansion in the Aegean. The MC period in particular is the formative period, when most of the elements of the EBA way of life change and yet the final developments of the LBA have not been completed. By studying the developments in local pottery along-side the MM imports and imitations, a more balanced view of the changes taking place is obtained, since pottery, as one of the materials most frequently in use, is bound to reflect changes in the community's character. On the other hand, by illustrating the MM presence in the East Aegean, as well as on islands not belonging to the Cyclades, as Aegina and Kythera, the various ways of the infiltration of the Minoan world in the Aegean could be compared. One main result of this study has been to elucidate the many roads of contact between the Cycladic islands themselves and each one with Crete. This showed the vitality present during the MBA, something not always evident during LC I period. Another result was the realization of the beneficiary results of Cyclado-Cretan interaction on both ends of the trade, particularly, since the Cycladic islanders played the role of intermediaries on behalf of Crete on the Greek Mainland. Finally, through the different ways of acquiring minoan innovation and transforming them to something new, the indigenous population of the Cyclades seems to have proved that the control of their home affairs all through the MBA was on their own hands.

This thesis presents the results of charcoal analysis from the Neolithic sites of Çatalhöyük and Pınarbaşı in South-Central Anatolia, Turkey. The treatment of the subject centres upon two major issues: I. An improvement of the currently available methodological and analytical tools in the field of charcoal analysis, in order to evaluate in an objective way the taphonomic status of wood charcoal macro-remains and thus allow formulating viable working hypotheses on firewood selection and consumption. For this purpose, the current state of affairs in charcoal analysis is re-assessed, aiming at clarifying the major methodological and interpretive debates within the discipline. Furthermore, the available evidence on wood charcoal taphonomy alongside firewood selection and consumption is critically reviewed. Drawin from this body of theory, some new methodological avenues are proposed and tested on the wood charcoal assemblages derived from Çatalhöyük and Pınarbaşı. It is argued that through such a holistic assessment of wood charcoal taphonomy, concentrating mainly in clarifying the impact of source and context on taxon representation,m crucial information can be obtanied concerning the dominant patterns of fuel use and exploitation. The results of this process are finally evaluated against other, independent lines of evidence (i.e. excavation records, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, pollen analysis, etc.) II. An innovative appreoach to vegetation reconstruction in the context of Near Eastern archaeobotany and palaeoecology grounded on the analysis of woodland habitats in terms of their seasonal and temporal transformations, and their potential responses to natural and/or anthropogenic disturbance. The main purpose is to identify long-term patterns of interaction between human strategies of woodland exploitation and past vegetation. It is argued furthermore that the dominant perceptions of the availability of landscape resources, shaped by the full compendium of economic strategies practised at the settlement level, are the major determinant in what concerns both the modes and the intensity of woodland exploitation. Finally, the charcoal data are evaluated against the available evidence for the evolution of settlement patterns and subsistence strategies in South-Central Anatolia during the early Holocene. The aim is to ecamine whether they may conform to a general trajectory of temporal changes that can be regionally traced concerning the perception and exploitation of landscape resources.

The aims of this research are to provide a comprehensive review of the available evidence for the socio-economic structure of the Urartian kingdom (of the 9th-6th centuries BC) and by doing so, to analyse and critique previous interpretations of the subject. Although there has been intensive research on different aspects of the Urartian kingdom, mainly chronological studies or excavations and surveys that cover different parts of what was once the lands of the kingdom, unlike previous studies this research presents a systematic review of the geographical, archaeological and textual evidence of the Urartian (and Assyrian where relevant textual evidence is available) as well as original ethnographic observations in order to analyse the socio-economic and administrative organisation of the Urartian kingdom. After reviewing and evaluating the history of research of Soviet, Turkish and Western scholars on various aspects of the Urartian kingdom, I move on to investigating the available economic resources in the region and the movement of commodities such as the produce of arable agriculture, animal husbandry, metallurgy, and craft activities undertaken by Urartian society. The next step, in order to understand the management of these economic resources, is to examine the administrative organisation of the state including the Urartian concept of kingship and the king’s role in administration, construction activities, the administrative division of the kingdom, and the income generated by warfare. It is concluded that the Urartian state economy was heavily dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry. Military expeditions generated substantial income in the form of livestock and prisoners of war. Further wealth was accumulated by tribute, taxation and metallurgical activities. However, how these factors combined into a single economic system has been variously interpreted by individual scholars in response to their contemporary theoretical and political context.

After the battle of Cannae, Hannibal retired to the confines of his camp to celebrate the greatest defeat the Romans had ever suffered, and as the future would hold, anyone would suffer. "Hannibal's officers crowded round him with congratulations on his victory. The others all advised him, now that he had brought so great a war to a conclusion, to repose and allow his weary soldiers to rest for the remainder of that day and the following night. But Maharbal, the commander of the cavalry, held that no time should be lost. 'Nay, ' he cried, 'that you may realize what has been accomplished by this battle, in five days you shall banquet in the Capitol! Follow after, I Will precede you with the cavalry, that the Romans may know that you are there before they know that you are coming! - To Hannibal the idea was too joyous and vast for his mind at once to grasp it. And so, while praising Maharbal's goodwill, 'he declared that he must have time to deliberate regarding his advice. Then said Maharbal, 'In very truth the gods bestow not on the same man all their gifts; you know how to gain a victory, Hannibal;, you know not how to use one. ' That day's delay is generally believed to have saved the City and the empire. "'

This thesis concerns the analysis of the socio-economic transformation of communities in Bronze Age southwestern Cyprus. Through the adoption of a dialectical perspective of analysis, individuals and environment are considered part of the same unity: they are cooperating agents in shaping society and culture. The Bronze Age is a period of intense transformation in the organization of local communities, made of a continuous renegotiation of the socio-economic roles and interactions. The archaeological record from this portion of the island allows one to go beyond the investigation of the complex and articulated transition from the EBA-MBA agro-pastoral and self-sufficient communities to the LBA centralized and trade-oriented urban-centres. Through a shifting of analytical scales, the emerging picture suggests major transformations in the individual-community-territory dialectical relations. A profound change in the materials conditions of social life, as well as in the superstructural realm, was particularly entailed by the dissolution of the relation to the earth, due to the emergence of new forms of land exploitation/ownership and to the shift of the settlement pattern in previously unknown areas. One of the key points of this thesis is the methodological challenge of working with legacy survey data as I re-analysed a diverse archaeological legacy, which is the result of more than fifty years of survey projects, rescue and research-oriented excavations, as well as casual discoveries. Source critique and data evaluation are essential requirements in an integrative and cross-disciplinary regional perspective, in the comprehensive processing of heterogeneous archaeological and environmental datasets. Through the estimation of data precision and certainty, I developed an effective - but simple - method to critically evaluate existing datasets and to inter-correlate them without losing their original complexity. This powerful method for data integration can be applied to similar datasets belonging to other regions and other periods as it originates from the evaluation of larger methodological and theoretical issues that are not limited to my spatial and temporal focus. As I argue in this thesis, diverse archaeological legacies can be efficiently re-analysed through an integrative and regional methodology. The adoption of a regional scale of analysis can provide an excellent perspective on the complexity of transformations in ancient societies, thus creating a fundamental bridge between the local stories and grand landscape narratives.

Visually-compelling small finds have traditionally been examined for their appearances. These artefacts, consisting of figurines, ornaments and body adornments, for example, have been primarily studied for the meanings that the images they project might have held. Strikingly fewer are analyses of these objects' material qualities. Frequently ignored are their composition, the sourcing and working of their materials, or their materiality. The aim of this thesis is to reconcile considerations of the visual and material aspects of visually compelling small finds. It is here argued that examinations of the material aspects of artefacts can reveal important information about the course of their production and consumption, and about the nature of the relationships involved therein. The volume's reconciliatory endeavour is thus undertaken with the creation of a new materially-inclusive, biographically-orientated, methodologically-holistic and multi-scalar framework. Bolstered by theories drawn from philosophy and the social sciences, this methodology allows for closer investigations into the web of closely-knit inter-nodal relationships maintained between humans, materials and the environment during the making and the use of material culture. The following chapters present the results of the framework's application to the clay anthropomorphic figurines from the Minoan peak sanctuary of Philioremos. The various ways in which clay was engaged with during the different stages of the figurines' becoming and unbecoming are explored. The types of relationships that the artefacts' production and consumption depended upon and engendered, alongside the types of knowledge these dynamics were rooted in, are then discussed. Subsequently, broader considerations of the use of the human body as a representational theme are undertaken. In reconciling examinations of the visual and material qualities of the Philioremos figurines, this thesis demonstrates the utility of a materially-integrative approach. Ultimately, this study contributes to two main areas of current archaeological interest simultaneously: the analysis of prehistoric material culture and the examination of Minoan peak sanctuary anthropomorphic figurines more specifically.

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This thesis provides a study of the growth and decline of two small Pisidian urban settlements, Sia and Ariassos, with an especial focus on the relationship, both social and economic, between town and country. The thesis addresses the subject primarily chronologically, although chapter two is diachronic. The first chapter provides an historical and geographical introduction to the subject. The complexities of the ethnic and cultural environment in which the two cities were founded are discussed along with the history of early settlement in the region. The succeeding chapters present, discuss and analyse the archaeological evidence for the growth, transformation and, ultimately, the decline of the settlements. The central argument of the thesis is that the settlements can only be understood if seen both within their local physical and social environment and their larger political environment. The settlements existed as part of a complex urban and rural network. The effects of the changes of the third century AD, the arrival of Christianity, tax reforms and social unrest are all explored. The thesis concludes that the image of uniformity and continuity in this mountainous region can be highly deceptive. During the period in which the Pisidian urban landscape grew, flourished and then disintegrated, the area was subject to an enormous variety of changes, social, political and economic, all of which have to be taken into account when attempting to understand the complexity of the process of urban change.

Thomas J. Allen. / "Prepared for the Netowrking [sic] Conference sponsored by the School Capacity for Problem Solving Group, National Institute of Education, Washington, D.C., March 16-17, 1977." "A review of the MIT Sloan School Research Program with a special view toward application in the educational sector." / Bibliography: leaves 26-27.