The studies presented in this thesis discuss certain aspects of the history of Roman Arabia from the period prior to the creation of the province under Trajan to the beginning of the Byzantine era. The first two chapters are introductory. Chapter 1 examines the motives for and method of the annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in A.D. 106. Chapter 2 traces the history of Bostra from its earliest probable appearance in written history until it was designated the capital of the new province. Chapter 3 sketches the origin and use of the Arabian 'era', the calendrical system adopted throughout the province. Chapter ~ discusses the political geography of Roman Arabia from the time of its creation through subsequent border modifications and concludes with an examination of the motives for and probable date of the province's partition. Chapter 5 is a register of the provincial governors-attested between A.D. 106-305. New information 'is added wherever relevant; this includes unpublished epigraphical material. In some cases older evidence is re-evaluated and a new interpretation is suggested. Chapter 6 evaluates the Roman responses to nomadism on the fringe areas of the province and outlines the process of sedentarization and its effects on the stability of the frontier communities. A large portion of this chapter is devoted to the identification of the named tribes and clans attested in the Greek inscriptions. Chapter 7 demonstrates how the Greek epigraphy from the northern sector of the province illuminates and defines the degree of self-government within the villages. One section of this chapter investigates the evidence for village assemblies and another discusses the nomenclature used by village officials. Other sections record the occupations of villagers and highlight the important role of the veterani and the tribes in village affairs. Chapter 8 is a three-part study of the Arabian army. The first part is a thorough re-examination of the evidence relating to the province's initial garrison. This is followed by a list of the legions and auxiliaries known to be part of the Arabian army at least until the end of the third century. The final portion of the chapter is a study of the provincial veterani, especially those who were recruited into service locally. Chapter 9 concludes the Studies by re-examining the evidence for tribal organization in the Arabian capital, Bostra. The second part of tho chapter collects the evidence for the Bostran boule and includes a register of those persons known to be members of the city council.

Few attempts have been made to synthesise Late Bronze Age (LBA) and Iron Age trade patterns in the northern Levant on a regional scale, despite the availability of fine grained excavation data for individual sites. Even less attention has been given to the degree of continuity or change between the economic systems that obtained across the transition between these two periods, which was marked by a widespread destruction of sites across the Eastern Mediterranean. Long-distance trade was conducted at unprecedented levels in the Eastern Mediterranean at the close of the LBA. Ugarit was a strategic node between land and sea routes and its entrepreneurial merchants engaged in transactions for economic gain. Why Ugarit was never meaningfully resettled again after its destruction in the early 12th century BC is a question of regional importance with respect to gaining a better understanding of how and why the mechanisms of trade evolved at this critical time. That Phoenicia came to dominate maritime trade in the Mediterranean in the succeeding period is widely accepted, but the reasons behind this ascendancy are poorly understood. This thesis quantitatively examines contextualised imported ceramic data (Aegean and Cypriot wares) and the archaeological, textual and scientific evidence of the bronze industry and its supply chains. The evidence from the northern Levant is considered within its regional setting, with coastal Syro-Palestine divided into four zones of interaction in order to improve resolution on variations in long-distance trading relationships. The evidence from Cyprus is also assessed, given its importance as a leading supplier of both ceramics and copper to the Levant. A world-systems approach is then applied to this first stage of analysis to assess the intensity and directness of LBA trading contacts between producer and consumer and how these may have developed over time. Trading relationships between the Aegean and Cyprus with different parts of the Levant littoral were not uniform during the LBA, either in intensity or directness. Evidence for continuity in LBA trading relationships across the LBA/Iron Age transition is strongest between Phoenicia and Cyprus, particularly the west coast of the island. Interestingly, the former is not only the sole part of the Levantine littoral to escape destruction at the close of the LBA but also may well have had the most direct and intense LBA trading relationships with the Aegean.

The pre-Islamic Arab is a ubiquitous character in classical Arabic literature, but to date, there has been only scant scholarly analysis of his portrayal. In contrast to the dynamic discussions of contemporary Arab identity, the pre-Islamic and early Islamic-era Arabs are commonly treated as a straightforward and culturally homogeneous ethnos. But this simplified 'original Arab' archetype that conjures images of Arabian Bedouin has substantial shortcomings. There is almost no trace of 'Arabs' in the pre-Islamic historical record, and the Arab ethnos seemingly emerges out of nowhere to take centre-stage in Muslim-era Arabic literature. This thesis examines Arabness and Muslim narratives of pre-Islamic history with the dual aims of (a) better understanding Arab origins; and (b) probing the reasons why classicalera Muslims conceptualised Arab ethnic identity in the ways portrayed in their writings. It demonstrates the likelihood that the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula was in fact 'Arab-less', and that Islam catalysed the formation of Arab identity as it is familiar today. These Muslim notions of Arabness were then projected backwards in reconstructions of pre-Islamic history (al-Jahiliyya) to retrospectively unify the pre- Islamic Arabians as all 'Arabs'. This thesis traces the complex history of Arabness from its stirrings in post-Muslim Conquest Iraq to the fourth/tenth century when urban Muslim scholars crafted the Arab-Bedouin archetype to accompany their reconstructions of al-Jahiliyya. Over the first four Muslim centuries, Arabness and al- Jahiliyya were developed in tandem, and this study offers an explanation for how we can interpret early classical-era narratives that invoke the pre-Islamic Arab.

On its discovery in 2002, the subterranean Bronze Age royal tomb at Qatna was found to exhibit substantial darkened areas of sediment deposited upon the floor. The co-occurrence of archaeological artefacts and lack of evidence of external disturbance, suggested these to be anthropogenic in nature, likely corresponding to the residues of degraded funerary assemblages. Due to the poor state of morphological preservation of organic materials, analyses were undertaken of these unique sediments at the molecular and elemental level, in order to assess their value as a 'chemical sink' of human funerary ritual activity. Determination of the elemental composition of the darkened sediments revealed extensive enhancement of organic C (0.08% - 7.60%), N (0 - 1.02 %) and P (2889 - 45415 ppm), relative to control samples, thereby confirming their organic nature and identifying the main areas of activity. The main focus of this study was assessment of the biomolecular composition of the sediments as a means of detecting specific source organic materials. Examination of lipid extracts of the sediments through GC and GC/MS analysis, revealed lipid distributions indicative of complex mixtures of organic matter. Widespread input from plant derived matter was determined, with lipid distributions (e.g. plant sterols, n-alkanes, n-alkanols, wax esters) and archaeological evidence suggestive of the presence of plant epicuticular leaf waxes. Although being present throughout the tomb, these components were found to be particularly abundant within rectangular deposits associated with burial assemblages. The presence of cholesterol indicated an input from animal fat, within several sediments. Consideration of a suite of biomarker proxies provided strong evidence of animal fat in several locations of the main chamber. Compound-specific stable carbon isotope values of triacylglycerol derived fatty acids were found to be consistent with a human origin of these fats (Δ¹³C= -0.79 to 0.43‰). 4-Hydroxyproline was demonstrated as a useful chemical marker for the detection of degraded bone. One sediment deposit was found to contain distributions of n-alkanes, n-alkanols, wax esters and hydroxyl wax esters characteristic of beeswax, whilst no evidence for the utilisation of resins in burial practices was afforded. Contamination by lipid deriving from modern plant roots which penetrated parts of the tomb was proven to be negligible through radiocarbon determinations of lipid extracts. A remarkable discovery was the identification of indigoid and indirubinoid derivatives characteristic of the precious ancient dyes Royal Purple and Madder in a number of extracts (n=19). The composition of the dyes was rigorously determined through biomolecular analysis, utilising a suite of analytical techniques (HPLC, FTICR-MS, MALDI-MS and NMR). The dyes were shown by HPLC to be associated with fossilised textile remnants, determined by X-ray diffraction to be preserved as gypsum replicas. This constitutes one of the earliest identification of the dyes, whilst the widespread occurrence in sediment extracts and association with human remains, revealed the first direct evidence for their importance within the Bronze Age royal funerary setting.

Examination by lOX optical- and Scanning Electron- microscopy of 91 chert tools found on surface sites in central Arabia disclosed a suite of weathering characteristics such as subsurface fabric changes (Weathering Fronts), loss of Silica (Corrosion Pitting), deposition on- and penetration of- fabric by externally sourced materials (Manganese) (Fe- Rock Varnish), and the effects of various edaphic, aeolian and biotic elements, which appeared to have an order to their occurrence. The tools were typo 1ogically classified as Mousterian and Rub' al Khali "Neolithic", and are common to the area. The various effects appeared in regular stratigraphic order on similar varieties of chert (mainly brown and white) from sites over an 80 kilometre distance, and suggested the tools had experienced a common sequence of changes probably caused by weathering. The "Neolithic" tools displayed characteristics only from the upper end of the matrix. Some effects were specific to particular types of stone. The flaking episodes were interspaced at various points within the combined sequence derived from all the tools. This allowed flaking episodes to be sorted into relative order which assigned the "Neolithic" pieces to two upper- and the Mousterian to four earlier- groups or sets. A speculative model, using the current understanding of the local palaeoc1imatic sequence, suggests the Mousterian may not only have remained late in Arabia but may have arrived late as well. It predicts some of the forms of weathering to be expected on Acheulean tools, and suggests at least two humid periods earlier than the Late Pleistocene Humid Period (ca 36,000 - 18,000 bp). Application of the system allows hitherto undateable surface finds and isolates to be assigned relative positions within a local stratigraphy, and may allow determination of earlier palaeoc1imatic sequences.

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This thesis examines ritual and social structure in the Southern Levantine Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, through a detailed study of the cemetery at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh (Jordan). The cemetery phases examined date broadly from the late thirteenth to tenth centuries BCE, and consist of approximately 300 burials. Two socio-historical settings are of relevance here. The first (13th-12th Centuries BCE) relates to a final phase of Egyptian economic and military domination in the region. The second (11th-10th/9th Centuries BCE) relates to a widespread re-emergence of local semi-independent polities in the Central Valleys after the collapse of the Late Bronze Age city-states and the Egyptian withdrawal. It is argued that responses to widespread socio-political cultural and economic changes in the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition had a significant impact on social structure and kinship relations - affecting the ways in which the dead were perceived and treated by the living. Through a combined quantitative and contextual study of the burial data, aspects of variability in the expression of social rank, age and gender, and cultural identity in the Sa'idiyeh cemetery are examined, and in turn compared and contrasted with 'living' societal models. Elements of continuity and change are explored, including attitudes to the body, variability in the deposition of grave-objects, and aspects of commemoration, re-use and cemetery organization. The relationship between ritual and social structure is examined through a 'rites of passage' framework that breaks down the burial context both temporally and spatially. It is argued that aspects of status and identity (as expressed by the living survivors) were partly formulated and transformed through the deposition of special objects and the elaboration of ritual space. These actions helped to create and reproduce social distinctions through ritual performance and memory. The results of this analysis provide new insights into the societies of the Jordan Valley in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. In the 13th-12th Centuries, 'death-styles' at Sa'idiyeh are seen as reflecting social inequalities and unstable relationships between dominant foreign powers and local elites, with evidence for ritual innovation, elite emulation, and individualized status expression in death. In the 11th-10th Centuries, changing socio-economic and political conditions contributed to the formation of a more 'egalitarian' social structure, with emerging gender inequalities and expressions of associative status that emphasized kinship relations within commemorative death rituals.

This thesis is an analysis and interpretation of the visual self-representation of local dynasts (often termed 'client kings') in the Roman Near East (100 BC to AD 100). The evidence for the tombs, temples, palaces and portraits of these dynasts has never previously been systematically gathered, studied, compared or interpreted. It focuses specifially on tombs palaces and portraits of the six local dynasties that have left substantial material remains: the Hasmonaeans and Herodians of Judaea, the Nabataeans of Petra, the Imraeans in Mt. Lebanon, and the dynasties of Emesa in central Syria and of Commagene on the upper Euphrates.

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