(in English): This thesis aims at collecting, cataloguing and analysing bronze objects from the area of the East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface in the second millennium B.C. Based on closer typological assessment and comparanda, the question of eventual local specific production along the Interface, different from the Aegea or Eastern Mediterranean, is being investigated here. From up to 217 collected items, indeed many types of bronzes, especially swords, razors and spearheads indeed show a set of specific features. Also, the characteristic of bronze metals differs in Lower Interface with stronger minoan-mycenaen influnce from items in Upper Interface which seems to be following more anatolian features.

Cette étude est basée sur une approche multidisciplinaire qui vise à expliquer les différents aspects de la tectonique du nord de l'Égée. Pour cela, nous avons choisi d'étudier le bloc Chalkidiki en utilisant diverses méthodes géologiques. 1) Nous avons réalisé plusieurs campagnes de cartographie sur le terrain afin de mesurer la géométrie des structures tectoniques. Un aperçu de la géométrie structurale est donnée au travers d'une synthèse faite à partir de cartes régionales qui présente la géométrie des éléments plans et linéaires de la déformation. 2) Nous avons évalué l'intensité des conditions métamorphiques à l'aide de diagrammes de phases isochimiques calculés par minimisation de l'énergie libre de Gibbs. Sur la base de ces résultats, nous avons déduit l'existence d'un événement en faciès éclogitique, qui précède le faciès amphibolitique régional. 3) Nous avons alors effectué des datations haute- (U/Pb sur zircon et monazite) et moyenne-température (40Ar/39Ar sur micas). Ces ages ont ensuite été couplés avec des ages issus de la thermochronologie à basse température qui nous a permis de modéliser l'histoire thermique en utilisant un système d'inversion bayésienne. Les résultats de la modélisation ont permis de contraindre l'histoire thermique complète (T-t) de la zone d'étude depuis des hautes températures Crétacé jusqu'à la mise à l'affleurement à l'Eocène. 4) Nous avons modélisé l'évolution géologique Tertiaire du nord de la mer Égée par rapport à l'exhumation de la croûte inférieure pendant l'extension de type core complexe. À partir d'expériences analogiques nous avons testé si la dispersion gravitaire d'un prisme orogenique qui subit extension est un processus approprié pour le développement des core complexes dans le Rhodope lors de l'ouverture de la mer Égée. Notre analyse suggère que la localisation de déformation et le développement des core complexes à l'arrière de la zone touchée par l'extension est étroitement liée à la géométrie pré-effondrement du prisme orogénique. / This study is based around a multidisciplinary approach that aims to unravel different aspects of the tectonics of North Aegean. For that purpose we have selected to study the Chalkidiki block using a variety of geological methods. 1) We carried out several field mapping campaigns measuring the geometry of structural fabrics. An overview of the regional geometry is given in the compiled regional maps that illustrate the attitude of the measured planar and linear structural fabrics. 2) We evaluated the intensity of the metamorphic conditions using isochemical phase diagram sections calculated by minimisation of the Gibbs free energy. Based on our model results, we inferred the existence of an early eclogite-facies event before the regional amphibolite-facies overprint. 3) We performed high- (U/Pb in zircon and monazite) and medium-temperature (40Ar/39Ar on micas) geochronology coupled with low-temperature thermochronology and inverse thermal history modelling using a Bayesian transdimensional inversion scheme. The modelling results delineated the complete thermal path (T-t) of the study area from Cretaceous heating to Eocene near surface exposure. 4) We modelled the Tertiary geological evolution of the North Aegean with reference to the exhumation of the lower crust during core complex formation. Using scaled laboratory experiments we tested whether the gravity spreading of a crustal-scale thrust wedge that undergoes extension is a suitable process for the development of the Rhodopean core complexes during the early opening of the Aegean. Our analysis suggests that strain localisation and core complex development near the backstop of the area affected by extension is intrinsic to the pre-collapse geometry of the orogenic wedge.

This thesis explores the phenomenon of intramural infant burial during Middle Helladic III–Late Helladic II during the Aegean Bronze Age. Intramural graves of children aged two years or less at Málthi and Ayios Stephanos, two settlements on the Greek mainland, are studied from a number of perspectives: the physical properties of the graves and the buried infants, the spatial and intramural context of the grave, and their relationship to their social and societal context. Some things found to be relevant in the analysis were the importance of kinship and group belonging, as well as shifting funerary practices in a time of large-scale socio-economic change in the region. / Denna kandidatuppsats utforskar fenomenet intramurala spädbarnsgravar under Mellanhelladisk III–Senhelladisk II under den egeiska bronsåldern. Intramurala gravar av barn som var två år gamla eller yngre vid Málthi och Ayios Stephanos, två boplatser på det grekiska fastlandet, studeras ur ett antal perspektiv: gravarna och de begravda spädbarnens fysiska egenskaper, gravens rumsliga och intramurala kontext, och dess relation till dess sociala och samhälleliga kontext. Några ting som visade sig vara relevanta i analysen var vikten av släktskap och grupptillhörighet, såväl som föränderliga begravningsskick under en tid med storskaliga socioekonomiska förändringar i regionen.

This dissertation consists of three articles that develop and implement geoarchaeological approaches to the study of hominin biogeography in the Greek islands, a region that may have played a key role during the initial peopling of southeastern Europe in the Middle to Late Pleistocene (770 – 13 ka). The first article addresses the need to find Palaeolithic sites in the Greek islands by reviewing geoarchaeologically informed archaeological surveys that prioritize deposits – Pleistocene sediments and soils – on mainland Greece. I operationalize and implement a four-phase approach for future deposit-centered surveys in the islands. I conclude that future surveys should target geomorphic settings conducive to paleosol preservation, such as in near-shore coastal areas (e.g., uplifted hillslopes and actively eroding alluvial fans) marked by paleo-sea-level-indicators (sea notches, marine terraces, and aeolianites), as well as sediment depo-centers (e.g., internally drained basins) in non-coastal geomorphic settings. The second article develops and employs a multiscalar geoarchaeological approach for investigating and interpreting complex hillslope formation processes at the newly excavated Palaeolithic site of Stelida, located on the island of Naxos, Greece. Here, I integrate traditional geoarchaeological methods (lithostratigraphy, pedostratigraphy, allostratigraphy) with microarchaeological techniques, such as thin-section soil micromorphology and portable x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF) to separate sediments and soils aiding in the construction of a stratigraphic framework for Stelida.The third article further develops the method of integrating pXRF and soil micromorphology applied at the site-specific scale. In this article, I developed an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) method for visualizing geochemistry-facies relationships through the application of pXRF to a resin-impregnated block sample preserving an Archaic (seventh century BCE) ash midden (eschara) from the site of Kalopodi, Greece.This dissertation addresses a primary research effort in Greece’s Aegean Basin (Greek islands): the search for and study of Palaeolithic archaeology dating to Middle and Late Pleistocene. Geoarchaeologically informed research designs, such as deposit-centered surveys in open-air environments, can increase Palaeolithic site inventories for the region by focusing on finding geomorphic settings conducive to paleosol preservation. Moreover, the multi-scalar geoarchaeological approaches here, which integrate sedimentology, pedology, micromorphology, and geochemistry, provide an effective approach for the identification and compositional (mineralogic and geochemical) study of paleosols within those settings.

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The smiting pose is a motif used by the Egyptians, Minoans, and the Mycenaeans during the Bronze Age (ca. 3000–1200 BCE). Although the smiting pose has been identified as an emblem of the pharaonic office, the pose has never been investigated in the field of Aegean prehistory. This motif is incorporated as evidence when discussing larger topics, such as warriors and warfare of the Aegean during the Late Bronze Age. In these arguments, art-bearing iconography is used as evidence to support the presence of martial Minoans and are only ever mentioned as such. This dissertation investigates the smiting scenes from the Egypt and Crete and the Mainland of Greece and examines them to answer the following questions: how people are creating and expressing power in the Eastern Mediterranean and how do trade networks influence this. The first part of this approach considers different trade routes explored by Crete and the Mainland as well as the role the Aegean peoples played in the international trade networks. The second part of this study focuses on the smiting motif in its regional context to explore how power was constructed and represented through violence to fit their concepts of ruling and kingship. / Art History

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Prehistoric Town Planning in Crete" was published in 1950 by Richard Hutchinson. He determined there was no evidence of town planning on Minoan Crete except for two instances. Hutchinson's approach compared the layout of the few excavated Minoan towns to other contemporary sites, such as Kahun, Egypt and Harrappa, India. These towns were laid out in grid-like squares, on flat, level ground. Compared to these sites the settlements on Crete appeared as an amalgamation of disorganized, organic growth. More than half a century has elapsed between Hutchinson's article and this study. Within that time many more Minoan sites and towns have been excavated and published. This greater corpus offers an opportunity to examine Minoan town planning with a new eye. This greater number of excavated Minoan towns allows for a study of town planning by comparing Minoan communities to one another. When an investigation is done comparing sites within Crete only, a pattern starts to emerge. To accomplish this analysis nine elements of Minoan town planning are defined, examined at individual sites, and compared among settlements. These nine elements are: 1. A street system adhering to the natural contours of the land 2. Buildings arranged in irregular, attached blocks defined by the street system 3. A large plateia or centrally located community court easily accessible from all parts of the town 4. Other open public spaces throughout the settlement 5. An elite building near the plateia 6. Public buildings in which there is no habitation 7. Semi-public buildings 8. Built fortifications 9. Extramural dependencies, which are structural features or natural areas outside the borders of the town proper but are an integral part of the community This comparison elucidates a very specific and existing type of Minoan town planning. It began at least as early as Early Minoan II and reached its apogee in Late Minoan I. What at first glance looks random, is not. Minoan towns were laid out within the constraints of the local landscape and with the desired aesthetic. The result was a lifestyle in LM I far beyond subsistence living. / Art History