<p> The modern Swiss agricultural landscape has its roots buried deep in the ancient past. The phase of agricultural development spanning from the Iron Age, beginning with the Hallstatt in 800 B.C. (2750 BP), to the last of the Merovingian dynasty in A.D. 754 (1196 BP), was one of the most vibrant and important periods in the evolution of the landscape and agriculture of Switzerland. This phase, which begins with independent Iron Age tribes, encompasses the first large-scale conquest of the land of Switzerland, the incorporation of the region into the Roman Empire and the transition of control to the Frankish Kings which laid the foundation in the Early Middle Ages for the modern agricultural landscape. This study explores these developments in the three topographical zones of Switzerland (the Jura Massif and northwestern Switzerland, the Plateau and the Alps) through the archaeological record by combining archaeobotanical and archaeozoological remains recovered from excavations with the results of pollen studies and climatological research to acquire a holistic view of ancient agriculture and dietary preference. During the Hallstatt (800-480 B.C./2750-2430 BP), the three topographical zones had similar agricultural activities, however, beginning in the La T&egrave;ne (480-13 B.C./2430-1963 BP) these show a significant divergence that further intensifies with the arrival of the Romans and persists after the transition of power to the Frankish Kings in the late 5th century A.D. (c. 1474 BP). The arrival of the Romans in the late 1st century B.C. had an immediate impact with the introduction of new crops into local cultivation alongside advanced horticulture, viticulture and animal husbandry practices, as well as a lasting presence in Swiss agriculture due to the persistence of many of these crops after the removal of Roman influence. Concurrently, the cultivation of Iron Age crops, primarily hardy hulled wheats and barley, continued throughout the Roman period, particularly at sites dominated by Celtic peoples, with Roman influence being most felt at higher status sites such as the capital at Avenches, the colony of Augst and the major military installation at Windisch. Roman influence on meat consumption is demonstrated by elevated levels of swine and chickens with a continuation of the dominance of cattle at predominately Celtic sites in the Jura and Plateau alongside elevated levels of sheep and goats at Alpine sites in the Rh&ocirc;ne Valley. By combining archaeobotany, archaeozoology and palynology with climatological studies, this work shows that the arrival of the Romans had an immediate impact during the first centuries A.D., aided by favourable climatic conditions. After the removal of direct Roman influence and increasing climatic instability beginning in the mid-3rd century A.D., many of the crops, fruits and garden plants persisted with the arrival of Frankish and Germanic peoples into the region alongside a resurgence in the prevalence of cereal crops cultivated during the Iron Age.</p>

<p> The Grand Cameo for France is the largest cameo surviving from antiquity. Scholars have debated who is portrayed on the stone and what its scene means for centuries, often, although not always, limiting their interpretations to this narrow area and typically only discussing other causes in passing. This pattern can and should be broken, allowing the stone to be what all objects truly are: windows to the lives that that objects have lived, just as all physical things are; evidence of an experience part of the world went though, whose meanings have and continue to be part of a wider network of object-meanings. The underlying purpose of this thesis is to use the Grand Cameo to prove this point. It does so by asking why the Grand Cameo came into being using Aristotle's four-part fragmented "Why" to widen this meaning broadly enough to expand the scope of what cause means from the vernacular use of the term to include material, formal, efficient and final causes. This allows for a sufficiently satisfactory exploration of many elements of the ancient world. </p><p> This thesis comprises an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion. The first chapter discusses the material sardonyx itself, its possible origin points and how it would have been seen and used in its time in both the India and the west. It discusses the development of trade routes through the Indian ocean and Hellenistic and Egyptian ties to the east which were later taken over by Rome, as well as the Ptolemies, who they replaced. The second chapter discusses the relationship between Rome and Egypt, how their imagery and materials were usurped, and how this connects to the cameo, a medium that became Roman. Chapter three discusses Rome's absorption and reuse of Hellenistic kingdoms, their people and their culture to see how these influenced images of Roman Rulers in the transition from the Republic to the Julio-Claudians. The fourth chapter details the nature of Julio-Claudian power in Rome, the roles the family took over, and how they made themselves essential to the state, especially in how this relates to imagery from the Grand Cameo. Finally, the fifth chapter allows for the exploration of final cause by using a process of elimination based on living number of family members to establish a coherent narrative for the stone's scene, allowing an interpretation of message and intent. It seems most likely to be justifying the handing over of power to Emperor Claudius as intended by the heavens regardless of the plans of his relatives. </p><p> A roughly chronological understanding of this stone's role from being plucked from the ground to the imperial court is presented by assessing available material. The expansive nature of the question "Why?" allows for an explanation of the stone both broader and more satisfactory than the intentions of one emperor alone, however interesting. The Grand Cameo intersects with the highly international and interactive dynamics of the ancient world as well as specific elements therein which earlier interpretations do not allow for room to explore. </p><p>

<p> This dissertation focuses on religious processions in Athens in the late 6^th and 5^th centuries BCE, when the evidence for processions and festivals first becomes abundant enough to study fruitfully. The built sacred landscape of Athens was beginning to take shape, and Athenian identity was being reshaped under the influence of the Persian Wars, Athens&rsquo; imperial ambitions, and the new popularity of Theseus. Processions traced defined routes in this landscape, forming physical links between center and periphery, displaying numerous symbols which possessed special significance for Athenians and which were part of Athenians&rsquo; cultural memory and collective identity. </p><p> Processions were intense, subjective sensory experiences, full of symbols with deep religious and cultural significance. They were also public performances, opportunities for participants to show off both their piety and their wealth, to perform their membership in the Athenian community, and perhaps to gain social capital or prominence. Not least, processions were movements through a landscape embedded with myths, history, cultural associations, and the connotations of daily lived experience. Previous studies of processions have focused on one of these three aspects&mdash;symbols, participants, or route&mdash;without fully taking account of the others, failing to provide a comprehensive theoretical framework or analysis of these ritual movements. All of these elements&mdash;symbols, participants, and route&mdash;were deliberately chosen, designed to impart particular experiences and meanings to participants and spectators. This dissertation will thus ask why particular symbols, participants, and routes were chosen and explore as many of their potential meanings as possible, considering the myths, cultural associations, and areas of daily life where these elements appeared. </p><p> The repetition of processions is vital to understanding their cultural resonance. Spectators could see the processions multiple times over the course of their lives, and draw new conclusions or interpretations as they gained life experience, learned new stories or myths, and as the collective discourse around Athenian religion created new meanings&mdash;for example, in the aftermath of the Persian Wars. This repetition also reinforced the meanings that these symbols already possessed for Athenians. </p><p> Fran&ccedil;ois de Polignac&rsquo;s bipolar <i>polis</i> theory, which inspired many aspects of this dissertation, characterized processions as ritual &lsquo;links&rsquo; in the landscape connecting center and periphery. This is essentially correct, but in Classical Athens, there were multiple peripheries and a whole calendar full of processions and sacred travel to festivals, the performance of which constructed and maintained the idea of Athens as a spatially and culturally unified territory. Therefore I propose instead the multipolar <i>polis</i> model, which provides a richer and more comprehensive view of the web of connections which linked Athens to her peripheries. These connections included the state-run festivals put on at the major extraurban sanctuaries; the monumental temples and other facilities constructed with state money; the fortifications constructed at or near the sanctuaries, protecting the strategic interests of the state; and the mythical, historical, and ideological significance of these sacred places and their deities. Whether participants traveled to these sanctuaries in a formal procession or via less-organized sacred travel, their movement through the landscape reinforced their associations with it and with the destination sanctuary. </p><p> Processions were complex rituals with many functions. They displayed culturally-significant symbols to participants and spectators, reinforcing their meaning. They provided a stage for participants to perform their status and wealth. They traced a defined route through the landscape of Attica, linking center and periphery, taking participants past a series of meaningful places, buildings, and art. All of these elements&mdash;symbols, people, and places&mdash;drew their meanings from shared myths, rituals, history, and the experience of daily life. The repetition of processions reinforced these meanings in the minds of Athenians, and allowed them to change as Athenian identity changed (and vice versa). It is these threads of common cultural memory, myths and associations that an Athenian could depend on his or her fellow Athenians to remember and understand, and which Athenians wove together in their writings, speeches, plays, and rituals to form their common identity.</p>

<p> Carl Bear This study considers the ways in which the complex debates about appropriate Christian funeral practices in late fourth-century Antioch indicated some of the ways in which Christians' ritual practices embodied their theological beliefs and enacted their religious identities. Sources used to study Christian funerals include the homilies of John Chrysostom, the orations of Libanius, the church order known as <i>Apostolic Constitutions </i>, the historiographic and hagiographic work of Theodoret, and archaeological remains. The analysis of the sources utilizes methods of liturgical history that focus on the perspectives and experiences of ordinary worshipers, and attends to the biases and limitations inherent in the historical record. It also places Christian funeral practices in the context of larger questions surrounding religious identity and ritual in Antioch, especially within the Christian cult of the saints and eucharistic liturgies.</p><p> Ordinary Christians and church leaders in fourth-century Antioch had different ideas about how to Christianize their funerals. Criticism from church authorities that Christians' funeral practices were inconsistent with Christian faith in the resurrection were one-sided. Instead, it seems that ordinary Christians had their own ideas about appropriate ways to care for their dead ritually. Especially in the case of mourning and other contested practices, Christians were giving expression to their human emotions of bereavement, loss, and concern for the dead in culturally prescribed ways. Church leaders, such as John Chrysostom., however, desired Christian funeral practices that exhibited fewer cultural influences and that distinctly demonstrated Christian belief in the resurrection in all aspects of the ritual.</p><p>

<p>A paleodemographic analysis was conducted using skeletal data from J?mon period sites in Japan. 15P5 ratios were produced as proxy birth rate values for sites throughout the J?mon period. Previous studies based on numbers of residential sites indicated a substantial population increase in the Kant? and Ch?bu regions in central Japan, climaxing during the Middle J?mon period, followed by an equally dramatic population decrease, somewhat resembling changes that occurred during a Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). The J?mon are viewed as a relatively sedentary, non-agricultural group, and provided an opportunity to attempt to separate the factors of sedentism and agriculture as they relate to the NDT. Skeletal data showed fairly stable trends in birth rates, instead of the expected increase and decrease in values. This discrepancy calls into question the validity of previous studies. The stable population levels suggest that sedentism alone was not the primary driver of the NDT.

<p> While ethnohistory has been extensively employed by historical anthropologists in tracing cultural changes among various indigenous peoples at the time of European contact, it has been largely ignored by anthropologists of the ancient Near East. Traditional historians were largely concerned with historical people, places, and events, not with ethnographically describing a culture. Using two case studies, this thesis will demonstrate the value of ethnohistorical methods to areas of study where such methods have largely been ignored, namely gender and sexuality studies, religious studies, and ANE studies. The first case study examines how gender was socially constructed in the case of high class celibate nadi?tum &ldquo;nuns&rdquo; in Old Babylonian period Sippar. The second case study examines third-gender categories and non-heteronormative sexuality in Inanna's cultus. The role of etiological myths in the construction of gender and sexuality will be of particular interest in both case studies. </p>

No description available.

Temples in ancient Egypt were confines of restricted sacred space. Only priests had access to the inner workings of the temples and their mysteries. During the great festivals, the gods that dwelled in these sanctuaries went on procession for everyone to see, travelling to other temples in barques of gold and wood. These barques were typical of furniture that was both religious and processional. Study of the lexicography, iconography, and function of ancient Egyptian ritual processional furniture could shed light upon the metanarrative of ancient religious practice. This research identifies the unique characteristics and lexicography of ritual processional furniture as manifest in ancient Egypt between the Old and New Kingdoms. A multidisciplinary approach is taken in regards to the data, utilizing both lexicographic and iconographic sources, to which a seven criteria conceptual framework is applied in order to select the appropriate data. The methodology used in this study is inductive and qualitative, and the conclusions are derived from primary sources. Objects that are discovered to be ritual but not processional are eliminated from further analysis. The analyzed data is synthesized and assimilated to expand the current paradigm of ritual processional objects into a new understanding. In this thesis three primary classes of ritual processional furniture are identified and examined in detail: chests, barques, and palanquin thrones. This project analyzed over sixty lexemes and three hundred fifty instances of iconography. The lexemes for twelve chests, six sacred barques, and six palanquins were found to have been used as ritual processional furniture. The iconographic study examined the pictorial instances by typology and locale. For sacred barques, the results attempted to resolve the ongoing problems concerning identification and inconsistencies between icon and text. The results for palanquin thrones showed that the iconography from sacred barques was appropriated and compressed elevating the king to a focus of religious adoration. This extensive study of Egyptian ritual processional furniture contributes to the ongoing dialogue regarding the material and cultural context of religious expression by synthesizing the paradigm of temple sacred space upon smaller physical objects. The contribution to knowledge has been to flesh out the identities of specific instances of ritual processional furnishing and to assimilate the architectural understanding of sacred space with the available data so as to arrive at a new understanding of the existing paradigm. The significance of these contributions is that they further develop our understanding of the religious cultural context of ancient Egypt.

The god Seth was depicted in both zoomorphic and bimorphic form. In zoomorphic form he was depicted as a canine-like animal with a down curved muzzle, upright squared-off ears and an erect tail, whilst in bimorphic form he was portrayed as a human male with the head of the Seth animal. Although much has been written on the mythology of Seth and identification of the Seth animal, no in-depth research has been undertaken regarding the variations that occur in his images over the dynastic period of Egyptian history. This thesis looks at the variations in the images of Seth and how he was represented in temples, tombs, written texts and in personal adornment. A comparison of the variations of his component parts leads to a comprehensive understanding of the different forms employed and allows the questions to be answered of whether there was ever a fully defined standard representation or if each image was an individual interpretation of a loosely defined theoretical form. Additionally, the study of the use of the zoomorphic and bimorphic Seth images within the Nile Valley and Western Desert oases provides the further understanding of the form of the proscription against Seth.

This thesis details the development of fora in Rome and Pompeii in order that our understanding of these spaces as 'centres' accounts for their changing relationship with the city, between the third century B.C. and the second century A.D. It is a diachronic study of spatial practice and the representation of space, based on archaeological evidence for infrastructures of movement and textual evidence for the articulation of spatial concepts. Having asserted the importance of movement in shaping the perception of space in antiquity, this thesis details the changes to the physical disposition, the management of access, and the representation of fora. It concludes that while the centrality of the Forum Romanum was related to its potential for through movement, access was increasingly restricted in the late-first century B.C. This changing disposition of public space informed the development of the imperial fora, which in turn informed the development of fora outside of the city of Rome. Fora changed from shortcuts to obstacles in the city; from spaces of movement through to spaces of movement to. This represents a fundamental redefinition of their relationship with the city of which they were a part, and of their 'centrality' in both practice and representation.