Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 25-12, page: 7218. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1964.

This study includes artifacts from the Villanovan period down into Hellenistic times. Due to the lack of Etruscan literature, the collective evidence is mainly visual in nature. Chapter One discusses the funerary mask, with an analysis of the parallels to be found in Roman, Greek and Punic cultures. / Chapter Two focuses on the Phersu, a masked Etruscan character known chiefly from a small number of wall paintings and bronze statuettes. The enigmatic Phersu, perhaps an underworld entity, is linked to a series of Etruscan artifacts representing a wolf deity. It is suggested that as part of a religious ritual, men masqueraded as wolves, perhaps to offer a blood sacrifice. This visual concept is traced back to similar Egyptian rites involving Anubis, the jackal god of the underworld. / Chapter Three treats the theme of Etruscan theater with a typological examination of a number of miniature terracotta masks found in Hellenistic tombs. The Etruscan masks seem derived from standard Greek theater types. The author suggests that the popularity of these masks as tomb offerings reflected their religious use at funeral festivities. It is argued that men also masqueraded as satyrs in Etruscan rituals. The large number of comic masks may reveal a humorous performance art in Etruria with native Italic farce under the influence of contemporary Greek phlyakes shows. / The fourth-century B.C. frescoes of Tarquinia and a number of three-dimensional tomb offerings indicate the possibility of a masquerade of underworld demons, like Charu and Tuchulcha. This study concludes with an analysis of the themes and physical concerns of Etruscan masked practice as represented on ash urns from Volterra. / One is left with an overall impression of Etruscan dramatic ritual and the influence this may have had on both Roman theater and gladiatorial contests. The Etruscans are seen as a deeply reverent people who combined their beliefs about death, the gods, and heroic endeavours with a native comic revelry to create a widespread and long lasting religious masked practice. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, Section: A, page: 2208. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

<p>This essay deals with the results and observations made during excavations in an iron age cemetery in Alsike hage, located in Alsike parish. The excavations took place in 2005 and 2006 and the investigated area comprised two adjacent, but secluded burial-constructions; a square stone setting with a secondary grave, and a stone-built terrace with at least one secondary grave. The artifacts suggests that the TPQ of the stone setting, and the construction date of the rest of the graves, is 900-950 A.D. The aim of this study was to comprehend the course of events in the investigated area, and to</p><p>analyse the archaeological finds - in comparison to the well documented an discussed material burial culture in the lake Mälar area – in order to discuss indicators of gender and social status.</p><p>Metal artefacts has been preserved as a part of the analysis.</p>

<p>Hazor’s role in an international Late Bronze Age context has long been indicated but never thoroughly investigated. This role, I believe, was more crucial than previously stressed. My assumption is based on the very large size of this flourishing city which, according to documents, possessed ancient traditions of diplomatic connections and trade with Mesopotamia in the Middle Bronze Age. Its strategic position along the most important N-S and E-W main trade routes, which connected Egypt with Syria-Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean Sea with the city and beyond, promoted contacts. Hazor was a city-state in Canaan, a province under Egyptian domination and exploitation during this period, a position that also influenced the city’s international relations.</p><p>Methodologically the thesis examines areas of the earlier and the renewed excavations at Hazor, with the aim of discussing the city’s interregional relations and cultural belonging based on external influences in architectural structures (mainly temples), imported pottery and artistic expressions in small finds, supported by written evidence. Cultic influences are also considered.</p><p>Various origin and find contexts of the imported and culturally influenced material can be recognized, which imply three concepts in the field of interaction studies found within the framework of a modified World Systems Theory and also according to C. Renfrew’s Peer Polity Interaction model:</p><p>1) The northern influenced material at Hazor should be understood in the context of cultural identity. It continues from earlier periods and is maintained through external trade and the regional interaction between Canaanite city-states in the north, resulting in certain cultural homogeneity.</p><p>2) A core-periphery approach is used to explain the special unequal relation between Canaan and Egypt, in which Hazor might have possessed an integrating semi-peripheral role, a kind of diplomatic position between Egypt and its northern enemies. The city’s loyalty to Egypt is hinted at in documents and in the increasing evidences of emulation in elite contexts appearing on the site.</p><p>3) A model of ‘interregional interaction networks’ describes the organization of the trade which provided certain consumers at Hazor with the Aegean and Cypriote pottery and its desirable content. The cargo of the Ulu Burun and Cape Gelidonya ships and documents show that luxury items were transited from afar through Canaan. Such long-distance trade / exchange require professional traders that established networks along the main trade routes. The thesis suggests that Hazor possessed a node position in such a network.</p><p>Keywords: Hazor, Canaan, Eastern Mediterranean, Late Bronze Age, contacts, trade, temple architecture, Mycenaean pottery, Cypriote pottery, interregional interaction networks, emulation, peer polity interaction, centre-periphery approach.</p>

This essay deals with the results and observations made during excavations in an iron age cemetery in Alsike hage, located in Alsike parish. The excavations took place in 2005 and 2006 and the investigated area comprised two adjacent, but secluded burial-constructions; a square stone setting with a secondary grave, and a stone-built terrace with at least one secondary grave. The artifacts suggests that the TPQ of the stone setting, and the construction date of the rest of the graves, is 900-950 A.D. The aim of this study was to comprehend the course of events in the investigated area, and to analyse the archaeological finds - in comparison to the well documented an discussed material burial culture in the lake Mälar area – in order to discuss indicators of gender and social status. Metal artefacts has been preserved as a part of the analysis.

This thesis explores the process of Christianisation in Viking and Medieval Scandinavia through the social constructions of infancy and the beginnings of human life, as expressed in the ideals and practices seen in written and archaeological evidence. ‘Childhood’ is regarded as a social construction defined by, and therefore also reflecting, contemporary society. Christianisation is seen as a process, heterogeneous in time, space and manifestations. A point of departure has been to approach each piece of evidence as a closed phenomenon comparable only to itself. This approach has been particularly relevant when examining syncretic burial customs. The emerging Christian institutions provided alternatives to the pre-Christian perceptions of birth control and initiating passage rites, most strikingly expressed in the criminalising of infanticide and the introduction of infant baptism. In this thesis, the strategies, processes and ideological foundations behind these changes are investigated and understood in terms of agency, ideal and practice. The results demonstrate that the process of social change brought by Christianisation was expressed in conservative, innovative as well as conciliatory fashions. It is argued that initiation rituals as well as regulations on child abandonment and burial practices were strategic tools used to modify the central aspects of the Viking-Age perception of infancy. Traces of conflict or conciliation are primarily found in issues relating to children as agents of the family and inheritance lines, which suggest that the ongoing establishment of the Church in some respects challenged the traditional autonomy of the households.

Hazor’s role in an international Late Bronze Age context has long been indicated but never thoroughly investigated. This role, I believe, was more crucial than previously stressed. My assumption is based on the very large size of this flourishing city which, according to documents, possessed ancient traditions of diplomatic connections and trade with Mesopotamia in the Middle Bronze Age. Its strategic position along the most important N-S and E-W main trade routes, which connected Egypt with Syria-Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean Sea with the city and beyond, promoted contacts. Hazor was a city-state in Canaan, a province under Egyptian domination and exploitation during this period, a position that also influenced the city’s international relations. Methodologically the thesis examines areas of the earlier and the renewed excavations at Hazor, with the aim of discussing the city’s interregional relations and cultural belonging based on external influences in architectural structures (mainly temples), imported pottery and artistic expressions in small finds, supported by written evidence. Cultic influences are also considered. Various origin and find contexts of the imported and culturally influenced material can be recognized, which imply three concepts in the field of interaction studies found within the framework of a modified World Systems Theory and also according to C. Renfrew’s Peer Polity Interaction model: 1) The northern influenced material at Hazor should be understood in the context of cultural identity. It continues from earlier periods and is maintained through external trade and the regional interaction between Canaanite city-states in the north, resulting in certain cultural homogeneity. 2) A core-periphery approach is used to explain the special unequal relation between Canaan and Egypt, in which Hazor might have possessed an integrating semi-peripheral role, a kind of diplomatic position between Egypt and its northern enemies. The city’s loyalty to Egypt is hinted at in documents and in the increasing evidences of emulation in elite contexts appearing on the site. 3) A model of ‘interregional interaction networks’ describes the organization of the trade which provided certain consumers at Hazor with the Aegean and Cypriote pottery and its desirable content. The cargo of the Ulu Burun and Cape Gelidonya ships and documents show that luxury items were transited from afar through Canaan. Such long-distance trade / exchange require professional traders that established networks along the main trade routes. The thesis suggests that Hazor possessed a node position in such a network. Keywords: Hazor, Canaan, Eastern Mediterranean, Late Bronze Age, contacts, trade, temple architecture, Mycenaean pottery, Cypriote pottery, interregional interaction networks, emulation, peer polity interaction, centre-periphery approach.

Ethnopalynology is a specialty within palynology that centers specifically on past and present palynological data related to humans. Palynological data may be a significant tool to archaeologists if the applications and limitations are clearly understood. The following is a compilation of historical references, information on the processing procedures used in pollen research, the types of samples that are appropriate for palynological analysis within the discipline of archaeology, and examples of how palynological data can answer some questions regarding diet, the environment, building materials and chronological data. An extensive literature review was performed and revealed incongruities and areas that could be improved upon. This dissertation is a result of that research. Experimentation with palynological processing procedures indicate that commonly used methodologies may be flawed and should be reviewed regularly. New methodologies in the dissolution of resins, or plant exudates, is a relatively new application for pollen research and an area where there is a potential for future growth. Palynological applications to archaeology are beginning to expand in previously unknown directions. The extrication of pollen from plant exudates or resin is only one new area of research. This and other avenues are still waiting to be explored.

Beads are one of the earliest forms of ornamentation created by humans; prized during the Bronze Age for both their aesthetic as well as amuletic value, beads also served to signify the social status of the wearer. Beads functioned as an important trade commodity during the Late Bronze Age, as demonstrated by their abundance aboard the Uluburun shipwreck. This Late Bronze Age shipwreck, discovered off the Turkish coast at Uluburun in 1982, dates to approximately 1300 B.C. Thousands of beads of vitreous material were found on the shipwreck, including approximately 75,000 faience beads and 9,500 glass beads. Bead form and style represented in the faience and glass beads at Uluburun are relatively simple and are quite common at archaeological sites throughout the Late Bronze Age Levant. Faience beads found at Uluburun vary widely in form and comprise eight distinct categories. While the surface glaze remains in rare patches only, most faience beads exhibit a blue undertone. Other colors, while less common, include red, yellow, white and turquoise. The glass beads found at Uluburun may be loosely grouped into two categories, small and large. Many of the large glass beads exhibit yellow and white spot or crumb decoration, or a combination of both, and there is a distinctpossibility that all the large glass beads were decorated in this way, but surface deterioration masks the decoration. Many of the faience and glass bead categories represent items of cargo, as evidenced by a concreted lump of small glass beads transported inside a Canaanite jar. Other, less prolific, bead categories probably represent the personal belongings of the crew or passengers aboard the ship. Beads found in archaeological contexts are notoriously difficult to date due to their extended use throughout generations; for this reason, the Uluburun beads represent an important contribution to the archaeological record and bead studies in particular, for the mere fact that they may be dated by provenance alone to the late 14th century B.C.

Ethnopalynology is a specialty within palynology that centers specifically on past and present palynological data related to humans. Palynological data may be a significant tool to archaeologists if the applications and limitations are clearly understood. The following is a compilation of historical references, information on the processing procedures used in pollen research, the types of samples that are appropriate for palynological analysis within the discipline of archaeology, and examples of how palynological data can answer some questions regarding diet, the environment, building materials and chronological data. An extensive literature review was performed and revealed incongruities and areas that could be improved upon. This dissertation is a result of that research. Experimentation with palynological processing procedures indicate that commonly used methodologies may be flawed and should be reviewed regularly. New methodologies in the dissolution of resins, or plant exudates, is a relatively new application for pollen research and an area where there is a potential for future growth. Palynological applications to archaeology are beginning to expand in previously unknown directions. The extrication of pollen from plant exudates or resin is only one new area of research. This and other avenues are still waiting to be explored.