Este trabalho apresenta a reunião de dados e informações sobre a arqueologia de 11 municípios do Paranapanema superior, lado paulista (municípios de Bonsucesso de Itararé, Buri, Capão Bonito, Guapiara, Itaberá, Itapeva, Itararé, Nova Campina, Ribeirão Branco, Ribeirão Grande e Taquarivai), os quais juntos tem uma população de mais de 250 mil habitantes e passaram nos últimos 50 anos por diversas pesquisas acadêmicas e preventivas que renderam fragmentos e artefatos de sítios pré-históricos e históricos, além de milhares de páginas de teses, dissertações e relatórios técnicos escritos. Existem também artefatos, sítios arqueológicos, coleções particulares e museus municipais que estão à margem das ações de salvaguarda, preservação, conservação e extroversão da arqueoinformação, que necessitam de fundamentos básicos. Sendo assim integrou-se a arqueoinformação dos diversos setores sociais envolvidos com o objetivo de preservar e potencializar o uso do patrimônio arqueológico e suas conjunções. Para tanto se buscou informações com lideranças políticas, sociais, memorialistas, professores das redes públicas de ensino, colecionadores, assim como a compreensão da legislação municipal e a utilização social que envolve o patrimônio arqueológico regional. Foi constatado em alguns casos o intenso uso do patrimônio arqueológico e histórico-arquitetônico e a intenção na preservação, mas todos os municípios se mostram carentes de informações técnicas e científicas enquanto outros municípios se mostram totalmente alheios aos bens que portam ou portavam. Como parte dos resultados obtidos na pesquisa construiu-se alguns cenários de ocupações humanas para a área de estudo, consolidando-os em mapas, fotos e textos. Há necessidade da aproximação entre os segmentos sociais envolvidos (prefeituras, universidades, arqueólogos, museólogos, educadores, IPHAN, ONGs entre outros). No final se chega à conclusão de que não só é possível, mas muito importante para o desenvolvimento humano e ambiental da área de estudo (em especial a educação, a cultura e o turismo) a implantação de um Núcleo de Regional de Arqueologia e Meio Ambiente em Itapeva-SP que contribua, organize e sistematize por meio do conhecimento técnico científico o uso e a preservação do patrimônio arqueológico dos 11 municípios que se mostrou de considerável extensão. / This paper presents a collection of data and information on the archaeology of 11 towns in the Upper Paranapanema, in the paulista region (Bonsucesso de Itararé, Buri, Capão Bonito, Guapiara, Itaberá, Itapeva, Itararé, Nova Campina, Ribeirão Branco, Ribeirão Grande and Taquarivaí) which, together, comprise a population of over 250,000 inhabitants and which, in the last 50 years, have been the focus of several preventive and academic researches, which yielded fragments and artifacts from prehistoric and historic sites, besides thousands of pages of theses, dissertations and recorded technical reports. There are also artifacts, archaeological sites, private collections and municipal museums which are on the fringe of the salvage, preservation and conservation policies. Feeding the archaeoinformation back on a regional level requires some basic principles. Hence, the archaeoinformation from several social sectors involved have been integrated with the goal to preserve and stimulate the use of the archaeological heritage and its connections. To accomplish that, political and social leaders, memorialists, public school teachers and collectors were sought. The aim was to understand the municipal legislation and the social use involved in the regional archaeological heritage. It was noticed, in some cases, the intensive use of the archaeological and historical heritage and an intention towards preservation, but all towns show a lack of technical and scientific information, while other places proved to be completely unaware of the assets they have or used to have. Some models of human occupation for the areas in context were developed with part of the results obtained, consolidating them on maps and illustrated texts. It is evident the need to bring together the social segments involved (municipalities, universities, archaeologists, museologists, educators, IPHAN (The National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute), NGOs, among others). The conclusion is that it is not only possible but very important to the human development of the areas studied (especially education, culture and tourism) the establishment of a centre of regional archaeology to contribute to, organize and systematize through the application of technical and scientific knowledge the use and the preservation of the considerable archaeological heritage of the 11 towns investigated.

Our understanding of the Later Stone Age (LSA) on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape has until now been fairly limited. However, it is a landscape upon which foragers witnessed and partook in agriculturalist state formation between AD 900 and 1300, altering their cultural behaviour to suit their changing social and political topography. Nowhere else in southern Africa were foragers part of such developments. For this project a landscape approach was used to study the various changes in the regional LSA record as well as the way in which foragers interacted with farmers. In order to address these issues, data were obtained from an archaeological survey followed by an excavation of seven sites in north-eastern Botswana, part of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape. These finds indicate that the local forager record varies chronologically and spatially, which had not previously been recorded. Foragers also used a variety of site types and in each a different forager expression was deposited, providing indications of their changing settlement pattern. Notably, this included a gradual movement into agriculturalist homesteads beginning by at least AD 1000 and concluding by AD 1300, when the Mapungubwe capital was abandoned. Thus, interactions, at least in some cases, led to assimilation. There is also clear evidence of exchange with agriculturalists at many of the excavated sites, but this does not always seem to be related to their proximity with one another. Performing a landscape study has also made it possible to make two general conclusions with regard to LSA research. First, these data challenge ethnography, displaying its limitations particularly with linking modern Bushman practices, such as aggregation and dispersal patterns or hxaro gift exchange, to LSA foragers. Second, a full landscape understanding combines the archaeology of multiple cultural landscapes and in this case also crosses national borders, two themes often neglected in southern African archaeological studies.

The Back to Nature project was developed as a collaborative doctoral award between the British Museum and the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. The British Museum has a large collection of limestone artefacts, some of which have deteriorated to an extent that a consolidation treatment, to improve internal cohesion, has been deemed necessary to ensure the value of the artefacts is maintained. Previous consolidation practices within the museum had centred on the use of organic consolidants. In the past, inorganic consolidants had been considered ineffective chiefly due to poor penetration depth and inconsistent deposition within the stone. Recent scientific developments within conservation, particularly the development of nano-limes, coupled with a trend towards treatments offering physical and chemical compatibility, led to the British Museum reconsidering the use of inorganic consolidants. Three inorganic consolidants: ammonium oxalate treatment, Calcite In-situ Precipitation System (CIPS), and CaLoSil have been investigated by the Back to Nature project to assess their potential for use on the British Museum’s deteriorated limestone artefacts. The investigation involved a developmental sequence of four experimental phases to assess the effectiveness of each consolidant upon freshly cut, artificially pre-weathered, and naturally weathered stone samples. In all experiments an organic silane Wacker SILRES BS OH 100 was used as a comparison. A variety of analytical methods were used including: Equotip, GrindoSonic, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Karsten Tubes, Drilling Resistance Measurement System, spectrophotometry, X-ray Diffraction and Ion Chromatography. Experiments show that the CIPS treatment could hold promise for use as a consolidant. Ammonium oxalate only appears to provide consolidation at the surface level, and CaLoSil would need modifying and more investigation before using in the museum environment. The differences noted between experiments on artificially weathered and naturally weathered stone indicate that a two-step process, involving testing on both types of samples, would give the best indication of consolidant effectiveness. High variability between samples shows a large number are needed to give an accurate interpretation of change due to consolidation.

The Lateglacial between ∼14,600 - 11,500 cal yr BP is characterised by the rapid fluctuation of climatic conditions following the termination of the Last Glacial Maximum. During this period, the North European Plain (NEP) was re-occupied and settled by hunter-gather groups utilising a succession of lithic technocomplexes. Contrasting models of population expansion exist to explain the re-occupation of the NEP by ∼14,600 cal yr BP. Both rapid climatic amelioration and increased food resource availability on the NEP are suggested as possible stimuli. Studies of food resource availability as a stimulus for re-occupation and settlement of the NEP have long been dominated by the prevailing view that large mammal hunting was the dominant subsistence strategy. A number of archaeological finds across the NEP however, suggest that the exploitation of aquatic resources such as fish may have played a role in a more varied subsistence strategy during the period ∼14,600 - 11,500 cal yr BP. This thesis sets out to examine the development of palaeolake systems and examine their potential as a resource base for Lateglacial hunter-gatherers. This is achieved through the analysis of sedimentary organic matter and cladoceran records from five Lateglacial sites in northern Germany and southern Denmark, providing important information on basin development and the presence or absence of fish. The results suggest that significant variability existed in the development and resource availability of the basins over a local scale. Observed variability in the organic matter and cladoceran records within chronozone boundaries suggests that the Lateglacial – Holocene development of aquatic systems across the NEP cannot be solely explained by external climate change, and that local environmental and ecological factors are likely to have played a major part in their development. This thesis demonstrates that the local variance in aquatic conditions and fish populations would have offered, at best, limited and ephemeral resource availability and were therefore unlikely to have formed a major resource base for hunter-gatherer groups across the NEP. It is more likely that lakes were exploited opportunistically and as such formed only a minor component of a subsistence strategy more focussed on large mammal hunting.

The economic development of frontier regions has been neglected in the study of the Roman economy. Traditional core/periphery models suggest that frontiers were marginal zones dependent on a wealthy Mediterranean core, and this view has dominated scholarship for more than thirty years. In light of recent work on the Roman economy, it is clear that many old models need to be reappraised; this thesis examines the economic development of frontiers through the case study of the Rhine River Basin. This region formed one of Rome’s northern frontiers for more than 400 years and has a rich tradition of detailed archaeological and historical research. Using data from the Rhine frontier, this thesis re-examines the nature of frontier economies, arguing that they were dynamic, versatile, and complex rather than subaltern and undeveloped. A new model, based in the analytic framework of economic geography, is suggested as a replacement in order to appreciate the realities and potential of frontier economies.

This thesis constructs an ethnography for the nineteenth century ǀXam Bushmen of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, known primarily through a nineteenth century manuscript collection of oral narrative (the Bleek-Lloyd archive), which has, over the past twenty-five years, increasingly become the focus of scholarly attention, mined for insights about the cultural world of southern Bushman societies. It draws on the Bleek-Lloyd archive to produce a detailed ethnographic case study, focusing on the ideological and ontological concepts that underpinned the differentiation of ǀXam society. Firstly, the thesis situates the archive and ǀXam society within their particular environmental and historical contexts, providing valuable supplementary information that informs readings of the narratives. By producing a fully searchable transcription of the entirety of the archive, paying close attention to emic terminology, and examining the recurrence of thematic associations of this phraseology throughout the narratives, the analysis explores the constitution of ǀXam ‘personhood’ and examines the extent to which the ‘hunter-gatherer’ category forms a useful heuristic for understanding ǀXam society, with a particular focus on models of the ‘animic ontology’. The ǀXam deployed a series of positively and negatively evaluated traits in the creation of dimensions of authority, obligation, and social responsibility, embedded in particular social identities; central to these constructions and to the differentiation of these identities were the techniques and resources of ǀXam subsistence practices, salient in the production of admirable (socially-responsible hunters), reprehensible (antagonistic ‘beasts of prey’), and more ambiguous (ǃgi:tǝn ritual specialists) identities. Recognising this internal differentiation, the thesis outlines ǀXam ‘subsistence strategies’ and suggests they should be defined broadly to include their contacts and interactions with non-ǀXam groups, with domesticated animals, and with the novel material culture of the colonial period; these interactions were a consequence of their ‘hunter-gatherer’ strategies rather than a negation of them. Such strategies generated experiences that reinforced and reconstituted ǀXam ideological frameworks, incorporating the dynamics of the nineteenth century ‘frontier’ scenario and provided avenues for social change that ultimately led to the collapse of independent hunter-gatherer lifeways, and to the adoption of strategies that incorporated ǀXam individuals within rural and urban ‘Coloured’ populations of the Northern Cape; placing the ǀXam in a comparative colonial context, the thesis stresses the wider relevance of this particular ethnography for understanding hunter-gatherer engagements with food-producing, state-level societies.

Bayesian modelling is a widely used, powerful approach for reducing absolute dating uncertainties in archaeological research. It is important that the methods used in chronology building are robust and reflect substantial prior knowledge. This thesis focuses on the development and evaluation of two novel, prior models: the trapezoidal phase model; and the Poisson process deposition model. Firstly, the limitations of the trapezoidal phase model were investigated by testing the model assumptions using simulations. It was found that a simple trapezoidal phase model does not reflect substantial prior knowledge and the addition of a non-informative element to the prior was proposed. An alternative parameterisation was also presented, to extend its use to a contiguous phase scenario. This method transforms the commonly-used abrupt transition model to allow for gradual changes. The second phase of this research evaluates the use of Bayesian model averaging in the Poisson process deposition model. The use of model averaging extends the application of the Poisson process model to remove the subjectivity involved in model selection. The last part of this thesis applies these models to different case studies, including attempts at resolving the Iron Age chronological debate in Israel, at determining the age of an important Quaternary tephra, at refining a cave chronology, and at more accurately modelling the mid-Holocene elm decline in the British Isles. The Bayesian methods discussed in this thesis are widely applicable in modelling situations where the associated prior assumptions are appropriate. Therefore, they are not limited to the case studies addressed in this thesis, nor are they limited to analysing radiocarbon chronologies.

Iran, a country rich in mineral resources, has a long history of metal working. Copper objects first appeared in the 7th millennium BC and in the following millennia, copper became the material of choice for the production of many objects. Artefacts of iron began to appear in the mid 2nd millennium BC and by the mid 1st, iron had replaced bronze for most uses, but the reasons for this change remain unclear. This thesis seeks to examine the transition from bronze to iron metallurgy from a new angle. By looking at changes in copper-based metallurgy between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, it attempts to better understand the context in which iron metallurgy developed. To that end, the results of previously published chemical analyses of over 5000 copper-based objects from Iran and neighbouring regions and the lead isotope analyses of about 380 objects were assembled in a database. The tin, arsenic, nickel, antimony and silver concentrations in particular are studied. The data is divided into 16 metal groups based on the absence or presence of the latter four elements. The study of the main groups allows us to describe interesting new patterns of metal movement and recycling. It appears that before the end of the Bronze Age, a number of copper sources and/or trade routes from both east and west declined, leading to a reliance on more local sources for copper and tin in the Iron Age. The practice of recycling from the 3rd millennium BC onward is also evidenced. Overall, it seems that iron appeared within a thriving bronze industry, with a good access to metal resources and a developed understanding of the possibilities offered by copper (alloying, recycling, mixing…). Was it then the more ‘permanent’ nature of iron that attracted the ancient metal-workers and led to its advent?

Archaeological bones are usually dated by radiocarbon measurement of extracted collagen. However, low collagen content, contamination from the burial environment or museum conservation work have previously lead to inaccurate results, especially for old bones, compromising the ability to reconstruct reliable past chronologies. It is reported, for example, that up to 70% of Palaeolithic radiocarbon dates on bones are likely to be underestimates of the real age, blurring the picture of modern human dispersals and Neanderthal extinction. In this thesis, a method for isolating and radiocarbon dating the collagen amino acid hydroxyproline is described. Hydroxyproline consists of about 10% of bone collagen but is not found in significant amounts elsewhere in nature. The hydroxyproline dating method uses a mixed-mode (i.e. ion-exchange combined with hydrophobic chemistry), semi preparative HPLC methodology. The amino acids do not require derivatisation, and no organic solvents are used, thereby avoiding addition of carbon. The hypothesis of this thesis is that the hydroxyproline can be used as a bone specific biomarker, improving dating accuracy and making it possible to obtain radiocarbon determinations where previously it has been impossible. It was calculated that on average 3.3±1.4μg of contaminant carbon are added to each sample in the process of isolating the hydroxyproline, a low level suitable for 14C dating. It was investigated whether a deliberately contaminated bone and 'naturally' contaminated archaeological bones, yielding erroneous dates when dated using the normal pretreatment method, could be dated accurately using this method. In addition, a hydroxyproline date was obtained for a bone with too little surviving collagen to be dateable by the bulk collagen method. Finally, using the hydroxyproline dating method, the earliest direct ages for the presence of anatomically modern humans on the Russian Plain were obtained. The method proved to be a powerful tool that can help resolve longstanding archaeological questions.

In an exploratory study, techniques were developed for isolating bulk plant proteins and measuring the ¹³C isotopic compositions of their constituent amino acids by HPLC-IRMS. Samples of plants expected to be of potential palaeodietary significance in northwestern Europe were selected for investigation. Different tissues of plants, leaves and seeds, may be distinguished from each other by the relative ¹³C isotopic compositions (‘isotopic signatures’) of the amino acids of their constituent proteins. For each tissue type, different plant types may be distinguished in the same way. These signatures can vary slightly according to environment and season, but the variation among types is greater than this. For leaves, isotopic signatures can be used to differentiate (i) nettles, (ii) true grasses, (iii) reeds etc, (iv) trees, (v) legumes, (vi) maize, (vii) freshwater plants and (viii) marine algae. For seeds, these signatures are able to differentiate (i) wheat-type cereals, (ii) barley-type cereals, (iii) C4 cereals, (iv) pseudocereals, (v) legumes and (vi) tree nuts. From investigations using a mixing model, it appears that these signals, particularly those of essential amino acids, are reflected in the tissues of their consumers. Freshwater plants are identified as the base of the food chain for dragonfly larvae, marine algae as the diet of marine molluscs and grass as the diet of archaeological cattle and aurochs. Isotopic ‘marine signals’ identified by previous researchers have been refined using these data and the isotopic signatures of fish muscle. These findings are expected to be of particular value in the study of palaeodiets using proteins from archaeological tissues, especially bone and hair. This approach will also find application in the fields of plant physiology and biochemistry.