The Corsican Bronze Age is characterized by the erection of massive stone towers, the torre, and of stone enclosures, the casteddi. While the role of these structures is still debated, they have generally been interpreted as the sign of a hierarchical society, pervaded by martial values and fragmented into competing antagonistic groups. After several centuries of stability, a sharp demographic decline occurred at the end of the Middle Bronze Age. ca. 1350 and 1200 BC. In contrast, the Final Bronze Age, between 1200 and 950 BC, is a period of continuous expansion, characterized by the appearance of new forms of cultural expression, which included the erection of armed menhirs, the development of open villages, and the manufacture of a new type of ceramic production, manifestly inspired by foreign models. The aim of this work is to improve our understanding of the social dynamics at work during the Final Bronze Age through the study of the mobility of the ceramics within a systemic theoretical framework. Another goal is to further our understanding of the function of the fine ware during this period. A portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) was used on 321 ceramic artifacts from six different sites to assess the extent of the exchanges taking place between six sites, located both on the inner plateaus and the coastal plains. Ceramics made from non-local clay material are present at five out of six sites, which shows that economic exchanges regularly took place between different communities. Except for one site, there is no association between a specific clay material and a type of ware. These results suggest that Final Bronze Age Corsican society should be considered as largely open to external influences.

In southeastern North America, the Woodland period (ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1050) was arguably witness to the first early village societies, and Kolomoki—located in southwestern Georgia—is among the largest villages during this interval. Though archaeologists recognize these communities as seminal developments in the course of human history, little attention has been paid to how they develop and vary internally. This thesis seeks to address these issues by focusing on the development and social construction of the early village community at Kolomoki. The results of an excavation program carried out within Kolomoki’s South Village affords a clearer picture of this understudied area, and provides supplemental collections to previous work at the site. New radiocarbon dates suggest a dynamic developmental sequence of Kolomoki’s village, starting as a relatively compact village sometime around the second century A.D., and growing to a massive scale around the seventh or eighth century A.D. Comparisons of various classes of material cultural provide evidence for contrasts between occupation along Kolomoki’s northern and southern enclosures, interpreted as differing uses of space by an internally differentiated community.

Future architectural relics are everywhere, manifest in the ultimately unsustainable patterns many American communities have replicated - endless weed-infested parking lots, decrepit malls, the abandoned Walmart glowering across the street at the even bigger Super Walmart. Gone are many of the small, independently owned businesses that lined main streets in small and medium-sized communities across the country, rendered relics by shopping malls lauding big-name brands or cheap products. Malls, too, may be on their way to becoming relics, due in part to the Internet and The Great Recession. However, architectural relics in the form of big box stores have haunted the American landscape since 1964. These box-like, impossibly large structures continue to be built, only to stand empty several years later when an even larger store model is constructed. The country is facing a new obsolescence of extravagance. No longer can our floundering economy support an infinite boom of boxes. Every new big box is a future relic. While many architectural and cultural historians such as Richard Longstreth, David Smiley, and Neil Harris have dissected the relic of the American shopping mall, few have grappled with the ubiquity of the big box store and how this structural form has departed from a longstanding tradition of retail architectural design. In this thesis, I analyze the factors have contributed to the rise and fall of these creaking behemoths of retail architecture. Ultimately, I contend that big box stores mark a stark departure in architectural theory and practice, and that this departure has manifested in a multitude of cultural, economic, and environmental consequences.

In this thesis, I explored the visual and textual connotations of the handscroll painting Poetic Feeling in a Thatched Pavilion attributed to the Chinese Yuan dynasty artist Wu Zhen, and discussed this piece of work in terms of its relation to the long history of Chinese literati painting.

The Promethean characteristics of contemporary young iconoclasts as they have expressed disapproval of the society which they have inherited and in which they feel entrapped prompted this study. Our interest here lies with the nature of the dissatisfaction rather than with ways of expressing it. If follows that out concern is primarily with the gift of Prometheus - the fire rather than with the rebellion and defiance associated with the demigod who took action against the tyranny of Zeus.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria have recently demonstrated once again the susceptibility of contemporary populations across the Caribbean to climate-driven events. For islands such as Antigua in the eastern Caribbean, this vulnerability is partly a legacy of prior land use. As such, the actions of pre-Contact and historic period inhabitants are intertwined with contemporary socio-ecological challenges faced by Antiguans today. This research sought to understand the relationship between land use and land degradation from ca. AD 100 to the present in eastern Antigua utilizing two markers of anthropic activity: soil stability and soil quality. Specifically, this research sought to examine how past anthropogenic actions have shaped landscape dynamics across two regions (Ayer’s Creek Basin and Indian Creek Basin), where archaeological research has revealed a long-term, continuous sequence of occupation dating back 2,000 years. Prior research suggests that contemporary environmental challenges in both regions may be linked to prior land management practices. However, it is unknown to what extent historical land use and its interactions with local geomorphology account for these challenges. The main research question was: In what ways and to what extent has past land use (as recorded archaeologically) impacted the landscape (as recorded by soil stability and soil quality) in the Ayer’s Creek and Indian Creek Basins in eastern Antigua? This research determined that contemporary soil erosion and soil quality loss may be attributed to historic land management practices, but mitigating these challenges is impeded by local perceptions of soil health.

This dissertation explores the world of early American botany and the transatlantic community of botanical enthusiasts from the perspective of William Hamilton, gentleman botanical collector in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Philadelphia. Drawing on both existing documentary sources and three seasons of archaeological excavation at The Woodlands, Hamilton's country estate on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, I analyze both the physical requirements of botanical collecting as well as the more nuanced social, cultural, and economic elements of this trade and its early modern participants.;The personal experiences of individual participants in this exchange are often traced through the existing documentary evidence they leave behind, in the form of letters, plant orders, and published works. But this botanical exchange was not just intellectual; it was also physical and material, as both knowledge about plants and the plants themselves were shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. Exploring the physical and material elements of this trade adds immeasurably to our understanding of the experiences of individual participants by locating them and the items exchanged within the physical spaces of these exchanges themselves. The archaeological investigation of William Hamilton's greenhouse complex at The Woodlands explores the physical and material elements of this trade in one specific site of exchange -- Hamilton's greenhouse complex -- and the ways in which those physical and material elements reflect the experiences of the participants in this transatlantic botanical trade.

This course explores the world’s visual arts, focusing on the development of visual awareness, assessment, and appreciation by examining a variety of styles from various periods and cultures while emphasizing the development of a common visual language. The materials are meant to foster a broader understanding of the role of visual art in human culture and experience from the prehistoric through the contemporary. This is an Open Educational Resource (OER), an openly licensed educational material designed to replace a traditional textbook.

This lesson covers the elements and principles of art. Elements of art are the physical parts of the work, including line, shape, form, space, texture, value, color, and time. Principles of art are the ways in which those parts are arranged, including unity/variety, balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, rhythm, and pattern.

This lesson covers the elements and principles of art. Elements of art are the physical parts of the work, including line, shape, form, space, texture, value, color, and time. Principles of art are the ways in which those parts are arranged, including unity/variety, balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, rhythm, and pattern.