This dissertation examines monkey and ape iconography in Minoan art during the Aegean Bronze Age (ca. 3,000–1,100 B.C.). Although a broad range of animals exist for depiction, Minoan artists carefully selected each subject in order to fulfill specific roles. Monkeys and apes appear to function differently than the other creatures that are depicted in art. Rather than subscribing to the general roles played by other animals, these primates may be shown outdoors, behaving like wild animals, or in a ceremonial context, participating in a ritual. Monkeys also imitate human activities. The deviation of primates from the typical roles of other animals found in Minoan art invites a deeper investigation of the role and iconography of apes and monkeys. In this study, three types of media that bear depictions of primates are considered. These media include figurines, glyptic art, and wall paintings. First, a review of the stylistic features of Minoan art and the possibility for the use of pattern books is discussed. Next, monkey and ape iconography in Egyptian art is explored. A thorough review of the creatures’ iconography in Minoan art follows, which includes the identification of figures as either ape or monkey, as well as a detailed description and conclusions about each type of representation. A new possible reconstruction of the Saffron Gatherer fresco is also included. Finally, the possible origins of Minoan primate iconography are considered, as well as the possible implications of the creature’s history, development, and roles. With this information in mind, the Offering to the Seated Goddess scene is then examined. The possible reconstruction of a crocus ceremony is proposed and explained, and the Levantine parallels for the compositional arrangement of the scene are also addressed. These conclusions may directly inform greater themes in Minoan culture, such as religion and cult practices. / Art History

Five seals come from a Minoan site on the island of Chryssi, just off the southeastern coast of Crete. Four of these seals are sealstones, and one is the bezel of a metal seal ring. These seals are important as individual objects to allow for a deeper understanding of the people that inhabited Chryssi Island during the Bronze Age, but a further understanding of the site itself is also garnered by expanding the focus to include all of the seals of Crete. By doing so, this study allows for the discussion of regional interactions among the people of Chryssi and various other Minoan sites throughout Crete. The various approaches to seals come together to suggest the same conclusions, most notably that at least some of the people on Chryssi enjoyed a life of limited luxury through the control of various industries on the island, particularly the production of murex purple dye. / Art History

No / he two archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland, which form the Northern Isles of Britain, are an active focus of archaeological research. The rich Neolithic heritage of Orkney has been acknowledged by the granting of World Heritage status. Although set in both a biogeographically peripheral position and within what may be considered to be marginal landscapes, these North Atlantic islands have a large number of settlement sites with long occupational sequences, often stretching from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age or into the Norse period. The mixed paleoeconomic strategy presented by three of these settlements—Tofts Ness, Sanday, Orkney (excavated 1985–1988); the Iron Age sequences at Old Scatness, Shetland (excavated 1995–2006); and Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultivated middens from Jarlshof, Shetland (investigated in 2004)—provide the core of the evidence discussed within this paper (the radiocarbon chronologies for the key sequences from these three sites are provided as Appendix 1). The role of the prehistoric paleoeconomy is argued to be of central importance in the longevity of these settlements. In particular, barley production is evidenced on all three sites by the plant macrofossils and by the human investment in the creation and management of manured soils, providing an infield area around the settlement. This paper focuses on the identification of these anthropogenic soils in the archaeological record. The investment in and management of these arable soils provides clear evidence for resource creation on all three sites. It is argued that these soils were a crucial resource that was necessary to support intensive barley cultivation. The intensive management implied by the presence of these soils is seen as a catalyst for sedentary living and sustainability within a marginal landscape. The evidence also demonstrates the continuity of agricultural practice from the Neolithic to the Iron Age together with the social dynamics that such a practice generates. This paper is in two parts: the first section examines in detail the evidence for the presence of anthropogenic soils and the mixed economic strategies for the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age presented by the evidence from Tofts Ness and Jarlshof. The evidence for the continuity of this intensive strategy of soil management is seen from the later evidence of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age at Tofts Ness and the Middle Iron Age evidence at Old Scatness. The second part of the paper examines the importance of these soils as an inherited resource within the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age paleoeconomic system. Two models are presented. The first examines the cyclic importance of human creation and maintenance of small arable plots to high barley production yields and therefore to site viability, and the effect this has within a mixed resource system in providing settlement viability through time. The second explores the theoretical land and seascape that would provide this mixed resource base.

No / This study examines resinous deposits from the interior surfaces of sherds of imported Canaanite amphorae and locally produced bowls from the 18th Dynasty site of Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Canaanite amphorae were used for resin transport, whilst the bowls are associated with burning resin as incense. A number of characteristic triterpenoids identify all the resinous deposits from both vessel types as Pistacia spp. No other resins were observed and there was no evidence of mixing with oils or fats. The composition of the archaeological resins is more complex than that of modern pistacia resin, due to degradation and generation of new components. Experimental heating alters the relative abundance of the triterpenoid composition of modern pistacia resin. One component, the triterpenoid 28-norolean-17-en-3-one, is produced by such heating; however, an increase in its relative abundance in ancient samples is not matched by the archaeological evidence for heating. It is therefore not possible to use this component reliably to identify heated resin. However, additional unidentified components with a mass spectral base peak at m/z 453 have been associated with seven (out of 10) bowls and are not observed in resins associated with Canaanite amphorae. It is proposed that these components are more reliable molecular indicators of heating.

No / Excavation at a cropmark enclosure in the Upper Severn Valley was undertaken to try and obtain material from which to provide relative and absolute dating for the site. Lying within an area rich in Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology and in close proximity to a proven long barrow, the conventional later prehistoric date postulated for the enclosure was questioned. Excavation proved the site to have been a ditched enclosure with internal bank and a possible gate structure. Post-pits ran inside the bank. Finds were few but radiocarbon dates from the floor of the ditch proved the early Neolithic credentials of the monument which seemed to have continued in use for at least some 500 years.

No / Following Wheeler's excavations at Maiden Castle, the multivallate hillforts of Wessex came to be seen as responses to a specific form of warfare based around the massed use of slings. As part of the wider post-processual 'rethink' of the British Iron Age during the late 1980s and 1990s, this traditional 'military' interpretation of hillforts was increasingly subject to criticism. Apparent weaknesses in hillfort design were identified and many of the most distinctive features of these sites (depth of enclosure, complexity of entrance arrangements, etc) were reinterpreted as symbols of social isolation. Yet this 'pacification' of hillforts is in many ways as unsatisfactory as the traditional vision. Both camps have tended to view warfare as a detached, functional, and disembedded activity which can be analysed in terms of essentially timeless concepts of military efficiency. Consideration of the use of analogous structures in the ethnographic record suggests that, far from being mutually exclusive, the military and symbolic dimensions are both essential to a more nuanced understanding of the wider social role of hillforts in Britain and beyond.

Yes / This paper summarises 80 years of 'henge' studies. It considers the range of monuments originally considered henges and how more diverse sites became added to the original list. It examines the diversity of monuments considered to be henges, their origins, their associated monument types and their dates. Since the introduction of the term, archaeologists have often been uncomfortable with it. It was introduced in inverted commas and those commas continued to be used for over 30 years. With the introduction of the term 'hengiform' the strictures of definition that characterised the monument class collapsed and an increased variety of circular and oval monuments were included under the henge aegis. It is suggested here that the term 'henge' has outlived its usefulness as we no longer know what we mean by it. Instead we should adopt an objective viewpoint and recognise these earth circles as just one manifestation of the tradition of circularity that pervades the third and second millennia BC.

No / A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely anchored in history. This research team shows how.

Yes / Ancient human mobility at the individual level is conventionally studied by the diverse application of suitable techniques (e.g. aDNA, radiogenic strontium isotopes, as well as oxygen and lead isotopes) to either hard and/or soft tissues. However, the limited preservation of coexisting hard and soft human tissues hampers the possibilities of investigating high-resolution diachronic mobility periods in the life of a single individual. Here, we present the results of a multidisciplinary study of an exceptionally well preserved circa 3.400-year old Danish Bronze Age female find, known as the Egtved Girl. We applied biomolecular, biochemical and geochemical analyses to reconstruct her mobility and diet. We demonstrate that she originated from a place outside present day Denmark (the island of Bornholm excluded), and that she travelled back and forth over large distances during the final months of her life, while consuming a terrestrial diet with intervals of reduced protein intake. We also provide evidence that all her garments were made of non-locally produced wool. Our study advocates the huge potential of combining biomolecular and biogeochemical provenance tracer analyses to hard and soft tissues of a single ancient individual for the reconstruction of high-resolution human mobility. / The Danish National Research Foundation; The Carlsberg Foundation, L'Oreal Denmark-UNESCO; The ERC agreement no. 269442

Yes / This paper revisits the series of disarticulated human remains discovered during the 1980s excavations of the Cnip wheelhouse complex in Lewis. Four fragments of human bone, including two worked cranial fragments, were originally dated to the 1st centuries BC/AD based on stratigraphic association. Osteoarchaeological reanalysis and AMS dating now provide a broader cultural context for these remains and indicate that at least one adult cranium was brought to the site more than a thousand years after the death of the individual to whom it had belonged.