My work is a symptom of my ongoing quest to achieve immortality. I perpetually attempt to make permanent the traces we leave behind and the impressions we make upon each other. I use the body to portray boundaries – between the skin and the heart, comfort and disquiet, holding and letting go. The objects I make serve both as an agent for physical contact and as the commemoration of an ephemeral interaction. I create personal fossils, revealing the interstices formed when two bodies come into contact with one another. I use materials that reference endurance and longevity to record transient spaces whose edges continuously shift and whose membranes are particularly tenuous. This work is an ongoing catalog of the people in my life and my persistent efforts to hold on to those fleeting connections.

This thesis addresses the lacuna in the study of Greek terracotta figures and figurines corresponding to the transitional period between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages (1200-700BC). It provides a comprehensive synthesis of all available data, with particular reference to material from recently excavated sites in mainland Greece and its islands (Euboea, the Northern Aegean islands, the Dodecanese and the Cyclades). The study is framed according to the relationship between terracotta <b>figures</b> (those made on the potter's wheel) and <b>figurines</b> (those made by hand). The observation that the technological distinction between these two types is reflected in their different and separate functions has been sustained in scholarship for the past three decades, but only for the Mycenaean period. Handmade figurines and wheelmade figures occurred in different and restricted contexts in the Mycenaean world: the former in settlements, cemeteries and religious locations, and the latter exclusively in religious contexts. It is therefore inferred that they had different socially embedded values or 'meanings'. However, the extent to which such a distinction applies to figures and figurines in the Early Iron Age has hitherto not been explored. Initial evidence indicates that by the 8th century, handmade figurines and wheelmade figures were deposited together at selected sites, suggesting that their inherent socially embedded meanings were the same, and that they represented "different levels of [financial] investment in what is essentially the same category of votive". This thesis therefore determines the levels of co-occurrence of wheelmade figures and figurines, thus identifying how distribution relates to usage. Changes are observed over time and space and between different types of functional contexts, and the meanings of these patterns are investigated. The results of this study provide a chronological and geographical overview of the distribution of figures and figurines, and also indicate that figures and figurines had consistently multivariate relevance in multiple types of contexts. The functional dichotomy of figures and figurines observed for the Mycenaean period cannot be sustained beyond 1200 BC. Moreover, study of the contexts from which the material originates indicates that the significance of secondary deposits of religious nature has been consistently overlooked, and that figures and figurines were used in an active and meaningful sense even during the act of their discard. This type of activity is a distinctive one that can be characterised and defined functionally, geographically, temporally and quantitatively. The socially embedded meaning of figures and figurines was fluid and related to an action being performed; their meaning was not linked exclusively to an aspect of the object itself, and was therefore not static.

This work summarizes results of a comprehensive analyses of the archaeozoological material on the settlement in Vlíněves dating to the Unetice culture (the early Bronze Age, Central Bohemia). The total of 5325 bones and teeth has been analysed within this analysis, 903 of them was determined and used for further analyses. The taxonomic structure of the material with a clear prevalence of domestic mammals was assessed, the proportion of other groups was low (7 species of wild animals). The application of stable isotopes and dental microwear analyses of faunal assemblage, first used in Bohemia in the context of the Bronze Age period, has specified the nature of a dietary base livestock as grassland habitats, and has ruled out a significant ratio of C4 plants and an application of forest pasture. The combined use of domestic animals with an increase emphasis on so-called secondary products (milk and wool) prove a bimodality in kill-off patterns of sheep and goats, height at withers of sheep, which corresponds to the breeds of sheep extended during the bronze age period and to the high mortality profile of cattle. The proposed results of our work are important in this context because they suggest these facts for the early Bronze Age already. In accordance with circumstances at other sits of Unetice...

This thesis examines Late Minoan Settlements in Crete that were destroyed or abandoned due to the consequences of the Santorini volcano eruption. A summary of geological history of Crete, Thera and the surrounding area is given in the first part. The next chapter sums up the research in the fields of relative and mainly absolute chronology, of which scientists have not yet been able to provide a convincing calendar date for the eruption of the volcano nor a possible fixed absolute chronology of the general Later Bronze Age not only in the Aegean. The development of the Santorini Volcano eruption in the Late Minoan IA period (LM IA) is described. According to the research, this eruption must have caused earthquakes and tsunamis. The possible impact on the near island of Crete, its inhabitants and settlements, mainly in the coastal area of north-northeast part of the island, is also discussed.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The extreme strain, strain rate and temperature gradients during Friction Stir Processing (FSP) render measurement of key parameters in the stir zone infeasible with common methods. The objective of this research was to separate the effects that temperature and deformation in an experimental study of the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ni-AL bronze (NAB). This was accomplished by subjecting as-cast NAB material to several isothermal annealing and quenching treatments as well as isothermal hot rolling processes. Sufficient material was generated to provide results and data for subsequent optical microscopy, tensile, & hardness tests. All results were then compared to similar data collected from previous works completed here at Naval Postgraduate School and with other DARPA FSP program participants. During the course of this work correlations were drawn between FSP material and the material subjected to isothermal hotworking, which may enhance our understanding of the roles that various FSP process parameters have on the microstructural transformation sequence within this material. The hot-rolling study conducted here suggests that FSP process parameters leading to severe deformation at temperatures between 950-1000 C in the NAB material provides high ductility (elongation approximately 28%) with moderate strengths. / Lieutenant, United States Coast Guard

This study focuses on the burial practices in the Bronze Age Xiaohe-Gumugou cemeteries, north-west China, in order to understand how people constructed their social identities and delivered the social cognitions through generations. The Xiaohe-Gumugou cemeteries, as the main sites of the Xiaohe cultural horizon, have central roles for the understanding of the formation of the Bronze Age cultural groups and the cultural interactions between the west and the east in the Tarim Basin. However, current research is lacking in-depth examinations of the material culture of the cemeteries, and the contexts of the surrounding archaeological cultures in a timespan from Bronze Age to Iron Age. Through detailed comparisons of the construction of coffins and monuments, the dress of the dead, and the burial goods assemblages, this study provides an overview of the social structural development, from the Gumugou group’s heterogenous condition to the Xiaohe group’s homogeneous and mature state. Also, through relating to the results of biological and osteological analyses, and applying geographical analyses to the material, this study suggests that the early settlers in the Tarim Basin, the Xiaohe-Gumugou people have created their own social identities. Although the Xiaohe-Gumugou people might have migrated from southern Siberia or Central Asia, the archaeological material shows indications of their own typical features. When newcomers joined the society, the local burial customs were accepted and applied in a new cultural setting. / Denna studie fokuserar på gravskick på gravfälten Xiaohe och Gumugou i nordvästra Kina, för att förstå hur människor konstruerade social identitet och överförde kulturella föreställningar mellan generationer. Xiaohe-Gumugou-gravfälten, som de viktigaste platserna i Xiaohe-kulturhorisonten, är centrala för förståelsen av bildandet av bronsålderns kulturgrupper och de kulturella växelverkningarna mellan väst och öst i Tarimbäckenet. Tidigare forskning saknar fördjupade undersökningar av gravfältens materiella kultur samt den historiska kontexten med de omgivande arkeologiska kulturerna under tidsperioden från bronsålder till järnålder. Genom detaljerade jämförelser av konstruktionen av kistor och monument samt de dödas klädsel och gravgåvor, ger denna studie en översikt över utvecklingen av sociala strukturer, från Gumugou-gruppens heterogena situation till Xiaohe-gruppens homogena och mogna tillstånd. Genom att relatera till resultaten från biologiska och osteologiska analyser och tillämpa geografiska analyser på materialet, tyder den här studien på att de tidiga bosättarna i Tarimbäckenet, Xiaohe-Gumugou-folket, har utvecklat egna sociala identiteter. Trots att Xiaohe-Gumugou-folket kan ha migrerat från södra Sibirien eller Centralasien visar det arkeologiska materialet indikationer på egna typiska egenskaper. När nykomlingar anslöt till samhället accepterades de lokala begravningssederna och tillämpades i ett nytt kulturellt sammanhang.

This thesis will focus on stone ship settings and the burial practice surrounding them. Over 400 stone ships have been found in Gotland but only 70 of them have been studied and even less osteological analyses have been made. The burials in focus will be four ships which are all made of pieces of limestone formed like ships and are located under the surface opposed to the other types of stone ships settings that are made of big raised rocks. The ships in question are graves therefore the study will focus on the monuments as burial places and will seek so see similarities and differences in the outer and inner burial practice. By analyzing cremated bones, I will determine the age, sex and the number of individuals buried and with the help of the artefacts find possible patterns that can help determine the inner burial practice.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether western Orust was continuously inhabited during the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. Using reports from the archaeological excavations carried out in Nösund in western Orust as a basis, I discuss what conclusions can be drawn, relating, when possible, the findings to what we, thanks to analyzes of fossil DNA made in recent years, now know about ancient peoples’ descent. The results show that there is no basis for claiming that Nösund has been continuously inhabited under the Mesolithic, despite archaeologists having located and dated half a dozen settlements from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age in the village. The findings from the various archaeological surveys do not allow us to determine the descent of the people living in Nösund during different time-periods, nor whether they were mainly fishermen or hunters. The main reason for this is the absence of organic materials, especially bones, in the findings from Nösund. The conclusion therefore is that much more research has to be done, if we are to provide a comprehensive picture of the earliest settlements in western Orust. / Denna uppsats har syftet att visa huruvida västra Orust varit kontinuerligt bebodd under stenålder och bronsålder. Utgångspunkten har varit rapporterna från de arkeologiska grävningar som utförts i Nösund, och resultaten därifrån diskuteras med utgångspunkt från de nya kunskaper om människors härstamning som de senaste årens analyser av fossilt DNA har gett oss. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att vi inte har underlag för att påstå att Nösund har varit kontinuerligt bebodd under mesolitikum, trots att man lokaliserat och daterat ett halvt dussin boplatser i Nösund från stenålder och bronsålder, och att kunskapen om vad som skedde under neolitikum och bronsålder är ännu mer bristfällig. Fynden från de olika arkeologiska undersökningarna är inte heller av en kvalitet som gör att vi kan uttala oss vilken härstamning människor som bott i Nösund under olika perioder har haft, eller om de huvudsakligen varit fiskare eller jägare. Den största bristen är frånvaron av fynd av organiska material, särskilt ben, i Nösund.

This thesis sheds first light on the complex narrative behind the earliest appearance of writing in Europe. A radical new framework of interpretation, recognising art and writing as different ends of a single mode of graphic expression, is applied to the material culture of Early to Middle Bronze Age Crete as a context-conscious alternative to the strict and anachronistic divisions imposed by traditional models. This allows for a novel way of viewing and identifying structures of meaning embedded in otherwise familiar evidence. A comprehensive synthesis of the archaeological evidence for the undeciphered Bronze Age Cretan writing systems is offered, contextualising the thesis and its arguments within a new narrative of mostly autonomous script formation on Crete. Detailed analysis of the material record is started in the Early Bronze Age, where a previously unrecognised system of Prepalatial glyptic iconography is demonstrated to have maintained uniform distribution and presentation for roughly eight centuries, appearing in the exact contexts, and ostensibly fulfilling similar functions, as later writing. This newly identified system is argued to have provided the conceptual background against which later writing emerged. The thesis subsequently discusses the Archanes Script, the first accepted ‘true’ writing to appear west of Egypt, which has been severely understudied and highly ill-understood. Redefining the Archanes Script completely, a first signary is constructed, and new documents discovered. A further chapter argues for the possible existence of other, as of yet unidentified, linear writing systems on Crete. This is followed by a study of the Cretan Hieroglyphic writing system; the unjustified omission of supposedly ‘decorative’ signs in many of its documents is identified, the script’s corpus nearly doubled, and ‘a complete turnaround in the way in which we approach and define Cretan Hieroglyphic’ proposed.

When looking at Dark Age Greece, one of the most important sites to consider is Athens. The Dark Age was a transitional period between the fall of Mycenaean Greece of the Bronze Age, and Archaic Greece of the Iron Age. This period is called the Dark Age because the palaces that ruled the Mycenaean age collapsed, and with them fell civilization in mainland Greece. Writing, fine art, massive architecture, trade, and luxury goods disappear from mainland Greece. But Athens survived the fall of the Mycenaeans. In order to understand the reason why Athens survived one must look at what the causes of the fall of the Mycenaeans were. Theories range from raiders and invasion, to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, droughts, and plagues. One must also examine Greece itself. The landscape and climate of Greece have a large impact on the settlement of the Greeks. The land of Greece also affects what Greek communities were able to do economically, whether a city would be rich or poor. It is because Athens is located in Attica that it survived. Attica had the poorest soil in the Mycenaean world, and was the poorest of the major cities, therefore, when looking at the collapse of the Mycenaeans being caused by people, there would be no reason for said people to raid or invade Athens and Attica. It is because Athens survives that it is such an important site. Athens survived the fall of the Mycenaeans and in doing so acts as a refugee center and a jumping off point for the remaining Mycenaeans to flee east, to the Aegean islands and Anatolia. Athens also stayed occupied during the Dark Age and because of this it was able to make some advancements. In particular Athens was a leader in mainland Greece in the development of iron. Not only this, but Athens became a cultural center during the Dark Age, inventing both proto-geometric and geometric pottery. These styles were adopted by the rest of the Greek world, and Athens was looked to as the influence for these styles. It is because Athens was the poorest city and Attica the poorest area during the Mycenaean age that it survived. Because it survived it was able to continue to develop and in turn influence the rest of mainland Greece.