What is considered anomalous among the Late Bronze/Iron I Age Canaanite tomb plans rests on the understanding of the foreign and the local elements of interments of that period. When Diane Bolger, in her discussion of ancient Cypriot mortuary practices, noted the shift in the scholarly literature from the emphasis on the identity and status of the dead to an examination of the ways in which rituals of death and burial reveal the motives and identities of the living (Bolger 2003), her observation highlighted the importance of burial as a process rather than an event. <p>The phenomenon of burials in loculi chamber tombs during the transitional period of the end of the Late Bronze and beginning of the Early Iron Age is explored, building on the foundations established by Rivka Gonens work on Late Bronze burial behaviour in Canaan (Gonen 1992). The structural and ritual characteristics of the tombs that present evidence for cultural context and origins are considered, establishing whether the archaeological remains translate into a picture of a regional variation or a foreign influence. Are the Late Bronze/Iron I burials in Canaan examples of an amalgamation of cultural traits of variable geographical origins or did they represent an immigration of a mortuary custom? Why are loculi cave burials considered intrusive in the Canaanite territory?<p>The examination of Tell Dothan, Lachish, Tell el-Ajjul and Megiddo, and of the Cypriot sites of Ayios Iakovos Melia, Lapithos Vrysi tou Barba, Korovia Paleoskoutella and Dhenia Kafkalla facilitates the discussion of loculi chamber tomb plan interments in the Levant have prompted.

This thesis concerns five Gotland Bronze Age cairns. They have been analyzed in order to compare their inner and outer burial - and building context. The analysis then forms the basis for the discussion of the similarities and differences observed. These five cairns along with the cairn Uggarderojr are presented in detail and compared. Major similarities were found between four of the five cairns. They all have one or more interior wall, a central tomb and other tombs in the form of cremations and skeletal graves scattered in various levels of the cairn and an erected stone in south, south-west position of the cairn. Differences are seen between the mound at Väskinde and the rest. Since Väskinde do not feature a strongly marked central tomb or a stone in the south and have one instead of two interior walls. However, it has been difficult to make detailed analyses of the numerous artifacts and the secondary graves found in the cairns since looting and destruction has been extensive in several cases. The similarities and differences observed between the cairns have been discussed in relationship to the not yet investigated large cairn called Uggarderojr. I. From the cases studied it has been postulated that Uggarderojr like the other cairns could have one or more interior walls, a central tomb in line with the stone in the south and possibly containing multiple secondary burials.

The subject for this essay considers the trade with amber and how it was organized in Scandinavia during the early Nordic Bronze age. There is very little written about this subject. One of the few scholars that have done this is the archeologist Timothy Earle. He has done this generally from a material that comes from the world of the living, mostly settlements. I will compare his view with a grave material that are based on Aner &amp; Kersten Die Ältere Bronzezeit (2001, band 11). My own conclusion is that Timothy Earls view corresponds well with the grave material

This paper deals with the relations between landscape rooms and monuments in an area north of Mönsterås in Kalmar län. After archaeological excavations had been carried out in the area 1991, an article promote it to the “Bronze Age district of Mönsterås” (Källström 1993). There are two main problems that I deal with in this paper. First: The relations between the natural places and the monuments or memorials. Secondly: The patterns with respect to the spread of certain monuments in the landscapes. My studies starts from the British landscape archaeology of Christopher Tilley and Richard Bradley, but also from a Scandinavian point of view with Terje Gansum et al.

In 1886 Hans Hildebrand received a Bronze Age hoard found in a field that belonged to Eskelhem´s rectory. A record was made where Hildebrand presented and documented the artifacts. The following year Oscar Montelius reviewed the artifacts, which he described as horse gears. He compared the horse gears with similar artifacts found in Europe that roughly had the same dating in order to trace the origin of the hoard.  Montelius conclusion was that the hoard was created on Gotland around 500 BC. The entire hoard was made of bronze except for one of the bridles that was made of iron. According to Montelius this would mean that iron and the knowledge of iron making already had been adapted on Gotland in the late Bronze Age. Also the bridles were used so Montelius discussed the presence of horses on Gotland in the late Bronze Age, and if they had been of the race Gotland pony. Over100 years have passed since Montelius made his conclusion. The purpose of this paper is to see if Montelius conclusion on the Eskelhem hoard still holds, due to the progress of science, such as the discovery of new dating methods and all new artifacts that have been found. I will also review if the purpose of the deposition of the Eskelhem hoard was of sacral or profane purpose. In order to answer my questions I will use previous research in the areas of; the presence of horses in the Stone- and Bronze Age, iron making on Gotland during the time before the birth of Christ and hoards on Gotland dated to the late Bronze Age. Also I will use historical maps to create my own spatial analyze in order to see how the hoards were deposited.I have concluded that the Eskelhem hoard were deposited in peat soil, meaning that a connection to water and the Eskelhem hoard should be presumed and that the hoard were sacral. Montelius dating of the hoard to 500 BC are correct and also that the artifacts were used for horses on Gotland, which also means that horses existed on Gotland during the late Bronze Age. Most difficult to answer are the questionsconcerning the making of iron, whether or not the Eskelhem hoard was created on Gotland or not. Difficult due to the poor research made on iron making during the Bronze Age on Gotland. My conclusion is that parts of the hoard were made on Gotland, and parts were imported. The iron bridle was made on Gotland while the raw material used for iron production was imported.

Part of Thesis--Frankfurt am Main. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Figures removed from thesis by author. The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 19, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Susan Langdon. Includes bibliographical references.

The approaches used in recent research regarding the ‘Sea Peoples’ of the late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean have been evaluated in this thesis. Different influences exist on all planes and effect all things in different ways. Researchers have the power of creating the history we know and all too often is the biased influence of the researcher forgotten and their words are taken as facts. Different researchers approach, the studies using different schools of thought such as e.g. ‘processualism’ and post-processualism. Some scholars firmly stay by one approach side, but the approaches should be viewed as complementing each other. Raising awareness of some of the major questions within the research, and scholars different ways of approaching them is a main point in this thesis. The different scholars' approaches to research concerning the ‘Sea Peoples’ etnichity, their migration and impact brought up in the different texts have been analyzed.Concluding remarks focus on that the term ‘Sea Peoples’ is a creation of the modern day scholars and that researchers should refrain from using the term and focus on the different clans instead. A strong vote for interdisciplinary and complementary studies is presented regarding the future of this study and others.

In this essay I aim to examine how the landscape of Mönsterås might have looked like during the Bronze age in order to get a better understanding of the house urn that C J Ekerot found in a cairn in Fälle. Mönsterås is an area which has a quality of permanence, from Stone Age to Iron Age with its culmination during the Bronze Age. I will discuss the use and symbolic meaning of the house urn. The house as a symbol during the Bronze Age seemed to have had an important place in the cosmology. I will also discuss the importance of cairns, especially in the archipelago areas. The cairns have had an obvious connection to the sea throughout the Bronze age and scientist have argued that one of the reason could be that the sea was associated with the dead.

Ceramic production and exchange in Early Bronze Age Greece have been studied through provenance determination by neutron activation analysis. The concentrations of Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ca, Al, Sc, La, Ce, Eu, Yb, Th, Ti, Hf, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co were determined, with respect to Perlman-Asaro standard pottery, in 255 objects of the Early Helladic (or EH) II and III periods found at Keramidhaki, Korakou, Phlious, Zygouries, Tiryns, and Asine in Korinthia and Argolis. Multivariate treatment of these data, merged with 162 analyses from the author's earlier work with samples from Lerna (Argolis) and Lake Vouliagmeni (Korinthia), yielded 11 compositional reference groups. Many of these could be attributed to centres of production on distributional or other grounds, thereby allowing the sources of more than half the sampled objects to be determined. / The following conclusions were reached: All 8 sites (except possibly Phlious) were sources of common EH II ware (sauceboats and small bowls), which had limited distributions. Many unusual EH II fine wares had other sources and broader distributions. The attribution of coarse wares was complicated by the presence of tempering material. The changes in pottery acquisition patterns which accompanied the beginning of EH III were probably more drastic at Tiryns than at Lerna or Korakou.