This study examines the distribution of high-status materials and archaeological and artefactual evidence of their production in the settlements known as royal cities during the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt (c.1550-1069 BC). The research focusses on the sites of Amarna, Gurob and Malqata, but also incorporates Qantir/Pi-Ramesse for comparison. The industries considered as relevant for inclusion within this thesis are those of glass, faience, metal, sculpture and textiles. No systematic and comprehensive discussion of the intra-urban distribution of high-status goods, their production or role as a marker of the nature of royal cities has been undertaken to date. The approach of using spatial analysis as a means to detect patterns of artefact distribution throughout entire suburbs has not been done in this form before and it has been proved successful in this thesis, although the methodological approach to each settlement necessarily varies, depending on the nature and quality of the available data. This thesis also includes new and unpublished data from survey and excavations at the site of Gurob, as well as critical and detailed reviews of the archaeology and material remains at several other sites. Apart from an introduction and a conclusion, the thesis comprises two main analytical and discussion chapters: The introduction outlines the aims and objectives, in addition to the theoretical and historiographical background to this thesis. In addition, it presents the sources used and methods employed. It furthermore provides some definitions and terminology used in the following chapters. The spatial and artefactual analysis chapter discusses the distribution of the artefactual evidence of glass-working, faience-production, metal-working and sculpture-production, as well as the finished products, and the evidence of textile-working, for both Amarna and Gurob. Using a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) model incorporating a database of all relevant finds and a vector grid, distribution patterns are plotted and spatially and statistically analysed. This was not possible for Malqata, however, and therefore that section contains a detailed discussion of all information available on the nature of the production of glass and faience objects throughout the site. This chapter highlights patterns of artefact distributions throughout the three settlements, attempting the reconstruction of infrastructures. The third chapter analyses workshops and factories in urban settlements in more detail. It includes a presentation of the archaeological remains at sites O45.1 and IA1 at Amarna and Gurob, highlighting parallels in layout and function. The chapter then focuses on archaeological analysis of artefactual assemblages from selected groups of houses at Amarna and Malqata, highlighting their industrial diversity. The thesis concludes by summarising the results from both chapters, and using these to address the research questions asked in the introduction. This chapter uses the preceding data analysis to define three broad types of workshops: (1) the large, purpose-built (often royal) workshops, (2) the larger houses involved in manufacture, but with limited specialism, and (3) those working on a household-level with a low skill set. Based on the results from the analysis, a series of organisational models has been proposed, one for each industry, including the control of raw materials and the redistribution of half-finished and finished objects and their consumption.

Ritual is an issue of wide importance in archaeological discourse and interpretation of the past. An understanding of ritual connects the traces of activities preserved in the archaeological record to the embodied experiences of human practice. Very few theorists have proposed methods to approach ritual, and those methodologies that do exist (e.g. Renfrew 1985; Richards and Thomas 1984) suffer from irreconcilable weaknesses. One of the primary methodologies for looking at ritual in prehistory -called Structured Deposition- has been developed in conjunction with evidence from the British Neolithic, and has barely been applied beyond this narrow field. The lack of models available for archaeologists studying ritual must be rectified, and, as previously proposed models and definitions have been inadequate in scope, there is a real need for a new method and model. This thesis introduces a new methodology in the archaeology of ritual, using the Neolithic of the Near East as a case study. Through a focus on the methodological element of studying ritual, a subsidiary goal of a better understanding of ritual in the Near East can be reached. Other subsidiary goals are to provide a logically valid basis from which to attempt interpretation as well as a better definition of ritual as it is used in archaeology, in order to solidify an approach to ritual that can take into account symbolic activity without succumbing to subjectivist criticism. The starting point for the new methodology is the idea of Structured Deposition, one way British archaeologists have tried to incorporate discussions of ritual despite a dearth of evidence. In brief, Richards and Thomas (1984) began with the premise that ritual activity involves formalized and repetitive behaviour. They then analysed the spatial patterning of particular forms of deposition, and concluded that certain deposits were too formal to be utilitarian. Just as ritual is not a single category, but a collection of categories with similar attributes, so too is structured deposition polythetic (See Needham 1975). Garrow (2012) places the many kinds of structured deposition on a continuum, naming the poles after the two most commonly discussed forms of structured depositions: “odd deposits” and “material culture patterning.” This conception of structured deposition as polythetic helps to overcome the current theoretical reluctance to differentiate between description and interpretation. Not only does structured deposition cover a great many aspects of ritual activity, it also allows for the correlation of activities that had previously been studied in isolation. Another advantage to the translation of structured deposition to a useful package to be deployed with respect to Near Eastern evidence is that the concept is only the starting point of the model. Alison Wylie reminds us that the orienting concepts do not determine what is found as analysis progresses (2002: 167). As such, many “odd deposits” or “patterning” events may not be considered as the result of intentional, or ritual, activity at the end of the interpretation process according to this new methodology. This reflects upon the contextual nature of the methodology, especially crucial with the sparse excavation and survey evidence from many Near Eastern sites. In chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis I explore previous approaches and conceptualizations of ritual and of meaning on the archaeological record. In chapter 4 I introduce issues in Near Eastern prehistory that are crucial to an understanding of the emergence of new forms of ritual activity, as they both frame and support current academic discussions of ritual. The methodologies used to approach these topics are described and critiqued in chapter 5, and a new model is introduced. The first step of the new model is to contextualize the evidence from the site, attempting to understand standard practices during the major phases. Deviation from the standard practices may be the result of intentional ritualization of objects, buildings, areas, colours or deposits. Quantification of the attributes of the potentially ritualized deposit allows for statistical comparisons, then a consideration of possible avenues of symbolization. The final step, interpretation, ties together all of the previous elements of the methodology to arrive at a conclusion as to the ritual significance of a deposit. In chapter 6, this new model was applied to 640 deposits spanning the time contemporary with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic from Anatolia, Upper Mesopotamia, and the Levant. Statistically significant results were obtained from both inter- and intra- regional comparisons, as well as chronological juxtaposition of depositions. The quantity and depth of the results, described in chapter 7, underline the usefulness and relevance of this new methodology with which to approach ritual in the Ancient Near East.

Ever since Vere Gordon Childe’s seminal work on The Dawn of European Civilization (Childe 1925), it has been widely accepted that European agriculture originated in Southwest Asia. Exactly how farming spread to Europe from its origins in Southwest Asia remains, however, a matter of debate. Much of the argument has revolved around the manners of spreading of the Neolithic, whether through colonisation, acculturation or a combination of both. Far less attention has been given to the actual content of the Neolithic pattern of existence that spread into Europe. In my thesis, I review one particular type of content, practices, defined by reference to the theories of social action as normative acts or ways of doing. Practices are marked out by repetitive patterns in the material record, such as burnt houses for the practice of house-burning. Accordingly, practices are inferred, rather than instantiated, from their material expression, using information about the context and the sequence of stratigraphic events. Beyond farming practices, the Neolithic witnessed the inception of a new set of residential and construction practices, pertaining to the way in which houses were built, lived in and discarded at the end of their use-lives. This research tracks each of five main areas of practices from their origins in the Near East: house ‘closure’, house replacement, residential burial, spatial organisation in the rectangular house and agglutination. The aim is to examine whether some of the more distinctive Near Eastern practices, such as the deliberate infilling of houses at ‘closure’, the vertical superimposition of houses, the burial of the dead under active households, the spatial division of the main room into two flooring areas and the agglutination of houses in cellular house patterns, spread into Europe. I find that this older habitus of practices, which was involved in upholding a static repetition, house upon house, of the same pattern of existence, did not spread or only marginally into Europe. Over the course of the 7th millennium BC cal., however, it was superseded by another habitus of practices with a focus on collective action, which had wider relevance and appeal. The sequence of Çatalhöyük East, which spans both horizons of practices, serves as a guide to examine the broader dynamics of change in this period. My thesis claims, on the basis of inference drawn from compiling together a database of 848 radiocarbon dates from 59 sites, uniformly re-calibrated and displayed with the same confidence interval in an interactive interface, the 14C Backbone, that there was a two-thousand year lag, plus or minus a few hundred years, between the advent of Neolithic economy on the Central Anatolian Plateau and in the Aegean Basin. As it stands, the Western Anatolian Neolithic, which starts at or shortly before 6,500 BC cal., matches the Southeast European sequence more than it does the Southwest Asian one. New research in Western Anatolia suggests that there is ground to link up Thessaly and Macedonia with the Lake District and the Aegean coast of Anatolia, and Thrace with the Eastern Marmara region, regarding the advent of Neolithic practices.

The objective of this thesis is to place the pottery used by people in 17th and 18th century Worcester into context, flowing from a desire to see the archaeological study of pottery placed within the wider study of material culture. It develops a model for doing so by addressing both a corpus of pottery drawn from a number of sites in the city and a sample of probate inventories covering the century 1650-1750. This century is of interest in local ceramic studies because it is transitional between a period in which the prime provider of pottery for the whole region was the Malvern industry, and the later period of industrial scale manufacture and distribution in Staffordshire. The thesis begins by reviewing possible theoretical approaches to the study of pottery and adopting a standpoint based on a phenomenological view of material culture as embodied experience, as opposed to the idealist representation of meaning. Since an implication of this standpoint is that the experience of past people encompassed more than the use and possession of pots, the subsequent Chapter explores the physical development of Worcester over the century under review. The next section then embarks on the consideration of 11 groups of pottery drawn from six sites in the city. Each group is considered and interpreted in turn, in its archaeological context, before the resulting data is combined to form images of the ceramic ‘repertoire’ for each of three Stages covering the century. A product of this process is the draft of a Type Series for later early modern pottery in Worcester. A sample of probate inventories taken at ten year intervals is then considered, and images of household material culture developed for three similar temporal Stages. Finally information from both the archaeological study and the analysis of inventories is combined imaginatively in ‘walking through’ three houses, one for each Stage, in order to experience, at least vicariously, the place of pottery in each. The model thus endeavours to establish for a particular locality both the nature of the ceramic repertoire for the period under review, using a development of ‘traditional’ archaeological methodology, and the position within particular households which it appears to have occupied. This approach combines the archaeological study of pottery, often pursued in isolation, with the detailed consideration of related historical data, in a way which illuminates both and can be further refined and applied elsewhere.

This thesis examines the nature of Mesolithic activity at five spring sites in south-west England. The springs have unusual properties and the lithics associated with each site have been assessed in order to investigate whether they are indicative of unusual, or even ritualistic, behaviour related to the property of the spring. As well as lithics, some of the springs are associated with other types of material culture and in some cases features such as pits are also present. This thesis brings together the different classes of archaeological evidence and situates their study within the context of the spring and the wider landscape. Recently in Archaeology there has been an increasing interest in the significance of ‘natural places’, which has led to topographical features being seen as important, and sometimes even sacred, places in the landscape. By contrast, in Mesolithic studies, natural features such as springs are often predominantly viewed in a functional sense, as a source of potable water and a convenient focus for settlement. Occasionally however some sites, such as the Hot Spring, Bath one of the case studies presented here, have been suggested to be evidence of Mesolithic ritual behaviour. These polarised views usually arise from an analysis of lithic attributes and the contexts in which the lithics are found. The more unusual the context, and the better the quality of the artefact deposited into them, the more likely it will be equated with ‘ritual’ behaviour. The unusual nature of the five springs examined here: two hot springs at Bath Spa and three tufa depositing springs at Langley’s Lane, Somerset, Cherhill, Wiltshire and Blashenwell Dorset, allowed that premise to be questioned and the results have demonstrated that aspects of mundane and ritual behaviour are virtually indistinguishable from the lithic record alone. Yet whilst there is a variance in the treatment of materials at springs with similar properties there are also certain commonalities between them, which may suggest that shared beliefs underpinned Mesolithic cosmologies, at least in the south-west region. The springs of this study were features in what were dynamic Mesolithic landscapes and the findings suggest the practices that were carried out reflected and embodied that dynamism. Mesolithic activity at springs remains an understudied topic within British archaeology, despite the potential these sites offer to engage with theoretical concepts such as landscape, praxis, belief and cosmology. This study has attempted to redress this imbalance and reinforces the potential of springs to elicit information that will enrich current knowledge of Mesolithic lifescapes and landscapes.

This thesis explores the portable, non-indigenous material culture strongly related, but not exclusive, to one specific ethnic group in the medieval period. It is based on the idea that people from different cultural backgrounds cannot come into contact with each other without their identities being altered in some significant way, and these altered identities will be expressed in their material culture. During the period c.800-1100, the Vikings initiated contact with the inhabitants of Britain, first by raiding and attacking, then by trading and settling amongst the local populations. Whereas most research of Viking and local interaction has focused on Viking settlements in the Northern and Western Isles or the Anglo-Scandinavian town of York, this thesis focuses on the peripheral areas of Viking political control: northern England and southern Scotland. It is in these regions where there are increasing amounts of evidence of Viking activities and interactions with the local peoples. Three key research questions are asked of the materials found within the study area: 1) how and why did items of ‘Viking’ material culture enter regions outside of the centres of traditional Viking settlements? 2) How and why were these items used to conduct meaningful contacts and interactions with those people already inhabiting this land? 3) How and why were identities constructed in these regions where multiple cultural traditions came into contact with one another? A multifaceted approach is adopted to answer these questions. First, the historical sources are analysed for different contexts of contact and interaction between Vikings and non- Vikings in the study area. Second, a postcolonial approach to studying the interactions between groups was adopted in order to move away from simplistic assimilation or acculturation narratives where one group subsumes the other. Rather, this approach argues for the creation of a new social dimension in which people’s actions, routines, and identities are altered in order to negotiate and thrive within the new cultural landscape. It is argued that the hybridization seen in many of the artefacts, as well as other sources utilised throughout the thesis, is the material articulation of this new space. Finally, this thesis includes data recovered through the Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure Trove Scotland in addition to excavated finds. In the study region, 499 items are identified and catalogued as Viking or hybrid-Viking, many of which have no archaeological context as they are stray or metal-detected finds. Through the course of searching, three major concentrations were identified along major maritime inlets: the Solway Firth, the River Clyde, and the Forth and Tay Basins. These concentrations were turned into three case-study areas based upon concentrations of finds as well as the contextual aids of historical sources, place-names, and stone sculpture. The first case study examines the Solway Firth and determines that the Vikings were a very important part of the population, and a hybridized society is seen there. The second case study of Strathclyde also determines that the Vikings were active there; the evidence indicates smaller, more concentrated communities of Vikings that integrated into the British population of the region. The final case study of the Forth and Tay basins establishes the Vikings as important actors there, although not only in the traditional view of their attacks opening up the Pictish throne for Cinaed mac Alpin. The Vikings settled in this region and aided the formation of the new kingdom of Alba. Overall, it is shown that Vikings were much more active on the peripheries of their political establishments than has previously been realised. It is also demonstrated that people in contact with others from different cultural backgrounds will alter their routines, practices, materials, and identities in order to negotiate the new social sphere that is created by such interaction. The key to understanding this negotiation is recognising the multiple contexts in which people interact and that each situation will result in different hybridized routines, materials, and identities that are unique to that specific context.

This work aspires to contribute to the study of ritual in as constructive and methodologically sound way as possible. The contentious issue of ritual interpretation is deliberately avoided. Instead, methodologies for positively recognising ritual and assessing its establishment are developed. The study of the establishment of ritual is based on the premise that it can be a valuable source of information for the dynamics and establishment of the given society. The entire study takes the special perspective of prehistoric and more specifically of Minoan archaeology, concentrating on the case of some open air rituals. Firstly, ritual value is attributed to some Minoan open air sites and to the relevant iconography. Subsequently, following the methodology developed in the first chapters, it is shown that all studied rituals were highly established. Moreover, some of these ritual sites could be seen as entities which also managed, produced, and invested wealth, demonstrating the great establishment of the respective rituals, and further contributing to it through their own establishment. The high level of establishment of the Minoan ritual sphere, as seen through the open air rituals, points to the great importance of rituals to the dynamics of Minoan society. It also implies a high level of establishment of other spheres such as the political or that of social relations. Finally it contributes to the overall establishment of Minoan society, as a factor which unified the politically fragmented island. Our discussion of the Minoan material demonstrated that the methodologies developed for the attribution of ritual value to an activity and for the assessment of its establishment can be beneficial for prehistoric archaeology and for most social sciences. The Minoan material profited from these ideas but also showed that their implementation is feasible.

Technological and typological analysis of lithic assemblages from southern Oman have been undertaken for this study. These assemblages are characterized by the production of elongated end products (i.e., blades/leptoliths) using varied core reduction modalities exemplified here. These modalities have been identified based on technological analysis of production waste and core reconstructions using artefact refittings. Such blade technologies are accompanied by formal tool such as tanged projectile called Fasad point, burins, endscrapers and pseude-backed knifes. This technological and typological package has been identified on both systematic surface collections and stratified sites, making it possible to place these assemblages chronologically between 10.000 and 7.000 before present (BP). The chronological and techno-typological characterization of these blade assemblages warrants its status as a lithic industry of the Late Palaeolithic technocomplex. At present, blade assemblages from stratified sites in Yemen (Shi’bat Dihya) and Oman (al Hatab) which dated to 55.000 and 11.000 BP, represent the possible source of the techno/typological package found across Southern Oman at the beginning of the Holocene. No technological or typological resemblance with any other industry from outside of Arabia has been noted, enforcing the local , Arabian, origin of the Early Holocene Populations of the South Arabian Highlands.

It is suggested that previous interpretations of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages of Aberdeenshire have, in the main, been flawed due to a pre-occupation with placing the remains of these periods within models still grounded in cultural historical frameworks. Consequently, I abandon period divisions within the thesis, and instead use the changing nature of human inhabitation of landscape, based on the available radiometric dating, as the temporal basis for the study. Thus, recent phenomenological approaches in archaeology are highlighted as a significant development to the study of past remains. Such phenomenological approaches, however, do suffer from a lack of consideration of the role ofperception in constituting social meanings in the past. The theory of the cultural sensoria is developed, therefore, and the significance of material culture, during ontogenesis, in the maintenance of social meanings is stressed. The thesis explores how human understanding of their material conditions (landscape and material culture) changed through the fourth to second millennia BC. Study of the sensory qualities of material culture indicates that a shift in balance of sensory orders, from haptic to visual dominance, took place during this period. The inter-relationship between topography and monument locations is studied. This demonstrated that the choice of monument location was constrained by a number of competing factors, such as the extent of visual field and inter-visibilities. The importance of recognising the inter-play between the materiality of monuments and landscape as a significant component in the constitution of cosmological systems is highlighted. The tension between regional traditions and local expressions within those wider traditions is explored. A variety of historical trends during the fourth and second millennia BC are identified. Ultimately, I conclude sensory studies are of considerable value to the study of all archaeological remains and that it is possible to study historical phenomenologies.

La tesis analiza el sistema de protección social tal como se conforma en la Comunidad Valenciana, teniendo como referencias los sistemas de otras Comunidades Autónomas, el del estado español y, siempre que ha sido posible, el marco de la Unión Europea.El enfoque adoptado para la consecución de los objetivos de la presente investigación ha tenido como marco teórico el del Estado de bienestar tal como lo entendemos hoy en día y como modelo de política social que tiene su origen en el último tercio del siglo XIX en Europa, concretamente en la Alemania de Bismarck, y que permitió superar la etapa de las políticas y leyes de Beneficencia, por las de los seguros sociales. Hoy podemos valorar estos avances como un primer paso para la incorporación al ordenamiento jurídico de los nuevos derechos sociales.El Planteamiento metodológico que ha guiado la investigación está basado fundamentalmente en la triangulación o integración entre perspectivas metodológicas, en este caso la cuantitativa, mediante el diseño y desarrollo de un sistema de indicadores sobre protección social, y la cualitativa (entrevistas en profundidad y grupos de discusión), sin olvidar el uso de otras complementarias, como la histórica, la comparativa y la crítico-racional.La conjunción de estas técnicas ha permitido llegar a unas conclusiones, que no deben considerarse cerradas o finalistas, sino más bien elementos para la reflexión de los que pueden deducirse unas sugerencias o vías de mejora de los distintos aspectos analizados. Algunas de las conclusiones más importantes hacen referencia a cómo los cambios sociodemográficos afectan directamente a los Estados del bienestar, sobre todo aquellos que se están produciendo en el mercado de trabajo, en nuestra estructura poblacional o en la familia. La consecuencia de ellos es un aumento de las necesidades, lo que tendrá que ser abordado desde las políticas sociales convenientemente, dotándolas de suficientes medios, y aumentando el gasto social que en nuestro país es especialmente escaso. Hay que tener en cuenta que nuestro sistema de protección consigue unos resultados muy limitados, hoy por hoy, en lo que concierne a la superación real de los problemas de las personas, o en la redistribución de la renta. Especialmente preocupante es el límite de muchas pensiones, la escasa protección a la familia o la deficitaria situación de las personas con enfermedades mentales.Respecto al sistema de la Seguridad Social, las conclusiones de la investigación apuntan a que, si bien en su evolución existen unos rasgos claramente positivos, otros muy desfavorables están presentes actualmente, y aunque no se comprendería una sociedad democrática sin la intervención de este sistema, existen unos factores que tendrá que tener en cuenta para poder cumplir sus objetivos: el necesario diálogo social, la todavía existente desigualdad de protección entre sexos o los problemas estructurales ya tradicionales.El sistema de los Servicios Sociales, por su parte, aunque han crecido de una forma espectacular en las últimas décadas, tiene planteados numerosos problemas en su estructura, organización y funcionamiento. La cooperación público-privada, cada vez más en aumento, es un factor que va a incidir en el futuro de este sistema fundamentalmente.Unos retos tiene planteados el sistema de protección social en nuestra Comunidad como son la inmigración, el envejecimiento de la población, la exclusión social aún persistente, la protección a las familias y a las mujeres o los problemas de salud mental.No es previsible que se produzca un desmantelamiento general del sistema, pero pueden existir graves problemas que requerirán de ajustes fundamentales, si deseamos una comunidad rica en valores de solidaridad e igualdad. / The present social protection system is the object this doctoral thesis. The investigation is focusing on two components of the system: the Social Security and the Social Services, and is restricted to the geographical area of Comunidad Valenciana, although with obligated references to the whole of Spain and European Union.The investigation integrates quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Both of them are planned complementarily. A fundamental part of the analysis is the outline and development of a social indicators system on social protection: social expenditure, social groups in need of protection, Social security benefits, and a group of indicators about primary and specialized social services: elder and young people, handicapped persons, families, women, immigrants. This part of the analysis is completed with contributions of the principal agents of social protection: politic parties, labor unions, entrepreneurs, public and private organizations, or social workers and other professionals working in social welfare. The outcome of the investigation points up a protection system in Spain and Comunidad Valenciana, characterized by a low social expenditure, high rates of poverty and unemployment and a dualist protection way between people included in the labor market and people out of it. Besides of this, there are some influential demographic factors have fundamental influence, as the increase of elder persons, the unemployment or the rising rates of working women, and its consequences to the care of dependency. The economic aids and specific resources are not quite enough or adequate to satisfy the needs of individuals and families, particularly, housing or mental illness. These and other social challenges as people ageing, women and men inequality, immigration, or public and private cooperation should be considered in order to get a solidary society.