Between 30 and 14ka the Arabian Gulf was a river valley possibly comprising large freshwater lakes, marshland and estuaries. As a possible environmental refugia this landscape is important, particularly as prehistoric research in Arabia has yet to find any “evidence for human presence between 38 and 11ka” (Bretzke et al. 2013), poignantly at the same time as the Gulf became free of marine influence. This might suggest that attempting to piece together the jigsaw of regional prehistory without reference to the former sub-aerial Arabian Gulf landscape is to ignore a significant part of the puzzle. This research combines the results of excavations on Neolithic Littoral Gulf Ubaid sites with marine fieldwork in order to investigate late Palaeolithic/early Neolithic dispersals. This is contextualised through geomorphology, hydrology, geophysics and environmental analysis. This research has highlighted thousands of new sites in Qatar of all periods, and put in place effective methodologies for conservation and management of both the terrestrial environment and the Arabian Gulf submerged landscape. Importantly, terrestrial research has identified landscape signatures that informs research into the submerged Gulf landscape.

This thesis forms the first application of scientific analysis (thin section petrography, electron microprobe and scanning electron microscopy) to Neolithic ceramics from Fars province, Iran. The research specifically addresses the questions surrounding the choice of raw materials, production techniques and the use and consumption of ceramic vessels at these village sites. I have sought to attempt a deeper understanding of the past socio-economic context of ceramic production and consumption, as well as draw comparisons with wider ceramic technologies in the surrounding regions of Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Central Asia. Analysis and interpretation of decorated ceramics from Neolithic Southwest Iran has traditionally focused on decorative designs, where coloured pigments have clearly played an influential role. However, very little was specifically known about the raw materials, manufacture, and production stages of these wares. The samples selected for analysis include newly excavated and previously unpublished ceramics that have been incorporated into an updated typology. This is then used to provide detailed characterisation of the materials and techniques employed by past potters to create the wares. Ceramics from different sites and valley locations were compared, and the development and changes in pigment raw materials and painted motif selection is demonstrated across different village sites and throughout the Neolithic time period. The introduction of manganese black and bichrome designs at Tol-e Nurabad is particularly interesting amidst the widely used iron oxide pigments and monochrome designs recorded from other sites. The choice of these raw materials is considered in respect to potters’ interaction with their surrounding landscape and in the context of other crafts and productive technologies. The transfer of potting knowledge is also considered, with visible evidence of a range of skill levels and marked corrections and adjustments made to painted motifs on the vessels studied. The use and consumption of vessels in Neolithic Fars is based on the remains of kitchen hearths and cooking equipment, namely clay balls and river cobbles, combined with use-wear analysis to show that plain wares were not subjected to direct heat and that painted wares were most likely used in the presentation and consumption of food. The painted motifs and decorative designs created on Neolithic vessels in this study are compared to other excavated sherds and whole or reconstructed vessels and show a broad similarity in apparent manufacture and painted designs. I suggest that this is evidence of the capacity of ceramics to store visual information, and to signify the Neolithic style of design that was actively shared and participated in across village sites in Fars. This was potentially done to demonstrate group membership and contribute to the construction of community, perhaps at feasting events which have been proposed across this region during the Neolithic, which would have provided venues for the consumption of such ceramics alongside the transference of decorative schemes between villages. Wider comparisons with contemporary Neolithic wares in the surrounding Iranian region, as well as Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Central Asia are also drawn, linking the communities of Fars with wider Neolithic technologies and styles.

This thesis surveys the ninth-century metallic threads decorating silks discovered at Famen temple in Shaanxi province, China. In this research, metallic threads decorating Famen silks have been studied and documented in detail in order to understand how they were produced and how they were applied. Samples of metallic threads were selected and optical microscope and SEM/EDS were used to determine their morphology and composition. Problems regarding the current terminology used to describe metallic threads are briefly considered, and a systematic renaming of different types of metallic threads is suggested. Analysis results show that most Famen metallic threads were made of gold strips without substrate wound around a fibrous core, and that very few are silver strips without substrate wound around a fibrous core. Silver strips with paper substrate wound around a fibrous core are found among Famen silks, providing very early examples of this type of metallic thread in the world. Technical evidence demonstrates that the Famen metallic strips were cut from hammered metallic foil. It was found that metallic threads of different metal composition with different physical characteristics were selected according to the decoration techniques used and the function of the silks. The use of metallic threads with different grades of evenness in dimension and morphology for different decoration techniques was also found. The gold contents of these gold threads are all very high, and the thicknesses of the gold strips are large. All these characteristics are probably related to the function of Famen silks as objects of Buddhist worship that had been donated to the temple by members of the Tang imperial family and other high-ranking people. Technical investigation into the manufacture of modern traditional Chinese metallic threads was carried out in this research. Combined with analysis of the morphological, structural, and material nature of Famen metallic threads, the key technical characteristics of modern traditional metallic threads were found, which provided important evidence for deducing the manufacturing techniques of Famen metallic threads. Successful reconstructive experiments that produced metallic threads similar to Famen metallic threads were carried out in the laboratory by the author. The use of other known related techniques to produce Famen metallic threads was eliminated on technical grounds. With the above evidence, the manufacturing of Famen metallic threads, especially how the metallic strips were wound around the fibrous core, are reasonably deduced here. By investigating a number of currently accessible Chinese historical metallic threads from other periods, the evolutionary principles of Chinese metallic threads are concluded. The special characteristics of Famen metallic threads, the reasons determining these characteristics are better understood, and their role in the development of Chinese metallic threads is assessed.