This thesis focuses upon the osteological evidence for adult health in Dorset, England during the Iron Age and Romano-British period (N= 270). The study employed a standardised method of recording to collect data from 21 sites, which was analysed at the population level. The data was discussed using a combination of social archaeology and a medical ecology approach, which enabled the evidence for health and well being to be understood in terms of society and environment, and how these changed over time. The approach also permitted comparison to national and European health patterns, and sought to challenge existing interpretations of both periods. Iron Age health reflected the agrarian based economy of that period, in addition to social and environmental buffers and stressors, such as violence and the engendering of children. The Romano-British data demonstrated statistically significantly differences for many aspects of health, such as dental disease. The influence of environmental and sociocultural change was reflected in the life-ways of the region, with a decrease in the evidence for violence, and an increase in tuberculosis. In comparison to national data, the region displayed heterogeneity in many aspects of health through time, particularly the prevalence of trauma, as well as evidence for continuity, particularly for agrarian life-ways. However, overall, the consequences of Roman colonisation could be identified.

This research explores the region of Arkadia in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age using an interpretative and phenomenologically inspired approach. It is region associated with many myths pointing to a continuing population throughout the period, yet beset with a problematic archaeological record. This has been the result of a number of factors ranging from the nature of the landscape to the history of research. However, the ability to locate sites of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age within the landscape, allows insight into a region we had little hope of enlightening using more conventional approaches to the archaeological record. This theoretical and methodological stance is illustrated through an exploration of different aspects of the human experience such as religion, death and burial and the everyday. The ways in which these aspects can and usually are interpreted are considered, followed by a number of case studies, which are employed to explore how human actions were embedded within and informed by the very physicality of the landscape, and the differences apparent throughout time.

An assessment of the significance and social impact of the quarrying industry in Shropshire in the 19th and 20th centuries Robert. S. Galloway This thesis investigates the technological innovations associated with the quarrying industry of Shropshire during the 19th and 20th centuries, from the extraction of rough-cut limestone, to greywacke used as road stone, sandstone flags found in vernacular buildings and finally to dimension stone. Examples of the minerals can be found in Shropshire, so such a breath of geology has made this county unique. Knowledge of geology and minerals is united in the quarrying industry. The inaccessibility and remote location of the raw materials has made the quarrying industry different from and other. The many methods of transport are also traced up to the 20th century. Access from remote locations to villages, towns and cities was very difficult. Britain's 18th century roads were made in form of causeways, constructed of stone and rubble, so narrow that only one horse-drawn cart could pass at a time. Eventually a network of roads spread across the country, enabling local and national economics to flourish. The quarrying industry, associated firstly with agriculture, rose to the ever-increasing needs of the industrial revolution by moving from manpower to machinery driven by stream.

This thesis investigates the demographics of paleo-populations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as a means of testing the hypothesis that this species was domesticated or managed as a vital cultural and economic resource by the ancient Maya in Mesoamerica. To do so it employs a set of standardized bone measurements derived from a modern population and compares them with 1100 deer bone samples recovered by archaeologists from Maya sites dating from 450 B.C. to the late 16th century. These measurements were also applied to modern white-tailed deer specimens representing a discrete population from south eastern Florida of know age, and sex, for use as a baseline. The recorded measurements were used for side by side comparisons and to generate log ratios testing population stature and sexual dimorphism represented in the archaeological materials. Changes in deer stature and mortality profile over time are examined and tested against standard methods for the detection of herd management strategies, that may potentially reveal deer domestication or resource management. Pathologies common to white-tailed deer are identified and their potential for assessing the ontological age of mature deer is investigated. The results show variations in white-tailed deer stature over time and space, suggesting dynamic alterations in prey selection that may be reflective of changes in Maya social complexity.

This thesis examines the late mediaeval Church in the Hebrides from 1266 until 1472. The late mediaeval Church was culturally significant: it imposed rules and regulations on lay society throughout western Christendom. Hitherto, studies of the Hebridean Church have focused on its organisation and its bishops. My research goes beyond these studies to examine the effectiveness of the Church in bringing Christian religion and piety to mediaeval Hebridean society. This is accomplished through a prosopographical study of the clergy in the Hebrides and analysis of the church and chapel sites. The mediaeval Church transcended countries and peoples and through the provision of parish clergy, it managed to establish and maintain a certain level of Christian faith and belief. The majority of the recorded clergy were Gaels who came from the dioceses of Sodor and Argyll and were therefore able to communicate with their parishioners. Some of the clergy can be identified as belonging to the territorial, professional and ecclesiastical kindreds and can be described as of high social status. Determining educational status is particularly tricky, given the absence of any evidence for any schools in the Hebrides. However, we can reasonably conclude that the high status clergy undoubtedly were educated, although not all to university level. The scarcity of accusations of non-residence implies that non-residence was not widespread. An examination of rectors and perpetual vicars at the parish churches reveals that there was usually one or the other at the parish churches. A more common accusation regarded pluralism, although we have to acknowledge that sometimes the accusations might be exaggerated. Whilst allegations of offences such as simony are rare, failure to comply with canon law on clerical celibacy is clear from all supplications seeking dispensation for illegitimacy as the son of a priest. The churches, chapels and grave-yards were a focal point for these priests and for secular society. As important as the provision of clergy are the adequate numbers of, and maintenance of, church buildings. The church building had enormous significance for both mediaeval theologians and the laity. The parish church, in particular, was very important as the central focus for baptism and burial and therefore access is very important. The key issues are, therefore, access to the parish church, the visibility of the churches and their relationship with secular settlements. Access is determined by location and the location of the forty-three parish churches in the Hebrides can, on the whole, be described as accessible. None of them are inaccessible locations, indeed most can be accessed both from land and from the sea. They are relatively visible, but not outstandingly so. However, their visibility would have been enhanced with use of plaster on the exterior of the buildings. Secular settlements were dispersed and consequently there were always some settlements nearby the parish church and others more distant. A major issue which has arisen is the identification of categories of chapels. Using models established by Orme, there are four main categories of chapel – dependent, cult, locational and oratory chapels. Effectively, the numerous small chapels meant that, in general, it can be said that people were never very far from some kind of church building. Identifying the type of chapel allows us to understand how the parishes functioned. The final two chapters consist of case-studies of the islands of Tiree, Coll and Skye. There are a total of 12 parishes on these islands and within these parishes 68 church and chapel sites. The relationships between parish church and chapel have been analysed in each and we have been able to identify some dependent chapels. It is also clear that we have a number of early mediaeval chapel sites which may have been abandoned by the late Middle Ages. However, other early mediaeval sites may have continued in use, perhaps as cult chapels for particular saints. The cults of saints such as St Columba, St Comgan and St Maelrubha were especially strong in Skye whilst St Columba, St Finnan and St Findoca were popular on Tiree and Coll. Above all else, this study demonstrates the vitality of the late mediaeval Church in the Hebrides; its parish churches were not overwhelmingly appropriated and there were sufficient numbers of apparently educated clergy available to serve the churches. The range of ecclesiastical sites also shows the breadth of provision.

The Cypro-Geometric period (CG, 1100-750 BC) is a transitional period between two distinct socio-political landscapes – those of the Late Bronze Age and the Cypro-Archaic. Traditionally, the CG has been studied as a coda to other periods, mainly due to the mortuary-based evidence being considered complex and unwieldy and of little value to studies of social and political development. In reality, the vast quantity of data has huge potential for any study of the Early Iron Age on Cyprus. Furthermore, a shift in academic interest in Cypriot Iron Age archaeology has resulted in a move away from discussions centering on the origins and modes of foreign interaction on Cyprus at the end of the Bronze Age, towards a focus on all aspects of the emergence of the social and political institutions of the Cypro-Archaic period. The CG played a seminal role in these developments, yet the mortuary evidence has remained scattered throughout journals and excavation reports, restricting their use and leading conclusions to be drawn from limited datasets. The aim of this study is to facilitate a reconsideration of the CG as a vibrant and pivotal phase in Cypriot protohistory. It brings together an unprecedented database containing details of 1406 tombs, including all those currently known to date to the CG period. Drawing on three specific case-study sites at Amathus, Palaepaphos and Salamis, and through the application of a strict methodological approach, the mortuary evidence is examined for indications of changing mortuary practices and portrayals of identity. Employing a complex combination of mortuary and identity theory the data are examined to reveal social and political changes underway in the Cypro-Geometric period. This fresh look at the CG mortuary record highlights the quantity, quality and potential of the extant data, and offers a reinterpretation of the socio-political development of the island at the start of the Iron Age.

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 research explores the potential of the submerged Palaeolithic archaeology of the southern North Sea for answering questions about how hominins occupied and adapted within their environments in these northerly latitudes throughout the Pleistocene. Recent coastal discoveries in East Anglia have demonstrated occupation as far back as ~1 million years, and yet our appreciation of the how, why and who of this occupation is missing a crucial piece of its puzzle; excluding these now-submerged landscapes is an active bias on our understanding, truncating the archaeological record. Having been subjected to repeated glaciations, trans- and regressions, the very processes that led to the terrestrial exposure of these areas have subsequently led to their neglect: the assumption that pre-LGM deposits will have been eroded or re-worked has prevailed. Recent work, however, has demonstrated the inaccuracy of this assumption, with evidence for extant Pleistocene-age deposits, landscape features and archaeology. Unlocking the clear potential of these submerged landscapes now relies on the approaches that we take to their investigation as, to-date, all archaeological finds have been entirely by chance. In order to move beyond this reactive style of archaeology, methodologies must be developed which tackle these areas in a more focused and reasoned way. The research undertaken throughout this PhD makes steps towards this. Starting from no baseline understanding of the nature of the existing resource, this work located, collated and analysed a prolific collection of 1,019 faunal specimens. Recovered by the 19th and 20th Century UK trawling industry, the development of historical methods has elucidated their locations and conditions of collection. Combining this locational information with species taxonomic evolution, the emergent spatio-temporal patterns provide a fresh understanding of the integrity of the extant deposits and unique opportunities for locating them on the seabed. These results are presented at a range of scales: • First, a broad-scale understanding of offshore regions across the southern North Sea which have demonstrated a dominance of cold-stage species from MIS 8-MIS 2. • Secondly, a local scale: linking faunal remains with seabed features in the near shore area off Happisburgh, identifying Early and early Middle Pleistocene assemblages related to exposures of the CFbF. • Finally, a discrete, high resolution area of seabed off the coast of Clacton has been identified. Through the collection of swath bathymetry, this area has shown the exciting correlation of Pleistocene seabed deposits and faunal remains. This research presents a significant move towards a proactive approach to these submerged landscapes and represents a step-change in our ability to understand, locate and engage with this undervalued archaeological resource.

No description available.

Capitalist logic, its impact on the practice of archaeology, and on the professional lives of those who participate within its political economy are the subject for this analysis. I have chosen as my unit of analysis commercial archaeology in Quebec, Canada. This context was chosen because of its progressive transformation from a semi, state-regulated archaeological system to one that is competitive and comparable to those found in the UK and the USA. Commercial archaeology, as governed by a neoliberal economic system, has fundamentally altered how archaeology‟s contributions are brought about, maintained and disseminated. But what about those who produce archaeology, has their relationship to the profession changed as a result of neoliberal economics? The objective of this thesis is to address and evaluate the argument against neoliberal economics and contribute to current critiques regarding capitalist economics by posing the following question: does the implementation of a neoliberal economy in archaeology sustain the accomplishment of a meaningful and valuable archaeological activity for archaeologists and the public? Within this dissertation, an ethnographic approach to data collection permits the exploration of the experience of socioeconomic changes upon the lives of archaeologists, experience which is articulated in their own discourses. I also employ qualitative demographic and economic data, and participant observation. The characteristics of the archaeological network in Quebec are further illustrated through a comparative analysis with the system of commercial archaeology in the UK. Research results demonstrate that the present market economy is harmful to the development of archaeological products, primarily because of the alienation of the product from the archaeologists and the public. Alternatives to the current economic system have been developed. However, these options suffer from under-funding. I propose that new models of practice for archaeology must be explored and given credence, if there is to be a perpetuation of the profession within the cultural landscape of western societies.