This thesis takes Assmann’s theory of cultural memory and applies it to an exploration of conceptualisations of dreams and dreaming in the early Roman Empire (31 BC – AD 200). Background information on dreams in different cultures, especially those closest to Rome (the ancient Near East, Egypt and Greece) is provided, and dream reports in Greco-Roman historical and imaginative literature are analysed. The thesis concludes that dreams were considered to offer a possible connection with the divine within the cultural imagination in the early Empire, but that the people of the second century AD, which has sometimes been called an ‘age of anxiety’, were no more interested in dreams or dream revelation than Greeks and Romans of other periods. This thesis outlines, defines and applies the newly developed concept of cultural imagination, developed from cultural memory, to its examination of dreams and dream reports in Greco-Roman literature. Using the concept of cultural imagination in preference to discussing ‘belief’ is shown to have advantages for the study of ancient religion, as it allows the historian to discuss religious ideas that may or may not have been widely ‘believed’ but which were present within the imagination of the members of a particular society.

The concept of ‘deviant burial’ has been part of archaeological vocabulary since the 1980s, but is still often used too casually to be meaningful. The term has been used to describe individuals who have been accorded alternative burial rites when compared to others within the same burial ground, region or time period. As ‘deviant burial’ is widely found in archaeological and anthropological contexts, there was need to examine the range of these alternative burial rites and to determine whether this differentiation at death was reserved for the ostracised and the punished. This study used a cemetery analysis of eight early Anglo-Saxon sites to test whether the accordance of ‘deviant’ or atypical burial rites was associated with a particular group of individuals or set of funerary motifs. A total of 1016 inhumed individuals were examined from East Anglia and North Lincolnshire (Lindsey) and entered into a searchable database before being subjected to a comprehensive statistical analysis. This identified atypical rites that were not necessarily associated with criminal punishment or negative treatment. This study found that individuals who were accorded differential burial treatment were not always found in an iniquitous context and could instead be interpreted as evidence of eccentricity at death.

By integrating the corpus of existing knowledge with new information gained by applying geo-archaeological techniques as well as more traditional techniques to fresh archaeological investigations at Black Patch and elsewhere, the aims of the research are to look at the economy, social organization and ritual behaviour of life in the Middle and Late Bronze Age on the South Downs in the light of modern archaeological theory to consider the questions ‘Why were these areas chosen for settlement?', ‘What caused their abandonment?' and ‘What can we learn about the life of the people associated with the settlements?'. The combination of field walking, field survey and soil sampling has shown the presence of a Neolithic flint spread, woodland clearance and agriculture before and during the period of site settlement at Black Patch. The positioning of the Hut platforms and enclosures across existing lynchets, the modification of the existing field system, the establishment of a new one and the adoption of more intensive farming techniques (manuring, weeding and crop location and rotation) would imply a change of social order and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle for some. The existence of centrally placed hearths in huts found at Black Patch brings into doubt the existing day/night life/death metaphor currently commonly used for this period. Structured deposition points to a society concerned with agricultural fertility. The abandonment of Black Patch identified by Drewett and the dearth of later dated artefacts, at about the same time as the abandonment of the only other positively identified Deverel-Rimbury site in the immediate area, Itford Hill, suggests another change of social order, with livestock becoming more important as the Downland area around Black Patch appears then to be used only by nomadic herders. Areas to the west of the River Ouse which had been settled earlier developed more complicated specialist production sites. These have yet to be found east of the River Ouse.

The grape is arguably one of the oldest cultivated products in human history and the analysis of its main product, wine, reveals clues to trade and associations of previous civilizations. In ancient times, wine was stored in clay amphorae, which, if not properly sealed with resin or pitch allowed the wine to wick into clay matrices, dry, and polymerize producing insoluble, intractable materials that may remain within the matrix for several thousand years. Presently, identification of wine residue is based upon the extraction of these polymeric materials from the ceramic matrix and analyzing/identifying the chemical fingerprints. Two main biomarkers have historically been employed for the identification of wine residue: tartaric and syringic acids. In some cases, the presence of one of these biomarkers has been designated as the confirmatory signature of wine often leading to false positives as amphorae were re-used in antiquity. Herein, a novel approach utilizing metabolomics has been applied to archaeological objects in order to further mine possible biomarkers for a more accurate assessment of the original foodstuff. An untargeted metabolic profiling method was combined with a targeted analytical method resulting in the successful validation of eight representative biomarkers in two separate archaeological sites.

No description available.

This study examines the physical settings and landscape associations of open-air judicial courts in medieval Scotland. Outdoor medieval assembly practices represent an ephemeral collective human activity crucial to the understanding of medieval society. A multidisciplinary approach which utilises place-name, historical and archaeological evidence is adopted. Representative case studies are investigated and the results of geophysical and topographical survey presented. Place-names derived from Gaelic, Scots, Old Norse and English indicative of assemblies, and drawn from established studies, are brought together and supplemented by a preliminary survey of additional material. Over 200 place-names are considered. Published historical references to open-air courts relating to the 13th - 16th centuries, are examined, with 18 examples where physical settings can be confidently identified presented in detail. A diversity of open-air court settings are identified, incorporating both natural and archaeological features. Mounds are the most common archaeological setting identified with a widespread distribution which transcends historical linguistic and cultural boundaries. However, a significant number of court settings utilised natural hills, which has implications for the archaeological scrutiny of assembly places. The re-use of prehistoric features such as cairns and megalithic remains for courts is a widespread phenomenon, not restricted to royal centres. The pre-Christian cultic qualities of early historic central places are illustrated and the close association of early church sites and judicial assembly mounds in Scotland is demonstrated. Medieval judicial assembly sites in Scotland are also found in association with territorial boundaries, emphasising their role in inter-community dynamics. The historical material demonstrates a gradual decline in the use of open-air settings for courts from the 15th century onwards. This nonetheless represents significant persistence of customary court venues in Scotland during the progressive centralisation of legal process.

The thesis draws together for the first time in print a comprehensive list of Roman temporary camps in Britain, drawn from published and archival sources. This material is presented as a corpus at the end of the volume. Following the introductory chapter, which outlines the scope of the work, the history of the development of study into the subject is reviewed in detail, examining the contributions made by both terrestrial and aerial archaeologists. Thereafter the evidence provided by the classical sources is examined and an attempt is made to trace the origins and subsequent development of the Roman military camp. The issue of definition forms the subject of the next section and it is argued that greater clarity than exists at present is required to allow these sites to be adequately addressed. This leads to a statement of the current state of knowledge in the subject, with a review of the central themes and arguments, and it is proposed that the role of terrestrial archaeology, and in particular excavation, has become unfairly undervalued. To support this contention a close study of the evidence provided by excavation is undertaken, leading to a call for renewed efforts through this medium, as a means of both supplementing and complementing the information obtained through the medium of aerial reconnaissance. Three case studies are then presented, utilising the methodological approaches championed in the preceding chapter. The thesis culminates in a critique of the existing knowledge base which concludes that while healthy, the subject is capable of significant advances of knowledge, some of which may best be achieved by recourse to a more balanced approach using all applications available to the discipline.

Archaeological wrought iron artefacts are subject to damaging corrosion while in the burial environment and when subjected to environmental changes after excavation. The role of water, oxygen, and chloride corrosion accelerators are central to iron corrosion processes. Intrinsic factors such as the amount and distribution of slag in wrought iron may also play a role in corrosion processes. This study examined a range of factors that impact on understanding conservation desalination treatments to mitigate corrosion by removing chlorides. While examining the effect of slag on corrosion rate and chloride content formed the core of this project, cracking morphologies within corrosion product layers and their influence on corrosion rates measured by oxygen consumption produced outcomes of interest for designing the practicalities of treatment procedures. The slag content of the wrought iron objects examined in this study did not correlate with either their corrosion rate or their chloride content. In line with other authors, clustering of chloride around slag inclusions was identified. This confirmed slag does act as a focus for developing corrosion centres, which will offer challenges for chloride removal and hence provide opportunity for post-treatment corrosion. The alkaline sulphite washing applied to the iron nails produced results that aligned with those reported in other studies and confirmed its relative efficiency for removing chloride. Of major relevance to conservators designing alkaline washing techniques is assigning treatment time and specifying treatment environment. These decisions are aided by evidence provided in this study, which showed that immersing the chloride ii containing corrosion product β-FeOOH in alkaline sulphite entirely transformed it to other iron oxides in only 30 days. During this process it will release its chloride, which will be available for diffusion into the wash solution making a more complete desalination process possible.

Without the protection provided by anti-corrosive paints, vehicles, bridges and industrial heritage would not have survived for long. Where these coatings fail or are damaged, ferrous metal requires further protection. To provide insight into coating failure a survey of paint layers and corrosion products found on historic wrought iron and mild steel was carried out around Scotland. Corrosion has also been found to be a major contributor to structural damage of historic armoured vehicles. When choosing coatings within conservation, decisions are based on qualitative data and practitioners’ experience rather than evidence based standards for specific ferrous alloys in particular environmental conditions. Limited quantitative data exists hence this research seeks to produce quantified data via a standardised approach. To provide environmental context for the laboratory based tests, temperature and humidity data from the Tank Museum has been considered. Thus the anti-corrosive performances of clear coatings on historic armoured steel have been assessed in controlled temperature and relative humidity by using a sensitive corrosion monitoring technique. For relevance to the conservation sector common materials, methodology and environmental conditions were considered and standardised. Aluminium oxide blasting of the steel removed contaminants and provided a keyed surface for Paraloid B72 and Cosmoloid H80, popular clear coatings within conservation and Siliglide 10, a modern silane based coating. All three coatings offered protection for the steel whether applied to cleaned surfaces or to pre-corroded surfaces. The best treatment method and thus the treatment recommended for protecting areas of paint-loss is to clean the surface and apply three layers of Paraloid B72. The standardised approach used allows other researchers to contribute comparable data to the production of a database and future standards within conservation.

This thesis provides an overview of the cult of Mithras from the late third to early fifth centuries across the entire Roman world. It seeks to illustrate what developments occurred in the cult during this period and how it subsequently came to an end. In doing so, it elucidates alterations in the environment and architecture of mithraea, the patrons and adherents of the cult, and Mithraic ritual practices. It demonstrates that by the fourth century the cult of Mithras had become increasingly localised, with a significant degree of variation evident among different Mithraic communities. Furthermore, it will be shown that, contrary to the traditional narrative, the end of the Mithras cult was not the product of an Empire-wide persecution by Christian iconoclasts, but a more gradual process that occurred over a long period of time. Additionally, it explores whether adopting a sociological approach, as has been suggested by other scholars in the past, can be used to explain how the transformations evident in the cult may have contributed to a decline in the commitment of Mithraic adherents in the fourth century. This study contributes to the wider field of research on the late antique period in three ways. Firstly, it is to my knowledge the only analysis of a non-Christian cult in Late Antiquity to cover the entire Roman Empire and thus hopes to contribute to a greater understanding of the sacred landscape in this period. In particular, it sheds some light on areas which are generally understudied in this regard, such as the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Secondly, it seeks to place the end of a cult in this period in its sociocultural context, rather than focusing only on the evidence from cult sites alone as previous studies have often done, thus providing a more nuanced explanation for why this occurred. Finally, through comparing the Mithras cult to other cults in this period it also shows that there is little to support any notion of a uniform 'decline of paganism' in late antiquity, with various cults experiencing divergent rates of decline which began at different times.