This thesis uses Byzantine coins in south India to re-examine pre-Islamic maritime trade between the Mediterranean and south India. Analysis of historiographical trends, key textual sources (the Periplous of the Erythreian Sea and the Christian Topography, Book Eleven), and archaeological evidence from the Red Sea, Aksum, the Persian Gulf and India, alongside the numismatic evidence yields two main methodological and three historical conclusions. Methodologically, the multi-disciplinary tradition of Indo-Roman studies needs to incorporate greater sensitivity to the complexities of different evidence types and engage with wider scholarship on the economic and state structures of the Mediterranean and India. Furthermore, pre-Islamic Indo-Mediterranean trade offers an ideal locus for experimenting with a practical global history, particularly using new technologies to enhance data sharing and access to scholarship. Historically, this thesis concludes: first, that the significance of pre-Islamic trade between the Mediterranean and India was minimal for any of the participating states; second, that this trade should be understood in the context of wider Indian Ocean networks, connecting India, Sri Lanka and southeast Asia; third, that the Persian Gulf rather than the Red Sea probably formed the major meeting point of trade from east and west, but this is not yet demonstrable archaeologically, numismatically or textually.

Galatians who entered into Anatolia in about 280 B.C., in order to help the Bithynian king Nicomedes I against his brother Zipoetas, had a significant role in the history of the ancient Asia Minor. Archaeological material that were recovered from different sites such as Gordion, Pessinus and Tavion and fort settlements mostly dating to the late Hellenistic Period are the most important sources that provide information on their presence in Galatia region named after them. The main purpose of this thesis is to bring together all the archaeological, historical and epigraphical data to present in a coherent way and examine the fort settlements around Ancyra attributed to the Galatians. It both aims to understand the Galatians archaeologically and also by applying new methods such as Visibility Analysis through GIS studies, it hopes to materialize some of the assumptions regarding settlement systems. In order to achieve these, after a thorough presentation of the archaeological and historical data, the forts surveyed around Ancyra are described individually and then studied as a system with the help of Visibility Analysis. The thesis also confirms the presumed relationship between the location of the forts and the topography as well as identifying criteria for choice of location for ancient settlements.

Leisure is most basically defined as the time free from work. The ancient conception and forms of leisure were quite different from the modern ones, which came into discussion during the industrial era. The Roman society was highly stratified and comprised of diverse social classes for which leisure acquired different forms and meanings. Every stratum of the Roman society enjoyed the possibilities and pleasures of leisure proportional to its hierarchy in the social system, so that leisure can be investigated in both public and private contexts in the Roman world. This study aims to investigate leisure, which was one of the main driving social forces in the Roman society, in spatial terms with reference to Roman domestic architecture. The study focuses on central Italy and particularly on Ephesus, the latter of which is a good example to discuss how the Roman conception of leisure was spatially materialized in a provincial private setting since a group of well studied, documented, and published houses constitute an appropriate comparative sample and context in Ephesus. The spatial organization and characteristics of the spaces housing leisurely activities are discussed on the basis of an axes-scheme that regulated and even dictated the visual and bodily interaction of the participants with certain spaces and elements during leisure activities either in a static state (sitting, reclining), or a kinetic one (walking, perambulating). The visual axes are those perceived in either of these states, along which the eye is directed towards a visual focal point, whereas the dynamic axes are those along which people move during a kinetic leisurely activity. The location, architecture, and use of leisure-oriented spaces in the Roman period houses in Ephesus, such as triclinium, exedra, oecus, museion, and peristyle courtyard are examined with reference to the proposed axes-scheme to present and compare the operation of leisure in the Roman provincial and private setting.

Ayvalik which is located on the Aegean coast of the West Anatolia made its main breakthrough in the 19th century and owe this development to olive oil production which was the main economic input of the settlement since the establishment of Ayvalik. Ayvalik was within the hinterland of izmir which was gained importance as a regional trade centre in the 19th century. Thus, Ayvalik found the way to improve its trade relations in an international level and eventually increase its olive oil production volume due to the growing demands. The new form of olive oil production / factories, developed together with the traditional house and workshop productions in the last quarter of the 19th century in Ayvalik. These three forms of production made up the second significant usage within the Ayvalik after the residential areas. The two or more floored, large volumed buildings were especially located on the shore, near to the port and trade facilities, on a flat terrain and became the most dominant and attractive buildings of the settlement. Besides the impressive industrial buildings, olive oil production itself effected the settlement pattern of Ayvalik. The main transportation axes were formed accordingly to the relationship between raw material areas and production places. The olive oil production also has an effect on the physical development direction of the settlement. The areas influenced from the negative effects of the production i.e., smell and dust were not chosen for development. The development of industrial buildings also blocked the physical relationship between the residential areas and sea. The industrial buildings such as factories, workshops and warehouses along the coast line reflect the industrial character of Ayvalik in the settlement&rsquo / s silhouette.

This thesis examines Phrygian cultic sites in Western Phrygia from the perspective of landscape using a range of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analyses. More specifically, it explores spatial relationships between these cultic sites and the regional geographical context with reference to certain environmental and cultural parameters. These include topography, geology, and distance to settlements, hilltop sites, and ancient roads. A total of 30 Phrygian cultic sites form the primary archaeological evidence. Secondary archaeological evidence covers a range of mound settlements and hilltop sites associated with Phrygian culture. The study heavily relies on the readily available archaeological site data from related publications and recent surveys in the region. Geographic datasets used include ASTER Global DEM and derived surfaces, as well as digital geological and historical maps. This study contributes to our understanding of Phrygian cultic sites by revealing certain patterns as to their locations. It also brings all the available site data from Western Phrygia together for the first time. Ultimately, it suggests that the &ldquo / highlandscapes&rdquo / of Phrygia with spectacular geological formations could have played a crucial role on the cultic site locations.

This study is a conclusion of radiocarbon datings which are depend on evaluations of archaeologists or scholars who publishes these datings. So it is very attached to observations of those scholars especially for determining sub-phases of samples which are dated. According to these datings, the radiocarbon story of Anatolian Early Bronze Age starts with a dating from Troia from 3760 cal. BC and ends with a dating from &Ccedil / adirh&ouml / y&uuml / k in 1630 cal. BC. Of course these dates are the lower and higher borders of the 68% probability band. As a result of assessments of all datings it can be said that the beginning of Early Broze Age in Anatolia is started equally more or less in every region at the same time interval that corresponds 3700/3400 BC and continued 800 years approximately. Although error deviation bands overlap onto each other, it is possible to say that the EB2 period of Anatolia ruled between 2800-2400 BC roughly. In this work it can be observed that the ending of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia generally not ocured simultaneously. Sos H&ouml / y&uuml / k for example in the East Anatolia for example, drawing a very special profile with an ending date 2300 BC for the Early Bronze Age. Some other sites giving results as late as nearly in 18th. and 17th. century BC. For the timing of the end of Early Bronze Age in Anatolia, it can be said that, inequality among the sites are more likely other than regions.

The subject of presentation of archaeological resources is still a developing concept in Turkey. The concepts of educational value and concern, needs a more common recognition and more practice in this context. The same statement goes for the management of natural resources. However, proper public presentation of archaeological and natural resources and public education in those is crucial for the protection of these resources. Moreover, an integrated presentation, approaching the archaeological resources within their natural environment, is required for sustainability, a better preservation and interpretation of the resources. In this sense, this thesis proposes an application / a trail system for the integrated presentation of the archaeological and natural resources in the case of METU Campus Area in Ankara, Turkey. In this way, it aims to ensure the preservation of the resources by raising awareness through good interpretation and education.

Prehistoric Sardinia is best known for its Bronze Age Nuragic culture which lasted from the mid-2nd millennium until the early 1st millennium. The Iron Age and later prehistory of the island are often subsumed into discourses that emphasise the colonising Phoenicians (8th-6th centuries BC) and Carthaginians (6th-2nd centuries BC). In the north of the island the local communities, being neither part of the Bronze Age Nuragic culture nor of the colonized world of the south, are seen in relation to foreign communities rather than from local perspectives. This thesis uses postcolonial theoretical frameworks of island identity, consumption and materiality to examine the local/foreign interactions that take place in north Sardinia in the period between 900 – 200 BC. The main focus is to set the interrelationships between the local Sardinian communities and the Phoenician, Etruscan, Greek and Carthaginian traders and settlers who frequented the shores in a context that emphasises local and indigenous agency. At the same time this topic provides an opportunity to re-examine the scholarship that has led to north Sardinia being overlooked. This thesis covers a long time period and the project is divided geographically between three different zones of north Sardinia (the north-west, the central-east and the Olbia area) and chronologically between the 9th- 7th centuries, the 7th – 5th centuries and the 4th-2nd centuries BC. The data set includes the archaeological material from 51 north Sardinian sites that contain evidence of local/foreign interactions during these periods. Using this data a few well excavated sites are studied in greater detail to examine and question the models of acculturation and resistance that form the traditional perspectives of scholars working in the north. For example, the presence or lack of foreign material culture on indigenous sites has often been understood from the perspective that desire for foreign goods was natural. This approach overemphasises the role that foreign communities had in contact situations and at the same time underemphasises the agency and choices of the local inhabitants. Indeed an examination of the data shows how local practices continued and that the foreign presence had a limited impact. One of my aims in this thesis is to avoid a dualistic position which sets the local communities against foreign ones; in fact local/foreign interactions can result in the creation of ‘hybrid’ products, practices and communities and I explore how far we can see the hybridization of north Sardinian communities in the different phases of the 1st millennium through the material culture that informed their actions. A second aim is to explore what types of changes took place in north Sardinian identities through the types of objects they consumed. Some of the larger Iron Age sites were sanctuaries and thus I examine how far local communities used ritual as a way of mediating the exchanges between them and foreign people through their selection of the material culture. Thirdly, this thesis approaches the social identities of the Sardinians using a bottom-up approach to the interactions. This allows me to compare the different ways in which local communities experienced foreign contacts and culture over a broad period and the evidence illuminates the variety of ways that island identities were developed in the various regions of north Sardinia.

This thesis investigates the impact of the Christian clergy on daily life in Anglo-Saxon England in the seventh and eight centuries AD. Noting from the outset an interpretative impasse in historical sources, the archaeological record is explored for what it may reveal concerning those areas and peoples most hidden from historical scholarship. Noting problems with techniques that assume clear distinctions between Christian and pagan ritual - in particular funerary ritual - the anthropology of religious phenomena and religious conversion is introduced to support and expand that critique, but also to focus attention on the sophistication of the problem to be addressed. It is argued that the social sciences are ill-equipped to investigate religious phenomena and that a more subtle, if more complicated, approach is required. Considering the coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England as an encounter between missionaries and their audience, we are encouraged to investigate the subtle tensions implicit in that relationship. The relationship is thus recast in terms of access to literacy, since this is a distinguishing factor of the clergy in England in the seventh and eighth centuries. Literacy, modelled as a set of discursive practices embedded in and re-produced through social relationships, is investigated from the perspective of the archaeology of surveillance. Two cases from Hampshire - Micheldever and Saxon Southampton (or Hamwic) - support the view that literacy can be used as a means of investigating the missionary encounter. It is proposed that, by the first half of the eighth century, the populations of these two areas were drawn into an intricate engagement with the clergy, facilitated by the bureaucratic and discursive deployment of literacy practices. Though necessarily more complicated than approaches that depend on the archaeology of the cemeteries to investigate the relationship between the clergy and the laity, this insight does at least do justice to the complexity of the issue being discussed.

The study of Roman frontiers tends to concentrate on the historical development and military tactics, in construction and actions, of the Roman army. Little attention has been given to the daily life of the soldiers; and those studies that address daily organisation tend to rely upon interpretations that were made about the Roman army in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Furthermore, the scholars who have researched this aspect tend to apply their arguments to the army as a whole, believing it to have been an homogenous group of people. The early interpretations were often based on anachronistic views that the Roman army was organised and operated in a similar manner to the military system of the time these early archaeologists were writing. One area of the organisation of the Roman army that requires greater deliberation is health care, many aspects of which are taken for granted or interpreted on the basis of understandings made by scholars early on in the development of the discipline. The more recent theories about the system of medical care in the army are also based on rather sparse supporting evidence. It is, therefore, the aim of this thesis to make a two-fold examination of the subject by examining legionary and auxiliary fortifications on the Rhine, Upper and Middle Danube and British frontiers. Queries are raised about previous scholarship in order to see if there is sufficient evidence to support the interpretations and understandings on which more recent scholarshipis based. Following this, new questions are asked of the archaeological and epigraphical material, in the context of more recent anthropological, historical and theoretical archaeological methods not previously applied in studies of Roman military medicine. The main issues are: to see if there is evidence to support the idea of a single system of medical care in the army or if the evidence shows variation within the system, either between the provinces or units; whether there was a difference in care offered to the auxiliary and legionary units; if there is evidence for civilians being treated by military doctors; and if there is evidence for cultural variation of medical practice within the units. The questions are broached by comparing the epigraphical, archaeological and architectural remains relating to medical treatment. Inscriptions mentioning doctors are examined to see if these support the idea of differences in the types of doctors employed according to frontier and unit type. In order to gain information about the cultural background of doctors and the development of medical care in the army the home of the doctors and the dates of the inscriptions are also examined. Medical instruments are employed as a source of evidence to determine the distribution and range of health care in the army. Not only are the instruments compared between fortifications and frontiers to see if there is evidence for medical variation, but they are examined for their context and deposition.It is argued that depositional processes can tell us much about how people understood medical tools and their associations with disease, wounds and death. Finally, the archaeological evidence of buildings identified as military hospitals is considered. In particular, it is questioned whether there is enough evidence to support the definition of the 'hospitals' as hospitals. Artefactual remains from within 'hospitals' are examined and compared when known, as are the plan and layout of each structure that has been recognised as a hospital. The description of Roman hospitals is frequently presented as if they were planned to serve the same functions as modem hospitals, so a comparison of these buildings and their functions, both civilian and military, is made with later (medieval and early-post-medieval) hospitals. Questions of the cultural construction of space are brought into this chapter as a means of demonstrating that the construction and use of buildings is culturally variable and not always undertaken according to a common sense or functional approach as understood in the modem west. It is apparent that our current identification of certain structures as 'hospitals' is far from secure. The thesis concludes by arguing that there is no solid evidence for the existence of a single medical system within the Roman army. A combination of military events and circumstancesa long with cultural variation in the make-up of the units provides the most plausible explanation for this pattern of variability.