This dissertation explores social, cultural and political changes in the region later known as ‘Phoenicia’ during the period of approximately 1300-900 BC. By applying modern approaches to theoretical questions such as the nature of social change, identity, migration and how such phenomena are represented in the archaeological record, this dissertation aims to provide a discussion of Late Bronze/Early Iron Age Phoenicia based on a more solid methodological foundation than has often been the case previously. As well as better illuminating social change occurring within Phoenicia itself, it is hoped that the methodological observations and comparative value of the case-study presented here will prove useful for discussions of the wider social changes occurring in the East Mediterranean at this time. A key observation of this research is that past narratives have placed too much emphasis on the role of external powers such as the Egyptian ‘empire’ or ‘Sea People’ invaders in driving Levantine social change in this period. This dissertation stresses the critical importance of local responses to foreign influence and charts the balance between active choice and constraint by circumstances in shaping the development of the Phoenician polities. It is argued that the most important forms of change which can be identified in the archaeological and written records relate to the construction of identities, especially those of the Phoenician élites. These take the form of a move away from legitimation and identity-negotiation based on foreign contacts, towards greater emphasis on more local, Levantine features. The consequences of this change, it is argued, are felt within social, political, economic, religious and other spheres of life.

The East Alpine region formed an important crossroads in later prehistoric Europe, through which ideas, people and objects flowed. This was particularly the case during the Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age, when an increasingly competitive society was evolving, with the formation of more complex social structures and the rise of ‘elites’. This has been evidenced in a shift in burial customs, from Urnfield-type cremation burial to the construction of tumuli and the adoption of elaborate inhumation burial. This multidisciplinary, multi-scalar approach to the analysis of human remains aims to explore the evolving structure, homogeneity and heterogeneity of communities inhabiting central and eastern Slovenia, and north-eastern Croatia, during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. The application of multiple methods, including the osteological analysis of cremated and non-cremated human remains, radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium) and aDNA analysis has facilitated the exploration and interpretation of later prehistoric social structure and lifestyle. The use of carbon (from enamel carbonate and collagen) and nitrogen stable isotope analysis has highlighted important dietary distinctions between communities inhabiting this region and previous studies from elsewhere in contemporary Europe – specifically a high dependence on millet as a staple crop. This has been evidenced by δ13C values of between -17‰ and -15.3‰ from bone collagen. δ15N values of between 7.6‰ and 9.1‰ support this interpretation as they do not indicate the consumption of marine protein. Increased δ15N values of up to 13.5‰ from deciduous dentine have been interpreted as the influence of dietary and metabolic conditions, particularly in the presentation of an Infant exhibited palaeopathological evidence of severe metabolic disease. Complementary isotopic methods, including oxygen isotope ratios and enamel carbonate carbon, have also highlighted heterogeneity in childhood diet, reflecting the transition from a high lipid diet of breastmilk, to a diet of carbohydrates, indicative of weaning. In addition to these findings, the application of radiocarbon dating on cremated and nio-cremated human bone has expanded the current understanding of mortuary practices in this study area. Inhumation burial, previously thought synomemous with the Iron Age, has been now been identified throughout the Bronze Age at the cemetery of Obrežje. The application of this multi-scalar approach to combining and interpreting these data sets has allowed for the investigation of individual biographies, as well as regional trends. This research illustrates the advantages of bringing together multiple lines of evidence for the creation of informed interpretations regarding the life, death and diet of prehistoric peoples of the East Alpine region, and beyond. / The Encounters and Transformations in Iron Age Europe (ENTRANS) Project, led by Ian Armit, with the Slovenian and Croatian principal investigators, Matija Črešnar and Hrvoje Potrebica. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 291827. The project is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA, BMBF via PT-DLR, DASTI, ETAG, FCT, FNR, FNRS, FWF, FWO, HAZU, IRC, LMT, MHEST, NWO, NCN, RANNÍS, RCN, VR and The European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities programme. / The Appendices A-H are not available online.

Yes / This paper presents a case study of a young infant, from a larger isotopic and osteological investigation of Bronze/Iron Age (14th-4th century BC) skeletal assemblages from Croatia and Slovenia. The osteological analysis of this infant identified pathological lesions including abnormal porosity and new bone formation consistent with malnutrition and phases of recovery. The distribution and appearance of these pathological lesions (i.e. diffuse micro-porosities and plaques of subperiosteal new bone formation on the skull and long bones) led to the conclusion that this infant probably suffered from scurvy (vitamin C deficiency). The diet and nitrogen balance of this individual were investigated by incremental dentine sampling and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. This sampling method provided a high resolution record of dietary and metabolic changes from pre-birth to around the time of death. The resulting isotope data exhibited unusually high δ13C values for this region and time period (between -11.3‰ and -12.6‰), while δ15N values were observed to be c. 3‰ above that of rib collagen sampled from contemporary adults recovered from the same site. The isotope profiles generated from the incremental dentine analysis show that δ13C and especially δ15N continue to increase until death. The evidence from the skeletal remains and high resolution isotopic data support the hypothesis that this infant suffered from severe malnutrition and an increasingly negative nitrogen balance. The paper discusses some scenarios which could have resulted in these unusual isotope ratios, whilst considering the diagnosis of possible metabolic disease. The paper also addresses the need for context when interpreting isotopic results. The isotope data should not be viewed in isolation, but rather as part of a multidisciplinary approach, considering the multiple causes of isotopic variability.

L'enquête porte sur l'Italie et les premiers temps du monde étrusque. Elle s'intéresse plus particulièrement à la période comprise entre un moment avancé du Premier âge du Fer et de la fin de l'Orientalisant (800-580 av. n.è.). Cette période charnière est celle du passage de la culture villanovienne à la culture étrusque. Les découpages chronologiques traditionnels ont entravé la lecture dans la diachronie de la documentation archéologique, et donc des transformations en œuvre dans la société étrusque. Dans ce travail, je me suis appuyée sur un corpus funéraire totalisant 771 tombes et plus de 10 000 objets provenant de trois sites parmi les mieux documentés de la Péninsule (Veio, Pontecagnano et Verucchio) pour reconstruire un cadre de développement chrono-culturel qui embrasse ces deux périodes traditionnellement disjointes. Ces analyses chronologiques étaient un préalable nécessaire à l'étude de dynamiques culturelles plus complexes qui ont amené à cette époque, les élites (proto) -étrusques à s'insérer dans ce grand courant méditerranéen que fut le phénomène orientalisant, et à s'attacher dans leurs tombes des biens et matières provenant d'Orient. La mise à plat de la documentation, ainsi que la périodisation élaborée dans ce travail permettent désormais de suivre dans une séquence continue et plus longue l'adoption des différents éléments orientaux par les communautés étrusques. / The present investigation deals with Italic peoples and the early days of the Etruscan world. It focuses more particularly on a period from the Early Iron Age to the end of the orientalizing period (800-580 B.C.). This crucial time shows the transition from Villanovian culture to Etruscan culture. The traditional chronological cuts have hindered the diachronical analysis of the archaeological documentation and, therefore, the ongoing social mutation of the Etruscan society. ln this research, I have used three major and well known funerary contexts (of Veio, Pontecagnano and Verucchio), totalizing 771 tombs and more than 10 000 artefacts, in order to reshape a precise chrono-cultural sequence which embraces those two periods, traditionally studied as separated chronological phases. My chronological analysis was a necessary precursor to the study of more complex cultural dynamics that occurred at this time in the Mediterranean Basin: the Orientalizing Phenomenon in which (proto)-Etruscan elites played an active role in using, as new identification criteria in their tombs, goods and raw materials coming from the Orient. The blank creation of the archaeological documentation and the new periodization created in this thesis work now allows us to follow, through a continuous and a longer sequence the adoption, by the Etruscan communities, of various oriental elements.

In this thesis I explore how physical and socio-cultural factors interact to shape domestic architecture by analysing the form, layout, and construction of houses from Sicily dating from the Neolithic to the end of the Hellenistic period. This time range encompasses two primary domestic building traditions: single-spaced round houses that dominate from the Neolithic through to the end of the Late Bronze Age, and large, multiple-spaced rectilinear structures that characterise the Archaic period onwards. As such the domestic architecture of Sicily provides the opportunity to study not only two distinct ways of building, but also the dynamics within them and the changes that occurred as one evolved into the other during the Early Iron Age: a period of transition that is often studied in isolation or only in relation to the earlier or later context, rather than as an integral part of this island’s history. A critical analysis of building techniques and materials in the context of available resources and their material properties alongside local environmental conditions reveals correlations between the choice of materials, construction techniques, and topographical and climatic conditions, as well as the form taken by the building as a whole. Comparative analyses were also carried out of house size, form, and degree of subdivision within and between the building traditions. The picture presented shows an increase in total size and subdivision (despite the relatively stable size range of individual spaces within the houses) from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic period and implies a developing desire for options to separate people and activities. Finally, close diagrammatic studies of the layout and spatial organisation of the houses bring to light the structuring of these domestic spaces: the use of architectural features and artefacts to provide a sense of division in single-spaced buildings; greater layers of access and control of movement incorporated into the larger, rectilinear houses with their multiple spaces; and the arrangement of these to allow for the lighting of interior rooms. Combined with the results above, these reveal patterns in the development of building traditions on Sicily and how they relate to, encompass, and entangle the dynamic socio-cultural and physical parameters that make up the wider landscapes they are a part of: notions of identity and its formation and transmission, social structure and stratification, topography and climate, and material structural properties. Altogether this allows for the development of a deeper and more holistic understanding of the relationship between building and living, of how physical and socio-cultural parameters integrate and influence the construction of houses, and how these all come together in the building traditions that are both shaped by us and shape us.

Jusque dans les années 1980, le premier âge du Fer en Bourgogne orientale était connu essentiellement par les fouilles des nécropoles tumulaires et des habitats de hauteur. Les travaux sur les habitats de plaine étaient très lacunaires et reposaient très largement sur des observations réalisées lors de découvertes fortuites. Depuis une vingtaine d’années, le développement de l’archéologie préventive lié aux différents travaux d’aménagement du territoire a permis d’effectuer de nombreux décapages de grande envergure. Grâce à ces chantiers, nos connaissances sur les habitats de plaine se sont développées et ont été réactualisées. Pour aborder ces sites le choix s’est fondé sur les plus caractéristiques soit en raison de leur surface ou soit en fonction du mobilier archéologique recueilli. Le corpus se compose de 110 habitats dont 98 ont été découverts lors d’opérations d’archéologie préventive. Comme beaucoup de ces sites ne sont pas publiés, les volumes 2 et 3 présentent la documentation des sites, les études et les planches de mobilier qui ont servi d’outils de référence à l’étude. Ce sont donc 250 ensembles clos découverts sur ces habitats de plaine du premier âge du Fer qui permettent de proposer une sériation du mobilier, associant céramique et métal, pour aboutir à une typologie précise de cette période pour la région. En complément, l’étude des structures présentes sur ces différents habitats propose une hiérarchisation des sites dont le nombre augmente fortement au premier âge du Fer et témoigne de la spécificité de ce territoire rural, principalement liée à une activité agro-pastorale. / Up until the 1980s the excavation of monumental cemeteries and hilltop settlements provided most of the information on the Early Iron Age in Eastern Burgundy. Studies of lowland settlements were few and far between and consisted mainly of observations from fortuitous discoveries. During the last 20 years the rise of development led archaeology carried out prior to various building developments has provided the opportunity of large scale excavations. These works have developed and renewed our knowledge of lowland settlements. This approach has focused on the most characteristic sites either because of their large surface area or because of their finds. The corpus includes 110 settlements, 98 of which were discovered through development led archaeology. As many of the sites remain unpublished, the volumes n° 2 and 3 present the site documentation, the specialised studies and the drawings of the objects that are the references for this study. The 250 assemblages discovered on the lowland settlements of the Early Iron Age form the basis of a seriation of the finds that associates pottery and metal to establish a precise typology for this period and for the area. Also, the study of the features themselves proposes a hierarchy of the settlements the number of which greatly increases during the Early Iron Age and bears witness to the specificity of this rural territory mainly linked to mixed farming.

This paper is about food culture in Uppland under early iron age in Upplans, Sverige. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analysis the lipids that were extracted from archaeological potsherds from Påtåker Raä 62, Sollentuna, Uppland. The result of the lipid analysis shows content of aquatic animal products, terrestrial animal products, vegetables and indication of being heated. Based on these results and what is considered to be a normal diet during the Iron Age, it is possible to say that there are similarities. These results are also compared with three sites from Late Iron Age – Vendel 1:1, Vendel 28 and Tuna, to see if there are any similarities. The reason to choose three sites from Late Iron Age, and not Early Iron Age, is because there haven’t been done studies like this on material from the early Iron Age. Vendel 28 was the site that was most similar to Påtåker, when it comes to its enviorment with meadows and woods, and the ceramics application areas. / This study is part of the on going research of Påtåker Raä 62, Sollentuna, Oppland.

A number of phenomena, such as new ways of farming, new crops and new domestic animals, derived from the Roman Empire during the Roman Iron Age. In this study, an attempt is made at describing the dispersion of the domestic cat to and in Southern Scandinavia. Domestication of animals in general and of the cat in particular is described, along with the Romanization of Europe. A description is made of a number of archaeological investigations carried out in Denmark and Southern Sweden where remains of the domestic cat have been found. Questions of representativity and criticism of sources are discussed.                                The results of this study imply that the domestic cat first appeared in Jutland in the second century AD, then spread east to the rest of Denmark, to the larger Baltic Islands and mainland Sweden at approximately the same time as Roman artefacts and some domestic birds. The intentions of the Romans and the Scandinavians are discussed and the conclusion is drawn that the Romans probably dispersed cats along with other gifts for diplomatic rather than commercial purposes and that the Scandinavians initially regarded cats as prestige objects rather than rodent killers during the Roman Iron Age. Later, cats where distributed over Scandinavia and took on other tasks. They were sometimes buried with humans and may have taken on a certain status and mythological meaning.

Moon-shaped idols constitute very specific and variable category of ceramic, in rare cases also of stone artefacts. Beginning of their occurrence and spreading in the middle Europe can be associated with the Middle-Danube and North-Alpine Urnfield culture. Their development consequentially continues in the Early Iron Age when they spread outside central European region down to the north east of Spain and the north of Italy. The current total number of findings is higher than estimate from 2004, which was approximately 2000 pieces. The main objective of the thesis lay in overall processing of results of the research up to now concerning the given issue. At the same time there was an attempt made about critical assessment of the artefact features and the excavation environment with regard to the potential function of the Moon-shaped idols. The excavation environment of these products is quite variable. As a rule they appear in settlements as secondary refuse, but also in the situations, which can be considered as demonstration of cult behaviour. In northeast France and south Germany, parts of Moon- shaped idols are to be found also in context of the final Bronze Age. From there the custom is spread in a modified form to the east. Such equipped graves can be noticed in the burial sites of Bylany and...

Long-term human-environmental interactions in naturally fragile drylands are a focus of geomorphological and geoarchaeological research. Furthermore, many dryland societies were also affected by seismic activity. The semi-arid Shiraki Plain in the tectonically active southeastern Caucasus is currently covered by steppe and largely devoid of settlements. However, numerous Late Bronze to Early Iron Age city-type settlements suggest early state formation between ca. 3.2-2.5 ka that abruptly ended after that time. A paleolake was postulated for the lowest plain, and nearby pollen records suggest forest clearcutting of the upper altitudes under a more humid climate during the Late Bronze/Early Iron Ages. Furthermore, also an impact of earthquakes on regional Early Iron Age settlements was suggested. However, regional paleoenvironmental changes and paleoseismicity were not systematically studied so far. We combined geomorphological, sedimentological, chronological and paleoecological data with hydrological modelling to reconstruct regional Holocene paleoenvironmental changes, to identify natural and human causes and to study possible seismic events during the Late Bronze/Early Iron Ages. Our results show a balanced to negative Early to Mid-Holocene water balance probably caused by forested upper slopes. Hence, no lake but a pellic Vertisol developed in the lowest plain. Following, Late Bronze/Early Iron Age forest clear-cutting caused lake formation and the deposition of lacustrine sediments derived from soil erosion. Subsequently, regional aridification caused slow lake desiccation. Remains of freshwater fishes indicate that the lake potentially offered valuable ecosystem services for regional prehistoric societies even during the desiccation period. Finally, colluvial coverage of the lake sediments during the last centuries could have been linked with hydrological extremes during the Little Ice Age. Our study demonstrates that the Holocene hydrological balance of the Shiraki Plain was and is situated near a major hydrological threshold, making the landscape very sensitive to small-scale human or natural influences with severe consequences for local societies. Furthermore, seismites in the studied sediments do not indicate an influence of earthquakes on the main and late phases of Late Bronze/Early Iron Age settlement. Altogether, our study underlines the high value of multi-disciplinary approaches to investigate human-environmental interactions and paleoseismicity in drylands on millennial to centennial time scales.