In order to determine if there is a shared biological lineage among four east central Indiana skeletal populations, the remains have been subjected to nonmetric trait analysis. This technique examines the directly observable manifestations of the genome on the skeleton in order to determine if two or more groups have a shared genetic background beyond the genes that all humans share. This information supplements the archaeological information already available from the cultural remains of these groups, in addition to the metrical data. / Department of Anthropology

The present thesis describes and interprets a large corpus of ceramic material from the ongoing excavations of the University of Crete in the Iron Age necropolis of Orthi Petra, at Eleuthema, Crete. Given that the site is mostly known from preliminary reports, I offer an account of the geology and topography of Eleuthema and the surrounding region, as well as a detailed review of the archaeological remains, with particular emphasis to the Iron Age and the necropolis of Orthi Petra. The core of the study is, however, a formal analysis of ceramics from the latter site. Despite my sustained preoccupation with the chronology and typology of the Eleuthemian pottery, evidence from the whole of Crete is systematically integrated in the discussion. Hence, the analysis of the local ceramics is largely converted into a study of the Iron Age pottery of Crete. To meet the emerging challenges, I embark on building a format of ceramic analysis that facilitates and enhances the reader's understanding of my interpretation of stylistic development. I further pursue a synthetic picture for the chaíne opératoire of the local pottery by laying emphasis on its technology, as well as on the modes of and the interplay between ceramic production, dissemination and consumption. The concept of consumption is also applied to imported pottery and other classes of artefacts from the necropolis to engender a holistic and diachronic assessment of social interaction manifested in the funerary ritual held at Orthi Petra. Imported pottery is further appraised against a Cretan-wide background with regards to its origins, type, distribution and impact on local wares. Issues pertinent to the dissemination of stylistic change, the Orientalizing phenomenon and the interactions between Eleuthema and sites in the Eastern and Central Mediterranean are explored. Lastly, the history of the necropolis is outlined and the issue of the date and cause of its abandonment is reviewed.

Utilising previously unpublished ceramic evidence from the important Late Cypriot settlement of Enkomi, this thesis focuses on the impact on Cypriot social organisation of increased involvement with the complex societies of the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the Late Cypriot period, c. 1650 BCE. The main focus is on one aspect of the material culture: the first appearances of wheelmade pottery and the relationship of the wheelmade ceramics to the remainder of the assemblage. The introduction of wheelmade pottery has long been seen as a component of the 'social complexity package' and considered to be indicative of highly complex societies, along with full-time specialisation and mass production. The ceramic and settlement evidence from Enkomi is addressed in detail to evaluate the degree of social complexity present for the initial stages of settlement transformation on Cyprus from MCIII-LCIIB, prior to the appearance of urban centres during LCIIC. The extent of excavation at Enkomi, compared to other sites of the period, and the wealth of finds from both mortuary and settlement contexts has led to assumptions about the site's relative importance to the processes of change occurring on Cyprus. The notion of Enkomi as a pre-eminent town or as an archaic state is questioned in relation to the evidence from other settlements. The thesis is divided into four parts. Part 1 discusses the theoretical background for social complexity and outlines the explanatory models which have been developed for the Late Cypriot. I address the importance of trade, and briefly outline the modes of contact and social organisation in the eastern Mediterranean region in order to provide a framework for the interaction of Cyprus within this sphere. I also discuss the significance that has been placed on the appearance of wheel made ceramics in archaeological assemblages. The identification of wheel made ceramics is more complex than is often assumed and an important distinction should be made between pottery with the superficial appearance of being wheelmade and pottery that is actually wheelmade. Part 2 assesses the evidence of ceramics and settlement from other early LC sites in order to investigate whether Enkomi may be considered to have played a dominant role on the island in terms of site hierarchy or control over resources. A brief summary of the evidence of the ceramic and settlement evidence for the EC-MC and the LCllC-lllA periods is provided for comparative purposes. In Part 3 the Enkomi settlement and ceramic evidence is considered in detail. The combined evidence indicates a more complex sequence of construction, occupation and abandonment than has been assumed. Additionally, the adoption of wheelmade pottery is found to be a sporadic and gradual process, with the handmade and wheelmade versions of the ceramic wares manufactured concurrently from LCl-LCIIB. The conclusions reached are presented in Part 4. The processes by which Cyprus came to play an important role within the trading networks of the Late Bronze Age are more complex and gradual than generally acknowledged. A combination of settlement and ceramic evidence indicates that social organisation during LCI remained small-scale with regional traditions persisting and limited influence between the emergent polities on the island. During LCllA-B, the degree of intra-island contacts increased and a uniform material culture is adopted, developing into a series of highly structured urban polities by LCIIC. It does not appear likely that any site or region exercised islandwide control during LCI and the autonomous polities of LCIIC therefore represent a continuation of the social organisation from the preceding periods, rather than a devolution of centralised control.

The study of prehistoric Maya settlements has been hampered by simplistic views of cultural ecology, over generalized ethnographic analogy, and a lack of attention to both natural and cultural site formation processes. As a result, Mayanists have tended to expect very little variety in archaeological features and have assumed cultural uniformity over wide ranges of time and space. Traditional research designs support these assumptions. Current knowledge of Maya social organization suggests that more structural variety may occur in Maya archaeological sites than is ordinarily discovered. Some of this variation is evidenced by features not currently visible on the ground-surface. The Nohmul Settlement pattern project employed a "purposive" sampling design to search for settlement variation over time and space. Several assumptions about surface-subsurface relationships were tested. Surface indications were not found to outline subsurface variety. Excavating at intervals from site center in both visible and "invisible" features, showed that the Nohmul community was affected by both centralizing and decentralizing influences and grouped into residential clusters resembling neighborhoods. The degree of centralization and the location of the clusters, as well as some of their characteristics, changed notably over Nohmul's 2500 year occupation.

Archaeology MSc Dissertation School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies Faculty of Science University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg 2013 / Agropastoralists during the Iron Age established their settlements in the Limpopo Valley to take advantage of the rich floodplains of the Shashe-Limpopo confluence. Trade in ivory may have been a draw card in the earlier Zhizo period (AD 900), but good climate and increased rainfall helped to maintain a growing population which in turn contributed to the rise of complex society and the first state in southern Africa, i.e. Mapungubwe (AD 1250-1300). The population increase and the concomitant agricultural land use, together with several droughts, would have challenged livestock management. Using carbon signatures, J. Smith (2005) discovered that cattle were sustained on graze alone, indicating sufficient grass in the valley for pasture during the Iron Age. I have used spherulites found in cattle dung to investigate the use of the confluence vlei area. Vlei grass would have provided extra pasturage. I considered time and space to interpret samples. For the Zhizo and Leokwe periods, I examined 13 samples, including Castle Rock, of which six were positive. K2 had nine positive samples out of 17 while Transitional K2 had 20 positives samples. The TK2 results suggest there was a greater need for extra pasturage associated with drought from AD 1220 to 1250. The Mapungubwe period is represented by 11 samples and five yielded positive results while the Khami period yielded 12 positive results out of 26 samples. These results show a regular use of the confluence vlei during the Iron Age associated with dry conditions.

Os métodos de equilíbrio limite comumente utilizados no dimensionamento de estruturas de solo grampeado não oferecem informação sobre as tensões e deformações na estrutura. No entanto, o êxito da técnica pressupõe deslocamentos para que a resistência dos grampos seja mobilizada. Portanto, seria desejável conhecer: os deslocamentos que a estrutura. sofre durante e depois de realizado o processo da escavação; os esforços mobilizados nos grampos; e a distribuição de tensões atrás da parede da escavação. A importância deste estudo é maior em situações em que a previsão do comportamento é a responsável por garantir a segurança de construções e de instalações de serviço público próximas às escavações grampeadas. Análises bidimensionais e tridimensionais de tensão-deformação com elementos finitos foram realizadas para um melhor entendimento do comportamento da estrutura. As comparações dos resultados das modelagens numéricas permitiram conhecer várias vantagens e desvantagens de um e de outro tipo de modelagem. Realizaram-se também comparações entre resultados de modelagens numéricas que utilizaram os seguintes modelos constitutivos: elasto-plástico (com critério de ruptura de Mohr-Coulomb), hiperbólico e elástico-linear, sendo que para este último realizou-se uma análise incremental. Para a aplicação do modelo elástico-linear foi necessária a divisão do maciço em regiões em função do tipo de trajetória de tensão. Essas comparações permitiram concluir que, desde que com a correta especificação dos parâmetros elásticos, a modelagem baseada na Teoria da Elasticidade pode representar bem o comportamento de escavações grampeadas. / The limit equilibrium methods that are frequently used for design of soi nailing structures do not provide information about the structure\'s stress and strain. However, the technique\'s success depends on the displacements that mobilize the nails strength. Therefore it is desirable to predict the structure\'s displacement, during and after the excavation; the forces avting on nails; and the stress distribution behind the excavation wall. This study has its importance increased in situations in which the prediction of the behavior is needed to guarantee the safety of adjacent buildings and municipal installations near to the excavation. Three dimensional and two-dimensional fine element stress-strain analyses were carried out for a better understanding of the behavior of the structure. Comparisons of the results of different numerical models led to a clear picture of advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. Numerical comparisons were also carried out between analyses with different constitutive models: elasto-plastic (Mohr-Coulomb), hyperbolic and incremental linear elastic. Application of the linear elastic model required the division of the soil mass in regions, according to stress path. Those comparisons led to the conclusion that, given correctly specified elastic parameters, Theory of Elasticity is able to correctly model the behavior of nailed excavations.

Rangifer have the greatest circumpolar distribution of any living ungulate and have played an important role in the lives of many Arctic Indigenous communities for thousands of years. Given the prolific nature of Rangifer remains in many Arctic archaeological contexts, and their continued importance in many contemporary Arctic Indigenous societies, this species has the potential to be an important source of information about past Arctic human-animal-environment interactions. Given the noted influence of local and global climatic shifts on Rangifer ecology in the present, knowledge of the palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography of such a key prey-species, coupled with an indication of palaeoclimatic context, may provide valuable insights into animal-human interactions, human subsistence activities and landscape use in the past. The aims of this thesis are three-fold. The first is to explore Rangifer isotopic variability, and to indicate the utility of this species as a palaeoclimatic proxy, by isotopically analysing modern samples from across the circumpolar North. The second aim is to investigate the palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography of caribou from the pre-contact Little Ice Age (15th–17th century AD) Yup'ik village site of Nunalleq, Western Alaska, in order to determine their ranging patterns and to identify if these patterns are similar to those seen in modern caribou in the area today. The third aim brings both of these aims together in order to undertake the first multi-isotopic investigation of archaeological Rangifer in North America to provide an indication of the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic context of Nunalleq. This information, in conjunction with the caribou palaeoecological and palaeogeographical knowledge, will inform on caribou-environment and caribou-human interactions at the site. To that end, bulk bone bioapatite δ18OCO3 and δ18OPO4, and bulk bone collagen δ13C, δ15N and δ34S isotope analysis is undertaken on Rangifer from five modern herds from across the circumpolar North to explore the relationships between stable isotope ratios and environmental factors. The data presented here suggest that Rangifer bioapatite δ18O is a potentially useful proxy for regional climate. Intra and inter-population variability in these isotopic systems suggests the potential of using these to distinguish between herds and environments, particularly δ18O and δ34S. Sequential strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18OCO3) isotope data from caribou (Rangifer sp.) tooth enamel from Nunalleq are analysed in order to reconstruct caribou movement patterns in this region during the Little Ice Age. The data presented here suggests these Nunalleq caribou undertook some seasonal movements. Comparison with observational data of the local herd in the region today suggests a shift in calving area and range use between the late Holocene period represented by the site and the present day. Finally, bulk bone bioapatite δ18OPO4 and bulk bone collagen δ13C and δ15N on caribou from the site are used to reconstruct palaeotemperature for the area surrounding Nunalleq and to inform on additional palaeoenvironmental considerations. The data generated in this thesis provide new empirical data for future research in isotope zooarchaeology and significant baseline data for use in palaeodietary and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of fossil Rangifer. The isotopic data complement the wealth of data derived from other research at Nunalleq, illuminating the influence of changing climatic conditions on prey-species palaeoecology and human–animal interactions at the site.

The prehistory of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is poorly understood and the region today is home to the Yupiit, whose traditional lifeways revolve around animals. However, the fur trade and Christianity limit the use of ethnographic data to fully understand pre-contact human-animal relationships and subsistence in particular. The discovery of the prehistoric site of Nunalleq (15th-17th c. AD), therefore provides a unique opportunity to address this issue and opens a window to explore human responses to the Little Ice Age. In this research, a zooarchaeological analysis was undertaken to investigate animal exploitation at Nunallleq, potential changes in subsistence strategies and the nature of the faunal assemblage. Results suggest that people at Nunalleq focused primarily on salmon, marine mammals and caribou with migratory waterfowl possibly playing an important role at specific times of the year. This tripartite subsistence strategy appears to have provided the inhabitants of the site with the flexibility and necessary coping mechanisms to face potential environmental-related stress during the Little Ice Age by relying more on other resources, such as seals and caribou, when experiencing a reduced availability of salmon. The choice to settle at Nunalleq may have been strategic in order to have good access to multiple key resources simultaneously and it is suggested that perhaps the possible decline in salmon may be related to prehistoric warfare in the region. It is also highlighted that bone working and dog gnawing contributed to the formation the Nunalleq faunal assemblage. This raises further questions as to the nature and meaning of arctic and subarctic archaeofaunas and highlights the importance of multiple lines of evidence to document past human-animal relationships. This study better informs our understanding of Nunalleq forming a baseline for further subsistence studies in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Despite the fact that there has been an enormous amount of jades excavated from the Western Han tombs of Chu Princes, Xuzhou in Jiangsu province, little scholarly literature has been focused on these artefacts. Based on archaeological findings, this thesis selects some significant jade objects as the focus of attention, including jade pendants, jade vessels, jade weapons, jade suites and other burial jades. As the role and value of jade is varied in the hierarchy of material within different cultural and historical context, the changes in its functions and meanings, to some extent reflects the changes in politics, economy, and society. Through tracing their origins, the identity of the owners and examining the changes in material and society, this study attempts to reveal the cultural and social value embedded in these objects, and in doing so to reconstruct the changes in material concepts and aesthetic ideologies in the Han periods. / On the basis of the achievements have hitherto in Han jade study, the present study is expected to shed light on our understanding of tomb culture and its relation to the society from a broader and more comprehensive perspective. Aside from placing specific types of jade into an accurate period or investigating their functions and sources, this study will read the object by cross reference to ancient textual material. / Using jade, a particular category of art objects, as the point of entry, this study seeks to explore and question the issue of materiality and identity within the context of tomb art, and the wider issue of cultural and social practices in the Han Dynasty. / 林巧羚. / Submitted: 2010年11月. / Submitted: 2010 nian 11 yue. / Adviser: Jenny F. So. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 355-396). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Lin Qiaoling.

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