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The population in Sweden and around the world is increasing. When population increases, cities become more densely populated and a demand for investments in housing and infrastructure is created. The investments needed are usually large in size and the projects resulting from the investments are often of a complex nature. A major factor responsible for creating the complexity of the projects is the lack of space due to the dense population. The lack of space creates a situation where a very common feature of these types of projects is the use of earth retaining systems. The design of retaining systems in Europe is performed today based on Eurocode. Eurocode is a newly introduced standard for the design of structures and is developed in order to make it easier to work cross borders by using the same principle of design in all countries. For the design of retaining walls in Sweden, Eurocode uses the old standard as the basis of the design procedure consisting of two separate calculations, ultimate limit state and serviceability limit state. Since soil does not consist of two separate mechanisms consisting of failure and serviceability, this approach to solving engineering problems fails to address the real behavior of soils. To handle this problem Bolton et. al. (1990a, 1990b, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) developed the theory of “mobilized strength design” where a single calculation procedure incorporates both the calculation of deformations and the safety against failure. The calculation uses conservation of energy and the degree of mobilized shear strength to study deformations in and around the retaining system and the safety against failure in mobilizing the maximum shear strength of the soil. The aim of this thesis was to introduce the theory of mobilized strength design to geotechnical engineers in Sweden working both in academia and in industry. Another aim of the thesis was to develop a tool that could be used to perform calculations of earth retaining systems based on this theory. The development of a working tool has resulted in a Matlab code which can in a simple way be used to calculate both deformations in the retaining system and the safety against failure by using the degree of mobilized shear strength presented in the theory. The Matlab code can handle ground layering with different shear strengths and weights of the soil. A comparison instrument in a Mathcad calculation sheet have been developed to produce results based on the original theory where the feature of soil layering is not incorporated into the calculation procedure. The thesis shows that the Matlab code developed performs well but is not yet sensitive enough to produce the same results as the Mathcad calculation sheet and needs to be further developed to make it more robust in order to handle all different excavation scenarios. v The theory of mobilized strength design has been introduced to geotechnical engineers in Sweden and the thesis studies the theory and shows the calculation procedure and how the different input values and calculations affect the analysis. The thesis also shows some areas in which the theory and the code can be modified and where further research can be performed in order to make them fully applicable to Swedish conditions. As an example the use of rock dowels drilled into the bedrock and attached to the retaining structure is a common feature for deep excavations in Sweden. Further research can be pursued on how to incorporate the energy stored in the rock dowels into the calculation procedure.

This document presents the Cultural Resources Overview for the Harney Area in southeastern Oregon. The Harney Area combines three of the four planning units in the Burns Bureau of Land Management District. Most of the land in the Harney Area is located in Harney County, although a few parcels are just outside the county line in Lake and Malheur Counties. Almost all of Harney County is included. There are approximately 3,320,000 acres of Bureau administered public land within the Harney Area, as well as other public and private lands.

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The formation of elites is an essential and common phenomenon of human society, both in the past and present. Elites are individuals with superior power, substantial resources, and the ability to influence other members. Depending on the sources and practices of power, the elite stratum may be divided into several groups. Scholars have studied the process of elite formation, identifying triggers that may lead to the emergence or development of elites. All of these triggers involve interactions between elites and others, often from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, elite formation is also a process of constant intercultural interaction. Under this premise, the dissertation poses two interrelated questions: How did elites utilize different cultures to foster their power? And, how were elites affected when they used cultures as their tools to gain power? During the Bronze Age (ca. 1300–350 BCE), the lower Yangtze region is believed to be the homeland of two states, Wu and Yue. Positioned as the “periphery” of the Zhou political and cultural spheres, the histories of the two states are recounted in the historical texts from the Zhou perspective. However, the region’s diverse and vibrant local culture, coupled with the presence of affluent tombs, suggests that the region has history that was not recorded in the transmitted texts and thus warrants comprehensive study. Furthermore, elites in the region borrowed cultural elements from various cultural zones, including the Zhou, to sustain their power, rendering the region a good case study to explore the aforementioned questions. Numerous archaeological excavations of mounded tombs, kiln sites, and mining and smelting sites supply the primary material for the project. Statistical analyses unveil the general cultural landscape of the region and elucidate the process of elite formation. Stylistic and contextual analyses further suggest how elites connected with commoners in the local society, their elite colleagues inside the region, and their allies of diverse cultural backgrounds through proto-porcelain and bronzes. The study suggests that initially, there were several elite groups scattered throughout the region. After competition and integration, the number of elite groups in the region was reduced to two, and each had access to different resources and strategies for communicating with others. The elites residing in the Taihu-Hangzhou Bay area adhered to local funerary practices and further engaged with the local society as fashion leaders in the development of new utensils through their partial control over the ceramic production. The elites who occupied the northwestern part of the region, the Ningzhen area, used their better access to bronzes from the north and created a mythical and possibly supernatural image to gain support from the locals. In terms of the two elite groups’ cross-cultural contact with the outside world, both seemed to have connections with northern elites, especially in Phase IV (ca. 550–350 BCE). Since the local elites had frequent intercultural contact, they inevitably acquired foreign practices and cultural elements that might distance them away from local traditions. However, they would not be completely alienated from the local society because they maintained interactions with people from their homeland. While such a hybrid is not uncommon in cultural contact scenarios, what the project emphasizes is the intricate process of balancing, and possibly dilemma, experienced by elites: while their primary goal is to utilize all the available resources to grow their power, they must also skillfully balance local followers and their foreign allies.

This dissertation engages with multiple temporalities of a single, paradigmatic site in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) named “Tello” in Arabic and “Girsu” in Sumerian. The large-scale excavations at this site carried out by a team led by the French diplomat Ernest de Sarzec from 1877 onwards marked the “discovery” of the “Sumerians” and triggered an archaeological sensation in Europe. I bring the art history of this site from the third millennium BC into the present by constructing what I call a “site-world:” the totality of material encounters across time and space discussed not in isolation but as embedded in an understanding of the mutual constitution of past and present, and of object and subject. This analysis relies on two main, methodological interventions, both of which emerge from a comprehensive critique of existing disciplinary practices. First, I expand the range of sources to be consulted by reaching across disciplinary boundaries and incorporating local accounts that have been systematically neglected. These sources span from official records such as the Ottoman Imperial Archives to the diaries of individuals such as the steamship employee Joseph Mathia Svoboda. Instead of relying on Eurocentric archaeological narratives based on individual glory, I investigate the material foundations for archaeological research and demonstrate the existence of local and international networks characterized by asymmetrical relationships that were sustained by nineteenth-century colonialism. Second, I expand the temporal range of analysis by reaching across time periods and incorporating those eras that have been left out of prevailing art historical and archaeological narratives. Critiquing the scholarly reliance on narratives of nineteenth-century “discovery” in a putative terra incognita, I investigate ancient, Hellenistic, and Medieval Arabic sources and include “pre-discovery” histories of local engagement with the site of Tello. I show that the enlistment of the putatively self-evident notion of “discovery” as an explanatory model served to gloss over the millennia-long histories of local engagement with ancient Mesopotamian sites. In accordance with these two methodological interventions, I carry out formal, iconographical, material, and contextual analysis of artworks from Tello in conjunction with critical readings of ancient Sumerian texts, Medieval Arabic accounts, and late Ottoman archival documents on their design, production, excavation, transportation, and exhibition. Similarly, production processes in the third millennium BC are discussed alongside reception processes in the Hellenistic period, Medieval Islamic period, and the third millennium AD. I make the deliberate choice of concentrating largely on rarely discussed topics ranging from the exhibition contexts in the Ottoman Imperial Museum to the intersections of Mesopotamian archaeology with the politics of land tenure and related regulations; from the text-image dialectic in Sumerian art to phenomenological modes of visualization; or from the Medieval Islamic engagement with Tello and the statues of Gudea to the local and international networks of looting that have largely remained intact since the second half of the nineteenth century. All in all, I argue for a radical change in perspective in our engagements with pasts, presents, and futures, and contend that this change is not merely a matter of historiographical accuracy: it both informs our understanding of ancient contexts and constitutes an ethical position to address various burning issues in art history and archaeology today, including the restitution and repatriation of antiquities and the decolonization of the field.

No / I have been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book since 2000, when, as a PhD student, I was lucky enough to be able to visit the St Mary Spital excavations where I knew quite a few of the excavators and osteologists. It was apparent at that early stage in the research of St Mary Spital that this was a very exciting and important excavation and skeletal assemblage. This book does not disappoint.

Our perception, of the Omrid kings of the Kingdom oflsrael in the ninth century BCE, is based on the Books of 1 and 2 Kings in the Hebrew Bible. The Biblical author's concentration, on Omrid apostasy rather than on their abilities and accomplishments, has robbed these competant monarchs of the prominence allotted to kings like David and Solomon. Recent archaeological excavations, in conjunction with extra-Biblical sources, have however projected a different image. Excavations at the royal Omrid cities of Samaria, and especially Jezreel, have indicated that Omri, and his son Ahab, had erected immense and grandiose structures. These edifices bear testimony to periods of peace, stability and great economic prosperity. The Omrids deserve new assessments as to their accomplishments, and therefore, by means of visible and tangible structural remains, I wish to promote the persuasion of archaeology as vindication of Omrid grandeur and achievement at Samaria and Jezreel. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Biblical Studies)