<p>Is it relevant to treat bog bodies as its own category within the archaeological research? This paper examines how scholars and researchers, through their publications and depictions of the preserved prehistoric individuals, are helping to create such a category. What has changed in the way scholars look at and describe these astounding finds? Also examines the various theories researchers provide regarding bog bodies and how they are deposited.</p>

Domarringarna (Stone circles) are mysterious monuments preserved from Prehistory. With this study, I will discuss them and their meaning from different angles. I have mainly used a qualitative method of working through of previous research on Stone circles, but I also worked with a quantitative approach by compiling statistics. A clear result was difficult to achieve. Several of the new sources are based on the older research. More research and archaeological studies are required to obtain more evidence that can support new interpretations.

During the first millennium BC, the people of the chalk landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds began carving up their world with monumental linear earthworks. This project explores the meanings of the later prehistoric boundary systems of the Yorkshire Wolds. It writes a biography of the linear earthwork landscapes of the north-central Wolds, using geographic information systems (GIS), original fieldwork and theories of agency and memory. Tracing the construction, use and modification of particular linear earthworks, it examines how these monuments would have related to other features in the landscape, and how they could have exercised agency within networks of interconnected people, animals, objects and other places. Finally, the project attempts to situate these boundary systems within the larger context of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age society in order to understand how the later prehistoric people of East Yorkshire would have experienced their world. Taking a biographical approach to landscape and allowing linear earthworks to become the protagonists of this narrative, the project charts the life histories of the earthworks at Wetwang-Garton Slack and Huggate Dykes and investigates the collective authorship of the wider landscape. To understand the rural, monumental landscapes of the Wolds, we must consider the agency of not only people, but also of animals and of monuments themselves. By focussing on the relationships which bound together linear earthworks and other agents, we can begin to understand the ways in which monumentalised landscapes both reflected and generated the cosmologies of prehistoric communities.

Situé à la jonction des temps historiques, l’âge du fer à Taïwan est considéré comme une période charnière essentielle pour comprendre l’origine et l’histoire des peuples aborigènes. C’est dans cette perspective que cette thèse aborde la question de l’âge du fer dans le Nord-Est et le Nord de Taïwan à travers une étude des filiations entre les traditions céramiques des différentes périodes et provinces. Les traditions du Nord-Est de Taïwan ont été étudiées à partir du matériel céramique du site de Chiwulan, localisé dans la plaine d’Ilan, fouillé en 2001-2003. Le site comprend deux couches culturelles : la couche inférieure, datée de 650 à 1150 EC et la couche supérieure, datée de 1350 à 1850 EC. Les assemblages céramiques ont été étudiés selon les principes de l’approche technologique. Basée sur le concept de « chaîne opératoire », les traditions céramiques ont été caractérisées à partir d’une classification en groupes techniques pétrographiques et morpho-stylistiques. Nos résultats montrent que dans la plaine d’Ilan, aux deux périodes de l’âge du fer, les traditions céramiques étaient semblables et témoignent d’une occupation continue par le même groupe culturel. Les données céramiques de Chiwulan ont été ensuite comparées aux données régionales (la plaine d’Ilan) et macro-régionales (la Côte Nord et le bassin de Taipei). Il ressort qu’à l’âge du fer ancien, il est possible d’envisager une origine commune entre les groupes culturels du Nord et du Nord-Est. L’antériorité des groupes du Nord plaide en faveur de leur expansion vers le Nord-Est. A l’âge du fer récent, un mouvement inverse pourrait se produire avec une expansion des groupes de la plaine d’Ilan vers le Nord. La ressemblance de la culture matérielle des groupes culturels aborigènes du Nord et du Nord-Est avec celle de l’âge du fer récent, en contraste avec la distinction linguistique et ethnique entre ces groupes, suggère à la fois une continuité avec les peuples de l’âge du fer récent et un phénomène tardif d’ethnogenèse à mettre peut-être en relation avec l’introduction de la métallurgie. / Situated at the junction of historic times, Taiwan’s Iron Age is considered the key to understanding the origin and history of the island’s aboriginal peoples. With this perspective, this thesis focuses on the Iron Age in Northeast and North Taiwan through a research into the affiliations among ceramic traditions from different periods and areas. To investigate the ceramic traditions of northeastern Taiwan, we used artifacts unearthed at the Chiwulan site in the Ilan Plain. This site, excavated during 2001-2003, includes two culture layers: the bottom layer dated from 650 to 1150 A.D. and the top layer from 1350 to 1850 A.D. Study of the ceramic assemblages was guided by the principles of the technological approach. In accordance with the concept of « chaîne opératoire », artifacts were identified and classified sequentially according to their technical, petrographic, and morpho-stylistique characteristics. Our results show that there is a remarkable affinity between early and late Iron-Age ceramics, implying a continued occupation by the same culture group. We then compared the Chiwulan data with regional data (from other sites in the Ilan Plain) and macroregional ones (from sites in North Coast and the Taipei Basin). What we found seems to support the idea that, in the early Iron Age, culture groups in the North and Northeast shared a common origin. Early settlers in the North seem to have advanced into the Northeast. Then in the late Iron Age, a reverse movement could have occurred with settlers from the Ilan Plain expanding upwards to the North. There also existed in the late Iron Age a similarity in the material culture of the northern and northeastern aborigines, whose recent descendants, though ethnically and linguistically diverse and distinct from each other, again demonstrated such an affinity in their material culture, suggesting filiation and continuation of Iron-Age culture. There was also a phenomenon of ethnogenesis. The evolution of new ethnic groups later on might have been related to the introduction of metallurgy.

Les prospections ont mis au jour, dans les années 2000, plus de 150 sites sidérurgiques dans l'extrême Nord du Burkina Faso. La typo-chronologie des bas fourneaux permet de distinguer deux phases de production. La première (7-10èmes s.) était probablement destinée à satisfaire les besoins du marché local. Durant la seconde phase (11-13èmes s.), la production est multipliée par 25 par rapport à la phase initiale.La plupart des ateliers sont localisés dans la vallée du Beli, la zone Nord, mais les liens sont très étroits avec les habitats de la zone Sud, situés au contact de nombreuses gravures rupestres dont les thèmes iconographiques permettent de caractériser la population locale. Il s'agit d'une société métissée, avec un fonds soudanien influencé par les Berbères et teinté d'islam. Cette population utilise un type particulier de bas fourneau, qui permet de dessiner les contours de son territoire, entre la vallée du Niger et les anciennes sources du Beli.Les textes arabo-musulmans évoquent régulièrement une frontière du domaine de l'Islam au bilād al-Sūdān. Nous proposons de situer cette limite symbolique au sud de Kukia / Bentia. Elle se superpose à des limites géologique, climatique et culturelle. Au-delà, c'est le monde de l'animisme, le pays de l'or et du fer.Précisément située à la jonction de ces deux mondes, la société qui nous intéresse a pu jouer un rôle d'intermédiaire, sur les plans commercial et stratégique. / The surveys carried out in the extreme north of Burkina Faso have led to the identification of more than 150 metallurgical sites.Two production periods have been distinguished, based on the type of slag-pit furnaces. During the first one (7th–10th c.), the production was probably restricted to the local market. During the second period (11th–13th c.), it multiplied by 25.Most of workstations are situated in the Beli River’s valley, in the North zone, but there are very tight links with settlements of the South zone, where the iconographic themes of rock engravings help to characterize the local population. It was a hybrid society, basically Sudanian with Berber influence and a Muslim varnish. The geographic distribution of a specific type of slag-pit furnace allows to locate its territory between the Niger River’s valley and the ancient springs of the Beli River.Arab-Muslim texts allude regularly to a limit of the Islam World at bilād al-Sūdān. It is argued that his symbolic boundary was situated south from Kukia / Bentia. It overlaps with geologic, climatic and cultural limits. Beyond is the world of animism, the land of gold and iron.Situated precisely in between those two worlds, this society could have been both a strategic and commercial go-between.

This bachelor thesis is a compilation of previous master and bachelor theses written by osteology students at Högskolan på Gotland and Uppsala University Campus Gotland, with a focus on palaeopathology in individuals from the island of Gotland, from the Stone Age through the Middle Ages. The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the history of disease on the island of Gotland on a bigger scale than previous theses have done. Most master and bachelor theses have typically focused on one site or settlement, set in a particular time period in their study, whereas I chose to combine all of the studies into one cohesive examination of all disease surveyable in the skeleton of these individuals. This, in order to see if there are differences to be found in the various time periods, or even differences among the population within a specific time period. And there are some differences to be seen, indeed; most notably perhaps between the Iron Age and the Middle Ages, where a difference in the dental health can clearly be seen. When comparing the other time periods however, caution must be advised; the skeletal material is lacking in most eras other than the Iron Age and the Middle Ages.

Abstract The dissertation examines the settlement and interactions of the Late Iron Age communities of northern Finland by focusing on the archaeological sites and finds documented in the regions of Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu. The point of departure for the study is to understand the data from a local point of view as in the previous evaluations the hunter-gatherer population inhabiting the area has been overlooked with most of the discussions revolving around the peasant influence arriving from southwestern Finland and Karelia. Partially for this reason, the period in question has appeared problematic and many questions regarding the settlement remain unadressed. The reason for the poor research situation articulates with the problems related to the archaeologica remains. Most of the material must be classified as so-called stray finds or archaeological objects to which no context can be determined without excavations taking place. These stray finds comprise the most significant portion of the available data, as besides them only a few burials, dwelling sites or other feasible remains are documented in Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu. In spite of this, the research interest towards these finds has been relatively minor until recent years. The research questions are approached via three case studies, which represent stray finds that were excavated during the research process of the dissertation. These sites are addressed by taking into consideration their form, function and dating as well as examining their archaeological context on a borader geographical scale. In addition to the case studies, the dissertation considers previously known sites and finds in the research area and elsewhere in the interior and northern Fennoscandia. Based on the study, it is argued that several stray finds are associated with burial sites, dwellings and other indicators of settlement whose formation process has likely been affected by local traditions and subsistence as well as contacts and interactions with other Iron Age communities. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimus tarkastelee Pohjois-Suomen myöhäisrautakautista asutusta ja väestön vuorovaikutussuhteita Pohjois-Pohjanmaan ja Kainuun maakuntien alueelta tunnettujen löytöjen ja kohteiden valossa. Tutkimuksen keskeisimpänä lähtökohtana on näiden teemojen hahmottaminen paikallisesta näkökulmasta, sillä monissa aikaisemmissa tulkinnoissa alueella asunut metsästäjä-keräilijäväestö on jäänyt kohtalaisen vähäiselle huomiolle keskustelujen keskittyessä Lounais-Suomesta ja Karjalasta tulleeseen talonpoikaisvaikutukseen. Osittain tästä syystä kyseinen aikakausi on pitkään näyttäytynyt ongelmallisena, eikä moniin alueen asutusta koskevaan kysymykseen ole voitu vastata. Syy myöhäisen rautakauden heikkoon tutkimustilanteeseen niveltyy arkeologiseen aineistoon liittyvään problematiikkaan. Valtaosa tutkimusalueelta talletetusta materiaalista on luettava niin kutsutuiksi irtolöydöiksi, eli arkeologisiksi esinelöydöiksi, jolle ei ilman kenttätutkimuksia ole mahdollista määrittää tarkkaa löytöyhteyttä. Irtolöydöt muodostavat merkittävän aineistokokonaisuuden, sillä niiden lisäksi Pohjois-Pohjanmaalta ja Kainuusta tunnetaan ainoastaan muutamia myöhäisrautakautisia asuinpaikkoja, hautoja tai muita arkeologisia kohteita. Tästä huolimatta, niihin kohdistunut tutkimuksellinen mielenkiinto on viimevuosiin saakka ollut pääosin vähäistä. Väitöskirja lähestyy aineistoa kolmen tapaustutkimuksen kautta. Tapaustutkimukset koostuvat kaivauksin tutkituista irtolöytökohteista sekä niiden lähiympäristön sekä laajemman arkeologisen kontekstin havainnoinnista. Kaivauksin tutkittujen kohteiden lisäksi tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan myös muuta myöhäiselle rautakaudelle ajoittuvaa aineistoa niin tutkimusalueella kuin sen lähialueilla. Tutkimuksen perusteella useat irtolöydöt voidaan liittää hautoihin, asuinpaikkoihin tai muihin asutuksesta kertoviin muinaisjäännöksiin, joiden muodostumisprosessiin ovat vaikuttaneet niin paikalliset traditiot ja elinkeinot kuin yhteydet ja vuorovaikutus muiden rautakautisten yhteisöjen kanssa.

À partir du récolement critique de plus de cinq cents accessoires vestimentaires sud-alpins découverts au nord des Alpes, le présent travail vise à caractériser la participation de la culture de Golasecca dans l’accroissement des réseaux de circulation reliant la Méditerranée occidentale aux sociétés celtiques. Les objets personnels découverts dans de nombreux habitats et sépultures alpins et transalpins indiquent une implication directe du domaine de Golasecca dans les échanges à moyenne et longue distance. Elle se traduit par des phénomènes de métissage culturel, de transfert technologique et de mixité de population, lisibles dans certains sites du massif alpin, mais aussi à travers des déplacements et des fréquentations relativement longues des nombreux sites hallstattiens, de nature et statut différents. Phénomène en partie lié avec l’émergence des sociétés aristocratiques, la circulation de ces objets et de biens plus luxueux illustre le rôle d’intermédiaire privilégié joué par Golasecca dans les circuits à très longue distance. / Based on the critical inventory of more than five hundred clothing accessories from the southern-Alps discovered in the northern-Alps, the present work aims at characterising the role of the Golasecca civilisation in the growth of circulation networks linking up the western Mediterranean to Celtic civilisations. Personal belongings discovered in many alpine and transalpine settlements and burial places bear witness of a direct implication of the Golasecca culture in medium and long-distance trades. This implication results in phenomena of cultural mix, technological transfer and mixed nature population, that are perceptible in certain areas of the alpine massif as well as through some displacements and relatively long-time frequenting of the main Hallstattian local settlements of varied kind and status. As a phenomenon which is partly linked to the emergence of aristocratic societies, the circulating of luxurious objects and ornaments illustrates the fact that Gollasecca has been a major go-between in the trade and communication networks between Mediterranean cultures and Hallstatt chiefs.

Avec l’intensification des prospections aériennes depuis les années 1960, la recherche sur les campagnes à la fin de l’âge du Fer a pris de l’ampleur. Elles apparaissent fortement occupées par des établissements matérialisés par des enclos quadrangulaires de morphologie plus ou moins complexe. L’évolution de l’archéologie préventive renouvelle ces données et permet une réflexion sur la chronologie, la morphologie, le fonctionnement et la hiérarchie de ces entités. Les analyses s’attardent particulièrement sur les enclos domestiques réunissant la plupart des activités évoquées à travers une importante quantité de mobilier. Depuis une vingtaine d’années, le développement de grandes ZAC a nécessité des décapages extensifs, comme pour la ZAC des Béliers à Brebières (Pas-de-Calais), pour Actiparc à côté d’Arras (Pas-de-Calais) ou dans la Plaine de Caen (Calvados). Ils ont mis en évidence des portions de territoire fortement structurées par des ensembles d’établissements ruraux se développant simultanément au sein d’un réseau de fossés parcellaires. Ils ont été nommés « terroirs ». Une nouvelle réflexion se développe alors : l’établissement rural ne peut plus être étudié comme une entité indépendante, mais bien comme s’insérant dans un ensemble complexe et appartenant à un réseau économique et social plus important / With the intensification of aerial surveys since the 1960s, research on the countryside at the end of the Iron Age has grown. It appears to be strongly occupied by enclosed rural settlements. The development of preventive archeology renews the data and allows a reflection on the chronology, morphology, function and hierarchy of these entities. Analyses focus on the domestic enclosed features gathering most of the activities apparent through a large amount of the artefacts. Since almost twenty years, the planning of ZAC required excavations of large areas as the ZAC des Béliers in Brebières (Pasde- Calais), Actiparc near Arras (Pas-de-Calais) or the Plaine de Caen (Calvados). They brought out portions of highly structured territory by sets of rural settlements occupied simultaneously in land plots. They were named «terroir». A new approach of the countryside is fixed : a rural settlement can not be studied as an independent entity, but as a complex set inserted in a greater economic and social system

Sex estimation of skeletal remains is one of the major components of forensic identification of unknown individuals. Teeth are a potential source of information on sex and are often recovered in archaeological or forensic contexts due to their post-mortem longevity. Currently there is limited data on dental sexual dimorphism of archaeological populations from Iran. This dissertation represents the first study to provide a dental sex estimation method for Iron Age populations. The current study was conducted on the skeletal remains of 143 adults from two Iron Age populations in close temporal and geographic proximity in the Solduz Valley (West Azerbaijan Province of Iran). 2D and 3D cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual and root volume measurements of maxillary and mandibular teeth were used to investigate the degree of sexual dimorphism in permanent dentition and to assess their applicability in sex estimation. In total 1327, 457, and 480 anterior and posterior teeth were used to collect 2D cervical, 3D cervical, and root volume measurements respectively. 2D cervical measurements were taken using Hillson-Fitzgerald dental calliper and 3D measurements were collected using CT images provided by Open Research Scan Archive (ORSA) - Penn Museum. 3D models of the teeth were created using manual segmentation in the Amira 6.01 software package. Since tooth density largely differs from crown to apex, root segmentation required two threshold levels: the segmentation of the root from the jaw and the segmentation of the crown from the root. Thresholds used for root segmentation were calculated using the half maximum height protocol of Spoor et al. (1993) for each skull, and thresholds used for crown segmentation were set visually for each tooth separately. Data was analysed using discriminant function analysis and posterior probabilities were calculated for all produced formulae where sex was previously assessed from morphological features of pelvis and skull. Bootstrapping was used to account for small sample sizes in the analysis. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 23. The percentage of sexual dimorphism was also used to quantify the amount of sexual dimorphism in the sample. The results showed that incisors and canines were the most sexually dimorphic teeth, providing percentages of correct sex classification between 80% and 100% depending on the measurement used. Root volume measurement was shown to be the most sexually dimorphic variable providing an accuracy of over 90% in all functions. The present study provided the first dental metric standards for sex estimation using odontometric data in Iranian archaeological populations. Dental measurements, particularly root volume measurements, were found to be of value for sex assessment and the method presented here could be a useful tool for establishing accurate demographic data from skeletal remains of the Iron Age from Iran.