Assessing population diversity in southern Italy has traditionally relied on archaeological and historic evidence. Although informative, these lines of evidence do not establish specific instances of within lifetime mobility, nor track population diversity over time. In order to investigate the population structure of ancient South Italy I sequenced the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 15 Iron Age (7th – 4th c. BCE) and 30 Roman period (1st – 4th c. BCE) individuals buried at Iron Age Botromagno and Roman period Vagnari, in southern Italy, and analyzed δ18O and 87Sr/86Sr values from a subset of the Vagnari skeletal assemblage. Phylogenetic analysis of 15 Iron Age mtDNAs together with 231 mtDNAs spanning European prehistory suggest that southern Italian Iapygians share close genetic affinities to Neolithic populations from eastern Europe and the Near East. Population pairwise analysis of Iron Age, Roman, and mtDNA datasets spanning the pan-Mediterranean region (n=357), indicate that Roman maternal genetic diversity is more similar to Neolithic and Bronze Age populations from central Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, respectively, than to Iron Age Italians. Genetic distance between population age categories imply moderate mtDNA turnover and constant population size during the Roman conquest of South Italy in the 3rd century BCE. In order to determine the local versus non-local demographic at Vagnari, I measured the 87Sr/86Sr and 18O/16O of composition of 43 molars, and the 87Sr/86Sr composition of an additional 13 molars, and constructed a preliminary 87Sr/86Sr variation map of the Italian peninsula using disparate 87Sr/86Sr datasets. The relationship between 87Sr/86Sr and previously published δ18O data suggest a relatively low proportion of migrants lived at Vagnari (7%). This research is the first to generate whole-mitochondrial DNA sequences from Iron Age and Roman period necropoleis, and demonstrates the ability to gain valuable information from the integration of aDNA, stable isotope, archaeological and historic evidence. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / With biochemical information obtained from teeth, this study examines the population structure and geographic origins in two archaeological communities located in southern Italy. Analysis of classical remains has traditionally been the subject of historical and archaeological inquiry. However, new applications evaluate these population changes with integrated stable isotope and ancient DNA techniques. Overall, the biochemical results suggest that the pre-Roman communities harbor deep maternal ancestry originating from eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterannean. These results, when compared to the genetic diversity of Roman and broader Mediterranean populations, indicate that the Romans share closer genetic similarity with ancient Stone and Bronze Age communites from Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, than with the pre-Roman community studied here. Furthermore, tooth chemistry results indicate a predominantly local population buried in the Roman period cemetery.

No / Iron Age studies in northern Britain have been dominated by one monument form, the broch. This focus on these monumental towers of the Atlantic Scotland, perhaps at the expense of other archaeological evidence, has brought about a strong division in the archaeological community. MacKie and Armit have both recently summarized the development of broch studies detailing the opposing arguments for the date of construction. In recent years archaeological evidence for these monuments has indicated an indigenous development rather than being associated with the movement of Iron Age peoples. This paper presents new chronological data for the construction of a Shetland broch and examines the archaeological repercussions for the 'early' chronology provided by these dates. Excavations at Old Scatness in the South Mainland of Shetland have revealed new evidence for a broch and defended Iron Age Village.

No / Tofts Ness is a peninsula at the north end of the Orcadian island of Sanday where mounds and banks represent a domestic landscape, marginal even in island terms, together with a funerary landscape. A combination of selective excavation and geophysical survey during 1985-8 revealed settlement and cultivation spanning Neolithic to Early Iron Age times, including burnt mounds and traces of plough cultivation. The Neolithic inhabitants of Tofts Ness appear not to have used either Grooved Ware or Unstan Ware, and it is suggested that this reflects a lack of status compared to the settlement at Pool. Instead, the pottery shares important links to contemporary assemblages from West Mainland Shetland, and this is echoed by the steatite artefacts. The link with Shetland remains visible into the Late Bronze Age. The upper levels of the main settlement mound contained the remains of stone-built roundhouses of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, of which the last survived to a height of 1.5m. A lack of personal items amongst the artefact assemblage again indicates the low status of the inhabitants. The economic evidence for all periods shows a mixed subsistence economy based on animal husbandry and barley cultivation, together with fishing, fowling and the exploitation of wild plants both terrestrial and marine. Important studies on the farming methods employed on Tofts Ness reveal a manuring strategy in managing small fields that was more akin to intensive gardening than field cultivation and a deliberate policy of harvesting the barley crop whilst under-ripe.

An area of Shetland is examined in order to identify how Iron Age settlements might have related to each other. The study area contains two brochs. An inter-disciplinary approach is used to identify evidence for other Iron Age settlements and the information is presented as a model illustrating the pattern of settlement at different points during the Iron Age. A distinction is drawn between locations containing field archaeology and locations where occupation is predicted on the basis of evidence such as soil quality or place name. The whole model is then examined in order to identify patterns which may suggest changing relationships between settlements and groups of settlements, and the trends and influences behind these. Next an appraisal is made of the settlements¿ relative status and authority during Shetland¿s Early, Middle and Late Iron Age. By looking at the whole landscape through time - before, during and after the Iron Age ¿ the brochs are set in a wider chronological context which takes into account the changing role that these highly visible monuments may have played as socio-economic focal points in a developing landscape. The outcome reveals complexity. Initially the brochs appear to be a focus of settlement patterns but by the end of the Late Iron Age they are rivalled by a non-broch area which shows signs of heightened Pictish influence. Elsewhere in Shetland at this period there is retrenchment to broch-settlements, raising the question of how far developments in the study area are unique to that location.

Food is the foundation upon which societies are built. It is a means of survival, a source of wealth and prosperity and can be used as a means of social display. In Iron Age Atlantic Scotland, a wide range of food resources were open to exploitation. Among these, barley is likely to have been an important backbone to the system. Far from being at the mercy of the elements, the Iron Age population of Atlantic Scotland was able to extract surpluses of food from the landscape which could be manipulated for social, political and economic gain. One means through which this could be achieved is feasting, a practice considered significant elsewhere in the Iron Age. With such ideas at its core, this thesis examines the main arenas for consumption events in Iron Age Atlantic Scotland (dwellings) in detail, considering also the underpinnings of the system in terms of food production and accumulation, in particular the barley crop. The distribution of food processing and preparation between a dwelling and its associated ancillary buildings at Old Scatness provides insights into the organisation of life on the settlement.

No / he two archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland, which form the Northern Isles of Britain, are an active focus of archaeological research. The rich Neolithic heritage of Orkney has been acknowledged by the granting of World Heritage status. Although set in both a biogeographically peripheral position and within what may be considered to be marginal landscapes, these North Atlantic islands have a large number of settlement sites with long occupational sequences, often stretching from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age or into the Norse period. The mixed paleoeconomic strategy presented by three of these settlements—Tofts Ness, Sanday, Orkney (excavated 1985–1988); the Iron Age sequences at Old Scatness, Shetland (excavated 1995–2006); and Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultivated middens from Jarlshof, Shetland (investigated in 2004)—provide the core of the evidence discussed within this paper (the radiocarbon chronologies for the key sequences from these three sites are provided as Appendix 1). The role of the prehistoric paleoeconomy is argued to be of central importance in the longevity of these settlements. In particular, barley production is evidenced on all three sites by the plant macrofossils and by the human investment in the creation and management of manured soils, providing an infield area around the settlement. This paper focuses on the identification of these anthropogenic soils in the archaeological record. The investment in and management of these arable soils provides clear evidence for resource creation on all three sites. It is argued that these soils were a crucial resource that was necessary to support intensive barley cultivation. The intensive management implied by the presence of these soils is seen as a catalyst for sedentary living and sustainability within a marginal landscape. The evidence also demonstrates the continuity of agricultural practice from the Neolithic to the Iron Age together with the social dynamics that such a practice generates. This paper is in two parts: the first section examines in detail the evidence for the presence of anthropogenic soils and the mixed economic strategies for the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age presented by the evidence from Tofts Ness and Jarlshof. The evidence for the continuity of this intensive strategy of soil management is seen from the later evidence of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age at Tofts Ness and the Middle Iron Age evidence at Old Scatness. The second part of the paper examines the importance of these soils as an inherited resource within the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age paleoeconomic system. Two models are presented. The first examines the cyclic importance of human creation and maintenance of small arable plots to high barley production yields and therefore to site viability, and the effect this has within a mixed resource system in providing settlement viability through time. The second explores the theoretical land and seascape that would provide this mixed resource base.

The research contained in these papers embodies both results from direct archaeological investigation and also the development of techniques (geophysical, chronological and geoarchaeological) in order to understand long-term settlements and their associated landscapes in Orkney and Shetland. Central to this research has been the study of soil management strategies of arable plots surrounding settlements from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. It is argued that this arable system provides higher yields in marginal locations. The ability to enhance yield in good years and to store surplus can mitigate against shortage. Control and storage of this surplus is seen as one catalyst for the economic power of elite groups over their underlying or ¿client¿ population. The emergence of a social elite in the Iron Age, building brochs and other substantial roundhouses of near broch proportions, is seen as being linked to the control of resources. Evidence at the site of Old Scatness indicated that there was a continuity of wealth and power from the Middle Iron Age through the Pictish period, before the appearance of the Vikings produced a break in the archaeological record. The Viking period saw a break in building traditions, the introduction of new artefacts and changes in farming and fishing strategies. Each of the papers represents a contribution that builds on these themes.

The Early Iron Age period has been underexplored in the archaeology of West Africa, particularly Nigeria. Also, there is a lack of research and knowledge on organic residue analysis in Nigeria, particularly in the southwestern region of the country, despite the fact that other studies on archaeobotany and paleoenvironmental studies are well established. To address this gap, lipid analysis was conducted on 10 vessels from the Early Iron Age (490 B.C. to A.D. 40) site BSM6 in Bara, Old Oyo, Nigeria. The analysis revealed the plant and animal materials consumed by the Early Iron Age community. These findings provide vital insights into the dietary and subsistence practices of the period, illustrating continuities and changes in food practices from ancient to present times.

No / Following Wheeler's excavations at Maiden Castle, the multivallate hillforts of Wessex came to be seen as responses to a specific form of warfare based around the massed use of slings. As part of the wider post-processual 'rethink' of the British Iron Age during the late 1980s and 1990s, this traditional 'military' interpretation of hillforts was increasingly subject to criticism. Apparent weaknesses in hillfort design were identified and many of the most distinctive features of these sites (depth of enclosure, complexity of entrance arrangements, etc) were reinterpreted as symbols of social isolation. Yet this 'pacification' of hillforts is in many ways as unsatisfactory as the traditional vision. Both camps have tended to view warfare as a detached, functional, and disembedded activity which can be analysed in terms of essentially timeless concepts of military efficiency. Consideration of the use of analogous structures in the ethnographic record suggests that, far from being mutually exclusive, the military and symbolic dimensions are both essential to a more nuanced understanding of the wider social role of hillforts in Britain and beyond.

No / The occurrence of human remains in Iron Age domestic contexts in southern England is well-attested and has been the subject of considerable recent debate. Less well known are the human remains from settlement contexts in other parts of Iron Age Britain. In Atlantic Scotland, human bodies and body parts are found consistently, if in small numbers, in Atlantic roundhouses, wheelhouses, and other settlement forms. Yet these have remained unsynthesised and individual assemblages have tended to be interpreted on a site-specific basis, if at all. Examination of the material as a corpus suggests a complex and evolving set of attitudes to the human body, its display, curation, and disposal, and it is improbable that any single interpretation (such as excarnation, retention of war trophies, or display of ancestral relics) will be sufficient. Although the specific practices remain diverse and essentially local, certain concerns appear common to wider areas, and some, for instance the special treatment accorded to the head, have resonances far beyond Iron Age Britain.