Located approximately in the middle of the central Mediterranean channel, the Maltese Archipelago was touched by the historical events that effected the political, economic and cultural environment of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The islands were close to the major maritime routes throughout history and they were often on the border between clashing military, political, religious, and cultural entities. For these reasons, the islands were presumed to have been strategically and economically important, and, thus, frequented by ships. An underwater archaeological survey around the archipelago revealed the scarcity of submerged cultural remains, especially pertaining to shipping and navigation. Preliminary findings elucidate a story that contrasts with the picture presented by modern history and historiography. In this sense, a comparison of the underwater archaeological data with the information gathered through a detailed study of Maltese maritime history clearly shows that the islands were attributed an exaggerated importance in historical texts, due to political and religious trends that are rooted in the period during which the islands were under the control of the Order of Saint John. An objective investigation of the historical and archaeological material provides a more balanced picture, and places the islands in a Mediterranean-wide historical framework from the first colonization of the archipelago eight thousands years ago to the twentieth century.

In this research, the relationship of climatic changes between 130k to 28k years BP to concurrent morphological variations in Neanderthals was tested. Traditional anthropological studies attribute robust Neanderthal morphological traits as an adaptation to a cold environment. A database of previously completed terrestrial paleoclimatic reconstructions in Europe and the Mediterranean was compiled and used to create a series of GIS-generated timeslice maps. Regional climatic conditions were then related to changes in Neanderthal appearances, morphology and disappearances as evident in the archaeological record. To establish climatic conditions, existing studies were compiled from two regions: Europe and the Mediterranean. The European data are based on pollen assemblage sequences from terrestrial lacustrine cores. The Mediterranean data are based on established ƒÔ18O/16O and ƒÔ13C/12C maximum and minimum events recorded in speleothems. The GIS perspective allows these changes to be viewed at significant time to better correlate regional climatic changes with known Neanderthal morphological variation and to extend the investigation both temporally, including Stage 4 and Stage 5e, and geographically, into the Mediterranean from similarly completed studies.

The administration of initiation rites by an ecstatic specialist, now known to western scholarship by the general designation of ‘shaman’, has proven to be one of humanity’s oldest, most widespread, and continuous magico-religious traditions. At the heart of their initiatory rituals lay an ordeal – a metaphysical journey - almost ubiquitously brought on by the effects of a life-changing hallucinogenic drug experience. To guide their initiates, these shaman worked with a repertoire of locally acquired instruments, costumes, dances, and ecstasy-inducing substances. Among past Mediterranean cultures, Semitic and Indo-European, these sorts of initiation rites were vital to society’s spiritual well-being. It was, however, the mystery schools of antiquity – organizations founded upon conserving the secrets of plant-lore, astrology, theurgy and mystical philosophy – which satisfied the role of the shaman in Greco-Roman society. The rites they delivered to the common individual were a form of ritualized ecstasy and they provided an orderly context for religiously-oriented intoxication. In the eastern Mediterranean, these ecstatic cults were most often held in honour of a great mother goddess and her perennially dying-and-rising consort. The goddess’ religious dramas enacted in cultic ritual stressed the importance of fasting, drumming, trance-inducing music, self-mutilation, and a non-alcoholic ritual intoxication. Far and wide the dying consort worshiped by these cults was a god of vegetation, ecstasy, revelation, and salvation; by ingesting his body initiates underwent a profound mystical experience. From what limited information has survived from antiquity, it appears that the rites practiced in the eastern mystery cults were in essence traditional shamanic ordeals remodeled to suit the psychological needs of Mediterranean civilization’s marginalized people. This paper argues that the myths of this vegetable god, so-called ‘the Divine Bridegroom,’ particularly in manifestation of the Phrygian Attis and the Greek Dionysus, is deeply rooted in the life-cycle, cultivation, treatment, consumption of a tree-born hallucinogenic mushroom, Amanita muscaria. The use of this mushroom is alive and well today among Finno-Ugric shaman and this paper explores their practices as one branch of Eurasian shamanism running parallel to, albeit in a different time, the rites of the Phrygian goddess. Using extant literary and linguistic evidence, I compare the initiatory cults long-assimilated into post-agricultural Mediterranean civilization with the hallucinogen-wielding shaman of the Russian steppe, emphasizing them both as facets of a prehistoric and pan-human magico-religious archetype.

“Red coats and wild birds: military culture and ornithology across the nineteenth-century British Empire” investigates the intersections between British military culture and the practices and ideas of ornithology, with a particular focus on the British Mediterranean. Considering that British officers often occupied several imperial sites over the course of their military careers, to what extent did their movements shape their ornithological knowledge and identities at “home” and abroad? How did British military naturalists perceive different local cultures (with different attitudes to hunting, birds, field science, etc.) and different local natures (different sets of birds and environments)? How can trans-imperial careers be written using not only textual sources (for example, biographies and personal correspondence) but also traces of material culture? In answering these questions, I centre my work on the Mediterranean region as a “colonial sea” in the production of hybrid identities and cultural practices, and the mingling of people, ideas, commodities, and migratory birds. I focus on the life geographies of four military officers: Thomas Wright Blakiston, Andrew Leith Adams, L. Howard Lloyd Irby, and Philip Savile Grey Reid. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Mediterranean region emerged as a crucial site for the security of the British “empire route” to India and South Asia, especially with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Military stations served as trans-imperial sites, connecting Britain to India through the flow of military manpower, commodities, information, and bodily experiences across the empire. By using a “critical historical geopolitics of empire” to examine the material remnants of the “avian imperial archive,” I demonstrate how the practices and performances of British military field ornithology helped to: materialize the British Mediterranean as a moral “semi-tropical” place for the physical and cultural acclimatization of British officers en route to and from India; reinforce imperial presence in the region; and make “visible in new ways” the connectivity of North Africa to Europe through the geographical distribution of birds. I also highlight the ways in which the production of ornithological knowledge by army officers was entwined with forms of temperate martial masculinity. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-02 09:17:17.931

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The Dublin Regulation determines the Member State responsible for accepting and making a decision on asylum claims lodged in the European Union (‘EU’), Norway and Iceland. It aims to ensure that each asylum claim is examined by one and only one Member State, to put an end to the practice of ‘asylum shopping’ and to prevent repeated applications, both of which have been costly for the receiving Member States and caused severe inefficiencies in the determination processes in the EU in the past. With the first Member State of entry being the major determinant for the allocation of asylum responsibility under the Dublin Regulation, there has been growing discontent among Member States at the external borders of the EU, particularly the southern Member States in the Mediterranean, over what they see as a system that has unjustly placed disproportionate burdens on them regarding the admission of seaborne asylum seekers and the costs associated with it. As a result of changes in migration rules and consequent adjustments in the entry strategy employed by irregular migrants and people smugglers, the Member States at the EU’s ‘southern frontline’ have unwillingly played the role of reluctant hosts to boatloads of unwelcome asylum seekers. This thesis aims to examine how the EU has attempted to tackle the challenging situation of the unauthorised migration of asylum seekers into its territory by sea, and in particular, how it has responded to demands from affected Member States for a more equitable system of asylum responsibility allocation in spite of and outside the Dublin framework. It would argue that the ‘small’ EU Member States in the Mediterranean themselves have, over the last five years at least, become the unexpected drivers of the EU’s declared commitment to the principles of ‘solidarity’, ‘fair sharing of responsibility’ and ‘effective multilateralism’. ‘ Small’ as they may be in terms of resources, size or influence vis-à-vis the larger Member States, the former have been able to create their own mark in a global regime that has traditionally been resistant to the idea of burden-sharing. The measures taken by the EU’s ‘southern frontline’ have collectively changed the landscape of a global protection regime where not only is asylum ‘burden sharing’ highly elusive – its terms and conditions are also dictated by the more powerful sovereign states. While the theoretical point of departure in this study is the influence wielded by the ‘small’ EU Member States in the burden-sharing debate, the degree or level of ‘influence’ small Mediterranean Member States can exercise in pushing for cooperative arrangements is itself determined by a system that is biased towards large states, increasingly securitised, and is therefore limited in both nature and scope. Nevertheless, the experience of ‘burden-sharing’ in the EU between 2005 and 2010 demonstrates that the Member States at the periphery have proactively taken the responsibility for the operationalisation of the founding values and principles of the EU, and through active norm advocacy and related strategies, have been able to achieve what has eluded the global protection regime so far – a refugee burden sharing scheme.

This thesis explores the meaningful character of traces of earlier occupation and burial locations visible in the late 8th century BC landscape of the Argolic Plain in the northeast Peloponnese, Greece. It will be argued that, where ruined former habitation remains and burials were observed in the contemporary landscape, these locations were regarded as meaningful places. In the past, scholarly interest has predominantly focussed on late 8th century BC votive activity and burial reuse in connection with Bronze Age chamber tombs and tholoi. However, this thesis will demonstrate that these activities should not be dislocated from the wider landscape but, rather, should be considered alongside contemporaneous interconnected behaviour. In support of this position, evidence of ritual performances among the ruins of abandoned former Bronze Age acropolis locations; placing of burials within the ruins of Bronze Age buildings; and establishment of shrines within areas of Bronze and Early Iron Age cemeteries will be considered along with data specific to late 8th century BC activities in connection with Bronze Age chamber tombs and tholoi. It will be established that these trends should be viewed collectively as a single phenomenon acknowledging locations where earlier occupation and burial remains were observed as places appropriate for the performance of rituals or burial of the dead in the late 8th century BC. This thesis will implement a landscape archaeology approach along with contextual analysis of the data and will propose an interpretation of late 8th century BC interest in earlier constructions visible in the contemporary landscape. This interpretation will assert a potential ideological connection between the location of ritual performances in association with previous occupation or burial areas and the regenerative qualities of the earth.

The purpose of this study was to compare between ethnicities if there is a difference in survival and treatment when it comes to cardiovascular diseases in the Middle East. To find out if there is a difference 28 articles was selected for inclusion, both qualitative and quantitative studies. Searches were made in the databases Medline, PubMed, Google and Google Scholar.The results showed that it is possible that there are differences in mortality and morbidity between ethnicities affected by cardiovascular disease. These may be due to differences in abdominal obesity, insulin resistance in diabetes and other risks such as C-reactive protein in the blood plasma which is normally excreted in inflammation in the body and also adiponectin, which is a hormone found in fat tissue whose secretion is diminished in people who have diabetes. But studies saying that a difference does exist are too few and the need for more and larger studies is needed. It may also be that not all ethnicities are as benefited from current treatments available against cardiovascular diseases for example beta-blockers. The conclusion of this study is that more research in this area is needed as well as more comprehensive studies regarding public health in the Middle East. / Syftet med denna studie var att jämföra mellan etniska grupper om det finns en skillnad i överlevnad och behandling när det gäller hjärt-och kärlsjukdomar i Mellanöstern. För att ta reda på det har 28 artiklar valts ut efter inklusionskriterierna, både kvalitativa och kvantitativa studier. Sökningar gjordes i databaserna Medline, Pubmed, Google and Google Scholar.Resultatet visade på att det sannolikt finns skillnader i dödlighet samt sjuklighet mellan etniciteter som drabbats av hjärt- och kärlsjukdomar. Dessa kan bero på skillnader i abdominal fetma, insulin resistens vid diabetes och andra risker så som C-reaktivt protein som finns i blodplasman och i vanliga fall utsöndras vid inflammationer i kroppen och adiponectin som är ett hormon som finns i fettvävnaden vars utsöndring är sämre hos personer som har diabetes. Dock är studierna som visar på skillnader alldeles för få, det behövs fler och större undersökningar inom detta område. Denna litteratur översikt visar också att det även kan vara så att inte alla etniciteter gynnas av dagens behandlingar som finns mot hjärt- och kärlsjukdomar som t ex Betablockerare. Slutsatsen i denna studie är att mer forskning inom ämnet behövs samt fler övergripande studier gällande folkhälsan i Mellanöstern.

The protracted war and the centrality of security in Israel raises the Lasswellian question, can parliamentary democracy and political pluralism prevail under such conditions, without turning Israel into a Garrison State? The prevailing understanding of political-military relations in Israel is that the IDF is an instrumentalist army, that it serves as the executive tool of the legitimate political authorities and is not involved with state politics. Furthermore, it is accepted that the greatest achievement of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister and Defence Minister, and the architect of the defence establishment, was the de-politicization of the IDF and its disconnection from party politics. Both assumptions are challenged in this study. New evidence, and an analysis of existing material reveals the existence of a nominal control pattern, which has the formal appearance of an instrumentalist model, whereas the reality is otherwise. The IDF was not subordinate only to a state channel of political control, like other instrumentalist armies. In Israel there existed a unique pattern of political-military relations, a dual-control pattern. The political authorities exerted control through two channels, not only the state but also the party channel, that is of the dominant Labour Party. The state control was in fact weak and there was a lack of effective mediatory mechanisms between the military on the one hand and the Cabinet, Parliament and Defence Ministry on the other. As a result a pattern of civil-military partnership emerged in place of civil control. The boundaries between the military and the Labour Party were permeable. This allowed the rivalry between that party's two "sub-elites" to affect the military which enhanced the partnership between the military and political elites. The emergence of the military as one of the main mobility channels to the national leadership, evidenced by the increased influence of the generals-turned-politicians, has resulted in a developmental construct of Military Democracy.

This thesis is made up of nine chapters. The introduction offers some preliminary discussion of the subject of the period as a whole, and some consideration of existing modern sources upon it. Our modern concept of the ancient world is necessarily constructed from materials derived from reports, and from the various other sources which have survived to use. The purpose of Chapter 1 is to establish how the reports and sources which pertain to the fifth century BC will be evaluated and used in the following thesis. To this end, the work of the three main contemporary historians for fifth century Greece are examined and some concluding comments regarding our use of them for the study of fifth century Macedon are made. Alexander I of Macedon faced circumstances which were almost completely incomparable to those faced by any other king during the period covered by this thesis. The fact that he not only preserved the integrity of his kingdom during the titanic Persian Wars but went on to gain territory, increase trade and improve the Macedonian army to an extent that it could conquer and maintain a vast tract of land, displays a commitment to the wellbeing of his country and a level of patriotism which Chapter 2, alone amongst modern studies, identifies and explores. In his commentary on Thucydides, A. W. Gomme has this to say about Perdiccas’ frequent changes of allegiance: “he chopped and changed all his life, as far as we can see to no very good purpose, except that he kept his kingdom intact and his own throne.” (p201) From Perdiccas’ point of view, and in the context of the Peloponnesian war, during which Macedon itself became, at times, a military objective, keeping his throne and kingdom intact was, in fact, a “very good purpose,” and indeed no small achievement. Chapter 3 explores the dramatic fluctuations in Perdiccas’ foreign policy which allowed him to do this, and considers modern viewpoints upon it.