Thesis--Zadar. / Added t.p. and summary in German. Bibliography: p. 176-187.

Thesis (M.A. in anthropology)--Washington State University, December 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-146).

Thesis--Zadar. / Added t. p. and summary in German. Bibliography: p. 176-187.

Archaeological excavations were conducted by EASE Archaeology at the Knowe of Skea on the island of Westray between 2000 and 2009 and discovered a multi-phase site with evidence for activity dating from the Neolithic through to the Viking era. Excavations revealed that the site had been used as a burial ground for a prolonged period during the Iron Age. Human remains recovered during the first seasons of excavations were radiocarbon dated to the turn of the first millennium BC/AD. These dates highlighted the significance of this burial ground; burial evidence of Iron Age date is sparse in Atlantic Scotland and often overlooked due to the lack of a recognisable, dominant burial rite. Burials of individuals of all ages, including a very high number of infants, were recovered and represent the largest known collection of burials of this date from Scotland. Iron Age research in Atlantic Scotland has traditionally been dominated by study and discussion of the impressive stone-built architecture of domestic buildings and working places of a population about which very little is actually known. Examination of the burials from this site and comparisons with similar sites in the Orkney Islands is building a greater understanding of the treatment of the dead in this region during a period for which so little evidence exists. The burials had been placed in the rubble of earlier collapsed buildings which appears to be a common feature of many Iron Age burials in the Orkney Islands and north-eastern Scotland. Site records, photographs and views of excavators were consulted and combined with the results of the osteological analysis to determine burial patterns at the site according to age, sex or burial location. The large volume of infant remains recovered from the site created the possibility to investigate such high infant mortality and the general health of infants and children. High numbers of infant burials can often lead to suggestions of infanticide; the likelihood of this is also discussed. The results of basic stable isotope analysis (13C and 15N) were examined to interpret breastfeeding and weaning practice. The evidence provided in the results of isotopic analysis was also used to interpret the diet of this population and compared with archaeological evidence of diet from excavation of domestic sites across Atlantic Scotland. Of particular interest was the extent to which the population of the islands may have exploited marine and other wild resources when compared with similar dietary studies in the rest of Scotland and Britain. Results of osteoarchaeological analysis of the human skeletal remains from the Knowe of Skea allowed a deeper understanding of the lifestyle and health of a population for which there has been little evidence to date.

This thesis presents a social perspective of the appearance and early role of ceramics during the Neolithic period in south eastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq. The need for an appreciation of the social context of this material is underpinned by the tendency in Near Eastern archaeology to use ceramics as tools to assist the formulation of chronologies, define supposed cultural boundaries and to reconstruct patterns of influence and interaction. Studies of the earliest ceramics have tended to adhere to these concerns and the social aspects of their appearance have been neglected. A number of different avenues are explored within this thesis, in order to approach the social context of early ceramics from differing perspectives. The material background and traditions of the Neolithic period are summarised, to place ceramic and other containers within a single framework for understanding. This contextual approach has been lacking from other studies of early ceramics. It is argued that ceramics did not present distinct functional advantages over existing container types and moves towards developing approaches that offer a social insight. This focuses on the increasingly complex role of consumption-related activities during the Neolithic period and the place of ceramics and other containers within this context. The theme of materiality and tradition is first approached in this chapter and forms a key strand of interpretation throughout the rest of the thesis. Ceramics are approached as a new technology and the relationship between ceramic and plaster manufacture during the Neolithic is re-evaluated. The patterns of development for plaster and ceramic technology are compared, as well as the actual manufacturing processes, in an attempt to define their relationship from a social perspective. The outcome of this is an enhanced understanding of the importance of material traditions during the Neolithic and the social significance of both technologies. A detailed analysis of the nature of early ceramic assemblages is undertaken. This concentrates on the themes of contexts of discovery, contexts of use and decoration. Material from the site of Umm Dabaghiyah in northern Iraq is presented as a case study. The aim of this analysis is to approach the social milieu of ceramic production and use. In the concluding sections, the significance of ceramics as material and symbol in the Neolithic is approached. It is argued that ceramics should be seen as an integral part of a wider Neolithic materiality, rather than an isolated aspect of material culture. The thesis concludes that the rewards of approaching early ceramics from a social perspective demonstrate the need for new methods of analysis. Ceramics must be studied within their wider context, as it is only against this background that they can be understood. It is argued that this issue needs to be addressed at the level of excavation, recording and publication in order to increase the possibilities for the study and interpretation of archaeological ceramics and the communities making and using them.

This research project has focused on exploring the relationship between people and cattle, and other animals, in Early Neolithic southern Britain. Cattle remains have been proven to be deposited at a range of sites dating to this period, from the early transitional stage of the period to the more established phase of long barrow and causewayed enclosure construction. Detailed re-assessment of published faunal reports from six sites dating to the earliest Neolithic has indicated that cattle comprise a major component of assemblages from the beginning of the period and that, with the exception of one site, the lack of significant amounts of other animals has highlighted just how large the disparity is between the deposition of cattle remains and those of other animals. Detailed re-assessment of thirty earthen and stone chambered long barrow reports was also undertaken and the depositional practices at these two types of site compared with each other and the earliest Neolithic sites. Although there are clear and obvious differences in the depositional practices at these sites, due largely to the purpose for which they were used, this study has demonstrated that the animals that comprise these assemblages show a continuity throughout this period. The faunal assemblages from three causewayed enclosures were assessed. In these contexts cattle comprised an even greater proportion of the assemblage than at the other sites and when combined with the other domestic species, pig and sheep/goat, formed almost the entirety of the assemblage. Cattle appear to be intricately involved with the lives of people at this time, possibly because their natural characteristics align well with the lifeways of people during this period.

One of the biggest innovations in human prehistory was the advent of food production, consisting of the ability to grow crops and domesticate animals for consumption. This wide-scale transition from hunting and gathering to food production led to more permanent settlements, and set in motion major societal changes. In western Eurasia, this revolution spread from the Near East into Europe, Africa and diverse regions of Asia. Agriculture was brought into Europe by the descendants of early Anatolian farmers starting approximately 8,000 years ago. But little was known of the people who developed agriculture in the Fertile Crescent: where they all closely related to the early Anatolian farmers, or were there multiple ethnic groups who developed agriculture in parallel? In the first data chapter, I use the first genome from a Neolithic woman from Ganj Dareh, in the Zagros Mountains (Iran), a site with evidence of early goat domestication 10,000 years ago. I showed that Western Iran wan inhabited by populations mostly similar to Hunter- gatherer populations from the Caucasus, but remarkably, very distinct from the Anatolian farmers who spread the Neolithic package into Europe. While a degree of cultural diffusion between Anatolia, Mesopotamia and the Zagros highlands likely happened, genetic dissimilarity supports a model in which Neolithic societies of that area were distinct. The second chapter deals with how Africa was affected by population movements, originating in the Near East, during the Neolithic times. Characterising genetic diversity in Africa is a crucial step for analyses reconstructing human evolution. Using Mota, an ancient genome from a male from the Ethiopian highlands, I showed a backflow into Africa by populations closely related to the Anatolian Neolithic farmers. The third chapter deals with some common problems and themes in the analysis of ancient DNA, such as merging capture datasets with diverse number of ascertained SNPs, combining capture and shotgun data in the same analysis, and the effect of UDG treatment in ancient samples. I describe the most common problems and their effect in summary statistics, and propose a guide on how to work with ancient DNA to avoid data compatibility problems.

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