Trefoil brooches are one of the most abundant types of Viking Age jewellery in Scandinavia. This thesis delves into the journey of one such brooch, known as 555783, discovered in Birka, Sweden. Through an archaeological object biography approach this thesis examines the brooch's construction, provenance, transportation, transformation, and deposition in an attempt to shed light on how this and other similar examples evolved in Scandinavian society compared to their cultural origins. Furthermore, this research aims to uncover broader patterns in the Viking Age Scandinavian society's contact with and adaptation of foreign material culture through the incorporation of comparative examples, in order to explore what this illustrates about the Scandinavian people in general. The conclusion reached is that 555783 was likely made in Frankia then transported to Scandinavia through unknown means. There it was modified from a mount on a sword belt with male, martial associations into a piece of fastening-jewellery associated with female costume and display. It was also determined that the adoption and adaption of foreign material culture was primarily a way of displaying foreign connections in a way better suited to their own aesthetic and material preferences. / En av de mest rikligt förekommande smyckestyperna från vikingatiden i Skandinavien är treflikiga spännen. Den här uppsatsen undersöker livshistorien av ett treflikigt spänne (555783) som upptäcktes i Birka. Genom ett arkeologiskt objektbiografiskt tillvägagångssätt undersöker denna uppsats spännet konstruktion, ursprung, förflyttning, förändring och deposition. Undersökningen illustrerar hur spänne 555783 och liknande exempel utvecklades i det skandinaviska samhället jämfört med i sin ursprungskultur. Vidare syftar denna uppsats till att belysa ett bredare mönster i vikingatida skandinavers kontakt med och anpassning av främmande materiell kultur. Uppsatsen besvarar detta genom jämförelse med andra liknande exempel. Slutsatsen ernådd är att spänne 555783 troligen har tillverkats i det Frankiska riket och sedan transporterats till Skandinavien på ett okänt sätt. Där modifierades den från ett beslag på ett svärdsbälte med manliga, krigiska associationer till ett smycke förknippat med kvinnlig uppvisning av status. Det fastställdes också att inlemmandet och modifieringen av främmande materiell kultur i första hand var ett sätt att visa utländska kopplingar som var anpassat till deras egna estetiska och materiella preferenser.

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Yes / In this paper we consider the making, daily use and deposition of ornaments in the Halaf period. We seek to move beyond rigid ‘craft production’ interpretive frameworks intersecting symbolism, complexity and social inequality. Instead, we seek different ways of knowing prehistoric ornaments, through their materiality, assemblage and visuality as evidence of ambiguous mutable person-object relationships and experiences. Making and decoration of/with ornaments offers insights into social concepts of embodiment, personhood, identity and belonging, and should be interpreted as having ambiguous, multiple uses and meanings. Using six case studies of ornament types from excavated assemblages, we critically examine existing methods of small finds’ presentation and suggest more dynamic ways of artefact analysis, interpretation and publication. We present this interpretative model as a methodology applicable broadly to small find studies in all archaeological contexts. In our analysis we re-orient towards considering assemblages of dynamic communities of makers, users and identities embedded in these objects’ life histories.

While academic discussion of ornament within medieval Islamic art has laboured much over the codification and meaning of certain forms, there has been relatively little research to date on the visual and iconographic function of architecture as ornament in this context. Those few authors that have dealt with this issue have focused overwhelmingly on two-dimensional architectural representations, largely ignoring the considerable body of portable objects from the medieval Middle East that imitate architecture through three-dimensional forms, whether in a mimetically coherent fashion or in a more elliptical or reconfigured manner. This thesis proposes, first and foremost, that there is significant cultural meaning inherent in the use of architecture as an inspiration for the non-essential formal qualities of portable objects from the medieval Islamic world. Through iconographic analysis of the relationships that such objects form with architecture, an understanding of both full-size architecture and its miniature incarnations in the medieval urban context is advanced within the thesis. To maximise the intellectual scope of the study whilst still enabling an in-depth treatment of the material, four discrete studies of different object groups are presented. All of these are thought to date from approximately 1000 to 1350 CE, and to come from the core Middle Eastern territories of Persia, Syria and Egypt. The first chapter examines the glazed ceramic ‘house models’ believed to originate in late or post-Seljuq Persia. The second discusses six-sided ceramic tables from the same milieu, and more numerous related tables produced in Syria during the same period. In the third chapter carved marble jar stands from Cairo, apparently produced from the twelfth century onwards, are analysed. The final chapter, on metalwork, broadens its approach to encompass two very different strains of production: inkwells from Khurasan and incense burners from the breadth of the Middle East. Because much of the thesis focuses on material that has been dramatically understudied, it performs the primary action of compiling examples of each of the object types under study. Though this information is presented as a catalogue vi sommaire, this component of the thesis is not regarded as an end in itself. The major tasks of the thesis are the identification of the architectural tropes that are being evoked within each object group, analysis of the manner in which those forms have been modified to suit the miniature context of the objects, and the location of meaning within such diminutive evocations of architectural form. Through comparisons with other objects, full-size architecture, two-dimensional representations of architecture and historical texts, the thesis moves discourse on this type of motif in Islamic art beyond the traditional and sometimes superficial discussion of ‘ornament’, re-setting architectural iconography within larger contexts of urbanisation and city culture of the medieval Islamic world.

<p>Sammartinis Blockflöjtskonsert F dur</p><p>Dominic Probert, blockflöjt</p><p>Karolina Weber Ekdahl, barockviolin</p><p>Sandra Marteleur, barockviolin</p><p>Anna Lamberti, barockviola</p><p>Stina Petersson, barockcello</p><p>Anna Paradiso Laurin, cembalo</p><p></p><p></p>

This thesis argues that the ornament of Fatehpur Sikri, imperial city of the Mughal emperor Akbar, was created by and for a transcultural audience as a subtle means of unification. Scholars have largely characterized Fatehpur Sikri as a site that epitomizes the blend of Hindu and Islamic architecture. Inherent in this description is the assumption that these visual elements are distinctly religious and mutually exclusive, identified as solely Hindu or Islamic. Yet the integration of various types of imagery is indicative of more dynamic cultural interactions. I have used photographic documentation to classify and analyze the ornamental elements present in three structures at Fatehpur Sikri. My analyses of these elements’ usage and placement, in conjunction with those from surrounding Indian structures, suggest not only a unique Akbari repertoire but provides insight as to the structures’ purposes.

Long-distance migratory birds can encounter a wide range of parasites. Various populations of birds within one species use different migration routes and can also winter in different places. It can be supposed that birds which use different migration routes should be infected with different parasites. To study the relationship between the migration and the distribution of parasites we chose the worldwide species barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) and the avian malaria parasites. Swallows migrate long distances in different migrating routes. Some populations of swallows do not migrate, they are resident. This is the reason why swallow is a good model species for finding the answers to questions whether the populations using different migration routes are infected with different parasites or not and whether or not the diversity of parasites is wider in populations which migrate long distances in comparison with the resident populations. The malaria lineages of the genus Plasmodium and Haemoproteus were detected using nested PCR and sequencing. 1242 samples from 8 different localities from the USA, Europe and Asia were tested. We detected 24 different malaria lineages. Within the genus Plasmodium 4 of 16 lines were detected for the first time and in the genus Haemoproteus 3 of 6 lines were detected for the first...

Elaborate morphological ornaments can evolve if they increase the reproductive success of the bearer during competition for mates. However, ornament evolution is incredibly rare in females, and the type and intensity of selection required to develop female-specific ornamentation is poorly understood. The main goals of my thesis are to clarify the relationship between the type and intensity of sexual selection that drives the evolution of female ornamentation, and investigate alternative hypotheses that might be limiting or contributing to the development of female ornaments. I investigated the ecology and evolution of female-specific ornaments within and between species of dance flies from the subfamily Empidinae (Diptera: Empididae). The dance flies display incredible mating system diversity including those with elaborate female-specific ornaments, lek-like mating swarms, aerial copulation and nuptial gift giving. To elucidate the form of sexual selection involved in female-ornament evolution, I experimentally investigated the role of sexual conflict in the evolution of multiple female- specific ornaments in the species Rhamphomyia longicauda. Through manipulative field experiments, I found that variation in the attractiveness of two ornaments displayed by females indicates that sexual conflict, causing a coevolutionary arms race, is an important force in the evolution of multiple extravagant female ornaments. Using R. longicauda again, I tested for a role of functional load-lifting constraints on the aerial mating ability of males who paired with females displaying multiple large ornaments. I found no evidence of functional constraints influencing the mating opportunities of elaborately ornate females, but instead discovered a relationship consistent with positive assortative mating for mass. Biased sex ratios are predicted to increase the intensity of sexual selection in a population, which in turn, is predicted to influence the evolution of ornamentation. I measured the incidence and prevalence of vertically transmitted symbiotic bacteria that has been observed to distort the sex ratio in other Dipteran hosts. While my survey revealed that symbionts occur at high incidence and variable prevalence across dance fly hosts, I found no effect of symbiont infection levels on population sex ratios, or female- specific ornament evolution. Further investigation into the relationship between sex ratios and female-ornament evolution using the comparative method revealed that the operational sex ratio (OSR) of a population did not predict continuous measures of female ornamentation across species. However, female-ornament evolution did predict male relative testis investment across species indicating that female ornaments likely indicate increased levels of polyandry. My thesis reveals that sexual selection theory developed to describe male-specific ornament evolution cannot readily be translated to apply to females. I show that male mate choice, rather than functional constraints or ecological associations with bacteria, is likely driving the evolution of female-specific ornaments. I also identify sexual conflict as an important selective force in the evolution of female-specific ornaments.

Betweenness is a project questioning the relation between us and what we surround us with. To reveal our assumptions around artifacts and by doing so create an conversation between us viewers/ users and the objects themselves. Who owns the dialogue: the object or the viewer? Taking a deeper dive into the symbols and languages of objects, the quiet voices they posses and the functions surfaces, the visualization circle around words such as visual function, ornamentation,  material displacement and attraction.  By trying to convey the objects “inner thoughts” and creating a dialogue it pushes our ideas of what is desirable, what is strange, what is useful or even beautiful. The trick is in the contrast between what we see and what we know, bordering into imaginary, creating voices for ambiguous objects.

Na Antiguidade Clássica oferendas efêmeras constituídas por guirlandas e festões de flores e frutos foram depositadas em frisos nas antigas construções dando origem aos relevos e esculturas ornamentais que, executados em pedra, foram aplicados sobre os frontispícios dos templos. Esse rico repertório ornamental foi reeditado na Renascença e, na Contra-Reforma, se tornaria representativo de uma estética oficializada pelo Concílio de Trento, dirigida à constituição da igreja enquanto expressão terrena da casa de Deus. No universo laico, a estética estaria subordinada ao poder real, configurando no espaço cortesão uma arte palaciana. No mundo ibérico esses motivos ornamentais seriam transpostos para a madeira, passando a recobrir as superfícies internas dos templos religiosos, também chamados de igrejas cintilantes de ouro, repertório este que chegou ao Brasil pelas mãos de mestres entalhadores, religiosos ou leigos provenientes do Reino. Nos templos construídos em São Paulo, entre os séculos XVII e XVIII, encontram-se exemplares de talha representativa das ocorrências estilísticas que se sucederiam no mesmo período na Europa, assumindo em alguns casos, particularidades regionais. O presente estudo parte dos tratados renascentistas, buscando identificar entre os conjuntos remanescentes do período colonial paulista, alguns dos elementos que teriam contribuído para a formação do repertório ornamental tridentino e palaciano que ocorreram primeiramente nos grandes centros europeus, geradores e difusores de estética, chegando a Portugal, e sendo editados na antiga Província de São Paulo de Piratininga, envolvendo aspectos que em muito ultrapassariam a materialidade dos suportes físicos. / In Classical Antiquity, ephemeral offers of wreaths and embroideries made of flowers and fruits were placed in the friezes of the ancient constructions, thus originating the ornamental engravings and sculptures that, worked in stone, were applied to the frontispiece of temples. This rich ornamental repertoire was reedited in the Renaissance and, in the Counter-Reformation, would become representative of a type of aesthetics made official by the Council of Trent with the intent of constituting the church as the earthly expression of the house of God. In the universe of laity, this aesthetic principle would be under royal power, configuring a palatial art in the court space. In the Iberian world, these ornamental motifs would be transferred to woodwork and cover the inner surfaces of the religious temples, which were also called shinny churches of gold. This repertoire arrived in Brazil through the hands of carving masters, both clergy and laymen coming from the Kingdom. In the temples built in São Paulo, between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, we can find examples of this type of carving that represent the stylistic manifestation which occurred in Europe in the same period, but in some cases presenting regional particularities. This study begins with the Renaissance treaties, seeking to identify among the remaining sets of the colonial period in São Paulo some of the elements that would have contributed to the formation of the palatial and Tridentine ornamental repertoires that occurred firstly in the great European centers, which generated and spread aesthetic trends. These trends would reach Portugal and later the old Province of São Paulo de Piratininga in Brazil, where they found a new expression, involving aspects that greatly surpassed the simple materiality of physical supports.