Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 1993. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-275). Also available via Internet as PDF file through Southern Oregon Digital Archives: http://soda.sou.edu. Search First Nations/Tribal Collection.

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The principal aim of the thesis has been to examine the development of constructed cult loci from the late Iron Age to the late Roman period in southern Britain, focusing on the differential use of internal space. Following an initial review of the interpretative parameters used in the archaeological identification of constructed cult sites, the evidence for such loci within an Iron Age context was critically re-examined. This has led to the conclusion that not only were such sites very rare and geographically dispersed, but they were confined in most cases to the ultimate pre-Roman and Roman transition periods. It is suggested that this development may have been at least partly induced by an internal increase in societal specialisation and political hierarchy, in addition to external influences from Roman Gaul. Contextual analysis of constructed cult sites has led to the conclusion that, at least within the Roman period, they were integral parts of the political, commercial, social and ideological world of those that surrounded them. Furthermore, their virtual absence from certain areas implies that the concept of constructed sacred space as a whole did generally not find expression outside of those areas more influenced by Romanized ideology and social structure. At the core of the thesis is an analysis of the use of space within a selected number of late Iron Age and Roman period constructed sacred sites. Whilst individual site variation was substantial, there was an occasional degree of regional coherence, in addition to a more ubiquitous homogeneity in some functional and spatial characteristics. Detailed spatial analysis has only been possible on a limited number of sites because of a previous lack of comprehensive excavation. The current study has shown that it is only by analysing in detail the whole of the site, that vital information concerning function and development may be gained.

Conventions of Culture-Historical archaeology have persisted in Florida's Indian River Region since the early twentieth century. Traditional ceramic typologies focusing on the superficial stylistic characteristics of pottery have dominated anthropological assessments of Indian River culture during the prehistoric Malabar Period (ca. 1000 BC-AD 1565). Using a practice-oriented approach to analyze technological attributes of St. Johns pottery from Malabar-period assemblages offers an opportunity to examine the communities of practice surrounding craft production as an avenue for elucidating prehistoric cultural identities. This study explores ceramic technology within the Malabar period assemblages of the Fox Lake Sanctuary, and intra-regional and inter-regional site comparisons are quantitatively tested to evaluate variation in technological attributes between assemblages. Statistical results suggest a differentiation between certain technological attributes of St. Johns pottery in Malabar and St. Johns assemblages, notably in the rim thickness and lip morphology of simple form St. Johns Plain vessels.

Bibliography: pages 190-203. / This thesis consists of a stable carbon isotopic assessment of the diets of the Holocene human inhabitants of the southwestern Cape, South Africa. Samples of the foods these people ate were collected from each of the four major physiographic zones in the area, and their ¹³C/¹²C ratios measured. A total of more than 200 such analyses enabled the estimation of the average δ¹³C values of prehistoric human diets in each zone. This information is used to interpret δ¹³C measurements on a series of archaeological human skeletons. The results are consistent with a model of prehistoric subsistence behaviour in which people living at the coast made intensive use of marine food resources throughout the Holocene, consuming such a large proportion of these foods that they must have spent much, if not all of their time at the coast. Inland skeletons reflect an almost entirely terrestrial diet. These results contradict hypotheses about seasonal population movements between the coast and the interior generated from excavated archaeological material. Considerable changes in many of our current views of the Late Stone Age of the south-western Cape will have to be made in order to accommodate these data.

The Procession Fresco at Knossos is a large-scale mural found partially adhering to the walls of the ceremonial entrance to the largest palace in Minoan Crete. Although it was first published over a century ago, scholars rarely engage in critical discussion regarding its imagery, function, and meaning. The fragmentary state, extensive damage by fire, and insufficient publication likely account for the lack of academic attention the painting receives. This study seeks to engage the field in a critical discourse surrounding this painting by contextualizing it using both iconographic and phenomenological methodologies with the aid of digital tools. The first part of this approach reconsiders the imagery of the Procession Fresco in the context of the processional theme in Crete and the wider Aegean as well as the implications of the production date, here suggested as LM II. The second part of the approach explores how the broader architectural setting of the West Entrance System influences the way ancient processional participants interacted with and understood the mural, further investigating Mark Cameron’s theory that the painted figures acted as signposts to ancient processions. Using a new reconstruction of the mural placed within a digital model, this project includes a video walk-through of the ancient processional area included here as attached media. The study results in the finding that the mural moves beyond a synchronistic relationship with the architecture and the ancient processional participants, and instead it both includes and excludes the viewer using its imagery and scale. Alternatively, this mural may depict multiple processions that once took place at the palace. The mode of representation of the mural likely draws upon concepts of collective memory and myth in an attempt by the LM II administration to express authority over the island. / Art History

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Archaeological considerations of mobility have primarily focused on the differences in and among the kinds or degrees of mobility itself, rather than addressing the underlying issue of why human settlement patterns were or are mobile. The focus of this study is to address such questions within Darwinian evolutionary theory. Using the concepts of bet-hedging, as used in biology, and waste, as used in archaeology, it is argued that mobility was selectively favored for its population limiting properties. Relative changes in the numbers of projectile points in each assigned class, ordered chronologically by seriation, were taken to indicate relative population change over time. The results of this study suggest, primarily, that rapid, drastic population growth did not occur until the abandonment of mobility in the Gulf Formational period. This result supports the expectations of the hypothesis that was tested and indicates that in this instance mobility is a bet-hedging behavior.

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