Focussing on Archaeozoological faunal analysis, this dissertation aims to investigate the animal food utilization practices of the Ndzundza Ndebele by combining archaeozoologcial methods, archaeological data, ethnographic and historic information. The Ndzundza Ndebele inhabited three different sites in the Steelpoort River Valley during c. 1700 AD – 1900 AD. They were forced to relocate from KwaMaza and Esikhunjini to KoNomtjarhelo as a result of continual fighting between themselves and contemporary Iron Age/Historic communities, the British and the Boers during this period. I aim to identify the animal species utilized by the Ndzundza Ndebele in addition to whether or not the hostile and politically unstable period had any effect on Ndzundza animal food procurement, use and discard. Additionally I investigate whether the faunal remains recovered from the three sites can be used to identify ethnic affiliations, gender roles and ritual use with regards to animals and/or animal parts. Ultimately, I aim to demonstrate that faunal remains cannot be fully understood and interpreted without incorporating relevant ethnographic and/or historic information and as comprehensive an archaeological context as possible. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Anthropology and Archaeology / unrestricted

Seit ihrer Entdeckung im 19. Jh. sind die latènezeitlichen Graben-Wall-Einfriedungen, die in Nordfrankreich als „enclos“, in Süddeutschland als „Viereckschanzen“ bezeichnet werden, entweder als Kultplätze, als Gehöfte oder auch als Befestigungsanlagen interpretiert worden. Die vorliegende Arbeit, die 34 späteisenzeitliche Einfriedungssysteme aus beiden Ländern miteinander vergleicht, verfolgt daher zwei Absichten: zum einen soll geklärt werden, welche Fundplätze profane und welche sakrale Funktionen besessen haben könnten. Zum anderen stellt sich die Frage, welche Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede die Einfriedungen in Nordfrankreich und Süddeutschland aufweisen. / Since their discovery in the 19th century the enclosures from the Late Latène period, named „Viereckschanzen“ by german archaeologists, have been interpreted as cult places, as farmsteads or even as fortifications. By comparing 34 enclosures of the Late Iron Age from Northern France and Southern Germany, this paper thus pursues two objectives: firstly, to determine which of the sites can be identified as sacred or as profane; secondly, to show the similarities and differences between the enclosures in both regions. / Depuis leur découverte au XIXe siècle, les enceintes laténiennes, appelées „Viereckschanzen“ par les chercheurs allemands, ont été interprétées soit comme des lieux de culte, soit comme des fermes ou bien encore des fortifications. Cette recherche basée sur l’étude comparative de 34 enclos ruraux datés de La Tène tardive dans le nord de la France et le sud de l’Allemagne poursuit donc un double objectif. D’une part, en essayant de faire la distinction entre les sites profanes ou cultuels, et d’autre part, en essayant de mettre en évidence les points communs et les différences entre ces différents types d’enclos situés dans les deux pays.

Gold Foil Figures or guldgubbar (henceforth GFFs) are precious metal artefacts from the Scandinavian Late Iron Age. This master's essay offers a new approach to GFFs. As opposed to the established understanding of GFFs as representational images with real or mythic referents, belonging to an aristocratic milieu, this essay instead attends to GFFs in terms of their material and Figural traits. The material for this study consists if 42 GFFs from the find site of Västra Vång, Blekinge, Sweden. A comprehensive presentation of this artefact material is a secondary aim of this essay. With the aid of a neomaterialist theoretical apparatus that draws heavily on the work of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Wilhelm Worringer, the 42 GFFs undergo two separate analyses. In the first, the material traits expressed in the sequence of GFF production and deposition is studied in terms of a chaîne opératoire. In the second, I attend to the non-significatory expressive qualities of form and expression, or Figural traits, belonging to these 42 GFFs within the wider artistic milieu of Animal Style Ornamentation. I conclude that GFFs were as a rule artefacts made for purposes of immediate disposal, not display, as a mode of dispersing gold. Västra Vång’s GFFs offer several indications that handling between the cutting operation and deposition was minimal, such as the fresh, unworn edges. The thin, brittle foils are ill suited to display. Approaching the designs on these artefacts as various sets of Figural traits being expressed allows me to contextualise the GFFs within the wider artistic milieu of Animal Style Ornamentation. New territorial rhythms can be established only as certain elements are freed from a settled state, and made to act together with new elements, in new terrains. GFFs bring about new territorial rhythms of form and expression to gold matter, gold made to circulate as it becomes deterritorialised from a monetary function within the Roman economy. A flow of gold is extended as gold is brought to Scandinavia from continental economies. The influx of this flow of gold is not contained to an élite social stratum. Individuals in possession of minute amounts of gold returned to Scandinavia, having acquired gold as payment for involvement in military operations on the continent. This ownership of gold may have hindered their harmonious reintegration into a society based on other economic principles. The GFFs emerge as a vector of dispersing gold. The artistic expression of Figural traits is equally energised by movements of de- and reterritorialisation. Understanding that the Figural traits expressed on the GFFs from Västra Vång are part of a wider artistic milieu of Animal Style Ornamentation, alongside other systematised expressions making up parts of a collective assemblage of enunciation, makes their appearance on artefacts that were deposited immediately upon their manufacture easier to grasp. The particular procedures of miniaturisation allowed for an acceleration of the expression of variation in the conjunction of a flow of artistic expression onto a flow of gold matter. The dispersive handling of gold must be traced to both the material premises and the expressive artistic ones. Gold is not chosen because it is precious, or because of what it connotes, but because it is available, because the artisan smith is attendant to its traits as a metal matter.

This essay concerns the relationship between humans and animals during the Late Iron Age, 450-1050 AD, in the Nordic region. The archaeological and osteological material studied is animal style ornamentation and inhumation and cremation graves. The essay is based on a human-animal perspective and is inspired by Human-Animal Studies (HAS). This perspective shows how an anthropocentric worldview and human exceptionalism have come to influence the previous research regarding humans and animals. From this perspective, the animal's agency becomes central, which means that the animal acts as its own subject that mutually affects people and each other. Several parallels between the animal style ornamentation and the osteological material are also apparent both within the previous research and within my own analysis. In the previous research, a secondary view of animals abounds, and the focus is on human agency. But in the study's analysis, it becomes clear how the animal's agency is present. In both materials examined, bodies are mixed and assimilated in different and unique ways. The interpretation of the material is that people during the Late Iron Age thought "with both people and animals" and that people wanted to be influenced by animals. There was a world view were all living beings were a transversal unit, a so-called zoe. Both humans and animals were becomings initiated in a process of eternal co-creation.

Les fibules de l’oppidum de Bibracte sont l’objet de ce travail. D’ordinaire, les fibules sont classifiées et analysées par types, mais cela pose des problèmes méthodologiques. Pour les éviter, je développe une nouvelle méthode pour construire une chronologie en général et pour dater les fibules de Bibracte en particulier. Je me fonde sur l’approche théorique de John Collis (2009) et j’adopte ainsi le concept d’horizon chronologique, qui n’a donc pas de fin et se concentre sur des caractéristiques spécifiques à la place des types. La chronologie de fibules pour le site de Bibracte se fonde sur 122 fibules stratifiées de cinq fouilles du site, datées par les autres catégories de trouvailles comme la céramique. Cette chronologie se divise en huit horizons de fibules définis par une première occurrence de 130 caractéristiques de fibules et huit combinaisons des caractéristiques. Sur cette base il est possible de dater une fibule de manière transparente et vérifiable objectivement. La datation d’une fibule peut être estimée automatiquement sur la base de données numériques ci-jointe. Cette méthode est transférable à d’autres sites et catégories de trouvailles. La chronologie des fibules de Bibracte développée dans ce mémoire de thèse permet d’observer le développement de l’occupation de Bibracte, la durée de l’utilisation de la nécropole associée et le développement de la fabrication des fibules. / This work is about the brooches from the oppidum Bibracte. Commonly brooches are classified and chronologically interpreted as types. However, inherent methodological issues are evident, in particular for today’s chronological system of the late iron age. To overcome these issues, I consider a theoretical approach by John Collis (2009), and develop a new method to construct chronologies in general and to date the brooches of Bibracte in particular. Thereby I primarily use the concept of a chronological horizon, that has only a beginning but never ends, and rather focus on brooch attributes than on types. Based on the aforementioned, I construct an alternative brooch chronology using 122 stratified brooches from five excavations in Bibracte, whose stratigraphies are dated absolute in time by ceramic finds. The herein constructed chronology consists of eight brooch horizons, that are defined by the first appearance of 130 individual brooch attributes and of eight attribute combinations. The brooch chronology obtained in this manner allows to date any brooch or fragment of a brooch replicable and inter-subjectively verifiable for future work; the brooches can be dated automatically by means of the enclosed database. Moreover, the method presented is transferable to other archaeological sites and materials. On the basis of the alternative brooch chronology of Bibracte, various results about the settlement activity of the oppidum, the utilization period of the associated cemetery and the development of the brooch production in Bibracte are obtained. / Gegenstand dieser Arbeit sind die Fibeln aus dem Oppidum Bibracte. Für gewöhnlich werden Fibeln nach Typen klassifiziert und chronologisch ausgewertet. Dies birgt jedoch methodische Probleme, die u. a. im derzeitigen Chronologiesystem der späten Eisenzeit begründet sind. Um diese Probleme zu vermeiden, entwickle ich auf der Basis eines theoretischen Ansatzes von John Collis (2009) eine neue Methode zur Konstruktion von Chronologien im Allgemeinen und zur Datierung der Fibeln von Bibracte im Besonderen. Grundlegend sind hierfür das Konzept eines chronologischen Horizontes, der nur einen Beginn hat, jedoch kein Ende, sowie die Konzentration auf Merkmale anstatt auf Typen. In diesem Sinne konstruiere ich anhand von 122 stratifizierten Fibeln aus fünf Grabungen in Bibracte, deren Stratigrafien mithilfe der Keramik absolut datiert sind, eine alternative Fibelchronologie. Diese besteht aus acht Fibelhorizonten, die durch das jeweils erste Auftreten von 130 einzelnen Fibelmerkmalen und von acht Merkmalskombinationen definiert werden. Die auf diese Weise konstruierte Fibelchronologie ermöglicht es zukünftig, Fibeln und Fibelfragmente transparent und intersubjektiv überprüfbar zu datieren sowie die Datierung mithilfe der beiliegenden Datenbank automatisch zu berechnen. Diese Methode ist auch auf andere Fundorte und Fundkategorien übertragbar. Auf der Basis der alternativen Fibelchronologie von Bibracte werden darüber hinaus u. a. Ergebnisse zur Besiedlungsgeschichte des Oppidum erzielt, zur Belegungszeit des zugehörigen Gräberfeldes und zur Entwicklung der Fibelherstellung in Bibracte.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the distribution, forms, and function(s) of iron amulets deposited in the late Iron Age gravefields of Lovö, with the goal of ascertaining how (and so far as possible why) these objects were utilized in rituals carried out during and after burials. Particular emphasis is given to re-interpreting the largest group of iron amulets, the iron amulet rings, in a more relational and practice-focused way than has heretofore been attempted. By framing burial analyses, questions of typology, and evidence of ritualized actions in comparison with what is known of other cult sites in Mälardalen specifically– and theorized about the cognitive landscape(s) of late Iron Age Scandinavia generally– a picture of iron amulets as inscribed objects made to act as catalytic, protective, and mediating agents is brought to light.