Carved and engraved bone pins from the Koster, Black Earth and Modoc Rockshelter sites have been used by Professor Richard Jefferies to investigate the development of regional-scale interaction between hunter-gatherer groups of the Midwest Middle Archaic. Using that same data, this pilot study suggests that these artifacts may also be representative material embodiments of inherent social contradictions within and between hunter-gatherer societies at an even earlier date. These contradictions and the conflicts that arose from them may rival in importance ecological and demographic paradigms as catalysts for sedentism and territoriality in the Middle Archaic Midwest.

Thule archaeological sites typically yield large quantities of well-preserved faunal remains. These remains represent a wealth of information on a wide range of activities related to Thule animal-based subsistence economies, but have only recently been subjected to the quantitative ecological analyses that have increasingly concerned archaeologists elsewhere. This thesis involves the development of a linear programming model of Thule resource scheduling, and an explicit test of its applicability. When compared to the results of a detailed zooarchaeological analysis of faunal material collected from a variety of seasonal site types on southeastern Somerset Island, the modelling procedure was found to offer moderately interesting insights not otherwise attainable.

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This thesis studies spits and iron in Archaic Greece and Cyprus. Chapter One surveys previous research on spits and iron. Chapters Two to Six consider the evidence for spits in detail with the following agenda: who used them, when, where, for what, how, and what were their associations? Chapters Two, Three and Four focus on archaeological finds from funerary, settlement and sanctuary contexts respectively. Chapter Five looks at the iconographic evidence, and Chapter Six deals with written references to spits in inscriptions and literary texts. Throughout these chapters, the ancient tradition that spits were used as a favoured form of pre-coinage money is considered carefully. It is concluded that the material evidence fails to support this interpretation, and that the tradition was invented in the fourth century. Nevertheless, denominations of coins were named after spits, and it is hypothesised that this resulted from the appropriation of spits and bundles of spits as visual analogies with which to describe the relationship between obols and drachmas. Chapter Seven observes that in Aegean Greece and Cyprus, metal spits were manufactured exclusively from iron from the tenth /ninth century onwards. Moreover, they were one of the largest of a range of new iron types to be introduced during the Early Iron Age, were manufactured from high quality metal, and were a long-lived type. As such, they offer an "index" of the value of iron. Chapter Eight uses this index to argue that, contrary to established views, the high Late Bronze Age value of iron persisted into the tenth century, and though it declined thereafter, it did so gradually. Moreover, iron did not become a cheap alternative to bronze. These conclusions have important ramifications for the interpretation of the transition from bronze to iron. Chapter Nine provides a brief summary of the thesis.

This thesis concerns late Palaeolithic settlement in the region of Puglia, south-east Italy, at the close of the Pleistocene. Puglia comprises three sub-regions which contain sites of this period: the Salento peninsula, the Murge, and the Gargano promontory. The late Palaeolithic occupation must be considered in relation to the former existence of an extensive coastal plain, and to the sea-level rise which submerged it. The late Palaeolithic assemblages of the region have been studied previously by Italian archaeologists from a rigid typological stance, with various schemes put forward suggesting evolution of the assemblages through different stages of an Epigravettian tradition. In this thesis, attribute analysis is used to re-examine the principal assemblages, using published data where adequate and supplemented by samples studied by the author in Italy. The results are analyzed to seek the social and economic factors which shaped the various industries, as well as diachronic change wherever it can be demonstrated. Factors such as difficulty in obtaining raw material were clearly crucial to assemblage composition. The existing typological schemes are shown to lack real bases and to mask rather than reveal sociocultural information. Chapter 1 states the aims of the thesis and critically discusses previous theoretical approaches to the late Palaeolithic of the region. Chapters 2 and 3 describe relevant aspects of the regional palaeoenvironment. The author's own methodological approach is explained in Chapter 4, and then used for a detailed study of the assemblages from Grotta delle Cipolliane in Chapter 5. This is followed in Chapter 6 by a broader study of the late Palaeolithic assemblages in Puglia, with discussions of their possible diachronic and synchronic relationships. Chapter 7 develops this latter theme into an attempt to understand the social and economic features of the late Palaeolithic settlement of Puglia, and suggestions are made concerning future work that might improve the quality of the archaeological evidence. Chapter 8 summarizes the main conclusions of the thesis.

This thesis presents a co-ordinated study of the chronology, environment, and material culture of the Upper Palaeolithic in Britain, based upon a re-evaluation of extant old evidence and on the results of the author's specially undertaken excavations. A chronological scheme is proposed for the British Upper Palaeolithic, based on a new correlation of the stratigraphic and radiocarbon evidence. Two main divisions of the period are recognized, an Earlier phase and a Later one, which can be shown to be separated by the maximum ice advances of the Full Last Glacial (c. 20,00 to 15,000 years B.P.). Dates are available for the Earlier Upper Palaeolithic ranging from c. 29,000 to 18,000 B.P., which period covers the latter half of the Middle Last Glacial. Granulometric, pollen and faunal evidence suggest a Sub-Arctic to Arctic environment. The Later Upper Palaeolithic appears to date from c. 14,500 to 10,000 B.P., occupying most of the Late Last Glacial, and is associated with a varying Boreal to Sub-Arctic environment. The question of the relationship of Britain to the continent of Europe in terms of land-bridges is considered in some detail. The faunal analysis for both phases includes an assessment of the principal and preferred sources of meat for the human population. The distribution of Upper Palaeolithic sites is carefully considered, and the question of home bases and the strategy for exploiting the food resources of the various areas of Britain is discussed whenever the evidence permits. The study of these aspects is supported by a specially prepared series of maps. The typological range of the Earlier and Later Upper Palaeolithic tool-kits is studied and described on the basis of the author's own scheme, which has a simple ranked structure. Clear and important typological differences exist between the two phases. A number of simple metrical and statistical tests are employed, principally for comparison of individual stone tool assemblages within each stage, on the basis of which the question of sub-division is discussed. A large series of new artifact illustrations is presented to cover most of the British assemblages. A series of gazetteers list all the definite, possible and claimed British Upper Palaeolithic sites and the artifacts from them. Other aspects of the industries, such as the use of different raw materials, are also considered. The archaeological relationships between the British and continental Upper Palaeolithic assemblages are briefly discussed, but no firm conclusions can be offered until an exhaustive study of certain relevant continental material has been undertaken. A few suggestions are offered for future research in this and other fields, and the question of what terminology is most appropriate for the British Upper Palaeolithic is considered in the light of the author's research.

This thesis explores a method of defining status by understanding the function of objects used as gravegoods. The compact group of early medieval Germanic finger-rings is ideal for such a study. The rings are first studied in isolation, without reference to the graves in which they were mainly found. They are classified so as to emphasise their function. The main division is between those with a practical function (e.g. as a seal) and those with a purely symbolic or decorative function. It is the former group that defines most accurately their owners' status. This definition is refined by understanding both the skills (e.g. literacy) needed to make the ring, and the ways by which someone gained such a ring. Analysis of the origins of the different forms of prestige finger-rings shows that contemporary Byzantium inspired the vast majority, though there are few actual Byzantine rings. Very few late Roman or premigration Germanic forms endure. Having been studied in isolation, the rings are then seen in the context of the grave and of the other objects found with them. This enables their potential contribution to the understanding of Germanic burial rite to be assessed. In the areas of distribution and dating they add little. In the area of status, they refine considerably the present, arbitrary divisions, particularly when interpreted in terms of the model of the 'prestige goods economy'. Finally continental and Anglo-Saxon ring-wearing practices are compared. Although most influenced by their pre-migration past, the Anglo-Saxons did nevertheless copy a restricted range of continental types, which show that they understood both the practical functions and the corresponding status-implications of these rings.