The aims of this study were to evaluate the use of botanical species as indicators of antiquity and environmental continuity and also to provide greater understanding of the processes responsible for the formation of woodland plant communities. In order to address this, the research was undertaken along four main themes: 1) Plant colonisation rates. 2) Plant species lists for woodland sites. 3) The impact of surveyor effort and strategy in devising species lists for sites. 4) The response of a typical woodland plant to management. 5) Plant communities in an area of Scottish pine forestIn particular, this study has focussed on the determination of indicator species. Some of the problems of surveying woodlands have also been raised. These problems include a lack of thorough surveys in secondary woodland habitats, and also the difficulty of comparing woodlands when they have been surveyed for different lengths of time, at different times of the year and different recording methods employed. The rate at which species are recorded during surveys has been studied in detail using three non-linear equations, which can be used to predict the number of species missed for a given survey. The results of investigating differences between species lists of different types of woodlands have shown that geology and age are the two most important factors affecting species composition of woodland within the study area (mainly South Yorkshire). The best method for determining indicator species appeared to be a simple comparison procedure between ancient and secondary woodland, with species split into two groups depending upon their percentage occurrence in ancient woodland (>90% and 75-90%) after compensating for unequal numbers of woodlands in the two categories. In addition recommendations have been made as to the number of indicator species required to be confident that a site is ancient. The findings of this study and the conclusions reached will help refine the surveyand evaluation procedure for conserving and maintaining the woodland resource.

acase@tulane.edu / This dissertation examines the role of Roman antiquity in crafting civic identity in fourteenth-century Siena. Roman heritage was a point of pride for Italian communes and had political and cultural relevance by informing values and legitimizing republican governments for contemporary audiences. Without provable classical settlement, trecento Siena fabricated an elaborate origin myth that stressed ancient foundations—by the twin sons of Rome’s own Remus—and promoted the legend in a city-wide iconographical and philosophical program. This dissertation presents a series of case studies that analyze specific occurrences of the civic deployment of Siena’s invented classical identity and examines the socio-political value of this Romanitas, or “Roman-ness,” in a pivotal period of transformation where the combination of a state-crafted visual campaign rooted in classicism and the political shift from one republican regime to the next provides the opportunity to trace the invocation of Rome in various forms across the city’s landscape. I begin by examining the origin legend as a response to foreign challenges to Siena’s historicity. I then analyze Sienese political discourse, both local and in broader Guelph-Ghibelline debates, to argue that Roman republicanism provided necessary legitimacy to republics and a vocabulary to express communal virtues. Chapter three follows Sienese efforts to emphasize ancient material through the celebration of spolia—native and imported—and attention to Rome in original art. Chapters four and five examine the presence of Christian antiquity in Siena, demonstrated by the selection of ancient martyrs as their patron saints and the religious ideals of the Gesuati order, dedicated to Jerome. The final chapter identifies instances where pagan and Christian antiquity appeared in the same civic space and questions how both expressions of Romanitas functioned together to create a cultural identity in Siena dependent on classical influence. This dissertation expands scholarship’s definition of antiquity to include both pagan and Christian manifestations and recognizes the role of Sienese communal government in developing the rebirth of antiquity. I suggest that the Sienese state cultivated a self-image that stressed Siena as a Roman city physically and philosophically built upon classical origins and benefiting from Rome’s political and spiritual inheritance. / 1 / Samantha Perez

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Thesis advisor: Mark Thatcher / Rome changed throughout its history and the city that existed during the fourth century CE was different from the city that Virgil and Cicero lived in and described in their writings. The Roman state and society changed during the intervening four centuries as Rome ceased to be politically significant, elite behavior became increasingly disconnected from any role in governance, and the traditional religious cults were neglected as Christianity gained prominence. Despite these changes, Roman tradition dictated an idealization of ancestral custom, which was preserved in the corpus of extant literature. I argue that among the elites of fourth century society, there were individuals such as Ammianus Marcellinus or Symmachus who interpreted and responded to their society through the filter of these fossilized images of an idealized Rome. Although they lived in largely post-classical time, their writings express a worldview that is congruent with the late Republic and early Principate. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017.

The Fourth Ecumenical Council, held at Chalcedon in 451, began a period of extraordinary social and political crisis across the Eastern Mediterranean. In Palestine, as elsewhere, the centuries that followed were characterised by internecine conflict between local Christians, persisting until the collapse of Roman authority in the region during the reign of the emperor Heraclius. Since Edward Gibbon, historians have struggled to contextualise this debate, ostensibly an argument between proponents of rival, but also substantially identical, Christologies. This thesis considers what role socio-economic factors may have played in shaping contemporary accounts of the Council's fraught reception. It asks whether this may have distorted our understanding of a defining Late Antique debate. Chalcedon's reforms had wide-reaching consequences, not only for the Empire's official Christological policy, but for the broader structure of the 'Church economy,' the systems through which Christian institutions were financed and maintained, referred to at length in the Council's disciplinary canons. Its rulings held particular significance for Palestine in its status as the Christian 'Holy Land.' Here I explore this facet of Chalcedon's legacy, whilst considering how the language of doctrinal controversy generated by the Council served to frame episodes of material competition between rival communities of clerics and monks. The thesis offers a new reading of the texts produced by key actors in these confrontations, many of which have been historically neglected. It follows in the wake of recent attempts to analyse other religious conflicts of this period in light of contemporary social or political conditions, or through reference to 'networks' of influence and patronage. I apply this methodology to the study of the Palestinian partisans in the antagonism which followed Chalcedon, whilst also drawing upon the archaeologically-grounded study of material culture which has influenced so many other areas of early medieval history.

Giovanni Battista Montano (1534-1621), who was born in Milan and trained as a woodcarver, relocated permanently to Rome in the early 1570s where his interest in sculpting was replaced by intense study of the city’s antique monuments and ruins. Although Montano carried out several sculptural and architectural projects during his time in Rome, it is his surviving corpus of drawings that testifies to his passion of exploring ancient architecture through the medium of drawing. While Montano was not famous during his lifetime, a large body of his intriguing designs became celebrated and widely circulated after his death thanks to the 1624 publication of Montano’s designs by his loyal pupil, Giovanni Battista Soria. Montano’s lifelong work differs from virtually all of his predecessors and contemporaries in its “fantastical” and ornamental nature. This thesis explores Montano’s artistic training as it relates to his later interest in imaginatively reconstructing antique buildings, along with his disregard for archaeological or historical accuracy. The subject matter upon which Montano focused is discussed, along with his objective in creating a large corpus of half-historical, half-invented drawings. His drawing techniques are explored with specific reference to the largest group of extant Montano drawings, today housed in Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, England, and also in reference to three original Montano drawings in the Centre Canadien d’Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal. Also explored is the legacy and impact of Montano’s drawings and the later publications of his designs on the works of Roman Baroque architects, specifically Borromini and Bernini. This thesis ultimately attempts to understand the impact of the intellectual and artistic environment surrounding Montano in late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Rome, his drawing techniques, his choice of subject matter, and the reception that his unique works received from contemporary artists and intellectuals, along with those of the following generation. / Thesis (Master, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-25 21:15:35.035

This is a study of the Christianisation of the built environment: the physical manifestation of the transition from paganism to Christianity in the Greek East. The core of this thesis comprises an archaeological exploration of temple conversion in terms of structural mechanics, logistics, chronology and socio-political implications. This work provides a re-assessmenot f the fate of the temples- their deconsecration,d estruction, preservation, abandonment and re-utilisation - by supplementing and questioning the historical record through reference to the wealth of available archaeological evidence. Detailed chapters on the mechanics and chronology of particular forms of conversion scenario illustrate the emergence of an architectural vocabulary of temple conversion from the middle of the Sth century. In order to assess the impact of change on a local level, these primary issues are addressed through the archaeology of provincial Cilicia. This sheds new light on several well-known temple conversions and raises important questions about those for which the evidence is less conclusive. It is through this kind of regional study that the variability in the fate of temples is realised and increasingly attributed not to the influence of a particular piece of legislation, but to local and regional circumstances and context. Detailed studies of individual sites have also enabled the formulation of a methodological critique for the identification of the sites of temple conversion in their various manifestations: from complete incorporation of the temple remains, to piecemeal appropriation of individual architectural elements. Archaeological, historical and epigraphical evidence from over 250 structures in which the influence of a pre-existing temple has been detected, have been incorporated into a highly detailed database, providing a platform for information management and the analysis of trends in the fate of the temples. By looking beyond the subjective narratives of the primary historical sources, this thesis demonstrates that the archaeological evidence can provide us with a deeper understanding of the complexity and variability of temple conversion as it occurred in individual urban contexts. This has enabled the formulation of a more coherent picture of its significance and situation in the cultural and physical transfonnation of the late antique city.

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Changing circumstances during Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine Period (4th-9th centuries A.D.) required Byzantine communities to make deliberate adjustments in order to survive, endure, and ultimately flourish again during the Middle Byzantine Period (10th-12th centuries). The role these communities had in decision-making can easily be overlooked, leaving instead hapless victims of insurmountable external pressures such as imperial manipulation, economic recession, Christian acculturation, or a general sense of inexorable decline. Although factors such as these played a role as each community deliberated on a complex and unique set of local concerns, the ultimate decisions each community made should not be assumed but rather investigated on the basis of both textual and archaeological evidence. The stoa is particularly well-suited for the study of reuse and therefore valuable for understanding the adaptive strategies implemented by Byzantine individuals and communities during the transition period from antiquity to the medieval period. The stoa was one of the most ubiquitous buildings of the Greco-Roman city and was highly adaptable for reuse, whether by incorporation into large structures such as churches or fortifications, or by subdivision into smaller units for uses such as housing, storage, or commercial activities. The stoa was commonly found not only in urban contexts, particularly in agorai and fora, but also at many extraurban sanctuaries. By compiling data on the reuse of stoas throughout the Byzantine Empire during the 4th - 10th centuries, four patterns of reuse can be identified: residential, economic, ecclesiastical, and defensive. Abandonment, or a lack of reuse, is a fifth pattern. These patterns of reuse provide insight into the lives of Byzantines outside of the imperial and ecclesiastic elites and inform the excavation of post-classical phases of stoas.