This thesis examines the theory behind workshops, including craft specialisation, and presents a catalogue of workshops and activity areas in the Aegean from the Neolithic to the end of the Protopalatial period. No systematic procedure for analysing and classifying workshops has been used or proposed previously. The main aim of this thesis is to develop a method by which loci suggested to be workshops may be analysed, with a view to ascertaining whether this identification is correct. Following on from this, a further objective is to formulate a means of classifying the information to determine the type of working area and the degree of certainty with which it may be called a workshop or activity area. This method will be used in the compilation of the catalogue. For a comprehensive study of workshops, two main theoretical issues are considered in Volume I. Firstly, the theory of craft specialisation, integral to the study and definition of workshops, is examined. Its definition, features, associated aspects and connection with workshops are researched. Secondly, a theoretical study of the possible varieties of workshops and their likely locations, products, and consumers provides a basis for the following examination of actual loci within the Aegean. In Volume II a catalogue of working areas in the Aegean is presented, which also includes other craft-related loci: craftsman's graves, hoards and mines. The method for analysis is employed extensively throughout the catalogue to reinterpret areas previously suggested to be workshops or activity areas. New classifications are suggested for many loci. It is concluded that the proposed method is successful in achieving the aims for which it was developed.

No description available.

This thesis contributes an original approach to the understanding of human-object relations at funerary and ceremonial sites during the period c.2200 BC - 1400 BC within Wales. A primary review of archaeological work within this region contextualises this thesis and challenges the notion that this area is materially-poor during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Drawing on existing excavation reports and archived material, a database of archaeological sites detailing context and material culture was created. Additionally a calibrated set of dates, was mapped against architectural, depositional and material practice. These data sets provided the opportunity to compare different Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age archaeological features in terms of the character and variety of associated objects and materials. Analysis of this data has illustrated key contrasts and similarities in the treatment of material culture across architecturally distinct ceremonial and funerary site types. This interpretation is framed by a discussion of materiality, arguing for a model which is located in past perspectives rather than a deconstruction of Western material values. Materiality is explored as a contextual, often learned understanding of the world, which is not restricted to the physical qualities of materials. Potential concepts of materiality were considered with particular attention given to the treatment of human remains in funerary and ceremonial contexts. The result of this thesis is an enhanced understanding of depositional practices and their role in the construction, use and perception of funerary and ceremonial sites within the Early Bronze Age of Wales.

In this dissertation, I investigate the organization of urban activities in Early Bronze Age cities of Northern Mesopotamia. I combine evidence from archaeological survey, magnetometric studies, and excavations to demonstrate that cities were broadly integrated in terms of function and use of space: inhabitants in outer cities, lower towns, and extramural areas all pursued a range of diverse activities. The organization of urban life in Northern Mesopotamia is best described as "distributed," a conclusion at odds with the prevailing belief that public institutions were concentrated in city centers and outer city areas were solely residential. I analyze new excavations and surveys from two major cities--Tell Mozan and Tell Chuera--and compare those remains with information from other excavated cities across third-millennium BCE Northern Mesopotamia. I identify nine individual components of urbanism within third-millennium cities: city walls, water resources, roads and streets, agricultural and pastoral land, houses, workshops, temples and shrines, burials, and administrative buildings. The spatial distribution suggests regular correlations between certain components, particularly houses/workshops, houses/burials, city walls/administrative buildings, and extramural workshops/roads. This overall pattern reveals multifunctional neighborhoods with a range of ceremonial, domestic, and production-related activities situated within the stable boundaries of city walls, water courses, and major roads. Single-function areas often occur alongside other activity or mixed-use areas. I found the distribution of activities to be similar across cities, despite variations in overall layout and size. Widespread co-occurrence, especially of houses and workshops, indicates a kind of "dual economy" of elite and non-elite production, with lower-class inhabitants producing their own lithics, ceramics, and agricultural/pastoral products. Furthermore, although large temples and palaces are located in city centers, the existence of smaller shrines and non-domestic buildings in lower towns indicates that religious and administrative functions also occurred beyond the city center. The surveys and excavations illuminate two important patterns: first, that administrative, productive, and religious activities took place throughout the city; and second, that social rank did not preclude the pursuit of a range of activities. The stability afforded by this broadly integrated organization and heterarchical social organization may have been instrumental in a city's longevity.

In this dissertation, I study a critical transition in the urban development of Tell es-Sweyhat, a large site in Syria occupied from c. 3000-1900 BCE. In the middle of the third millennium, Sweyhat was an open town centered on a fortress. It was ringed with cemeteries and had a ceremonial public building in its outskirts (Sweyhat Period 3). Around 2150 BCE, the settlement experienced a sudden expansion from 15HA to 35-40HA. Sweyhat became a fortified city with a high central ceremonial platform and no formal cemetery (Sweyhat Period 4). The new fortifications combined with increased population density signifies Sweyhat's transition from a town to a regional urban center. In this dissertation, I identify the changes in land use during this transition and examine the accompanying social changes. I focus on several domestic structures excavated along the edge of the Sweyhat 4 Inner City wall, along with the associated artifact inventories, including spinning and weaving equipment, grinding and cooking equipment, and whole ceramic vessels. One adult burial and several infant burials were also uncovered here. Additional soundings reached down into the Sweyhat 3 layers of this neighborhood. I synthesize the data from these excavations alongside architectural remains and artifact assemblages from other excavated areas of the site, to create a narrative of the changes in the site's occupational history and the possible meanings inherent in those changes. The results reveal that the character and location of certain daily and special activities changed, including mourning the dead, grain storage, grinding and cooking activities, and ceremonial activities. The outer town cemeteries were abandoned, possibly in favor of individual household burials. Grain storage, grinding, and cooking activities that had been located in the central storage area moved to the home. The locus of ceremonial activities shifted from the public building in the outer town to a new structure located in the city center. Access to this new structure was limited: it sat atop a high terrace that was accessible only by particular ramps or stairways, in a district at the center of the city's two fortifications. These shifts suggest increased control of formerly accessible public activities and greater attention to individual privacy. These changes were an integral part of Tell es-Sweyhat's transition from open town to walled city.

Feasting and shared drinking are long suspected to have been practiced in Anatolian settlements during the Early Bronze Age (EBA). New drinking vessels of metal and ceramic seem meant for drinking together with others. Platters and bowls seem intended to display food and vessel handling. No study has examined these practices in detail. This is largely because of a lack of evidence for the production of special beverages, for instance wine, beer, or mead. The Early Bronze Age is a period of intensifying personal distinction. It is characterised by developments in metallurgy, craft production, long-distance exchange, and at some sites, monumental architecture. Yet how EBA Anatolian communities were organised is unclear. A lack of writing and a limited number of seals suggest that there was no central administration within settlements. This contrasts with contemporaneous sites in southeastern Turkey and in Mesopotamia, whose metallurgy, craft production, architecture, and other developments were overseen by temple and palace complexes. This thesis uses feasting and drinking as a way to examine the social complexity of EBA Anatolian sites. It compiles evidence for these activities in both north-central and western Anatolia. It analyses the incidence of different drinking and pouring shapes across sites, and qualitatively assesses vessel features and the contexts in which they are found. This thesis also evaluates the role of drinking and feasting within settlements. It assesses the settings where drinking and feasting was practiced, together with other indices from each site. Two theoretical models are used to evaluate these activities. One details how the use of objects facilitate social relationships. Another specifies how communities may be organised. Both models provide a wide spectrum for assessing the drinking, feasting, and organisational evidence from sites. These models allow for variation: in how drink and food are used to form social relationships, and also in social complexity. The approach is able to distinguish between different organisational and social strategies across sites and regions. This detail is key for beginning to understand Anatolia's unique development during the period.

The subject for this essay considers the trade with amber and how it was organized in Scandinavia during the early Nordic Bronze age. There is very little written about this subject. One of the few scholars that have done this is the archeologist Timothy Earle. He has done this generally from a material that comes from the world of the living, mostly settlements. I will compare his view with a grave material that are based on Aner & Kersten Die Ältere Bronzezeit (2001, band 11). My own conclusion is that Timothy Earls view corresponds well with the grave material

No description available.

<p>The subject for this essay considers the trade with amber and how it was organized in Scandinavia during the early Nordic Bronze age. There is very little written about this subject. One of the few scholars that have done this is the archeologist Timothy Earle. He has done this generally from a material that comes from the world of the living, mostly settlements. I will compare his view with a grave material that are based on Aner & Kersten Die Ältere Bronzezeit (2001, band 11). My own conclusion is that Timothy Earls view corresponds well with the grave material</p>

No / This volume represents the publication of a highly successful conference held in 2003 to celebrate the contribution to Neolithic and Early Bronze Age studies of one of archaeology's finest synthesisers, Professor Stuart Piggott. The title is a reference to his famous work, Ancient Europe from the beginnings of agriculture to Classical Antiquity, itself a publication of his Society of Antiquaries of Scotland's Rhind Lectures of 1962. The scope of the volume spans the three crucial millennia, from the beginning of the fourth to the mid second, that saw major impacts on the area we now call Scotland. There was transformation of the landscape through the introduction and development of farming, the creation of many striking monuments and the spread of important ideas and technologies, of which metalworking, particularly in Aberdeenshire, was one of the most significant. The contributions cover major advances in research in the period which demonstrate the interplay of the key factors of climate, culture, and resources, where the theme of exchange of information, objects and materials played a vital role. Individual chapters range from chambered tombs to climate change, from dietary choices to faience beads, from timber enclosures to bronze hoards. Together these present a valuable and up-to-the-minute overview of Scotland in ancient Europe and a fine tribute to a past-master of the subject.