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No / A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely anchored in history. This research team shows how.

The subject of this thesis is processing archeological locality Hoštice-Sečné louky 4 and Mořice-Pololány 1. Take up with archeological findings, their analysis, determination, primary interpretation and contextualization to the chronological period. The work includes an assessment of correlate settlement and burial ground of uneticer culture, and interpretation settlement burials.

Despite the potential of a biocultural methodology, osteology and archaeology are often approached separately in some parts of Central Europe. This osteoarchaeological thesis presents a rare comparative study of populations occupying modern-day Slovakia, Moravia, and Bohemia from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (EBA). By examining skeletal indicators of health and lifestyle, it aims to contribute to bioarchaeological research within the study region. It also provides new insights into a series of important sites where no osteological evaluation of skeletal remains have previously been performed. Human remains from thirty-four sites in Slovakia, Moravia and Bohemia, 152 adults and 136 subadults, were analysed. Demographic, pathological and metric data were recorded and evaluated, and compared with previously published data for contemporaneous populations in order to create a more comprehensive representation of the populations in the area. The results suggest several differences between the Neolithic and the following periods, mostly as regards health status. Higher dietary and environmental stress was indicated in the Neolithic period, as suggested by lower mortality peak (especially of females and subadults) and about 5cm shorter stature, and generally worse health status of Neolithic population when compared to the Chalcolithic and EBA individuals. The Neolithic is also the only period where females were more numerous than males. Such a trend is quite common in the Neolithic of the study region. This may be a result of increased migration of Neolithic females, as raids for wives are suggested to have been practiced. As indicated by both the osteological and archaeological record, one of the sites examined, Svodín, could have been a site of contemporary elites and their family members. Chalcolithic populations revealed differences in cranial shape, being mesocephalic (medium-headed) or brachycephalic (short-headed), whereas both the Neolithic and the EBA populations were dolichocephalic (long-headed). Differences in male and female cranial features suggest a possible mixing of indigenous and incoming populations. Such results may contribute to the ongoing discussion about the ‘foreignness‘ of Chalcolithic Bell Beaker people in the area. Traumatic lesions suggest that males were more physically active than females in all three periods, including violent encounters. Even though violence was recorded in all three periods, especially in the western part of the region, and the intensity and brutality of the assaults appears to increase in the Chalcolithic and culminating in the EBA. In addition, poorer health status of EBA children was recorded, possibly related to more marked social differentiation in the period. In general, poorer health was implied for the prehistoric populations of today’s Slovakia. The results of this study can serve as the basis for future research and contribute to a more comprehensive image of lifestyle and development of prehistoric populations in the study area.

The Izmir Region is located in the heart of the Western Anatolian coastline and forms a natural bridge between the Anatolian mainland and the Western Aegean. The region is connected to Central Anatolia through deep valleys and is linked to the Aegean Sea via many harbor sites along the coast. The architectural features and the other remains (such as pottery, metal objects etc.) found in and around those architectural context can provide the information about the genesis of the urbanization. With reference to the fortifications and bastions may show us that societies in question are concerned with some political problems. This study aims to understand how the scale of architecture changed from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age in the comperative basis of Aegean context particularly in Bakla Tepe and Liman Tepe. On the basis of architectural differences, two distinct community types may be postulated for Early Bronze Age sites in the Aegean. The fortified coastal site of Liman Tepe is an example of a centrally administrated early urban community with a strong economy. Bakla Tepe represents an affluent inland village or small town community interacting with large centers.

This study is a continuation of my previous essay, which performed a catalogue and interpretation of stone cists from the late Neolithic - early Bronze Age. This essay will develop that study through a analysis of the land use during the same period. The material will be analyzed through ArcGIS where five main analysis will be used to study this, watershed, viewshed, hillshade, buffer/density and nearest neighbor. The goal of these analysis will be to create a better view of the landscape and together with the archaeological material create a deeper understanding for the land use during the late Neolithic - early Bronze Age. The archaeological material that will be used consists of stone cists, which were identified in my previous essay, as well as stray finds, namely flint daggers and simple shaft hole axes. The stone cists and their position in the landscape will be studied closer as these are the only stationary monuments in the landscape during this period. These will be compared with the stray finds and ArcGIS analysis with the goal of identifying land use, for example potential settlements, something which is rarely found during this period. / Denna studie är en fortsättning på min föregående uppsats som  utförde en sammanställning och tolkning av hällkistor från Senneolitikum - äldre Bronsålder på Gotland. Denna uppsats utvecklar detta genom en analys av landskapsanvändningen under samma period. Materialet kommer analyseras genom ArcGIS där fem huvudsakliga analyser kommer användas för att studera detta, watershed, viewshed, hillshade, buffer/density samt nearest neighbor. Dessa har som mål att skapa en bättre bild av landskapet och tillsammans med det arkeologiska materialet skapa en förståelse för landskapsanvändningen under Senneolitikum - äldre Bronsålder. Det arkeologiska materialet som kommer användas består av hällkistor som identifierats i föregående uppsats samt lösfynd i form av flintdolkar och enkla skafthålsyxor. Hällkistorna och deras position i landskapet kommer studeras i  närmare då dessa är de ända fasta monumenten från denna period. Dessa kommer sedan jämföras med lösfynden och förhållas till ArcGIS analyserna som utförts med målet att identifiera landskapsanvändning. Utifrån dessa analyser kan eventuella viktiga områden i landskapet identifieras, exempelvis potentiella bosättningar, något som sällan hittas under denna period.

The aim of this study is to describe the changes at the end of the Aeneolithic period and at the beginning of the Bronze Age, on the basis of the analysis of graves with weapons and the possibilities (limits) of identifying the warrior graves in Bohemia. The end of the Aeneolithic is characterized by two cultural complexes, the Corded Ware Culture and the Bell Beaker Culture, on which the Early Bronze civilization evolved, characterized by the Únětice Culture in our context. It is in this transitional period, that graves with specific goods appear increasingly, and we can finally call these as true weapons. Weapons are associated with warfare attributes that, according to the latest theories, played an active role in prehistoric society. The identification of the warfare in archaeological sources is, however, often not without problems. Several types of evidence can be consulted: graves of warriors with specialized weapons, typical fortifications (ramparts), remains of battlefields, iconographic and written sources. In our conditions, the focus is on graves with weapons, due to the lack of other mentioned entities. Keywords: Late Aeneolithic, Early Bronze Age, graves, weapons, tools, symbols

The objective of this research was to determine the environmental and social factors that led to the shift of settlement patterning from agro-pastoral in the late Neolithic to hillort sites at the turn of the Early Bronze Age and why burial mounds (tumuli) were erected further than anticipated from corresponding hillort sites in the Shkodra Plain region in Northern Albania. Geospatial techniques were used to examine 168 tumuli and seven hillort sites. These were mapped to examine visibility, viewshed, slope, and potential prehistoric networks. Based on the landscape visibility GIS results, it was found that hillort sites and tumuli were part of an social landscape that thrived on trade. It was determinable that the shift of the social landscape was related to Northern trade routes and probable changes in paleo-lake levels. This new evidence provides insight to Albanian prehistoric culture and has implications to related studies in the Balkans.

Polished-edge discoidal knives are part of the lithic material culture from the British Isles with an approximate Late Neolithic date. These artefacts are manufactured in three basic shapes: circular to D-shaped, triangular, and broad leaf to lozenge (Clark 1929). The aim of this project was to explore the function of polished-edge discoidal knives. To achieve this aim, the following objectives were completed: Objective 1: Develop a broad understanding of the literature surrounding polished-edge discoidal knives; Objective 2: Develop a database containing all the available information regarding the known knives for study in this project and as a tool to help further research and select archaeological samples for study based on type, condition, find location, and current location; Objective 3: Understand how these tools were used; and Objective 4: Review all data and produce a narrative about polished-edge discoidal knives’ function in Late British Neolithic Society. This project has revealed that these knives were possibility used for activities involving birch bark, clay, or other wood types. This research has also produced a database of knives, a modern distribution map, a revised typology, an archaeological date and possible contexts, and an object itinerary.