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Magister Artium - MA / This mini-thesis, ‘Exhumation, Reburial and History Making in South Africa’, is concerned with an analysis of the practices of exhumation and reburial through discussing the case studies of the Iron-Age archaeological site of Mapungubwe, the Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West and the reburials carried out by the Missing Persons Task Team (MPPT) from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), particularly its unsuccessful attempt at exhumations at the Stikland Cemetery, in an attempt to understand how they form part of the production of history. These case studies conceive of the times of the precolonial, slavery and apartheid, and are all linked temporally to an envisaged future through ideas of nation building and nationalism. As narratives produced through these exhumations and reburials, they contribute to the notion of making the post-apartheid by remaking history and reconstituting nation. Each of these case studies are significant as they in some way have been utilized in a manner that is relevant to us in the new democratic South Africa. This mini-thesis aims at rethinking the role of archaeologists, the exhumation and reburial processes, the construction of ethnicity, how the dead are used to construct narratives of struggle against apartheid and in general the implications each of these have on the re-making of history. It also thinks about what the practices of exhumation and reburial mean conceptually and how they relate to the concept of missingness, which I refer to as the process of making absence or invisibility. Thinking about exhumations and reburial in this way has allowed reflection on the purpose of the practices, in terms of who it’s for and how it’s perceived by the stakeholders involved in each case. Through dissecting each of these issues one may be able to trace how the remains to be reburied become missing. Therefore, the question of exhumation and reburial is essential in thinking about what it does for the human remains and how their identity is either shaped or lost. This thesis mainly argues that the remains in each of the case studies go through various phases of missingness and that their reburials and memorialization, or in the case of Stikland the spiritual repatriation, inscribes them further into narratives of the times that they emerged from.

The extensive collection of Iron Age pottery from antiquarian investigations of Atlantic Roundhouse sites in Caithness, Sutherland and the Small Isles (Inner Hebrides) provided an ideal opportunity to address several gaps in the academic understanding of pottery sequences outwith the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides). Until now no work of this kind for Caithness or Sutherland has been conducted, and the material culture of Skye and the Inner Hebrides has been subsumed largely into the broader sequences of their more westerly neighbours. The aim of the thesis is twofold. Firstly, to establish pottery sequences for three sub-regions of Atlantic Scotland; Northern Mainland, Western Mainland and Skye and Small Isles, using both antiquarian material and pottery from recent excavations. This comprises the first five chapters of the thesis. And secondly, within the following three chapters, utilizing two pieces of experimental research and a series of case studies, the author explores the social narrative of the ceramic assemblage, ultimately to better understand technological and cultural aspects of pot making and use.

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine whether there was an elite on Gotland during Roman Iron Age or not. To explain this focus has been put on the roman goods. The contexts in which the roman artifacts are found indicate that they can be tied to what might have been an elite on Gotland during Roman Iron Age. They might also have been used as means of expressing wealth and prestige. Because the roman artifacts found on Gotland most often are drinking utensils they are also associated with drinking rituals. Drinking rituals are thought to have been very important events in which wealth, political influence, and status could have been expressed. Roman artifacts found in graves also indicate that they might have owned by some kind of elite, because they have been placed together with other status objects. The thesis does not exclude other events or phenomena that took place during the Roman Iron Age. The Iron Age society as a whole is also studied; this is meant to give a broader understanding of the people being researched.

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This essay concerns the interpretation of house plans in three-aisled longhouses and hall-buildings, in Scandinavia during Iron Age. Full scale house reconstructions need a better basis of interpretations to understand the patterns of roof supporting post holes in excavated house plans. This has led to the thesis, presented here, that the layout of house plans during Iron Age is based on geometrical proportions. In order to prove this, geometric house plans were applied and compared with excavated house plans in 11different case studies, including the fortification of Fyrkat Denmark. It was found that all house plans in the case studies indicate, that the geometrical proportions 1:2, 1:3 and 2:3 of a given circle must have been used for the basic layout of the roof supporting post holes, using a compass and a straightedge. Strings and stones were used in a field study.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Sydney, 2009. / Title from title screen (viewed October 26, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy to the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Dept. of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts. Includes bliographical references. Also available in print form.

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Master of Philosophy (MPhil) / Typologies, especially of spearheads, have been decried as inadequate by the archaeological community. They have prevented the synthetic study of ancient weapons and obscured cultural contacts, changes in form and distribution, and changes in fighting style. This thesis presents new typologies of spearheads and swords which are not based on aesthetics or the need to communicate a large amount of material succinctly in the limited space of a site report. Rather, these typologies attempt to perceive the functional characteristics of these weapon classes. The thesis surveys a range of sites in Daunia, Basilicata and Southern Campania applying these new typologies to large suites of weapons. From this assessment a number of conclusions have flowed regarding cultural contacts between indigenous Southern Italic groups and with immigrating groups of Villanovan and Greek origin. The assessment reveals the variety of weapon forms in use and tracks changes over time. These changes expose cultural transformations and alterations in fighting styles. The tracking of paraphernalia often associated with weapons in modern scholarship has also revealed some nuances in patterns of association with weapons which were not previously apparent.