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Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios (K-AD; Figure 1) is a Late Bronze Age (LBA) settlement on Cyprus. It is notable for having among the earliest examples of urbanism and monumental architecture on the island along side the sites of, for example, Kition, Alassa, Enkomi, and Maroni (Philokyprou 2011; Fisher et al. in press). The LBA on Cyprus marked the beginning of urban society, economy and architecture in Cyprus (Fisher et al. in press). This study explores the social processes associated with the transition to urbanism represented by the entangled relationship between the architectural creation of social spaces and the use of these spaces as platforms for the creation and negotiation of power and influence (Fisher 2009a, 2009b; Fisher et al. in press). Specifically this study will concentrate on the construction of plaster surfaces, the immobile architecture of these social spaces, as indexes of the social development at K-AD during the LBA. Analysis of pyrogenic lime and gypsum plasters was carried out using high-resolution microscopic methods based on the integration of petrography and soil micromorphology. These techniques are employed to optically examine in-situ and oriented plaster samples in laboratory thin section. Laboratory Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis was applied to loose sediments to obtain spectroscopic data when necessary. Following the findings that lime plaster recipe variation is the result of human choice (Kingery et al. 1988; Love 2011, 2013a) the results of this analysis shows that the LBA architects at K-AD produced different recipes for different utilitarian uses and also that the construction of elite spaces demanded complex recipes that extend beyond utilitarian requirements, which can be classified as more “expensive,” resource-draining procedures (Kingery et al. 1988; Love 2011). Plaster is used at K-AD for both functional purposes and as an active component in societal creation and transformation. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Craft specialization is a core feature of urban life but the process of specialization is not perfectly understood. This thesis seeks to explore the use of lime plaster for constructing surfaces at the Late Bronze Age (LBA) site of Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios (K-AD) on the island of Cyprus. Previous research has revealed a central, monumental complex, among the first of its kind on the island, surrounded by an early city. How did the LBA people create their living environment in this new setting? This thesis has shown, through the analysis of lime plaster features, floors and walls that the LBA inhabitants of K-AD were able to create diverse, specialized surfaces with a specialized lime plaster tradition in a scale and complexity that went beyond structural requirements, suggesting these surfaces were constructed with the explicit intent for creating space imbued with social meaning.

During the first millennium BC, the people of the chalk landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds began carving up their world with monumental linear earthworks. This project explores the meanings of the later prehistoric boundary systems of the Yorkshire Wolds. It writes a biography of the linear earthwork landscapes of the north-central Wolds, using geographic information systems (GIS), original fieldwork and theories of agency and memory. Tracing the construction, use and modification of particular linear earthworks, it examines how these monuments would have related to other features in the landscape, and how they could have exercised agency within networks of interconnected people, animals, objects and other places. Finally, the project attempts to situate these boundary systems within the larger context of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age society in order to understand how the later prehistoric people of East Yorkshire would have experienced their world. Taking a biographical approach to landscape and allowing linear earthworks to become the protagonists of this narrative, the project charts the life histories of the earthworks at Wetwang-Garton Slack and Huggate Dykes and investigates the collective authorship of the wider landscape. To understand the rural, monumental landscapes of the Wolds, we must consider the agency of not only people, but also of animals and of monuments themselves. By focussing on the relationships which bound together linear earthworks and other agents, we can begin to understand the ways in which monumentalised landscapes both reflected and generated the cosmologies of prehistoric communities. / The Appendices A to E are not included online.

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozofická fakulta Ústav pro klasickou archeologii Věra Klontza (Jaklová) Studie k historickým interpretacím pozdní doby bronzové v Egejdě Late Bronze Age in Aegean: Study in Historical Interpretations ABSTRACT OF THESIS Vedoucí práce: Prof. PhDr. Jan Bouzek, DrSc. 2013 Abstract This dissertation deals with the main problems of historical interpretation of Late Bronze Age Aegean prehistory. Each chapter presents what is usually discussed as a special issue in contemporary bibliography. The environment of the region, its development and changes and the main approaches to enviromental studies are characterized in the introductory chapters. The chapter dedicated to the history of research, is of particular importance; "The truth of how archaeologists make discoveries, however, is far from the popular notion of random encounters and chance finds. We must take the time to examine the personalities and events leading up to these discoveries." (MacGillivray 2000, 11). The first issue to be dicussed is that of the absolute chronology of the early phases of the East Mediterranean, in particular the Aegean, Late Bronze Age. The resolution of this problem is crucial if synchronicity of events in individual regions, not only in the Mediterranean basin but also across Europe, is to be...

This thesis addresses the lacuna in the study of Greek terracotta figures and figurines corresponding to the transitional period between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages (1200-700BC). It provides a comprehensive synthesis of all available data, with particular reference to material from recently excavated sites in mainland Greece and its islands (Euboea, the Northern Aegean islands, the Dodecanese and the Cyclades). The study is framed according to the relationship between terracotta <b>figures</b> (those made on the potter's wheel) and <b>figurines</b> (those made by hand). The observation that the technological distinction between these two types is reflected in their different and separate functions has been sustained in scholarship for the past three decades, but only for the Mycenaean period. Handmade figurines and wheelmade figures occurred in different and restricted contexts in the Mycenaean world: the former in settlements, cemeteries and religious locations, and the latter exclusively in religious contexts. It is therefore inferred that they had different socially embedded values or 'meanings'. However, the extent to which such a distinction applies to figures and figurines in the Early Iron Age has hitherto not been explored. Initial evidence indicates that by the 8th century, handmade figurines and wheelmade figures were deposited together at selected sites, suggesting that their inherent socially embedded meanings were the same, and that they represented "different levels of [financial] investment in what is essentially the same category of votive". This thesis therefore determines the levels of co-occurrence of wheelmade figures and figurines, thus identifying how distribution relates to usage. Changes are observed over time and space and between different types of functional contexts, and the meanings of these patterns are investigated. The results of this study provide a chronological and geographical overview of the distribution of figures and figurines, and also indicate that figures and figurines had consistently multivariate relevance in multiple types of contexts. The functional dichotomy of figures and figurines observed for the Mycenaean period cannot be sustained beyond 1200 BC. Moreover, study of the contexts from which the material originates indicates that the significance of secondary deposits of religious nature has been consistently overlooked, and that figures and figurines were used in an active and meaningful sense even during the act of their discard. This type of activity is a distinctive one that can be characterised and defined functionally, geographically, temporally and quantitatively. The socially embedded meaning of figures and figurines was fluid and related to an action being performed; their meaning was not linked exclusively to an aspect of the object itself, and was therefore not static.

This master thesis deals with middle bronze age and late bronze age pottery from site Emporio on Chios island. The aim of the thesis is to review older excavation that was provided by British School at Athens under direction of Sinclair Hood. The focus is set on new sorting of pottery mainly from Areas D and F, description, style analysis and making new Catalogue. Important contribution is new dating of stratigraphic contexts and ceramic material as well as newly published fragments of pottery. In the following chapters author also discusses relations with areas outside Chios based on analogies of ceramic finds.

Le Nouvel Empire marque une rupture dans l’évolution de la vaisselle de luxe en Égypte : de types nouveaux se développent en imitant souvent des modèles étrangers. Apparaît alors un paradoxe : ces mêmes formes, lorsqu’elles sont trouvées hors d’Égypte sont souvent qualifiées d’ « égyptiennes » voire « égyptisantes ». Cette étude vise à comprendre l’origine de ces formes nouvelles, les raisons de leur floraison à partir de Thoutmosis III et leur place dans les échanges culturels de l’Égypte avec ses voisins. Nous avons choisi sept types représentant le mieux ce paradoxe et étudié tous les vases de provenance certaine trouvés aussi bien en Égypte que dans le reste de la Méditerranée orientale. En les comparant aussi bien du point de vue technique que stylistique, nous tentons ici de définir les tendances de chaque région et de rendre à chacune sa part. Une approche sociologique et économique permet également d’examiner avec soin les mécanismes de ces échanges commerciaux et culturels. / In the New Kingdom, a change is visible in the typological evolution of Egyptian luxury vases: new forms appear, imitating foreign vessels. The paradox is that these vases, when discovered outside Egypt, are often regarded as “Egyptian”, or “Egyptianized”. The aim of this work is to understand the origins of these new forms as well as the reasons for their proliferation during the reign of Thumosis III, and to understand their role in cultural exchange between Egypt and it’s neighbours. The author selects seven forms and studies corresponding vases, from all over Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. Comparisons made, both from a technical and a stylistic point of view, help to define cultural trends for each region. A sociological and economical approach has been adopted to scrutinize the mechanisms of trade.

La présente étude examine la période qui s’étend entre l’effondrement du palais de Knossos (fin du XIVe s.) et l’avènement de la cité grecque (milieu du VIIe s.), dans la région qui borde la baie du Mirambello. Elle vise à caractériser le processus de formation de la polis dans cette partie de la Crète orientale. A partir des résultats des fouilles et des prospections conduites dans la région et dans une perspective à la fois archéologique et géographique, des schémas d’implantation de l’occupation sont dégagés. Les principales transformations de la culture matérielle (urbanisme, architecture, mobilier) sont également mises en évidence pour les différentes phases chronologiques observées et sont étudiées de manière thématique d’après les contextes religieux, funéraire, résidentiel et politique. Une synthèse reprend les résultats obtenus en les combinant et souligne les traditions et les innovations qui sous-tendent l’apparition de la cité dans le Mirambello. Cette recherche prend la forme de trois volumes : le premier volume consiste en une exploration archéologique et géographique de la région ; les informations rassemblées sont analysées dans le second volume ; le troisième volume regroupe les cartes régionales produites pour illustrer cette étude. / This study considers the period between the collapse of the Palace of Knossos (end of 14th c. B.C.) and the birth of the Greek city-state (mid 7th c. B.C.) in the region of the Mirabello Bay, in eastern Crete. It aims to define the formation process of the polis in this part of the island. Evaluating results of archaeological surveys and excavations conducted in the region, the study analyzes and interprets patterns of occupation and settlement structure from archaeological and geographical perspectives. Significant changes in material patterns and transformations of material culture are characterized for each chronological phase, following thematic threads of religious, funerary, residential, and political contexts. The results are combined in a new synthesis which emphasizes the main traditions and innovations from which the polis arose in the Mirabello region. The research is presented in three volumes : Volume I gives the detailed results of an archaeological and geographical exploration of the region ; these data are further analysed in Volume II ; maps produced for the study are gathered in Volume III.

Ce travail est consacré au culte rendu aux dieux à Ougarit dans son contexte syrien. Le but est d’avoir recours à toutes les sources archéologiques, iconographiques, archéozoologiques et épigraphiques pour appréhender les cultes qui étaient rendus aux dieux à Ougarit. Pour saisir la spécificité des cultes pratiqués à Ougarit, mais aussi leur ressemblance avec ceux de la même zone culturelle, je me suis proposé d’établir une comparaison avec d’autres cultes, par exemple ceux qui étaient pratiqués dans la région du nord de la Syrie à l’âge du Bronze moyen Alalaḫ, Qatna, Mari, Terqa, Tuttul, Ekalte et à l’âge du Bronze récent comme à Emar. Cela m’a permis, notamment d’étudier les liens entre ces différentes manières de pratiquer le culte. L’importance de cette étude réside dans la confrontation et la nouvelle présentation des différentes sources. Cette étude essaie de faire la lumière sur plusieurs points concernant le culte d’Ougarit, notamment le culte officiel et familial, ainsi que la place qu’il occupait à l’âge du Bronze moyen et récent. / This work is a study of ritual and cult at Ugarit within its broader Syrian context. The aim is to present and analyze a corpus of relevant documents, which derive from a variety of sources, be they archeological, iconographic, epigraphic, or archeozoological, in order better to define, not only which cults were practiced at Ugarit, but also to highlight their similarities with the religious practices documented in neighboring cultural areas, especially in north Syria during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. The comparative data thus derive from Alalakh, Qatna, Mari, Terqa, Tuttul and Ekalte for the Middle Bronze Age and Emar for the Late Bronze Age. Several problems particular to the cult at Ugarit are explored, such as the difference between official (public) and family (private) worship, but these are set against the background of the Middle and Late Bronze Age setting. The importance of the study lies in its comparative approach, casting light on the similarities, despite the obvious differences in worship.

Many archaeologists have been intrigued by how often symbolic houses of varying forms are used on the burialgrounds of the Scandinavian Bronze Age. Some scholars even claim that to deal with the dead did not mean to set them apart from the world of the living during this period. Since several examples show that there seem to be an active connection between the ship-setting and different types of symbolic houses, this study seek to demonstrate and interpret how the ideology behind these symbols vary between three regionally different Swedish areas: Halland, Småland and Gotland. The purpose is to show that the way chosen to shape the symbols materially not only had fundamental impact on the organization of the burialground itself, but also on how the surrounding world came to comprenhend and use them. This study suggests that even though the special shapes of the graves and the gravefield itself can carry meaning, the materialization of the monuments can be interpreted as incorporated in a practice of remembrance in where the individual shaping of the grave most probably formed part of a greater story.