Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Many significant cultural transitions, including the beginnings of sedentism, domestication, and farming, are thought to have taken place during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) in southern Jordan. The settlement sites of this period (often referred to as the first villages) are rich in architectural remains, and this evidence is frequently used to support hypotheses on the degree of sedentism and how societies were structured. This research reexamines these issues through the construction, maintenance, destruction and decay of four experimental reconstructions built between 2001 and 2006 at the PPNB site of Beidha. The results of the experiments provide a more intimate understanding of PPNB architecture, including prehistoric construction methods and techniques, maintenance costs, spatial organisation, and post-abandonment events. The results also contributed to the conservation and presentation of early prehistoric sites to the public.

Archaeological records at the Navan site are fragmented and difficult to interpret. This site, in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, features artefacts extending over 4,000 years from the Neolithic period to the Iron Age. This thesis provides a framework for understanding this important material culture. Through an analysis of archaeological theories and specific physical items, links are established among the natural world, culture, and the Navan residents’ understanding of the cosmos. This analysis covers the landscape (e.g. topography), constructed objects (e.g. prehistoric infrastructure such as pools, roads and earthworks), and metaphysical concepts (e.g. sound and time), thus building a holistic picture of how these settlers might have viewed themselves, the physical world around them, and the spiritual world they imagined. While it is not possible to determine definitively these groups’ purposes and motives, the thesis finds clues in the incoherentarchaeological evidence. It explores possible functions for archaeological markers whose significance is not clear. These markers could, for instance, have beenmeans of social separation orceremonial signifiers. Therefore the thesis is both an analysis of a particular site and an investigation into how the archaeological process itself, specifically in a situation of challenging evidence, enables distant worlds to be understood.

No description available.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / This thesis presents data collected during the 2012 and 2013 recording of painted sheep imagery from five painted rock shelters in the northern Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Through studying the micro- and macro-context of these paintings, I try to understand their presence in the rock art here. Paintings of sheep are believed to have been made by San hunter-gatherers and thought to be relatively old. Using multiple strands of evidence from the rock art, the excavated record, ethnographies, and drawing on human-animal theory, I explore when the sheep were painted, whose sheep were painted and for what reason.

PhD, Science Faculty, University of the Witwatersrand, 1998

Elsdon Best�s 1925 work Maori Agriculture has been influential in New Zealand archaeology impacting on the terminology and assumed functions applied to so called �horticultural� implements retrieved in excavations, as well as those in museums and private collections. This thesis critically examines Best�s horticultural tool classification and the decisions he made with regards to tool function. Ethnographic accounts are investigated in an effort to understand how and why Best selected the terms and functions that he did. The literature review reveals anomalies in the conclusions that Best drew and the morphology of the tools that he described, highlighting the lack of order and confusion surrounding horticultural tool function, terminology and morphology, and prompting a much needed reassessment of horticultural implements. A study of artefacts from New Zealand museums was undertaken with the aim of generating two typologies for so called �horticultural� tools. The artefacts are classified to specific types using specified attributes, and following the classification process, are investigated for metric and non-metric variables that are indicative of the tool�s function. Graphical and basic statistical analyses revealed largely unimodal distributions for the metric attributes recorded for each tool type. Non-metric qualities also displayed a uniformity to their occurrence within the individual types. The data for each type is discussed with regards to tool function, combining the results of the attribute analyses with comparable tool morphologies from other Pacific cultures. The distribution of tool types in prehistoric New Zealand is also investigated in an effort to elucidate tool function. This investigation highlights the artefacts as earth-working implements, disestablishing the restricted horticultural context which for so long has been associated with such tools.

Consideration of the degree to which social factors have influenced the development of archaeology has become a recent focus of interest among archaeologists; however little work has been done on determining the relationship of social factors to archaeology in new Zealand. The aim of this thesis is to consider whether archaeologists were influenced by the surrounding New Zealand society between the years 1840 and 1954 and if so, in what manner were they influenced. In particular, consideration is given to how the social background of New Zealand archaeology compared with the social influences of British archaeology compared with the social influence of British archaeology of the time. For the purposes of the study the term archaeologist applies to all those who investigated or recovered in situ archaeological material. Lists of archaeologists of the day were compiled from journals, newspaper articles, and unpublished sources. From these lists the social background of those engaging in archaeology was reconstructed. Developments in archaeology theory and methodology were also examined, not only to determine the manner in which they effected the practise of archaeology, but also to determine the source of those developments, and the reasons for their adoption. The wider social context was also examined to determine the degree to which archaeology reflected certain factors in New Zealand society, not simply in the manner in which archaeology was carried out, but also in the reasons for which research was conducted. This study demonstrates that though the discipline, and in particular the power, was concentrated among urban professionals, the social spread of those engaging in archaeology was wide. This was particularly the case between the turn of the century and the Second World War, when archaeologists with a tertiary background were in a minority. Archaeologists were influenced both from inside and outside the field, the degree of influence being determined by individual factors. As archaeologists were a part of society, so too was society part of archaeological practice. In the manner in which archaeology was conducted the influence of societal attitudes towards women and Maori can be seen.

This thesis is using a framework to analyse the process of transition from foraging to farming in northeast China. Tool complexes analysis is the particular method used to retreive prehistoric economies. Based on the result of these case studies about prehistoric economies in northeast China, this thesis attemp to apply the availability model of transition to farming in northern Europe, proposed by Zvelebil and Rowley-Convy, in the new area northeast China. The result of this research has implicated that the transition to farming in prehistory is the result of the interaction between human societies and environment. among many factors in this interaction, the motivation that prehistoric societies choosing agriculture economy to meet social, political and economic needs would have to be the major one leading to the transition occurred.