Hillforts in Scotland are smaller than their counterparts in southern Britain and extremely difficult to define as a site category. This is even more true in the western and northern parts of the country traditionally described as Atlantic Scotland, where the plethora of small enclosed sites forms a continuum in terms of size and morphology that cuts across the boundaries of current classifications. Using the recent definition of a hillfort by J.D. Hill as a site type that is not a farmstead, this thesis attempts to analyse enclosed sites in terms of their area enclosed, morphology/architecture and particularly their landscape position to try to identify groups of sites or individual monuments that are these ‘not-farmsteads’. Three case study areas have been chosen for GIS-based analysis. Skye and Kintyre are in Atlantic Scotland. The former is a region where brochs have always been central to interpretations of the Iron Age, but it has a considerable number of larger hilltop enclosures classed as forts, and small, less regular drystone enclosures classed as duns. The forts of Kintyre in Argyll have been more studied, but their social role, as well as their relationship with and distinctiveness from the duns of Kintyre are still unknown. The final case study area is the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, part of Galloway, in Prof. Piggott’s Solway-Clyde province. Generally included with southern Scotland and the Borders in syntheses of Scottish prehistory, it has many aspects to its later prehistoric archaeology that may be considered ‘Atlantic’ in nature, such as small prominent drystone enclosures, promontory forts and sites with complex, traditionally Atlantic architecture. However, there are also hilltop enclosures classed as forts that are much larger than in the other two case study areas. GIS based analyses have been used, and combined with statistical testing to try to identify patterns in the landscape positioning of certain classes or sizes of enclosed site. Sites have been analysed in terms of their distance from the sea, altitude, topographic prominence, visibility in the landscape, and proximity to/visibility of agricultural land. These results have been interpreted to try to refine present site categorisations, and to attempt to identify those sites that are different from merely farmsteads.

Five coastal sites have been studies on the Isle of Skye to investigate Late Devensian and Holocene relative sea level changes. In the field, detailed stratigraphical work, geomorphological mapping and levelling were undertaken and representatives cores were sampled. Detailed pollen and diatom analyses were undertaken in the laboratory and samples were submitted for radiocarbon assay where distinct pollen, diatom or lithostratigraphical changes were recorded. Loss on ignition analysis was also undertaken to ascertain the carbon content of the samples. The investigations have revealed that during the Late Devensian marine transgressions were experienced at two sites in southern Skye. These are thought to relate to readvances of the ice that arrested the isostatic recovery of the land, caused renewed isostatic depression and upon deglaciation, allowed marine waters to penetrate the sites. At Inver Aulavaig the transgression is thought to relate to the Wester Ross Readvance recorded in Wester Ross, Coll and Tiree and at Point of Sleat the transgression is thought to relate the Loch Lomond Readvance recorded extensively in Scotland. Relative sea level at Point of Sleat (southern Skye) then fell below an altitude of 4.13mOD at 10460+-50BP and remained low during the early Holocene until the Main Postglacial Transgression occurred. This transgression is recorded at three of the sites: at Inver Aulavaig (southern Skye) at 8850+-70BP where it had attained an altitude of at least 5.10mOD, at Peinchorran (eastern Skye) where it is thought to have been underway by 7980+-BP and attained an altitude of 4.49mOD and at Talisker Bay (western Skye) at 7790+-100BP where it had attained an altitude of -2.18mOD. At Ardmore Bay (northern Skye) it is thought that the Main Postglacial Transgression did not reach an altitude of 3.34mOD. It is possible that barrier formation at some of the sites accompanied the early states of the Mian Postglacial Transgression. It is thought that regression of the sea occurred between circa 6600 BP and circa 5400 BP and remained low until circa 4200 BP when a later rise in relative sea level took place at Peinchorran attaining a maximum altitude of 4.90mOD. A late Holocene transgression is also recorded at Point of Sleat at between circa 3800 BP and circa 2900 BP where it attained an altitude of greater than 4.13mOD and at Inver Aulavaig after circa 3200 BP where it attained an altitude of between 5.10-6.01mOD. It is unclear whether this episode of high relative sea level represents the diachronous nature of one late Holocene transgression or several fluctuations in relative sea level during the late Holocene. Following the late Holocene transgression, relative sea level fell until the present day. Comparison of the data obtained from Skye with the isobase maps and rheological models suggests that the isobases for the Main Lateglacial Shoreline (Firth et al., 1993) show a good fit in age and altitude but the rheological model of Lambeck (1993b) for 10500 BP requires modification. The isobases for the Main Postglacial Shoreline appear to lie circa 4m too high for the sites studied on Skye and the isobases produced for a late Holocene shoreline appear to be greatly in error (Firth et al., 1993). It is possible that the build up of ice during the Loch Lomond Stadial may have had a greater effect on crustal movements than previously thought and this may account for discrepancies identified in the isobase maps. The study of isolation basins and back-barrier environments has allowed an assessment of their potential in recording relative sea level changes. The use of isolation basins in areas devoid of estuarine sedimentation has been particualrly demonstrated. The vegetation reconstruction undertaken, suggests that variations do occur in coastal locations compared to sites further inland, although these are subtle. The dates obtained for the increase in taxa such as 'Corylus avellana' and 'Alnus' and the recording of anthropogenic indicators on the vegetation, agree with those previously obtained for Skye. The use of pollen analysis in verifying the radiocarbon dates obtained, particualrly for the Late Devensian, has been recognised and, combined with diatom analysis, has provided a comprehensive database from which to reconstruct past relative sea levels.

This thesis focuses on the poetry of place in the works of the two most important figures of modern Scottish Gaelic verse: Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain, 1911-1996) and Derick Thomson (Ruaraidh MacThòmais, 1921-2012). Both poets exhibited a keen interest in poetry of place, although each one approached it from a very different angle: MacLean's poetry is proudly local and audaciously universal at the same time, moving from the Cuillin of Skye to Spain and Russia in the space of one stanza, while Thomson inquires in the ways in which the island environment, in terms of nature, language and religion, shapes the individual psyche, memory and creative abilities, and he is also a significant poet of the city. The opening chapter gives reasons for the choice of these two authors, introduces the structure and method of the thesis, and outlines what is meant by "poetry of place." It also sums up different theoretical approaches to places and discusses important features of Scottish Gaelic poetry of place of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as both poets employed, altered and contradicted certain traditional patterns and motifs. The second chapter provides a context for the subsequent discussion by explaining the basic facts about the linguistic, social and cultural conditions of Gaelic...

L'intervalle Oxfordien supérieur/Kimméridgien inférieur (Jurassique supérieur, ~156 Ma) de la région de Lorraine/Champagne a fait l'objet d'une étude pluridisciplinaire en vue d'améliorer les corrélations entre les provinces boréales et téthysiennes. Les associations de fossiles ainsi que les données géochimiques de l'Est du Bassin parisien révèlent un changement des conditions physico-chimiques de l'eau de la plate-forme lagonaire tropicale (dysoxie, diminution de température). Ces changements vont entraîner la quasi-disparition des organismes et empêcher la production de carbonates. Le refroidissement s'explique localement par le renforcement de courants apportant des eaux boréales fraîches envahissant la plate-forme. Des corrélations entre les dépôts de l'Est et ceux du Sud du Bassin parisien (Berry) ont permis d'améliorer le cadre chronologique de l'Est du Bassin parisien très pauvre en ammonites. La comparaison des cadres séquentiels permet de placer le maximum de régression d'un cycle eustatique de 3ème ordre reconnu et caractérisé par ailleurs (limite des zones à Planula et Platynota). D'autre part, une succession située sur l'Ile de Skye a été proposée en tant que potentiel stratotype pour la limite Oxfordien/Kimméridgien. L'étude de la coupe de Flodigarry avait pour objectif de tenter de comparer cette succession subboréale à des dépôts subméditerranéens à travers différents marqueurs. L'analyse de la matière organique soluble a révélé des biomolécules très bien préservées, parmi les plus vieilles identifiées au monde. Cette thèse apporte de nouveaux éléments paléontologiques, géochimiques et stratigraphiques dans les deux grands royaumes paléobiogéographiques jurassiques. En particulier, l'Est du Bassin de Paris recèle désormais des coupes de références bien documentées pour l'intervalle considéré surtout en matière de foraminifères, d'algues, de brachiopodes, de phytoclastes, de δ18O et δ13C des carbonates biologiques, de géochimie organique. La multiplication de telles observations locales, accompagnées d'une démarche pluridisciplinaire, devrait conduire à corréler avec davantage de fiabilité les provinces boréales et téthysiennes et préciser les causes, à l'échelle globale, de la crise des carbonates à la limite Oxfordien/Kimméridgien.

The figure of the Tibetan Buddhist nun as a female monastic is situated within a matrix of complexities and contradictions that are constituted by textual and doctrinal sources, Tibetan social views on gender and female monasticism, and experiential realities. In order to understand the situation of nuns, one first must understand that monasticism, mainly the order of monks, has been a highly respected and financially supported institution in Tibetan society for centuries. However, because the histories of Tibetan nuns and female renunciants have gone primarily undocumented, their lineages and stories are much more opaque than those of Tibetan monks. Therefore, most of the scholarship on female Buddhist practitioners, with the exception of a few extraordinary yoginis, dates after the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the 1950s. Historically it is believed that there were a few great nunneries that existed centuries ago, but the majority of Tibetan nunneries have been smaller and lacking in the lay support and funding granted to monasteries. Currently, however, the landscape of Tibetan nuns is beginning to shift, as new resources and educational opportunities are beginning to be made available for Tibetan nuns in exile. It is on these nuns and nunneries in exile that this thesis will focus.