La masse de documentation céramique disponible pour les différentes phases de la Protohistoire corse était aussi quantitativement importante que peu étudiée. L’analyse de ces sources (43 collections issues de 35 sites) selon une méthodologie basée sur les rapports de proportion, couplée au réexamen critique des publications et des datations radiocarbone, engendre une vision renouvelée de la structure chrono-culturelle des groupes insulaires entre Bronze final et premier âge du Fer. Pour aboutir, par sériation et périodisation, à un schéma reposant sur une articulation entre des entités matérielles clairement définies, il a notamment fallu se détacher de certains faux problèmes à l’origine d’hypothèses initiales souvent arbitraires ou trop tranchées. Les principaux résultats font apparaître une structuration polygénique complexe des assemblages céramiques, subtil jeu d’équilibre entre tradition, emprunt et innovation en fonction des époques et des contextes, mais qui intègre pleinement la Corse dans les dynamiques tyrrhéniennes et méditerranéennes à l’aube de l’avènement des premières sociétés historiques. / The amount of information available on ceramic ware from the different phases of Corsican protohistory is as quantitatively important as little studied. An analysis of these sources (43 collections from 35 sites) using a methodology based on ratios of proportion, as well as a critical re-examination of publications and radiocarbon dates, brings about a new understanding of the chrono-cultural structure of island groups between the Late Bronze and the Early Iron Ages. After resolving a few of the issues which led to previous arbitrary and incomplete analyses, it has been possible to generate a schema based on clearly defined material elements using seriation and periodisation. The main results show a complex polygenic structure in the ceramic assemblages, a subtle game of balance between tradition, borrowing and innovation in relationship to periods and contexts that plainly integrates Corsica in Tyrrhenian and Mediterranean dynamics at the dawn of the first historic societies.

Les âges du Bronze final et du premier Fer constituent, pour la Champagne, une phase d'expansion des installations humaines. C'est également au Bronze final que se généralise, à l'échelle européenne, l'adoption de nouvelles plantes cultivées, les millets, l'épeautre, l'ers, la féverole et la caméline. L'étude carpologique de 21 sites localisés dans la Plaine de Troyes, le Pays remois et la Bassée, livre des informations sur l'agriculture qui accompagne cette expansion, et sur la façon dont elle intègre les changements observés à l'échelle européenne. Dès le début du Bronze final, une agriculture diversifiée est en place. Elle inclue les nouvelles plantes, qui prennent une part importante aux productions régionales basées sur l'orge vêtue, le millet commun, et les blés vêtus, dont l'épeautre et le «new» glume wheat, blé jusqu'alors inconnu en France. La lentille, l'ers et la caméline jouent un rôle notable, complémentaire à celui des céréales. L'agriculture est stable pendant les 9 siècles étudiés. Les parcelles sont cultivées de manière permanente et plutôt intensive, sans baisse de la fertilité des sols. Une expansion des espaces pâturés est probable au cours du premier âge du Fer, peut-être sous forme de jachères. Les systèmes de culture semblent capables de répondre aux besoins de subsistance et de se perpétuer. Des pratiques sociales de repas collectifs sont attestées. Les différences qui existent entre les productions végétales, selon les secteurs géographiques, peuvent être liées aux contraintes du milieu, ou à certaines affinités culturelles. / Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age are for the Champagne area an expansion phase of human facilities. It is also during Late Bronze age that generalizes, at European level, adoption of new crops, millets, spelt, bitter vetch, field bean and gold of pleasure.The archaeobotanical study of 21 sites located in the plain of Troyes, the area of Reims and the Upper Seine Valley provides information on agriculture, which accompanies this expansion, and how it incorporates the changes observed in Europe. From the beginning of Late Bronze Age, diversified agriculture is in place. It includes the new plants, which take an important part in regional productions based on hulled barley, broomcorn millet, hulled wheats, including spelt and the "new" glume wheat, previously unknown in France. Lens, bitter vetch and go Id of pleasure play a significant role, complementary to that of cereals. Agriculture is stable during the 9 centuries investigated. Plots are cultivated permanently and rather intensively, without loss of soil fertility. An expansion of pasture areas is likely during early Iron Age, perhaps as fallows. Ability to produce surpluses seems low, but production systems are able to meet subsistence needs, and perpetuate. Mobilizing surplus in social practices of collective feasting is also likely. Crops show differences between geographical areas, in part related to the characteristics of the environment, but perhaps also due to some cultural affinities.

KwaGandaganda is an Early Iron Age (EIA) site in the .Mngeni valley (KwaZulu-Nata~ South Africa). Three cultural phases, Msuluzi, Ndondondwane and Ntshekane, dating between AD 620- AD 1030 were identified. The objective was to establish the extent of animal exploitation during the EIA in KwaZulu-Natal by means of faunal analysis, using internationally accepted methods. The collection included 41 006 fragments of which 22.9% were identifiable. A large number of species (68) were identified, including Rattus rattus. The collection yielded the largest quantity of ivory chips ever found on an EIA site in southern Africa, as well as an extensive variety of pathological specimens, mostly from Bos taurus. Several possible divining bones were present in the sample. Herd management, hunting strategies, gathering activities, fishing and trading of animal goods during the EIA were discussed, while the consequences of the unique excavation methods (i.e. the use of bulldozers) were also commented upon. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

The contextual study of the oriental imports and their local imitations discovered in the Early Iron Age cemeteries at Knossos is of great importance, as it reveals the attitude of the Knossian society towards imports coming from the Near East during a period that lasted more than four centuries. Another important part of this study is a coherent analysis of the distribution of the fully published tombs and cemeteries. The main argument of this thesis is that there were different elite groups at Knossos which were in competition with each other and, for this reason, used different clusters of tombs and/or cemeteries. It is argued that the oriental imports and their close copies were used by those different elite groups in order to mark political and ideologies differences. / El estudio contextual de las importaciones orientales y sus imitaciones producidas en Creta, descubiertas en los cementerios de la Edad del Hierro temprana de Cnosós, es de gran importancia porque nos revela cómo la sociedad de Cnosós reaccionó a las importaciones procedentes de Oriente Próximo durante un período que duró más de cuatro siglos. Otra parte importante de este estudio es un análisis coherente de la distribución de las tumbas y los cementerios cuyos datos han sido publicados en su totalidad y su asociación con las importaciones. El argumento principal de esta tesis es que hubo distintos grupos de élite que competían unos con otros y por eso utilizaron tumbas y cementerios distintos. Estos grupos también utilizaron las importaciones orientales y sus imitaciones con el fin de marcar sus diferencias, políticas e ideológicas.

This dissertation investigates how a symmetrical approach to archaeology can be applied to identify the properties and effects of the non-living, abiotic materials. And to reconfigure the relationship between humans and non-human objects, bridging the divide between what has been termed ‘cultural’ and ‘natural’ and thus placed in different ontological realms. This is examined by studying the practices surrounding “boulder graves”, from the Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age (approx. 1000 – 0 BC) in Kättsta, Ärentuna parish in Uppland, Sweden. The boulders tend to be studied from an anthropocentric point of view, in which they are seen primarily as passive objects, interpreted only for what they represent. The objective of this research, however, is to gain new insights into the agency of boulders, and how they contributed to the practices carried out adjacent to them. The dissertation is based on a case study where a thematic analysis is performed, focusing on the properties and characteristics of boulders, their affordances, the distribution of finds and their interrelations, and the effects their relations generated. The results show that the boulders themselves contributed in human-stone relations and were vital in the formation of the grave-like features they became part of. It is argued that a symmetrical, non-anthropocentric approach to these features will broaden our view on materialities in the past, affording ontological as well as ecological implications.

Les recherches archéologiques sur le littoral méridional du Cameroun ont connu un essor depuis le début des années 2000. Les prospections, ont mis en évidence trente-huit sites archéologiques dans la région de Kribi-Campo. L’analyse du matériel issu des fouilles révèle l’existence de trois traditions céramiques régionales et d’un groupe plus local, datés de 1100 BC à AD 1460. Cela correspond à la transition de l’Age de la Pierre à l’Age du Fer Ancien, et à un contexte paléo-environnemental qui varie entre phases sèches et humides. Ses populations avaient un mode de subsistance basé sur la cueillette, la chasse, la pêche et probablement l’agriculture. Sédentaires, elles creusaient des fosses dont certaines ont eu des fonctions rituelles. Au cours de l’Age du Fer Ancien, des structures funéraires ont été identifiées. La disposition particulière des poteries et leur association à de multiples objets en fer semblent indiquer qu’on serait en présence de tombes d’une élite. Cela suggère la présence d’une société hiérarchisée s’étendant au-delà de la région de Kribi-Campo jusqu’en Guinée équatoriale il y a environ 2000 ans./Archaeological research on the southern coast of Cameroon has been rapidly expanding since the beginning of 2000. Recent surveys revealed 38 archaeological sites in the Kribi-Campo region. The analysis of the material extracted from excavations provides three regional ceramic traditions and one local ceramic group, dated between 1100 BC and 1460 AD. This corresponds to the transitional period of the Late Stone Age and Early Iron Age, which from a palaeoenvironmental perspective, was characterized by dry and humid phases. <p>This population lived a sedentary lifestyle, based on hunting, gathering, fishing and probably also on agriculture. They dug out pits, of which some might have had a ritual function.<p> Funerary structures were identified, dating to the Early Iron Age. The specific disposition of pots and their association with different iron objects seem to indicate the presence of elite graves. This hierarchical society might have spread beyond the Kribi-Campo region about 2000 years ago as similar burial sites were found in Equatorial Guinea.<p> / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Artefacts acquire/embody migratory meanings according to contexts of raw material manipulation, use, discard and discourse. First-Millennium Agriculturist ceramics and concomitant private and public significances/use values are placed within aspects of a deep past Stone Age history of space and artefact usage in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Some thought paradigms and cultural contexts are examined as having directly influenced discourse, what artefacts were foregrounded, and in which manner writers of southern African prehistory considered them. Thereafter ceramic artefacts and associated technologies are focussed upon as being intimate to personal/ community lifeways and worldviews. Domestic and ceremonial utilityware, figurines and masks, as well as clay usage in homebuilding and metalworking, and urges to apply a mark to malleable clay, or deliberately alter and/or bury ceramic artefacts; are explored as manifestations of medium and usage well suited to regularly reconfigured meanings . / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

In archaeological research, the province of Uppland has often been viewed as the northern ‘periphery’ of the Nordic Bronze Age region. At the same time, many researchers have also emphasized the distinctive and ‘independent’ regional character of Uppland and northern Mälardalen. Throughout the twentieth century, Late Bronze Age contacts between Uppland and areas to the east – especially Finland, the Baltic countries and Russia – were much discussed and played an important role in the creation of Mälardalen as a distinctive Bronze Age region. This dissertation examines how images of the Late Bronze Age in the Mälardalen region, more specifically Uppland, have been formed from the late nineteenth century until today, and how views on eastern contacts have affected interpretations of Bronze Age Uppland. The study consists of three parts: 1) A critical discussion on political dimensions of archaeology and archaeological concepts of contact, interaction, similarity and difference, with a special focus on Bronze Age research. 2) A historical examination of representations of the Late Bronze Age in Mälardalen and Uppland, including a discussion about contacts with northern Sweden and a case study of Broby, a Late Bronze Age site near Uppsala. 3) An analysis of debates on contacts between Mälardalen and areas further to the east, through case studies of bronze axes, so-called Mälar celts and Ananino celts, ceramics and inhumation burials. In the analysis, special focus is placed on the Volga-Kama region in Russia and archaeological research in Russia and the Soviet Union. The study shows that discussions on contacts and interaction between ‘East’ and ‘West’ have, in many ways, been affected by the changing political situation during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Knowledge about archaeological research in Russia and the Soviet Union has been very limited among archaeologists in Sweden. In order to further investigate the character and importance of eastern contacts during the Late Bronze Age, more collaboration and exchange between researchers in the different countries is needed. Furthermore, in order to better understand eastern contacts, it is also necessary to investigate in greater depth the relations between Mälardalen and northern Sweden.

Artefacts acquire/embody migratory meanings according to contexts of raw material manipulation, use, discard and discourse. First-Millennium Agriculturist ceramics and concomitant private and public significances/use values are placed within aspects of a deep past Stone Age history of space and artefact usage in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Some thought paradigms and cultural contexts are examined as having directly influenced discourse, what artefacts were foregrounded, and in which manner writers of southern African prehistory considered them. Thereafter ceramic artefacts and associated technologies are focussed upon as being intimate to personal/ community lifeways and worldviews. Domestic and ceremonial utilityware, figurines and masks, as well as clay usage in homebuilding and metalworking, and urges to apply a mark to malleable clay, or deliberately alter and/or bury ceramic artefacts; are explored as manifestations of medium and usage well suited to regularly reconfigured meanings . / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

English, Afrikaans and Zulu summaries / While there is increasing interest in the effect of landscape on ancient imagination, less attention has been paid to the impact of restless karst hydrology on ancient beliefs. By identifying shared themes, this study compares and contrasts the way Hittites and Aegean people in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages reshaped peripheral karst landscapes into physical and imagined transitional zones. Karst geology underpins much of the Aegean and Anatolian landscape, allowing subterranean zones to be visible and accessible above ground via caves, springs, sinking streams, sinkholes and other unusual natural formations. In both cultures, certain dynamic landscapes were considered to be sacred porous points where deities, daemons, heroes and mortals could transit between cosmic realms. Evidence suggests that Hittites and Aegean people interpreted dramatic karst landscapes as liminal thresholds and spaces situated between the world of humans and the world of deities. Part One investigates physical zones of transition via the karst ecosystems of rural sanctuaries. Part Two considers the creative interpretation in myth and iconography of karst phenomena into metaphysical zones of transition. The examples reveal the way in which Hittites and Aegean people built their concept of the sacred on the extraordinary characteristics of karst geology. Numinous karst landscapes provided validity and a familiar reference point for the creation of imagined worlds where mortal and divine could connect. / Vandag is daar toenemende belangstelling in die effek van die landskap op die verbeelding van die mensdom in die oudheid - maar minder aandag word bestee aan die impak van die rustelose karst landskap op die mens se gelowigheid in die oudheid. Deur die identifisering van sekere gemene temas, vergelyk hierdie verhandeling die manier waarop die Hetiete en die Egeïese volkere in die Laat Brons- en vroeë Ystertydperke die omliggende karstlandskap herskep het in fisiese en denkbeeldige oorgangszones. Die Egeïese en Anatoliese landskap bestaan grotendeels uit karst geologie, met tot gevolg dat ondergrondse zones bo die grond sigbaar en toeganklik is in die vorm van grotte, bronne, sinkgate en ander uitsonderlike natuurlike formasies. In beide bogenoemde kulture is sekere landskapstonele beskou as heilige en poreuse punte waar gode, demone, helde en sterwelinge tussen die kosmiese zones kon beweeg. Die getuienis van die tyd suggereer dat die Hetiete en die Egeïese volkere die dramatiese karst landskappe as grense of drempels tussen hulle wêreld en dié van die gode beskou het. Deel Een ondersoek die fisiese oorgangszones deur te kyk na die karst ecostelsels waarin plattelandse heiligdomme hulle bevind het. Deel Twee beskou die kreatiewe gebruik van karst verskynsels as voorstellings van metafisiese oorgangszones in die gekrewe bronne en ikonografie. Die geselekteerde voorbeelde dui aan die manier waarop die Hetiete en Egeïese volke hulle konsepte van heiligdom gebaseer het op die buitengewone verskynsels van karst geologie. Numineuse karst landskappe het hulle idees gestaaf en ‘n bekende verwysingspunt uitgemaak waar die menslike en die goddelike met mekaar in kontak kon kom. / Ngenkathi intshisekelo ekhulayo yethonya lokwakheka komhlaba emcabangweni wasendulo, kunakwe kancane umthelela we-karst hydrology engenazinkolelo ezinkolelweni zasendulo. Ngokukhomba izingqikithi okwabelwana ngazo, lo mqondo uqhathanisa futhi uqhathanise indlela amaHeti nabantu base-Aegean kweLate Bronze kanye ne-Early Iron Ages abuye abuye abumbe kabusha imigwaqo ye-karst yomngcele ibe yizingxenye zesikhashana zomzimba nezicatshangwe. I-Karst geology isekela kakhulu indawo yezwe i-Aegean ne-Anatolian evumela ukuthi izindawo ezingaphansi komhlaba zibonakale futhi zifinyeleleke ngaphezu komhlaba ngemigede, iziphethu, imifudlana ecwilayo, imigodi yokushona nokunye ukwakheka okungokwemvelo okungajwayelekile. Kuwo womabili amasiko izindawo ezithile eziguqukayo zazithathwa njengezindawo ezingcwele zokungena lapho onkulunkulu, amademoni, amaqhawe nabantu abafayo bengadlula phakathi kwezindawo zomhlaba. Ubufakazi bukhombisa ukuthi amaHeti nabantu base-Aegean bahumusha imidwebo emangazayo yekarst njengemikhawulo yemikhawulo nezikhala eziphakathi komhlaba wabantu nezwe lonkulunkulu. Ingxenye yokuqala iphenya izindawo eziguqukayo zomzimba ngokusebenzisa imvelo ye-karst yezindawo ezingcwele zasemakhaya. Ingxenye Yesibili ibheka ukutolikwa kokudala kunganekwane nakwizithonjana zezinto ze-karst kube izingxenye eziguqukayo zenguquko. Izibonelo ziveza indlela abantu abangamaHeti nabantu base- Aegean abawakha ngayo umqondo wabo ongcwele ngezimpawu ezingavamile ze-karst geology. Amathafa amahle we-karst ahlinzeka ngokusebenza kanye nephuzu elijwayelekile lesethenjwa lokwakhiwa kwamazwe acatshangelwe lapho abantu abafayo nabaphezulu bangaxhuma khona. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M. A. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)