The subject of this thesis is the animal bones deriving from foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and dogs (Canis familiaris) found in the Pitted Ware Culture site of Ajvide, located in the Eksta parish on Gotland, Sweden. The multiple excavations of this site have uncovered large amounts of osteological material, of which animal bones make up about 2500kg. The aim of this case study is to unveil the purpose and function of foxes on Ajvide, while also comparing them with the previously known dogs. Additionally, the relation between man and fox is also a point of interpretation. The osteological analysis has determined foxes and dogs are distributed decently evenly, the dog being a bit more common. The spatial analysis determined that both fox- and dog bones were most common in the activity areas called “black areas”. The analysis has determined that the foxes skulked around the locale, scavenging for slaughter waste from the human slaughter of seals and fish. It has also been theorized how the foxes of Ajvide did not possess a ritualistic significance to the peoples of Ajvide.

On the Island of Gotland, there is a phenomenon called grinding grooves, Sw. slipskåror. They occur in bedrock and boulders. About 3600 are known on the island today and having a length of less than half a meter to over one meter. Their purpose was unknown to the scientific community as well as their age. The directions of some 1250 Gotlandic grinding grooves, measured by the author shows there is a correlation to astronomical orientations. An archaeological excavation carried out by the author at a stone with grinding grooves gave some crucial results. The grinding groove phenomenon occurs in some other places in the world as well. In South-West of Sweden, there are quite many in a few places. They are, however shorter and have another appearance because they are more curvature than the Gotlandic ones. Their purpose and age are unknown as well. In France, there are many places with grinding grooves, Fr. polissoirs. Their appearance is more similar to the Gotlandic ones than those in the Swedish mainland. They are supposed to be Neolithic.  In Africa and Australia, there are places with different kinds of carvings in stones. Some resemble those mentioned above, more or less. The difference between grinding grooves and other phenomena is floating.  They are sometimes associated with the circular indentations called cup marks. There are different explanations, and some are supposed to be marks from creating stone tools, while the cult is the explanation to others.

The thesis deals with the change from the circular to a rectangular building during the Pre- Pottery Neolithic B period (PPNB) in the Levant and researches the possible influence of environmental conditions on this transition. The observed area comprises variable regions from northern Syria to central Jordan. Sites for the analysis were selected according to architectural and chronological criteria. The chosen chronological scope is delimited by final phases of late Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10 000-9500 BP) and by middle PPNB (9200-8500 BP) periods, with the early PPNB period as a key one, considered as a period of the commencement of rectangular buildings. Because of the high architectural variability across the northern and the southern Levant, besides the chronological scope also the architectural criteria must be extended. Therefore, circular, and rectangular building shapes were classified too. A database of Levantine sites was compiled, which enabled to compare distinct development of the ground plan within a diverse environment of the arid, steppe, and Mediterranean territories and revealed a relatively broad time scope of the change. In the process of evaluation, the main attention was paid to the variable environmental conditions of the northern and southern Levant: the individual...

The target of my study is elaborating one part of an archaeological excavation special one component from polyculture settlement in cadastre of Cerekvice nad Loučnou (district Svitavy). From great collection of finds and objects I choose for my paper all that was closed with Linear Pottery culture. The base of the study is some evaluation of all movable and immovable finds discovered on the locality. At first, the study is bringing the catalogues of pottery, stone industry and at last but not least their relations with objects from neolithic period of settlement. Gain pieces of knowledge were evaluated in the context of linear pottery culture from whole Bohemia. Key words: Cerekvice nad Loučnou, neolithic, settlement, linear pottery culture.

Over 22,000 sherds of pottery were recovered during the excavation of the small islet of Eilean Dòmhnuill in North Uist in the late 1980s. Analysis of the assemblage has demonstrated that all of the main vessel forms and decorative motifs recognised at the site were already in place when settlement began in the earlier 4th millennium BC and continued to be deposited at the site until its abandonment over 800 years later. Statistically significant stylistic variation is limited to slow drifts in the relative proportions of certain rim forms. Across the Outer Hebrides, decorative elaboration and the presence of large numbers of distinctive vessel forms would appear to mark out certain assemblages seemingly associated with communal gathering and feasting events at key locales within which a distinctive Hebridean Neolithic identity was forged. Throughout, this study takes a relational approach to the issue of variation in material culture, viewing all archaeological entities as dynamic assemblages that themselves form attributes of higher-level assemblages. It is argued that the various constraints and affordances that arise within such assemblages constitute significant structuring principles that give rise to commonly held expectations and dispositions, resulting in the kind of constrained temporal and spatial variation that we observe in the archaeological record and which in turn gives rise to the concept of the archaeological culture. / Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Bradford / Erratum: Vol. 1: 196 and Vol. II: xii and 383 It should be noted that the Unstan-type bowl recorded as being from Loch Mor is actually from Loch Arnish (Chris Murray pers. comm.). The appendices including 'An Doirlinn Report and Illustrations' and 'St Kilda Report and Illustrations' are not available online due to copyright.

Understanding fuel use is important in researching ancient communities. This project developed methods to identify archaeological fuel from midden, hearth, and ash samples using comparison to modern analogues. Modern analogue fuels were ashed at 2000C, 4000C, and 9000C then analysed with a suite of methods, the results were then used to inform the development of an approach for the identification of archaeological fuels. These methods were tested using samples from Ness of Brodgar, Knowe of Swandro, and Smerquoy/Muckquoy in Orkney. Magnetic susceptibility, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, pH and Munsell colour assignment were chosen based upon previous archaeological, biofuel, and soil pollution research. The methodologies were refined with the analysis of ash from fuels including peat, seaweed, driftwood, willow, hazel, heather, grasses, cow dung, sheep dung, and bone. Modern analogue fuels at increasing temperatures showed an intensification in magnetism and alkalinity, and an alteration to mineral components during the chemical reaction of combustion that is indicative of fuel type and temperature. Principal components analysis confirmed matches between archaeological samples and modern ash, indicating a strong relationship between peat fuels and the archaeological samples. A correlation is also demonstrated between some of the archaeological samples and sheep dung, driftwood, willow, and animal bone. It is evident that each archaeological site has unique patterns of both fuel type and temperature. This shows that in the absence of abundant traditional wood fuel resources, the occupants of these sites used a combination of alternative fuels.

The Late Neolithic (defined here as the LN I of Sampson 1993 and Coleman 1992) is both the culmination and the turning point of Greek Neolithic culture from the preceding phases. It lasts some 1,000 years, from approximately 5,300 to 4,300 B.C. The ceramic repertoire of the Late Neolithic period in Greece is a tremendously diverse body of material. Alongside this diversity, other aspects of the ceramic assemblage, such as Matt-painted and Black-burnished pottery, share broad similarities throughout regions, constituting a "koine." The commonalities, however, are most apparent during the earlier part of the Late Neolithic (LN Ia); in the later phase (LN Ib) phase, more regional variations proliferate than before. In the Late Neolithic, all categories of pottery--monochrome, decorated, and undecorated--are at their technological and stylistic acme in comparison with earlier periods. While some of the pottery types demonstrate unbroken continuity and development from the preceding Early and Middle Neolithic phases, new specialized shapes and painting techniques are embraced. For the first time in the Neolithic, shapes appear that are typically thought of by archaeologists as being for food processing (strainers and "cheese-pots"), cooking (tripod cooking pots and baking pans), and storing (pithoi). More recent research, however, has demonstrated that these "utilitarian" vessels were more often than not used for purposes other than their hypothesized function. These new "utilitarian" vessels were to dominate the next and last phase of the Neolithic, the Final Neolithic (also called the Chalcolithic, Eneolithic, or LN II) when painted pottery disappears from most Greek assemblages just before the beginning of the Bronze Age. During the past two decades, there has been much research into Late Neolithic Greece, particularly in Northern Greece (Macedonia). This dissertation incorporates the most up-to-date information from these recent excavations with the older material from sites in Thessaly, Central Greece, and Southern Greece. Since this study draws solely upon published material, both old and new, there are certain limitations to the type of analysis that can be performed. The approach, then, is more of an art-historical and historiographical overview than a rigorous archaeological analysis. It provides an overview of the major classes of pottery (decorated, monochrome, and undecorated) and their primary shapes, motifs, and technological aspects. While it emphasizes commonalities, regional and chronological variations are also highlighted. The technological means of production of vessels, their use, circulation, and deposition are also considered. The structure of this paper is that each pottery chapter is devoted to a broad class (such as Matt-painted), which is broadly defined and then more closely examined at the regional level for chronological and stylistic variations. Likewise, a sub-section then discusses the technology of a particular class and its regional and or chronological similarities and differences. When necessary, outdated scholarship is addressed and rectified. / Art History

This thesis examines the practice of hunting within the Neolithic community of Çatalhöyük by focusing on its stone projectile points. Wild faunal remains indicate that hunting remained in practice, even though domesticated animals and plants comprised the staple diet of the Neolithic people of Çatalhöyük. Hunting and the “wild” are venerated in the site's iconography (wall paintings, wild bull skull mural installations, zoomorphic figurines), while obsidian projectile points—the dominant hunting weapons— were carefully executed artifacts that seem to have served more than one purpose. In studying the projectile points I consider the role of hunting at Çatalhöyük and its significance in shaping personal and communal identities. By employing an attribute analysis I examined the projectiles’ deposition in varied contexts (caches, burials, building infills, middens etc). Differences in use-wear traces as well as in technological and morphological traits suggest that the Çatalhöyük point assemblage consists of two groups that were used and treated in very distinct ways. The first group comprises projectile weapons that were used in hunting, exhibiting clear signs of actual use; whereas the second group consists of bifaces that were in all likelihood reserved for ceremonial purposes given their pristine condition and special deposition. This thesis argues that hunting was not merely an alternate subsistence strategy but an arena where symbolic expression and social identities could be performed and negotiated. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis researches the role of hunting in one of the earliest agricultural societies with livestock, Çatalhöyük in Turkey (7th-6th millennium cal BCE). For this purpose I studied the stone tips of projectile weapons, i.e. arrows and spears. The results of this work show that apart from the actual hunting weapons, the people of Çatalhöyük also had weapons reserved for ceremonial purposes. Indeed other evidence also shows that hunting and the “wild” was revered at the site: wall paintings, wall decorations with wild animal skulls, large feasting events, and animal figurines. In this thesis I argue that hunting was not only a strategy for the farmers of Çatalhöyük to acquire extra food resources but it also played a significant role in their symbolic and religious life, which is why this tradition persisted even after the domestication of animals.

No / Until recently, osteological studies into ancient diet and health have primarily focused upon human remains. As a result, these areas of research are still in their infancy in the field zoo-archaeology. Animals have paid a heavy price for many major human advances, such as those in agriculture and transport. This use (and often abuse) of animals has left many tell-tale signs in their teeth and bones. Along with the many advantages in animal exploitation have also come major problems for humans. Thus, infectious diseases passed from animals to humans must have long played a significant evolutionary role in the development of society. The zooarchaeological record could provide an extremely important temporal framework for exploring and understanding past and current issues of human health and animal welfare. This volume provides one of the first contributions to the field, and may stimulate many more.

No / This volume represents the publication of a highly successful conference held in 2003 to celebrate the contribution to Neolithic and Early Bronze Age studies of one of archaeology's finest synthesisers, Professor Stuart Piggott. The title is a reference to his famous work, Ancient Europe from the beginnings of agriculture to Classical Antiquity, itself a publication of his Society of Antiquaries of Scotland's Rhind Lectures of 1962. The scope of the volume spans the three crucial millennia, from the beginning of the fourth to the mid second, that saw major impacts on the area we now call Scotland. There was transformation of the landscape through the introduction and development of farming, the creation of many striking monuments and the spread of important ideas and technologies, of which metalworking, particularly in Aberdeenshire, was one of the most significant. The contributions cover major advances in research in the period which demonstrate the interplay of the key factors of climate, culture, and resources, where the theme of exchange of information, objects and materials played a vital role. Individual chapters range from chambered tombs to climate change, from dietary choices to faience beads, from timber enclosures to bronze hoards. Together these present a valuable and up-to-the-minute overview of Scotland in ancient Europe and a fine tribute to a past-master of the subject.