This essay will study the cultural landscape in Falbygden during the Neolithic, focusing on the limestone plateau northeast of Mösseberg. The megalithic tombs have since long characterized the landscape and therefore been important to many cultures that have inhabited the area. By constructing the landscape the social actions can be interpreted and therefore a further understanding of why the environment is shaped the way it is. This will be achieved by comparing earlier interpretations of the megalithic landscape with possible settlement locations. Three possible settlements have been located in the landscape using this technique and by applying similar techniques more extensive mapping of the Neolithic settlements can be applied in the area.

Calcium isotope ratios (⁴⁴Ca/⁴²Ca) have shown promise as a milk dietary tracer. Previous studies have focused on bone but, due to homeostatic processes, δ^44/42Ca values are highly variable. This has greatly complicated the identification of mammal milk consumption through bone analysis, resulting in a search for an alternative. This thesis describes controlled studies to assess the effects of milk consumption on δ^44/42Ca values in bulk and sequential samples of dental enamel, using modern samples from Yorkshire, England, the Isle of Hoy, Scotland, and archaeological samples from Abu Hureyra, Syria. The samples from Yorkshire consisted of dental enamel, ewe milk, feed and bone. Dental enamel was sampled from the Hoy sheep. Milk and plants are the greatest contributors of calcium in the mammal diet. Feed and ewe milk samples confirmed that milk has lower δ^44/42Ca values than plants in the diet, and with a common diet between ewes, uniform milk δ^44/42Ca values are produced. Also, there is a significant difference between bulk molar enamel δ^44/42Ca values between males and females, with males having higher values. Additionally, analysis of bulk and sequential samples of Hoy mature sheep molar enamel, although mass fractionation effects were small, produced δ^44/42Ca values with a clear isotopic offset between the enamel likely formed during nursing, weaning and the full conversion to a plant diet. The δ^44/42Ca values, once associated with dental development chronologies, led to the identification of a clear pattern of nursing and weaning in the enamel of the first and second molars of sheep with known dietary and weaning histories. The modern results were used to identify patterns of ancient nursing and weaning. Although evidence was insufficient to establish early weaning of the Abu Hureyra sheep, this research successfully established the potential of this approach for investigating milk production and consumption in the archaeological record.

L’étude du mobilier céramique des peuples de la Préhistoire récente permet aux archéologues de distinguer différents groupes culturels ou cultures matérielles. Ces variétés culturelles reposent sur l’adoption par des groupes humains d’un type particulier de vases qui varie dans le temps et dans l’espace dans les limites d’aires culturelles. Les décors, les éléments de préhension, la morphologie des vases, les techniques de fabrication déterminent ces styles. L’archéologue ou le céramologue perçoit dans l’abondance de caractères ou l’absence de ceux-ci, la marque, le signe, d’un fait culturel. Ces différents critères servent à établir une typologie qui permet d’attribuer une série céramique à un groupe culturel. À travers cette typologie, l’archéologue croit percevoir une intention culturelle. Cependant, un regard porté sur l’ensemble de la céramique du Néolithique affirmé voit, dans la poterie en elle-même, le marqueur d’une nouvelle représentation du fait social et culturel, qui accompagne le nouveau rapport entre l’homme et son environnement à partir du passage à l’économie de production. C’est au travers de la perception de l’identification du vase au corps humain, tel que l’on peut le percevoir dans les sociétés traditionnelles et dans quelques cultures archéologiques, que nous désirons dépasser les limites intrinsèques à l’analyse typologique. Les cultures matérielles sont multiples, séparées, divisées, et leur diversité ne matérialise pas seulement les variétés culturelles. La poterie est avant tout le marqueur d’un nouveau fait culturel qui concerne l’ensemble des cultures néolithiques. Elle est un des vecteurs qui cristallisent l’ancrage du Néolithique et avec lui, une nouvelle perception par l’homme de lui-même, de sa société, de l’univers réel qu’il habite, mais aussi de l’univers spirituel, mythologique, imaginé, symbolisé qui l’habitent. En choisissant comme point de départ les différentes démarches analytiques sur la céramique du Languedoc-Roussillon depuis le Néolithique ancien au Néolithique final, nous voulons considérer la poterie, au-delà de son intérêt matériel, dans son intérêt symbolique et culturel. / This thesis proposes to study the question of the relations between the body and the Neolithic pottery through the case of so-called anthropomorphous vases in the north-western Mediterranean.The first part presents the problematic of this thesis and presents the chronological and geographical framework. We make a brief review of the knowledge of the presence of this type of artefacts and commonly proposed interpretations, and we expose the methods by which we intend to analyze anthropomorphic vases.The second part presents the corpus of vases collected in the catalog (volume 2) by chrono-cultural area. It proposes a typological classification of these pottery and it discusses more particularly the modalities of their emergence in the North-Western Mediterranean, their diffusion or their evolution.The last part questions the choice of pottery as a medium of Neolithic body representation. The creation of a repository of data from ethnology, ethnoarchaeology or narratives allows us to situate our object of study in the field of metaphor and to approach it as a sign. We draw inspiration from theories from semiology and more generally from cultural anthropology in order to get out of the usual accepted archaeological interpretations.The results lead us to propose a definition of anthropomorphic vases and to discuss the phenomenon of the anthropomorphization of vases in the Neolithic context and the effects of agro-pastoral lifestyles on the production of the body's imaginary.

In advancing a critical examination of post-processualism, the thesis has – as its central aim – the repositioning of the Neolithic within contemporary archaeological theory. Whilst acknowledging the insights it brings to an understanding of the period, it is argued that the knowledge it produces is necessarily constrained by the emphasis it accords to the cultural. Thus, in terms of the transition, the symbolic reading of agriculture to construct a metanarrative of Mesolithic continuity is challenged through a consideration of the evidential base and the indications it gives for a corresponding movement at the level of the economy; whilst the limiting effects generated by an interpretative reading of its monuments for an understanding of the social are considered. Underpinning these constraints is the conceptual privileging of the individual consequent upon the post-processual reaction to the totalising frameworks of modernist knowledge and the metanarratives of progress they construct – as exemplified in the economic reading of Childe. In examining the form of this reaction, the wider post-processual transposition of postmodernism within contemporary archaeological theory is also considered. In utilising Giddens’ concept of reflexivity, it is argued that rather than the ‘cultural turn’ itself, it is the inflection of the epistemological frameworks of the Enlightenment with a teleological reading of the past as progress that represents the postmodern within contemporary archaeological theory and it is through this understanding of postmodernism as expressing the capacity that modernity has to be self-aware that the conditions are established for the recovery of the Neolithic as a holistic object.

This thesis examines the character of Middle Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age (3600-1200 BC) funerary and ritual practices in Wales. This was based on the analysis of chronological (radiocarbon determinations and artefactual evidence), contextual (monument types, burial types, deposit types) and osteological (demographic and pyre technology) data from a comprehensive dataset of excavated human bone deposits from funerary and ritual monuments. Funerary rites in the Middle Neolithic (c. 3600-2900 BC) sometimes involved the deposition of single inhumation or cremation burials in inconspicuous pit graves. After a hiatus in the Late Neolithic (c. 2900-2400 BC), formal burials re-appeared in the Chalcolithic (c. 2500-2200 BC) with Beaker burials. However, formal burials remained relatively rare until the Early Bronze Age (c. 2200-1700 BC) when burial mounds, which often contained multiple burials, became the dominant type of funerary monument. Burial rites for this period most commonly involved the cremation of the dead. Whilst adult males were over-represented in inhumations, no age- or gender-based differences were identified in cremation burials. Patterns in grave good associations suggest that perceived age- and-gender-based identities were sometimes expressed through the selection of objects to be placed in the graves. The tradition of cremation burials carried on into the Middle Bonze Age (c. 1700-1200 BC), although formal burials became less common. Circular enclosures (henges, timber circles, stone circles, pit circles), several of which were associated with cremated human bone deposits, represented the most persistent tradition of ritual monuments, with new structures built from the end of the fourth millennium BC to the middle of the second millennium BC in Wales.

The present work describes the results of processing the excavations obtained during the research of habitation at a Stroke-ornamented ware culture in Jaroměř (Náchod county). The inner chronology of the habitation was studied using spatial relation analysis and the study of the ceramic collection. Through the study of the stone tools, the habitation was set within the wider distribution relationships of the region and it was also possible to observe the manufacturing activity in the researched location. With the help of the ceramic remains, three residential phases were identified which correspond with the shift between the older and the younger degree of culture. This chronology also corresponds with the changing building tradition of the houses of the habitation. The existence of an independent manufacturing region was not proved. The present study looks at the form of the pottery at an important time when the Lengyel influence started to permeate from Moravia to Bohemia. Keywords neolithic - eastern Bohemia - Stroke-ornamented ware culture - site - pottery Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)

abstract: The recent emergence of global ‘megafires’ has made it imperative to better understand the role of humans in altering the size, distribution, and seasonality of fires. The dynamic relationship between humans and fire is not a recent phenomenon; rather, fire has deep roots in our biological and cultural evolution. Because of its long-term perspective, archaeology is uniquely positioned to investigate the social and ecological drivers behind anthropogenic fire. However, the field faces challenges in creating solution-oriented research for managing fire in the future. In this dissertation, I originate new methods and approaches to archaeological data that enable us to interpret humans’ long-term influences on fire regimes. I weave together human niche construction theory and ecological resilience, creating connections between archaeology, paleoecology, and fire ecology. Three, stand-alone studies illustrate the usefulness of these methods and theories for charting changes in land-use, fire-regimes, and vegetation communities during the Neolithic Transition (7600 - 3800 cal. BP) in eastern Spain. In the first study (Ch. II), I analyze archaeological survey data using Bayesian methods to extract land-use intensities from mixed surface assemblages from a case study in the Canal de Navarrés. The second study (Ch. III) builds on the archaeological data collected computational model of landscape fire, charcoal dispersion, and deposition to test how multiple models of natural and anthropogenic fire activity contributed to the formation a single sedimentary charcoal dataset from the Canal de Navarrés. Finally, the third study (Ch. IV) incorporates the modeling and data generated in the previous chapters into sampling and analysis of sedimentary charcoal data from alluvial contexts in three study areas throughout eastern Spain. Results indicate that anthropogenic fire played a significant role in the creation of agricultural landscapes during the Neolithic period, but sustained, low-intensity burning after the late Neolithic period maintained the human created niche for millennia beyond the arrival of agro-pastoral land-use. With global fire activity on the rise, it is vital to incorporate perspectives on the origins, development, and maintenance of human-fire relationships to effectively manage fire in today’s coupled social-ecological landscapes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2019

This dissertation research is a bioarchaeological investigation of Late Neolithic through Early Bronze Age (3600-1800 BC) burial populations from the Portuguese Estremadura. In this project macroscopic and isotopic analyses of skeletal and dental materials are used to gather information pertaining to diet, health status, and inter-lifetime mobility patterns for individuals interred at different burials within a small geographic area with the goal of evaluating the level of social differentiation in the region. The archaeological record for the transition between the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in southwestern Portugal demonstrates clear evidence of the rise of a socially-complex, non-state society. During the Early Bronze Age, however, this region underwent a period of social `devolution' which cumulated in widespread settlement abandonment. To date, it is unclear to what extent sociopolitical or environmental factors contributed to this social collapse. This study seeks to expand our knowledge of social differentiation in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age of the Estremadura region of Portugal and provide insight into social structure during the emergence and collapse of early complex societies in Iberia. The results of this study found that there were statistically significant differences in dietary, mobility and demographic patterns between burials that suggest socially distinct populations were interred at different sites. In particular, one burial site, Cova da Moura, diverged significantly from the other sampled burial populations. However, based upon the data presented here, it was not possible to tie these biological markers of differentiation to particular aspects of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age social organization. Therefore, while this study successfully identified differences between burial populations, at this time, it is not possibly to relate these to particular hierarchical structures. It is suggested that aspects of burial practices in the region confound biologically-based investigations of social organization in a similar way that they have impeded researchers' abilities to identify elite versus non-elite individuals through grave goods alone. Nonetheless, despite these obstacles, this work provides strong evidence of population heterogeneity in the region, and has implications for our understanding of the evolution of complex societies in the Iberian Peninsula and elsewhere.

This dissertation research is an archaeological investigation of the burial practices of the Irish Neolithic (4000-2500 BC) and Bronze Age (2500-1100 BC). Burial data from thirty sites are used in order to understand the relationship between the burial treatment of the dead (inhumation vs. cremation), artifact deposition, and faunal deposition with the age and sex of the dead. In order to understand how environmental variability affected the manner in which people constructed their views on identity, the sites were categorized based on two geographic regions, Region A and Region B. Region A refers to sites located in Co. Dublin, Co. Louth, Co. Meath, Co. Kildare, and Co. Wicklow, an area with many sites clustered together on land that was capable of supporting large communities, agricultural surplus, and is geographically located near important long distance trade routes with Britain and continental Europe. Region B refers to the remaining territory of Ireland. The results of the analyses are used to gain information on how burial was used by past populations to reflect social and economic status and how the communal perspective on status changed over time and how the surrounding environment affected the perspective of the people. Previous research on late prehistoric Irish burials has relied on cultural-historical stereotypes of the past to understand the social and economic trends, lumping all data from Ireland as being the same, and even as the same as burial trends in Britain and continental Europe. Therefore, Neolithic Ireland is assumed to have consisted of egalitarian agricultural-based communities, which transitioned into societies with vertical hierarchy dominated by adult males in the Bronze Age because of the rise of metallurgical practices and long-distance trade (Bradley 2007; Waddell 2010). Typically, research interpretations are generated based on only one line of contextual data, rather than taking into consideration the multiple aspects of burial ritual, and environmental variability amongst sites is not considered a factor in socio-economic influences on burial tradition. This study seeks to demonstrate that by using multiple lines of evidence, regional and local differences of burial tradition can be identified which contradict general stereotypes of both the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The results of this study show that when multiple lines of evidence from burials are analyzed, general stereotypes of the manner in which socio-economic identity was manifested in the archaeological record during the Neolithic and Bronze Age cannot be applied to Ireland as a whole. Instead, the manner in which individuals are deposited and preserved in burial ritual is governed by isolated local traditions, rather than large, regional traditions. This is the result of regional variability in the environment, the arability of land, and the geographic positioning of sites near long-distance trade routes. This research demonstrates that large-scale explanations of social and economic changes in late prehistory and previous understandings of the role of burial ritual in socio-economic displays of identity need to be questioned and re-examined using more datasets to ensure a more thorough interpretation of the past.

En Méditerranée occidentale, l’obsidienne a été dès le début du Néolithique une matière première recherchée en raison de sa grande aptitude à la taille. Originaire d’îles de la zone tyrrhénienne (Sardaigne, Pantelleria, Lipari et Palmarola) elle a circulé dans cette région et elle est considérée comme un important marqueur culturel de diverses formes de communication et d'échanges entre les différentes communautés de la Préhistoire récente. En ce qui concerne la Sardaigne, nous disposons aujourd'hui d'une cartographie des dépôts primaires et secondaires de quatre types d’obsidienne du Monte Arci et il est donc possible de mieux comprendre les systèmes d'approvisionnement de cette matière première dans l'Île et dans le secteur nord-tyrrhénien de la Méditerranée occidentale, zone de diffusion majeure de l'obsidienne sarde. En raison de ses propriétés physiques, l'obsidienne est une roche très apte à la taille et qui enregistre de manière optimale les stigmates de taille. L’objectif de la thèse a consisté essentiellement en l’'analyse d'un référentiel expérimental en obsidienne réalisé par différents tailleurs avec différentes techniques (percussion directe, indirecte et pression). Cette étude a permis de reconnaitre les caractères morphométriques et les stigmates techniques, essentiels pour la discrimination des techniques de débitage, surtout quand elles donnent de pièces ambigües, compatibles avec plusieurs techniques. Elle a aussi permis de comprendre les différences avec le débitage sur silex, à partir de données connues dans la littérature. Sur cette base nous avons fait un premier essai de diagnose technique sur une série en obsidienne (sarde) d'un site du Néolithique sarde ayant livré un mobilier très abondant, avec plusieurs chaînes opératoires et techniques mises en œuvre. / In the western Mediterranean, obsidian is a demanded raw-material since the earliest phases of the Neolithic due to its good knappability. Its main sources are located in the tyrrhenian islands (Sardinia, Pantelleria, Lipari, and Palmarola); obsidian goods have been circulating in the region and they are considered a significant cultural marker of different forms of exchange and interaction networks between prehistoric groups. For what concerns Sardinia, nowadays four different types of both primary and secondary obsidian deposits from Monte Arci are known. It is therefore possible to better understand the exploitation system of this raw-material in Sardinia and in the north-tyrrhenian sector of the western Mediterranean, which roughly corresponds to its main area of diffusion. Due to its physical characteristics, obsidian is extremely suitable for knapping and it bears a detailed record of the knapping stigmata. b The heart of this thesis consists of the analysis of an obsidian reference collection made by different knappers with different techniques(direct, indirect percussion, and pressure). As result, it has been possible to identify the morphometric characters and the technical stigmata associated with each one of the considered techniques. This represents an essential information in order to recognize the different techniques of obsidian débitage used in Prehistory, especially because resulting blanks are often characterize by ambiguous traits, compatible with different techniques. In addition, this study has allowed to understand the differences between obsidian and chert knapping, thanks to the integration of the data available from literature. On these basis, a first technological analysis of an archaeological obsidian collection from Sardinia has been carried out, choosing a Neolithic site (Coddu is Abionis, Terralba, Or) characterized by an abundant assemblage and a diversity of chaînes opératoires and techniques.