The first chapter is a broad review of the recent history of Chinese porcelain from the Ming period to the present day. It includes remarks on the ceramics town of Jingdezhen and on aspects of materials, construction techniques, glazing and enamelling as well as a brief summary of the types of wares. The second chapter is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the formation of the Tatham Art Gallery and the Whitwell Collection. The second part focuses, firstly, on the blue and white porcelain, secondly, on the enamelled porcelain. The pieces are individually physically examined and catalogued under these headings: General description, rim, foot ring, construction, iconography and motifs, glazes, marks and date. The last chapter compares the blue and white pieces, the enamelled pieces and both pieces. This chapter suggests the qualities and special attributes of the wares such as brush marks. / Thesis (M.A.F.A)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

Structural and petrophysical analysis have been conducted within the Melechov massif with focus on structures controlling the porosity, permeability and thermal conductivity of the rock. The structure of the massif has been constrained based on extensive dataset including AMS and field structural measurements of ductile and brittle structures. The fracture system of the massif has been described by four sets of fractures. The measured petrophysical data have been used to characterize the effect of fracturing and alteration on pore space geometry and in turn on permeability, thermal conductivity and elastic properties of the studied granite. Distinct petrophysical properties have been identified for pristine granite, for fractured fresh granite as well as for fractured granite altered by Fe-oxide, chlorite and clay minerals. A detailed microstructural study combined with multidirectional P-wave velocity measurements at high confining pressure and with AMS analysis has been conducted on a schlieren bearing sample of Lipnice granite. The granite VP anisotropy at low confining pressure was controlled by intergranular cracks interconnecting schlieren-subparallel cleavage cracks in micas and feldspars and by exfoliation fracture-subparallel intra- or trans-granular cracks in cleavage-free quartz. Major closing of the crack porosity linked to the schlieren granite below depth of 500 m has been interpreted in terms of crack compliance reflected by rapid increase in VP with confining pressure.

Investigating Neolithic pottery and vessel use could elucidate the duality between the farming Funnel Beaker Culture and the hunter-gathering Pitted Ware Culture during the Neolithic. The two archaeological groups differ on several accounts that are of great importance when interpreting past societies. However, it is the suggested differential subsistence economies that are of specific interest for this particular investigation. A comparative study based on the absorbed fatty acids in the ceramic material from two different Neolithic sites addresses the food cultures of the farming subsistence and the contrasting, contemporary hunter-gatherer society and the differences in resource-use. The investigation argues that food acts as an active social binder, and stress the importance of incorporating this aspect when discussing past cultures. The results of the analyses display difference in vessel use between the two sites as well as an intra-site difference at Korsnäs. It is argued that these differences are indicative of deviating food-cultures and spatial organisation at Korsnäs respectively. These results are combined with the previously conducted osteological analyses and stable isotopic analyses an approach that contribute to a more dynamic understanding of the Neolithic food cultures than what has been available before. Investigating Neolithic pottery and vessel use could elucidate the duality between the farming Funnel Beaker Culture and the hunter-gathering Pitted Ware Culture during the Neolithic. The two archaeological groups differ on several accounts that are of great importance when interpreting past societies. However, it is the suggested differential subsistence economies that are of specific interest for this particular investigation. A comparative study based on the absorbed fatty acids in the ceramic material from two different Neolithic sites addresses the food cultures of the farming subsistence and the contrasting, contemporary hunter-gatherer society and the differences in resource-use. The investigation argues that food acts as an active social binder, and stress the importance of incorporating this aspect when discussing past cultures. The results of the analyses display difference in vessel use between the two sites as well as an intra-site difference at Korsnäs. It is argued that these differences are indicative of deviating food-cultures and spatial organisation at Korsnäs respectively. These results are combined with the previously conducted osteological analyses and stable isotopic analyses an approach that contribute to a more dynamic understanding of the Neolithic food cultures than what has been available before.

No description available.

As humans we function with a biological side and a psychological side. Both of these sides have their needs. We need to put food in our stomach to stop feeling hungry and we need to give things meaning. In a Human Behavioral Archaeological perspective, which focuses a lot on the economical aspect of the animal and the human, the animal was killed for food. But, how was the animal perceived in a cultural perspective, what was the meaning of this animal? This is the question that will have its answer in this thesis. The animal handling of the Pitted Ware culture  will be analyzed from an animistic point of view - meaning, that human, animals and object can have a soul or a personality. This makes the world seem more fluent. The sharp lines between culture and nature, life and death, human and animal get wiped out and we see a world view the modern Western human is not used to. As much as the animal was a prey, it also was a being with a purpose in the Pitted Ware culture. On the Pitted Ware sites at Jettböle on the Aland Island and at Ajvide on Gotland, the seal was the most prominent animal in both the economic and cultural sphere. The clay figurines of Jettböle show some sort of worship of the seal. Among many of the anatomical parts of the animal and human body, the head seems to be of most importance. Even differences within the same culture appear. At Ajvide, there is a clear burial tradition of the deceased humans, whereas at Jettböle, there is not. And as much as the seal is of dominance at Ajvide, the swine comes in at a close second, whereas at Jettböle, there is almost no swine at all.

In this paper, I analyze body position and orientation based on material from nine grave fields belonging to the Pitted ware culture (3300-2400 BC) on Gotland, Sweden. The archeological sites consist of Ajvide, Fridtorp, Grausne, Gullrum, Hemmor, Ire, Visby, Västerbjers and Västerbys. The aim of the thesis is to generate information, through the use of Correspondence Analysis, about the individuals and similarities and differences in an attempt to discern possible structures in ritual practice. The subject of the thesis is discussed with a focus on ritual based on Pierre Bourdieu's (1977) theories relating to practice and habitus. The analysis shows that specific body positions were preferred, which expressed minor variations between the archaeological sites. At the same time, it was possible to discern specific practices that were more frequent in certain areas. The dead were most often arranged either in a supine position or on their sides with knees straight or flexed, in a crouched position. The placement of the body in flexed position expressed a distinct differentiation linked to the degree of contraction of the knee- and hip joint, which show that there existed guidelines or standards in the practice of body position. The result also indicated age and gender differentiations expressed through skeletal position and orientation, which were expressed differently within some of the populations. The study has identified both regional and local patterns in ritual practice in relation to body position and orientation. Possible interpretations relating to similarities and differences in the material are further discussed in the thesis in order to identify a ritual context.

Studies in zoo-archaeological Neolithic contexts is the study of early animal domestication in relation to humans transitioning into a more sedentary species. Research and documentation are vital for reconstructing the mechanisms behind the threshold event. In this thesis, teeth of Suidae have been documented, analysed and compared osteologically and interpreted cross-culturally. In addition, aDNA, isotope, coat colour and physical mammal size affecting factor studies are presented to contextualise this thesis. Primary osteological methods are Mandibular Wear Stage (MWS), Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH) recordings and lower jaw third molar (M3) length measurement. These methods can detect biometric domestication markers. The analysed Suidae teeth are from the Middle Neolithic site of Ajvide, Gotland, Sweden. A collection of modern wild boar act as Control sample. These teeth are compared primarily with known domestic pig teeth sample statistics from the British Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. Results indicate that the Middle Neolithic Pitted Ware culture (PWC) on Gotland hunted during winter and kept limited numbers of captive wild boars as totemic animals (pets) possibly bound to land and ancestry. However, an exact reconstruction of the PWC pig pet keeping practices are uncertain due to human-pig relationships being highly dynamic. Intensified pig hunting, not pet keeping should be considered early domestication. Domestication carries with it detectable biometric markers, which seem to be rare in the Neolithic. The cross-cultural comparisons on traditional pig ‘low-intensity husbandry’ can attest to a human-pig relationship of hunter-gatherers keeping captive wild animals. The pig was not a staple food for the PWC and thus not intensively hunted, rather pigs were rare ritualistic commodities and likely highly praised. Perpetuating this human-pig relationship could have been maintained by PWC ‘big men’ that engaged in socio-political lavish giveaways at festivities and funerals, thus ‘hogging wealth’, but never domesticated the pig. / Studier i neolitiska zoo-arkeologiska sammanhang är undersökningar av tidig domesticering av djur i förhållande till mänsklighetens övergång till en mer stillasittande art. Forskning och dokumentation är avgörande för att rekonstruera mekanismerna bakom övergången. I denna uppsats har svintänder dokumenterats, analyserats och jämförts osteologiskt och tolkats tvärkulturellt. Studier i aDNA, isotop, pälsfärg och fysiska storleksfaktorer hos däggdjur presenteras också för att kontextualisera denna uppsats. Primära osteologiska metoder är tandslitage i underkäke (MWS), linjär emaljhypoplasi (LEH) och underkäkens tredje molar (M3) mätningar. Dessa metoder kan finna biometriska domesticeringsmarkörer. De analyserade svintänderna kommer ifrån den mellanneolitiska lokalen Ajvide, Eksta socken, Gotland. En samling moderna vildsvin agerar kontrollmaterial. Dessa tänder jämförs i första hand med kända domesticerade stenåldersvin från den Brittiska senneolitiska lokalen Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, Storbritannien. Resultaten indikerar på att den mellanneolitiska gropkeramiska kulturen (GRK), jagade på Gotland under vinterhalvåret och tog tillfånga ett begränsat antal svin som husdjur (totemdjur). Troligen togs svin tillfånga av olika ’hus’ till följd av att svinet var bundet till land och förfäder. En exakt rekonstruktion av GRKs svinhållningspraktik är dock osäkert på grund av att människo-svin relationer är dynamiska. Intensifierad svinjakt, inte tillfångatagandet av enstaka djur bör betraktas som tidig domesticering. Domesticering medför speciella biometriska markörer som är ovanligare i neolitisk tid. De tvärkulturella jämförelserna i traditionell "lågintensiv svinhållning" kan intyga på ett sådant förhållande mellan jägare-samlar grupper och vildsvin. Även om svinet inte var en basföda åt GRK, och därmed inte intensivt jagade, var svinen sällsynta ritualistiska handelsvaror och troligen högt värdesatta. Gropkeramiska "stormän" kan ha varit de drivande bakom denna praktik. Dessa ”stormän” engagerade sig i sociopolitiska aktiviteter, festligheter och begravningar, och därmed hade "hamstrat välstånd", men domesticerade aldrig svinet.

Untersucht werden mitteldeutsche Gräber der Kulturen mit Schnurkeramik, die Artefakte aus organischem Hartmaterial enthalten. Die Artefakte werden typologisch gegliedert und Betrachtungen zu Technologie, chronologischer Stellung sowie Verbreitung im Arbeitsgebiet angestellt. Am Beispiel zweier ausgewählter Typen wird überprüft, ob Korrelationen zwischen deren Anordnung im Befund, Grabformen sowie Alter und Geschlecht der darin Bestatteten bestehen. / The author analyses graves of the Corded Ware in Central Germany, which are containing artefacts made of organic hard material. These artefacts were typologically classified and their technology are regarded as their chronological and spatial distribution. On the instance of two types the author tests the correlation between their positions in the graves, the grave-types and sex and age of the skeletons.

The Pitted Ware culture on Gotland presents a multitude of material that allow archeologists to re-construct and visit the socio-economic structure of a middle-neolithic settlement in the Baltic sea. I will be analyzing the archaeological material in accordance to the ocean, and to what we can interpret as ritual and cosmological variables at the site through ritual theory, and with a method of comparative analogy and research. How maritime aspects of divinity manifested itself to the PWC, ontology and belief system could perhaps reveal how the cognitive, collective mind of one culture evolved and made connections to otherworldly entities. Often in the form of ancestral worship, which will be one of the main issues that will be analyzed and discussed throughout, in addition to mortuary ritual. / Den Gropkeramiska kulturen på Gotland demonstrerar ett extensivt material som tillåter arkeologer att rekonstruera och besöka den socioekonomiska strukturen hos en mellanneolitisk kultur i Östersjön. Jag kommer att analysera materialet i relation till havet, och försöka utgöra havets rituella och kosmologiska kopplingar till lokalen genom ritualteori och en analogisk, komparativ metod. Sättet som maritima aspekter av gudomlighet manifesterade sig inom den Gropkeramiska kulturen på Gotland, dess ontologi och trossystem kan möjligtvis avslöja hur det kollektiva, kognitiva sinnet hos en kultur utvecklades och skapade kontakter till utomvärldsliga ting. Ofta i form av förfädersdyrkan, som tillsammans med begravningsritualer kommer vara ett centralt ämne genom hela uppsatsen.

El presente estudio aborda el problema de ineficiencia en una línea de ensamble de sanitarios causados por un 23.58% de tiempo improductivos, movimientos ineficientes en un 45.25% y un 31.16% en exceso de desplazamiento de la pieza. En consecuencia, el cumplimiento del plan de producción se ve afectado mensualmente y ocasiona una pérdida de oportunidad de S/. 994,074.00, que representa aproximadamente el 21% de los ingresos mensuales por producción del producto principal One Piece. En este contexto, el siguiente caso de estudio propone un modelo de estandarización de trabajo integrado por las técnicas de Ingeniería de Métodos. Adicionalmente, se complementan estas técnicas con el rediseño del layout mediante la Planificación Sistemática del Layout (SLP) con el objetivo de optimizar la eficiencia de línea y contribuir a la literatura, ya que no existe una cantidad considerable de estudios relacionados al área de ensamble y al sector de productos sanitarios. El modelo es validado mediante una simulación en el software Arena y se obtiene como resultado el incremento de la eficiencia en un 14% aproximadamente. Asimismo, se analiza un flujo de caja económico y un flujo de caja financiero de los cuales se obtiene un índice de rendimiento (RBC) de S/. 5.01 y S/. 18.11 respectivamente. / This study addresses the problem of inefficiency in a sanitary assembly line caused by 23.58% of unproductive time, inefficient movements by 45.25% and 31.16% in excess of displacement of the piece. Consequently, compliance with the production plan is affected every month and it causes a loss of opportunity of S /. 994,074.00, which represents approximately 21% in the monthly production income of the main product One Piece. In this context, the following case study proposes a work standardization model made up of Method Engineering techniques. Additionally, these techniques are complemented with the layout redesign through the Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) in order to optimize the line efficiency and to contribute to the literature, since there is not a considerable amount of studies related to the area of ​​assembly and to the sanitary products sector. The model is validated by a simulation in the Arena software and the result is an increase in efficiency of 14% approximately. Likewise, an economic cash flow and a financial cash flow are analyzed, from which a performance index (RBC) of S /. 5.01 and S /. 18.11 respectively. / Trabajo de investigación