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The Covesea Caves are a series of later prehistoric sites that form a complex mortuary landscape. Previous excavations of the caves have provided evidence for the decapitation, disarticulation, and intentional deposition of human remains. Although there has been substantial analysis of the human remains, there has been little consideration of the significant number of faunal remains recovered during numerous excavations. This research represents the first focused examination of the extensive zooarchaeological record from the Covesea Caves, with an emphasis on investigating characteristics of the faunal bone related to taphonomy and processing in order to provide a proxy for the complex funerary treatments to which the human remains were subject. Analysis of Covesea Cave 2 revealed a narrative of ritual and funerary activities, from the Neolithic to the Post-Medieval Period. Zooarchaeological analysis has illustrated how certain species were significant in ritual activity, and thus utilised specifically in funerary rites. The results from this research shed more light on past cosmologies and the importance of non-human species to humans in both life and death.

Archaeologists often treat past houses and households as social units-as places of stability within larger political dynamics. Houses are rendered as conservative objects, not places of profound change. This thesis adopts a material political approach to houses, considering the way they were assembled through time as a working-out of social alternatives. By approaching prehistoric houses, not as units but as processes of space-making extending through time, it shows the great extent to which past societies' politics were navigated and transformed through intimate communities and intimate places. Using fine analysis of the internal stratigraphy of houses, I show how much more variable and consequential domestic communities were at a turning point in human history (the beginning of the Neolithic expansion) where many conventional 'prime movers' of more recent histories (nations, armies, corporations, elites of various sorts) simply did not exist to drive change. In so doing, The material politics of houses at Çatalhöyük opens avenues for perceiving the full political weight of small houses and everyday relationships elsewhere and at other times-even in the present. The focus of this thesis is space-making in domestic contexts at the 7th millennium site of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey. Çatalhöyük spanned two worlds, both geographically and chronologically: one where settled farming life developed, piecemeal and dispersedly, over many millennia following the last glacial maximum within the confines of the Middle East, and one where settled farming life seemed inexorably spread across the world map in a matter of 2,000 years. It thus represents a window into a turning point in the social dynamics of vital technologies and human lifeways writ large. The site itself, pristinely preserved and meticulously excavated, is the result of a unique way of living that packed small mudbrick houses, wall-against-wall with very few gaps, onto an exceptionally dense mound of old dismantled architecture. No 'temples', 'palaces' or 'public buildings' have been discovered to date, and instead all aspects of social life-from grain processing and cooking to art and human burial-were integrated into houses at Çatalhöyük. The thesis asks, what can the houses at Çatalhöyük tell us about the material politics that articulated lives, houses, and practices in the 7th millennium? Houses' interiors at Çatalhöyük were plastered hundreds of times over the course of their use-lives. This creates unparalleled stratigraphy for investigating change through time inside of them. The backbone of the research presented herein is the creation of high-resolution stratigraphic timelines of changes in 11 Çatalhöyük houses' interiors, each capturing hundreds of space-making moments that transformed the house's interior over several decades. These are supplemented by broader investigations of houses' biographies and contextual analyses of key moments (e.g. construction, burial) in the broader site. From this basis, the thesis investigates four questions: 1. How did people at Çatalhöyük make and reshape domestic space as a part of the work of making communities and meeting life needs? 2. How did their particular way of shaping material space fit into broader political dynamics in the Neolithic town? 3. What changed in the way communities formed and intersected through houses over the course of the 7th millennium? 4. How did politics 'spill out' of houses at Çatalhöyük and feed larger-scale changes in the site, region, and in the dynamics of the Neolithic phenomenon more broadly? I establish that each house at Çatalhöyük was a political multiple object-engaged in the work and knowledge of a variety of communities that were more or less stable, rather than relating to a singular stable household with clear-cut social qualities. From this understanding, I illuminate social dynamics that worked through and cross-cut houses in one 66th century neighbourhood. Although every house seems self-sufficient in time-compressed overview, a close stratigraphic reading reveals a surprising frequency of moments where houses were unequipped for vital tasks like cooking, storage or burial of the dead, suggesting that it was not autonomy but rather creative and dynamic dependency that situated houses in lives, and lives in houses. I also trace a tension between ways of politicizing space through knowledge of its depths (the generations of built-up walls, bodies, deposits and other salient details invisibly sealed below people's feet) and knowledge of its surfaces (displays of plaster and paint, sculpture and persistent boundaries). Finally, the thesis turns to a diachronic examination of community through time at Çatalhöyük, considering the waxing and waning of different political dimensions through the biographies of earlier and later 7th millennium houses. In particular, I show how a political dynamic of friction-where difference was accommodated and elaborated without dividing people or spaces into discrete, bounded units-gave way to one of integrity, where houses and communities were fitted to a more unitary 'mould' (something like a household) but also became less flexible and more brittle in the process. I relate this to architecture in other later 7th millennium sites in Turkey, speculatively relating the dynamics of communities in houses and landscapes to the transformed spatial dynamics of the Neolithic at regional scales in this period. This thesis shows how dramatic transformations of human lifeways have been sustained in intimate spaces, through the work of bodies, ovens, plasters and gatherings. This bottom-up, materialist approach to politics and history, focused on the details of communities and knowledge at one site, thus resonates with central concerns in archaeology across larger scales.

Four decades of meticulous collection of metal detected finds data in Norfolk by the Norfolk Historic Environmental Record (NHER) and the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) have given rise to one of the largest regional datasets in English archaeology. It is estimated that this dataset contains approximately 1.5 million data points on artefacts spanning prehistory to the modern era. It provides a remarkably dense spatial and temporal distribution of past activity and a compelling opportunity to intensively analyse the circulation, deposition, and social significance of metals and metalwork in the prehistoric landscape. More than 70% of these finds come from arable land and not from traditional archaeological contexts, so the dataset covers enormous areas and indicates the presence of thousands of archaeological sites, many of which have never been examined in any detail. This information, coupled with the data compiled by cropmark surveys, like the National Mapping Programme (NNM) in Norfolk, provides vast potential for inferences about past landscapes. Yet questions remain as to the best ways to make use of these types of large datasets, a problem that collections of grey literature equally face. However, the conscientious manipulation of the NHER/PAS datasets using a range of the latest techniques in GIS and statistics, including summed probability distributions for dating and geographically weighted regression to view the connections between disparate sites, coupled with the careful analysis and critique of biases in the underlying data structure, allows for a broad perspective on past patterns of life across much of later prehistoric Norfolk. It is possible to see trends occurring in both the circulation and deposition of metals in the longue-durée. This may shed light on the practice of votive deposition as a trend emerging from earlier prehistory but one that is largely dependent upon the social pressures of the current moment. This illuminates the ways in which certain features of social landscape recur again and again. The clustering and recurrence of hoards and other types of sites in certain localities across great time-spans is of particularly interest, and allows for commentary on place-making, social memory, and ritual during later prehistory. As Cyril Fox’s famous regional study of archaeology showed, however, there is no substitute for being there, and a critique often levelled against GIS projects is that they are overly reliant on technical wizardry to see things that might not actually exist outside a computer. Therefore, a significant part of this research has involved many trips crossing the landscape on foot or by rail or by car, visiting sites much like Fox did in Cambridgeshire a century ago. In such a way, it is possible to integrate the latest digital methods with more traditional landscape archaeology to present persuasive and novel models of the social, ecological, and geographical significance of Norfolk’s landscapes in the period leading up to the Roman conquest of Britain. Thus, this research clearly illustrates an array of methodological procedures for connecting the observations of metal detectorists to higher level discussions about the linkages between knowledge of place and knowledge of self, or identity, in the past. It also shows how large datasets can be used in thoughtful, contextual ways to learn about the past and to inform and shape future research agendas throughout the county.

Burnt mounds, accumulations of fire-cracked stone and fuel residues dating largely from the Bronze Age, are a widespread and numerous site type across Britain and Ireland. However, the function, duration, and depositional history of this site type remains unknown. This study examines the formation processes and duration of burnt mounds using a new multi-proxy geoarchaeological methodology comprising micromorphology, x-ray fluorescence, loss on ignition, and soil pH assessment alongside radiocarbon dating and statistical exploration. The sampled material covers nine sites across northern Britain, spanning Northumberland, Wester Ross, and Orkney. This work shows that the burnt mounds assessed are complex and multi-faceted, consisting primarily of fuel residues; wood and grasses in Northumberland and Wester Ross, and peat, turf, and seaweed in Orkney. Many sites contain discrete deposits of bone, unburnt plant tissues, and rubified sediments, and the use of earth-ovens is suggested at one site by repeated layers of charred grasses and massive rubified peds. Mounds were deposited in small increments, each representing either one discrete firing event or the admixing of several firing events. Principal component analysis of quantitative multi-element and sedimentological data was able to group burnt mound deposits by fuel type, which was verified by micromorphology. Micromorphological and sedimentological analyses identified widespread natural sediment incursion and taphonomic processes across all mounds. These incursions often represent hiatuses in deposition and indicate the recurrent, cyclical, or even seasonal use of these sites. Although manifested differently due to local environmental conditions, natural formation processes show recurrent abandonment and cyclical patterns of use at sites through the deposition of material of similar types. Limited seasonal indicators such as desiccation features, soil formation, and rain-splash crust formation suggest hiatuses in wetter seasons and activity in drier seasons. Available radiocarbon dates suggest that the depositional duration of most mounds was around 100 years, although outliers exist. Together, these data indicate for the first time that burnt mounds were not the product of single large events such as monumental feasting, but rather represent a more gradual accumulation of small-scale activities by small communities or groups that were cyclical in nature. This has implications for wider interpretation, both of burnt mounds and the socioeconomic systems that they represent, which is discussed. Equally, this study argues that burnt mounds warrant more direct archaeological attention as they contain well-stratified deposits that hold palaeoenvironmental and geoarchaeological records of human-environment interactions over the short to medium term. Consequently, this study puts forward a best practice excavation and sampling guide to inform on future work, angled towards the policy and developer-funded sectors.

This study examines the characteristics and setting of the six hillforts of the Clwydian Range in north east Wales and considers other hills and hillforts within the surrounding area. It provides an assessment of the hillforts of much of north Wales and the borderlands as a group, to define connections or regional variations, in order to aid understanding of their function. Sites have been investigated through the use of Geographical Information Systems and viewshed analysis to consider the extent of view, the features visible and intervisibility. The use of a control sample of non-hillfort sites considers why some hills were chosen to be hillforts but others not. Interrogation of the data to identify what the monument can see, not just how much, is fundamental in the interpretation of site selection and position. Architectural features and dating evidence have been documented and examined. Former radiocarbon dating has been scrutinised and recalibrated to ensure consistency. A theme of stone, or the illusion of, is dominant across the study area and, despite previous reports, not limited to Gwynedd and a small number of outliers. Entrances and their evolution are distinctive to north east Wales and the borders, with possible links to northern England. The hillforts of the Clwydian Range are distinctive with regards to their proximity and longevity, with multi-phase, multi-period use. In contrast to 'Central Place Theory', there is not an obvious 'main' hillfort dominating or suppressing the others. Instead, awareness of each other may have complimented their situation and therefore the area flourished. Changes in the hillforts' characteristics are essential in understanding the evolution of their function throughout the Iron Age; from initial community links and cultivation, to control and finally to conservation, which is a tradition which has continued to this day.

This thesis comprises an investigation into the nature, chronology, and significance of prehistoric windblown sand deposition on archaeological sites in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. One of the most visible and frequently-encountered forms of evidence for dynamic coastal processes which took place over the last four millennia are horizons of calcareous (shell) and mineral (quartz and feldspar) sands, which were deposited in coastal landscapes and settlements by wind and wave dynamics. Around 20% of the Scottish coastline is made up of sand-based features, with the dune area comprising some 48,000ha (Dargie and Duncan 1999, 143). Such coastal zones were densely settled in the prehistoric period. As monitoring of the modern coastline for changes affecting known archaeological sites continues, deposits of windblown sand - often interleaved with material evidence for human occupation - are becoming frequently recognised in the archaeological record. One coastal region which has felt the impacts of this coastal process (and continues to do so), is the Orkney archipelago, located off the northern coast of Mainland Scotland. It is this group of islands which form the geographical focus of this thesis. Previous archaeological interpretations of this important coastal process have been concerned with the development of chronologies of deposition in an attempt to tie the deposition of windblown sand to narratives of climatic deterioration. Such approaches fail to recognise the broader social significance of these windblown sand deposits, and how they were encountered by prehistorical inhabitants of the coastline. This thesis synthesises all known occurrences of windblown sand on archaeological sites in Orkney, and suggests additional ways in which their socio-economic significance can be realised.

The large-scale field-systems, ubiquitous across upland and marginal parts of the Yorkshire Dales, are insecurely dated and poorly understood. Apart from some sporadic academic interest, the archaeology of this region has yet to receive the level of scholarly attention it deserves. The research presented here involved an intensive investigation of an area near Grassington, Upper Wharfedale, UK. Detailed field analysis revealed a section of one of these field-systems to be only a single element in a complex, multi-layered prehistoric landscape, which it is proposed may have roots as far back as the early Neolithic. Contextualisation of the survey area against palynological data, radiocarbon dates and comparative material moves the date of inception of the field-systems back to the middle Bronze Age, some 1000 years earlier than is currently assumed. The combination of empirical data and theoretical ideas has allowed a relative chronology to be determined in the survey area, together with the creation of a testable hypothesis surrounding the development of Upper Wharfedale and the wider Yorkshire Dales through prehistory. A sense of place and the veneration of natural places are key themes within this landscape and it was possible through these to draw out elements of prehistoric society and to show the evolution of ideas such as land tenure and monument significance. This dual empirical-theoretical approach is novel in upland landscape archaeology in the UK and is shown here to have significant merit.

It has become an axiom of British archaeology that the results of developer-funded fieldwork are under-utilised in research and several projects carried out at British universities have attempted to redress this perceived imbalance. These projects, including those on British and Continental prehistory carried out by Richard Bradley, the Roman Rural settlement project, the Fields of Britannia project, John Blair's work on early medieval England and the EngLaId project, of which this thesis forms a component, have all demonstrated beyond doubt the transformative effect of the data produced by developer-funded work on our understanding. However, to date no project has sought to utilise artefact and ecofact data produced by developer-funded work on a similar scale. This thesis is partly an attempt to fill this gap, by using ceramic, animal bone and charred plant data from digital archives generated by developer-funded archaeology, to address a series of questions about food production/consumption over the later prehistoric and early historic periods in Southern England. These three datasets have very varied characteristics and their integration in a single database was, therefore, one of the major challenges of the thesis. However, this also provided the opportunity to ask new questions and to address old questions with new data. The thesis argues that regional ecosystems had a long-term influence on processes of food production/consumption, which displayed considerable continuities across the boundaries of traditional archaeological periods. Landscape, settlement, ceramic, animal bone and charred plant data from three regional case studies, encompassing the Upper Thames Valley, the Middle and Lower Thames Valley and the route of HS1 in Kent were investigated using a Filemaker database and QGIS mapping. It is argued that, while there were long-term continuities in the use of plants and animals, the expression of social relationships expressed in fields, settlements and ceramics followed a cyclical pattern.

The importance of skin processing technologies, in the history and dispersal of humankind around the planet cannot be overstated. This area of material culture is often underrepresented as a research topic, and has been hampered, in part, by the lack of a systematic analysis methodology targeted at specifically this material type. This research aimed to develop a methodology for determining the tanning technologies in use during prehistory, from extant archaeologically recovered processed skin objects. The methodology is a product of macroscopic and microscopic observations of a large sample reference collection, used to produce a database of defining characteristics and tendencies for each of six tannage types. The sample collection is made up of twenty-two species identified as economically important from both Europe and North America. Six sample pieces of skin were taken from a single individual of each of the twenty-two species, and processed using six tanning technologies, the use of which covered a large geographic area and time frame. A second reference collection of clothing and utilitarian items, made from traditionally processed skins, was used to add a section of in-life use traces to the database of discriminating traits. The developed methodology was tested by examining archaeologically recovered and ethnographically collected skin objects, from museum collections across North America and Europe. Objects from many different preservation contexts, including wet, dry, and frozen sites were analysed to determine whether or not the discriminating traits survived interment. It was found that defining characteristics and tendencies do exist between the main tannage technologies, and can be recorded at multiple levels of observation. The analysis of skin objects in museum collections confirmed that at least some defining characteristics and tendencies survived in all preservation contexts. In addition, the preservation of in-life use traces proved to be diagnostic of not only tannage type, but small sections of chaîne opératoire and object biography as well. Overall, this research has demonstrated that archaeologically preserved objects made from processed skin can provide information about the tannage technologies in use prehistorically, as well as more detailed information such as manufacturing sequences and the conditions of use an object was subjected to. Thus, analysis of this nature can be used to access information on a more individual level than previously believed.

Traditionally archaeology has referred to the anthropic sediments accumulated around prehistoric settlements with the blanket term ‘midden’. This is now recognised as an inadequate term to describe the complex formation processes and functions represented in these sediments. This thesis reviewed the body of evidence accumulated over the past century of research into Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements on the islands of the Scottish North Atlantic seaboard and extrapolated the many occurrences of ‘midden’. Several contexts emerged for these sediments including interior floors, hearths, exterior occupational surfaces, dumped deposits, building construction materials and abandonment infill. In addition, ‘midden’ is described added to cultivated soils to form fertile anthrosols. The way in which prehistoric communities exploited this material for agriculture and construction has been described through geoarchaeological research which implied that to past communities ‘midden’ was a valuable resource. This led to the formation of a model based upon a human ecodynamics framework to hypothesise sediment formation pathways. Rescue excavation at the Links of Noltland, Westray provided an opportunity to conduct a holistic landscape and fine resolution based study of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement to test this model. The research incorporated auger survey, archaeological and geoarchaeological excavation, thin section micromorphology and SEM EDX analyses. Sediments identified in literature review and recovered from the field site were described using this toolkit and set within a cultural and environmental context. Results demonstrate that anthropic materials were incorporated into all contexts examined. Discrete burning and maintenance activities were found to have taken place during the gradual accumulation of open-air anthropic sediments whilst incorporation of fuel residues and hearth waste into floors lead to the gradual formation of ‘living floors’ inside structures. An unexpected discovery was evidence of animal penning within late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age settlement and the in situ burning of stabling waste. Three types iv | P a g e of land management strategy which relied upon the input of anthropic sediments were evidenced and the range and extent of anthropic inclusions in the landscape recorded. Spatial interpolation of auger survey data utilised a new sub-surface modelling technique being developed by the British Geological Survey to explore soil stratigraphic relationships in 3D. SEM EDX analysis supported micromorphological analysis providing chemical data for discrete inclusions and assisting in the identification of herbivore dun ash and the Orcadian funerary product ‘cramp’. SEM EDX analysis was also applied to fine organo-mineral material for statistical testing of nutrient loadings across context groups. It was found that anthropic sediments were enriched in macro and intermediate plant nutrients Mg, P, K, S and Ca compared to geological controls, and the application of anthropic material to cultivated soils improved soil fertility for the three observed land management practices. The versatility of anthropic sediments was explored through discussion of context groups based upon the results of this research and the potential significance of this material to prehistoric communities is explored.

Small mammals, namely those species larger than microfauna like rats and murids but smaller than medium, sheep-size fauna, are generally one of the less studied areas of zooarchaeology. While this may be partly influenced by modern cultural biases, it is more often because finding small, rabbit-sized, mammal remains in archaeological deposits presents a problem in accurately differentiating between those arising from natural, biological and anthropogenic agencies. This thesis tackles this subject using a synthesis of different methods, examining the exploitation and role of small, non-ungulate mammals in early Western European prehistory by combining existing ethnographic knowledge and archaeological research with actualistic experiments and bone assemblage analysis. It first presents a detailed summary of the various taphonomic effects on bone from natural, biological and human action, with particular reference to those of small mammals, using empirical evidence to describe the processes and likely resultant effects. Small mammal utilisation is then contextualised using archaeological and ethnographic evidence to examine past and present practices in Europe and other areas of the world. Different acquisition methods, such as hunting and trapping, are described, and using small mammals for dietary and non-dietary purposes is outlined, along with the rationale for such utilisation given their size. Also considered are other, more abstract ideological and symbolic roles they fulfilled within different cultures, whether physically using parts of the animal, or conceptually. To extend the existing methods available to zooarchaeologists, and improve identifying human exploitation of these species, the ‘chaîne opératoire’ of small game use is examined from an osteological perspective, starting with acquisition, through processing, cooking and consumption to discard, using a series of experiments and microscopic analysis to explore potential bone modification signatures and fracture patterns arising from such activities. Finally, it places these results into broader context by comparing the fracture patterns with bones from British and North American archaeological sites, to demonstrate that similar changes can be seen.

This doctoral thesis presents the results of the pioneering archaeological investigation conducted in the Northern Mexican Highlands with the aim to evaluate the existing indicators of the earliest human occupations at the end of the Pleistocene and discover new evidence of ancient cultural manifestations through a systematic exploration of an endorheic basic in the Zacatecas desert, a region never studied before. An exhaustive survey and analysis of the available literature on Mexican prehistory establishes the weak points of the local paradigms, differentiating between academic myths and objective realities. A complete historiography of the topic of the earliest humans in Mexico has been achieved, for the first time. The study of several collections of flaked stone artefacts, in different cities in Mexico, show new indicators of the presence of bearers of the Late Paleoamerican cultures, in regions where their presence had been weakly confirmed. The most important part of the research consisted in fieldwork realised during two long seasons; the first one dedicated to the surface explorations and the second one to excavations. Thirty-five new archaeological sites were discovered in the first phase, most of them open campsites reminiscent of hunter-gatherer societies, with a richness of stone artefacts on their surface. They indicate a long cultural sequence, going from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene and the historic periods. Four sites were further studied by fourteen test excavation units: Dunas de Milpa Grande, San José de las Grutas, the Chiquihuite Cave and Ojo de Agua. Two new archaeological cultures were identified, one at Dunas (an interesting assemblage of limestone and basalt flaked stone tools) and another one at San José (a limestone concave-based points complex). First indicators of ʻolder than Clovisʼ human presence have also been obtained. The palaeoenvironmental data provide a preliminary reconstruction of the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene landscape of the basin, based on geology, extinct fauna, phytolith and mollusc analyses. Radiocarbon and OSL results support a first cultural and paleoclimatic model for the study area. This investigation also discovered the first case of a “black mat” in Mexico: a black layer of sediment deposited under specific environmental conditions during the Younger Dryas cooling event.

Until now, the horse was one of the few members of the British Late Pleistocene and Holocene fauna which had yet to be fully investigated. In this thesis, chronological, palaeoecological and morphological data based on direct investigations of British and European fossil and sub-fossil horses are presented. The time-frame encompasses the latest certain wild horses in Britain and continental Europe through to the early diversification of domestic types, and thus spans the interval from c. 15,000-2,000 years before present (BP). The gazetteers presented are the result of a thorough survey and intensive study of all relevant British (as well as selected continental) collections of fossil and sub-fossil horse material. Furthermore, the incorporation into this project of a radiocarbon accelerator dating programme has provided 45 new, direct horse dates from 31 British/Irish sites. A systematic review of all new and previously obtained dates reveals a complex pattern of chronological and geographical distribution for horses during the study interval. These data are interpreted with reference to known climatic and environmental events which are detailed. Further investigations are presented which reveal the ecological reactions of wild horses to underlying environmental factors such as climate change and vegetational succession. Questions of body size variability as well as taxonomic and relationship issues are addressed by means of a detailed morphological investigation. Cranial and postcranial measurements are employed to expose variation and diversification of size and form among wild and domestic animals of three key periods: Mid-Devensian, Late Glacial/early Post Glacial, middle to later Post Glacial. In addition, body size comparisons are made between British and continental horses for each episode. Finally, there is discussion of alternative ways of revealing relationships between ancient and modern horses. In particular, molecular evidence is reviewed with the aim of assessing its value to taxonomic, morphological and chronological studies

Compared to upland areas and Scotland, the Holocene vegetational history of lowland England is poorly known. This is particularly the case for the region of Holdemess, eastern Yorkshire, where only a low number of poor temporal resolution pollen diagrams have been published, none of which include analysis of microscopic charcoal content. The records are also largely undated and as a result reliable correlation between sites is not possible, and the timings of the key vegetation changes recorded in the data remain unknown. In this study, high resolution pollen and charcoal records were produced from four small (24 ha) infilled basins located within central Holderness. Complementary techniques of percentage loss-on-ignition and pollen preservation analysis were also employed, and a comprehensive radiocarbon-dating programme was undertaken to provide a secure chronological framework. The palaeoecological records produced provide a high temporal resolution reconstruction of the Holocene development of central Holderness, particularly during the Early-Mid Holocene, and allow consideration of the changing roles that ecological interactions, climate, and human influence have played in determining the Holocene vegetational composition of the region. A number of significant landscape-scale disturbances of inferred anthropogenic origin were identified from ca 9290 BP onwards and shown to vary significantly in timing, duration and character between sites. It is proposed that this palaeoecological data can be used to supplement the poor archaeological record of the area. Several key issues including the role of climatic instability in determining vegetational composition during the Early Holocene, the interpretation of incidences of cereal-type pollen, the use of the charcoal record as a proxy indicator of human activity, and the use of pollen preservation analysis as an interpretational tool are also considered.

This thesis is focused on preliminary survey of a LiDAR dataset—digital imagery that results from airborne survey, and which reveals elevation changes in the ground surface. It reveals the Sāmoan Islands as an entirely human-modified environment, consisting of a system of ditches and terraces that extend from the coast to the remote interior. These ditches and terraces served as a mitigation system that drained saturated soils and controlled flooding in the past, which in turn supported local agricultural production and maintained the integrity of the island’s soils and ecosystem. This project examines the similarities and differences between three study areas in eastern Atua province of `Upolu island. It suggests that prehistoric Sāmoans not only knew how to target specific soils for agricultural production, but that they knew that they needed to place ditches in order to maximize the agricultural output of an area.

Despite prevailing archaeological interpretations that the Toyah Interval (ca. 1200/1250-1700 CE) in Texas archeology was largely comprised of highly mobile bands of economically independent family groups of hunter-gatherers, early Spanish colonial accounts dating from 1528 to 1716 suggest that complex social arrangements were a common feature of Late Prehistoric Toyah society. Using the ethnographically-derived models of feasting, violence, and craft specialization, I explore the material culture of inequality and special status from both the aspects of Toyah ethnohistory and archaeology. Evidence for inequality and special status was sought in the mortuary data, while burned rock middens and bone concentrations documented at Toyah sites were analyzed for evidence of feasting behavior. Classic Toyah pottery was evaluated as a specialized craft industry, and a model for the native itinerant trader/crafter was developed and tested with respect to Toyah blade caches. As a result, it is hoped that this study will motivate future investigation toward more socially-based approaches in Toyah research, and that it establishes a dialog around the social factors behind the Toyah phenomenon in Texas archeology.

In northern Thailand, previous zooarchaeological research suggests that hunter-gatherers consumed a broad diversity of animal resources during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and afterwards (Gorman 1971a). This is a pattern characteristic of Kent Flannery’s (1969) “broad spectrum revolution” hypothesis. Based primarily on presence and absence evidence, faunal assemblages in northern Thailand typically include species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and shellfish, suggesting that prehistoric foragers consumed a wide range of taxa within this mainland Southeast Asian tropical environment. Although zooarchaeological analyses commonly identify this pattern within prehistoric cave and rockshelter sites, past investigations have 1) not attempted to formally test Flannery’s hypothesis, 2) understand the regional specifics of indigenous hunter-gatherer diets during this period, and 3) identify the role that foragers played in the ultimate mid Holocene transition to economies based on domesticated plants and animals. In this research, I examine calibrated radiocarbon age distributions, mammalian stable isotope sequences and zooarchaeological data from four sites in northern Thailand – Spirit Cave (Tham Phii Maen), Steep Cliff Cave (Tham Phaa Can), Banyan Valley Cave (Tham Boong Hoong) and Non Nok Tha (Partridge Mound). I investigate whether a broad spectrum revolution occurred in northern Thailand throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene, as well as how hunter-gatherer paleodemography, subsistence, and paleoenvironments influenced the mid Holocene transition to economies based on domesticated resources. Results suggest that hunter-gatherer demography generally increases, but fluctuates, throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene and does not substantially increase during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. There is no evidence for paleoenvironmental change during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and only minor evidence for possible reforestation during the mid Holocene. Finally, zooarchaeological evidence does not provide support for a broad spectrum revolution and instead suggests long-term, consistent and sustainable foraging of specific resources during the late Pleistocene and Holocene.

On the north coast of Perú in the foothills of the Andes the polity of Collambay lived in a frontier zone between the Pacific coast and the highlands. On the eastern frontier of the coastal Chimú empire, in the Moche Valley, Collambay occupied a unique ecological niche, known for its production of coca, a prestige resource in the Andes. Andean strategies of political economy indicate this coca producing zone would be one that empires would want to access however, few studies have occurred in the chaupiyunga. My doctoral dissertation examines the relationships between the local community, Collambay and two successive empires, the Chimú (AD 900-1470) and the Inca (1470-1532). Prior to my investigation no archaeological excavations had been carried out in the Collambay area. My multi-dimensional study examines Collambay’s occupational history through settlement patterns and excavations at two sites, Cerro Huancha MV 900 and Cerro Ramon MV 1000. My excavations document the occupational history of the region and focuses on Collambay’s local economy and group identity, examining changes and continuities in the region throughout the duration of the Chimú and Inca Empires. My study indicates that Collambay maintained exchange relationships with the Chimú empire that developed into a political alliance, benefiting both parties. As a result of this relationship Collambay gained political power in the region. Upon the Chimú fall to the Inca, Collambay underwent another significant shift, undergoing reorganization to maintain an Inca state storehouse. Throughout these interactions with imperial powers Collambay maintained local traditions and material culture reflecting a unique, hybrid identity. This study contributes to a growing field of case studies that priorities understanding local populations in local-imperial interaction. It also is one of the few case studies to occur in the north coast chaupiyunga, a region whose sociopolitical history is significant for understanding experiences of populations on the political margins.

Reconstruction of regional North American prehistory has benefited from the incorporation of ancient DNA evidence. However, few studies focus on intra-site genetic variation, associate these relationships to mortuary assemblages, or link these variables to social ranking. The Late Period (900 BP-250 BP) in the San Francisco Bay area witnessed shifts in settlement patterns that included mortuary treatment distinct from earlier periods. The change in mortuary pattern is interpreted either as a reduction in social inequality, a shift toward corporate group identity based on kinship, or an emergence of a lesser number of differentiated elites with control over high status resources. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data was collected from 200 individuals from CA-SCL-38 (Yukisma Mound), hereafter referred to as SCL-38 as well as 102 additional burials from 15 other archaeological sites in the region to test for a relationship between direct maternal kinship (i.e., genetic relatedness as revealed by mtDNA), grave goods, and burial patterns. This was ultimately done to determine whether spatial patterns at SCL-38 are associated with the emergence/maintenance of social differentiation and inferred social inequality. These data were additionally used at the inter-site level to explore the hypothesized spread of Penutian populations and to document genetic continuity in the San Francisco Bay area through time. Results indicate that maternal relatedness is not correlated to the spatial distribution of burials within the cemetery. Additionally, no associations are noted between particular mtDNA haplotypes and burials with high quantity or diversity of grave goods. Thus, the overall placement of burials at SCL-38 are random with respect to direct maternal relationships. However, regardless of mortuary assembleges, there are some subgroupings within the cemetery of individuals related at the maternal level. The heterogenous distribution of mtDNA lineages across the spatial extent of the site may instead reflect its use as a regional cemetery for select, perhaps wealthy elite, individuals who originated from the surrounding Bay area. It remains possible that patterning along the paternal line or the lack of temporal refinement is confounding other underlying genetic structure. Across the landscape, however, mtDNA lineages are identified that correspond with the hypothesized influx of Proto-Utian (Penutian) speakers into the San Francisco Bay area by the end of the Early Period and beginning of the Middle Period. Additonal haplotypes are also identified that are probably older than 7,000 BP in the region, most likely representing maternal lineages orignally belonging to ancestral Hokan speakers. Most mtDNA haplotypes discussed represent at least 2,000 years of genetic continuity in the region.

Domestication of the extinct eastern North American crop, marshelder (Iva annua L. var. macrocarpa Jackson) is investigated through quantitative analysis of samples from archaeological sites. Change in marshelder achene (fruit) size over time sheds light on patterns of regional and subregional domestication processes and patterns of diffusion. The hypothesis that marshelder was introduced into the Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky rather than domesticated in situ is evaluated through spatial and temporal statistical tests from measurements of achene size collected by researchers throughout eastern North America. Statistical analyses show that although there is some evidence for increased achene size under domestication, this pattern does not indicate a smooth and gradual trend. Patterns of variability in achene size, in contrast, seem to reflect geographical location rather than temporal placement. These data support an introduction of marshelder to eastern Kentucky from the Illinois River Valley, where the first domesticates are found.

This dissertation is a contribution to the scientific study of prehistory in Baja California Sur, Mexico. In 2008, test excavations at Cueva Santa Rita resulted in the recovery of a rich and diverse artifact assemblage. The large, dry rockshelter is located in the southern Sierra de la Giganta of Baja California Sur, Mexico. The shelter formed in the volcanic breccias of the Comondú Group, part of a larger volcanic arc and forearc basin formed during the Oligocene to Middle Miocene. Drawing from geoarchaeological methods and ethnohistoric accounts, I combine analysis of both the cultural and non-cultural to discuss regional prehistory. Artifact analysis includes an examination of Olivella shell bead and textiles recovered during excavations. The findings of the project indicate that the site has been occupied for at least the late Holocene.

The focus of the thesis is embodied practice within digital cultural heritage. Digital environments that take into account the somatic framework of inquiry have been largely omitted from the literature. In order to address this lacuna, the thesis examines in both theory and practice how digital environments might enhance somatic knowledge of a heritage structure. Insights developed in interpretative archaeology introduce the embodied situation of artefactual interpretation as integral to contextual analysis of material evidence. This framing leads onto investigation of a particular case, the late Neolithic Mnajdra Temples in South Malta. Phenomenologically informed analyses highlight the significance of the spatiotemporal characteristics of the site and environmental context and shed light on the social control of knowledge and ritual organisation. The affect of bodily encounter is further interrogated through spatial praxis to provide a legible kinaesthetic expression of movement gestures. These interpretations are critically synthesised and reconfigured in the design and production of Spaces of Mnajdra. The encouragement of movement practice and gestural response is the principal user experience strategy. This strategy is tested in a large-scale immersion visualisation environment using motion-tracking and haptic technologies. Formative analysis indicates the themes of immersion, presence and sonic augmentation as relevant to group collaboration and the formation of somatic knowledge. User evaluation qualifies how a sensate orientation to the digital environment emerges through the users’ attentive practice and leads to the development of personalised choreographies of intention. Video material adds to this evaluation by documenting the transformation of pre-existing interpretative repertoires to include knowledge of the temples’ morphology schema and the traces of past cultural encounters. Performative reenactment further articulates ritual potential. The written doctoral thesis is accompanied by a DVD containing a summary of the varied embodied practices along with documentation of the digital reconstruction and sound design.

For two millennia, prehistoric populations manufactured and used pottery in Ohio’s Hocking Valley; much debate has occurred among scholars concerning ceramic traditions and transitions. This study utilized Energy Dispersive X-ray and X-ray Diffraction technologies to explore what clay resources were used in production, if and why transitions in production occurred, and how archaeologists might best understand ceramic manufacture in the Hocking Valley. Results demonstrate a long continuity among ceramics produced with a systematic shift in temper resources during the Late Prehistoric Period; changes appear to be less the result of cultural tradition and more related to functional performance and opportunism.

Using the Wadi Sana watershed of Hadramawt Governate, Yemen as a case study, this dissertation examines how environmental and social factors structured the origins of irrigation in prehistoric Southwest Arabia. It applies three methods, archaeological survey, geomatics, and ethnoarchaeology set within a framework of scientific and humanistic landscape archaeology. Results of archaeological survey and radiocarbon dating confirm that irrigation originated in Southwest Arabia during the mid 6th millennium calibrated BP and identify shrûj surface runoff irrigation as one of the earliest irrigation techniques in the region. Conflicts between explanations emphasizing environmental versus those stressing social factors have long structured investigations of prehistory and models of transitions to agriculture. To evaluate the relative, interconnected influence of environmental versus social factors this study applies: 1) geomatics to evaluate the hypothesis that locations of ancient irrigation structures in Wadi Sana are closely associated with hydrological variables reflecting close behavioral ties to environmental conditions, and 2) ethnoarchaeology to interpret sociocultural, political, and ideological parameters of ancient irrigation. A sample of 174 irrigation structures is statistically compared with satellite imagery-derived data including landform and hydrological Geographic Information System (GIS) map data layers. A cross-cultural overview of irrigation, synopses of typological and social aspects contemporary irrigation in Yemen, and a preliminary ethnoarchaeological study of water-use and irrigation in present-day Wadi Sana help illustrate how organizational/logistical challenges and perceptions of landscapes and water-rights shaped irrigation’s origins. Collective results illustrate why a combination of processual and postprocessual perspectives including both quantitative hypothesis testing and qualitative interpretation best illustrate the relative importance of environmental and social factors. Research findings demonstrate that ancient forager-herders in Wadi Sana chose irrigation structure locations based on intimate knowledge of low-energy monsoon runoff along rocky hillslopes, and that new understandings of landscapes as hydraulically malleable domains of anthropogenic control, exclusive rights to water, and new forms of territoriality were crucial to irrigation’s origins.

This dissertation explores the emergence and consequences of competitive and cooperative strategies in Fijian prehistory. The Sigatoka Valley, located in southwestern Viti Levu, is the subject of a series of geographical, environmental, and archaeological analyses. Using GIS-based analyses, the effects of environmental fluctuations on agricultural productivity (i.e., the EI Nino Southern Oscillation [ENSO], and also the transition between the Little Climatic Optimum [LCO] and Little Ice Age [LIA]) are reconstructed and used to predict zones of low-yields and episodic shortfalls. These results indicate that the Sigatoka Valley was both spatially and temporally variable in terms of agricultural productivity and predictability. In the context of an evolutionary ecology-based model of competition and cooperation, this environment encouraged the development of conflict and defensive habitation strategies between human groups. The results of environmental analyses are also compared to the archaeological record, and used to determine the presence of three modes of habitation/subsistence: territorial strongholds, remote refuges, and agricultural production sites. Archaeological testing of these classes in tandem with GIS-based environmental research indicate that the Sigatoka Valley was initially occupied between Cal BC 20 - Cal AD 80, in association with dense and predictable resources. Fortifications that utilized natural topography, and also remote refuges, were established ca. AD 700, and remained in use throughout the prehistoric period. Environmental refuges associated with the effects of the LCO/LIA transition were established ca. AD 1300-1500. Constructed fortifications that utilized an annular ditch, and which were located in the valley bottom, appeared ca. AD 1700 - 1850. The chronology of habitation/subsistence strategies is also compared to landtenure and archaeological data (e.g., land-holdings of yavusa, and also evidence for unique artifacts and valley-wide exchange). These data suggest particular historical trajectories in the Sigatoka delta and highlands, and also varying frequencies of competition and cooperation in prehistory. In sum, this dissertation identifies interaction between humans and their environment as the fundamental relationship that conditioned change in prehistoric Fiji.

Kumara (Ipomoea batatas) being of tropical origin, was introduced to temperate Aotearoa/New Zealand by the Polynesian ancestors of the Maori. The pre-European kumara varieties were successfully cultivated in Aotearoa, at the southern-most limits of kumara's climatic tolerance, for hundreds of years. A cultivation method widely used by Maori, both spatially and temporally, was the addition of sand and gravel to garden soils. Evidence for this practice comes largely from Maori oral history, ethnological literature, soil surveys and archaeology. Sand and/or gravel were used both as surface layers and mixed into topsoils. Such modified soils have been termed 'made soils'. The practice has several important effects on soil properties and plant growth. Factors such as drainage, friability and soil aeration are discussed. Charcoal is often found in large quantities in made soils. Trial one investigated the effect of sand, gravel and charcoal addition on soil temperature. The trial was a single replication of a 24 factorial. The four factors were; sand, gravel, charcoal - with or without, as a surface layer or mixed into soil. Plots were 1 m2 and temperature was measured at 5 cm depth in plot centres using a data logger and temperature sensors. The charcoal surface layer depressed soil temperature rise through the day. This treatment was 3°C below the control treatment at 3 pm. All other treatments increased soil temperature through the day. The maximum temperature increases above that of the control ranged from 1°C for the mixed charcoal treatment to 4°C for the sand/surface and sand/gravel/surface treatments. The latter would add approximately 55.8 day-degrees to the kumara growing season in Kerikeri, 34.1 in Lower Hutt and 24.8 in Christchurch. These gains in day-degrees would significantly increase kumara growth and tuber production. Trial two investigated the effect of two sand:soil ratios, 1:2 and 2:1 on plant growth under two temperature regimes, over a 4 month period. Kamokamo growth far exceeded kumara growth. Kamokamo dry matter accumulation was limited by soil fertility dilution at the high sand rate. The trend for kumara was a depression of growth at high sand rates in the warm glasshouse where growth was significantly higher than the cooler glasshouse. Temperature was the main factor limiting kumara growth. The relative importance of the advantages and disadvantages of sand and gravel addition to soil, with regard to soil fertility maintenance and kumara growth are discussed.

The west-central Illinois archaeological record detailed in this dissertation provides evidence for prehistoric propagation of 3 or 4 specialty plants (i.e., plants used primarily for nonfood purposes or, if foods, eaten primarily for reasons other than a contribution to caloric requirements). One, a gourd form of Cucurbita pepo, probably was the first plant grown there--at least 7000 years ago. Others are bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), tobacco (Nicotiana sp.), and possibly common sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Morphological evidence of domestication is lacking for the oldest records; assertions that the remains reflect agricultural activity is controversial. According to some current hypotheses, these plants grew in Illinois prehistorically as indigenous wild species or weedy campfollowers. However, phytogeographic and other botanical evidence best support an interpretation that they were nonpersistent exotics whose presence therefore is ipso facto evidence that they were grown. Were these exotics just the readily recognizable members of a larger group of specialty plants grown in the past--largely invisible because it consisted of indigenous species that lacked morphological signs of domestication, that are poorly preserved, or that were grown and used sparingly? Aboriginal specialty-plant propagation in eastern North America during historic times provides a useful perspective for thinking about what is missing in the prehistoric record. Planting of 22 species was documented in a comprehensive and critical review of historic records. In general, decisions to grow them were expedient; there was no consistent pattern to their propagation across eastern United States. All but one are perennial, and they were primarily medicinal. Considered in relation to these historic specialty plants, the distinctiveness of gourds, tobacco, and sunflower clearly is not just due to ease of recognition as having been propagated. The latter belong to a small set of plants whose remarkable potential cultural uses and biological characteristics made it possible for them easily to cross cultural and ecological boundaries as intentionally propagated species--even before significant domesticatory modification occurred. Specialty-plant agriculture arose and developed in prehistoric Illinois largely through external contacts, not by autochthonous development of indigenous species.

This research was organized to construct a model for causal relationships between long distance trade and the development of complex societies during late prehistoric times in the Philippines; and to evaluate that model through the analysis of archaeological data recovered from several excavations in Cebu City, the Philippines. The model for this research is concerned particularly with the interrelationships between the enlargement of information-processing capacity (channel capacity) and the development of socio-cultural complexity. In order to examine the validity of the model, a field research, including geological, archaeological, and ethnohistorical studies, was organized. The geological analysis indicates that a intensive exploitation of the hinterland areas around the Cebu settlement occurred during the late prehistoric period (the mid-14th to the 17th century), which caused heavy soil erosion. I infer that the area around the settlement was not appropriate for any types of agricultural activities, and thus the entire settlement might have been the residential unit for non-producers (decision-makers and their surrogates and servants). The population of the Cebu settlement continuously increased during the late prehistoric period. The analyses of artifact assemblages as well as natural remains indicate that, except for glazed ceramics, glazed ceramics are the only resources to which Cebu community members had significantly differential access. Ethnohistorical studies indicate that those glazed ceramics were used by administrators to serve food to guests. In doing so, they manipulated people by creating debts, and obligating them to work and produce goods, especially foodstuffs, for them. I conclude that the Cebu regulatory unit consisted of several socio-political sections which were established on the patronage units between masters and dependents, and each section maintained an independent decision-making line. The enlargement of channel capacity for the Cebu regulatory unit was achieved by adding more sections to the regulatory unit. This mechanism provided the Cebu socio-cultural system with much flexibility for coping with uncertainty associated with long distance trade during the period in question.