Postgraduate Doctoral Research
Postgraduate research is a central and exciting part of the research culture of the School of Archaeology & Ancient History at the University of Leicester, which boasts doctoral students from across the UK and around the world. Staff pride themselves on supervising and doing the most for their students during their doctoral studies and beyond.
The postgraduate community (both on campus and Distance Learning) is thriving and stimulating, and is an active one in terms of giving papers and presenting posters, organising seminars and even conferences at Leicester. Recent and current students have edited two conferences volumes in 2010 (both published in our Monographs series). For recent project posters see links identified below.
Success is constant: recent PhD completions and passes include Melissa Edgar, Brooklynne Fothergill, Matthew Hobson, Matty Holmes, Mumtaz Yatoo and Muhammad Zahir (all campus-based) and Alan Spencer, Paige Peyton, Phil Newman, Brett Lenz and Gala Argent (by distance learning) - congratulations to all! Recent jobs include Dr Katie Huntley who has been appointed to the post of Associate Professor in Ancient History at Boise State University in Idaho, US, and Dr Alex Livarda appointed as Lecturer in Archaeobotany at the University of Nottingham.
As the entries below show, the range of topics supervised is substantial - matching the full range of expertises offered by our staff. Feel free to contact students about their work and individual staff members about possible topics for supervision.
(key for entries below: CB = Campus-Based, DL = Distance Learning. GTA = Graduate Teaching Assistant)
Name & Email |
THESIS TITLE AND ABSTRACT |
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Sophia Adams (CB) |
Late Hallstatt and early to middle La Tène brooches in Britain Using published and unpublished data from a variety of sources including excavations and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, I am building a database of early and middle Iron Age brooches found in Britain. This will form the basis for a re-evaluation of existing brooch typologies, analysis of brooch form and function, and evaluation of associated deposition practices. It is anticipated that the data will reveal patterns which may exhibit regional variations. These will be studied with the aim of elucidating our understanding of cultural and personal identity in the first millennium BC. |
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Graham Aldred (CB p/t) |
Worth their place? Nominative Determinism or Determinist Nominalism in the Anglo-Saxon East Midlands I am researching Anglo-Saxon settlements incorporating the name element worth, primarily in the East Midlands. Why do these places survive at a proportionally higher level than other settlement names? Why do they cluster near major historic and prehistoric boundaries, often at the junctions or on strategic places on long distance routeways? Given the importance of naming in the Anglo-Saxon world, is there particular meaning in worth and in the frequent incorporation of personal names? What elements of village morphology give clues to the nature of the original settlement? Is there anything remaining in the wider landscape which may indicate the significance of place? My research will combine linguistic and archaeological evidence to determine roots, role and growth, plus GIS to examine the detailed relationships between the places and their landscape. |
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Stan Berryman (DL) |
Site organization and function: dynamics of prehistoric settlement along the coast of Northern San Diego County After nearly 100 years of study, the prehistoric context of coastal southern California is still in its formative stages. This particularly is true along the northern coast of San Diego County. This thesis will question the standing assumption that there is a change from the Archaic Stage to Late Prehistoric Stage that can be identified archaeologically. This question of an Archaic Stage/Late Prehistoric Stage transition will be looked at within a landscape and taskscape perspective using data derived from intensive archaeological studies of the 125,000 acre MCB Camp Pendleton. |
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Chantal Bielmann (CB) (* project poster)
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Society and Identity/Identities: Religion, Church, and Urbanism in Switzerland AD 300-800 My research aims to explore the social and religious changes that impacted Switzerland from AD 300-800, a complex and dynamic period of transition and transformation. The focus will be to investigate urban and rural landscapes and their religious buildings, primarily that of churches and monasteries to understand the ‘Christianisation’ of the region - the manners in which Christianity began to shape not only religious lives of the provincial populations but also the region's landscapes. Main research questions revolve around whether there was a coherent, unified, cultural identity in fourth- to eighth-century Switzerland and how far did the alps and their valleys mould these. Ultimately the primary objective is to establish the identity/identities (social and religious) present in Switzerland during this period and produce a synthesizing work on a region notably absent in English-dominated studies. |
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Anna Booth (CB) (* Frome hoard report) |
Penannular Brooches: Depositions, Distributions and Identities Penannular brooches were manufactured and used for an unusually long period of time in Britain - from the later Iron Age, into the Roman and early medieval periods. This study (an AHRC Collaborative PhD in association with the British Museum) aims to draw new data together, analysing brooch distribution and deposition to shed light on, amongst other things, individual and group identity, regionality, inter-regional interaction and movement, ritual behaviour, and craft production and exchange in each period. The long lifespan of this brooch type also makes it a useful tool for generating insights into longer-term developments and continuities over the three periods as a whole. For example, the appearance of older curated penannular brooches and copies of earlier types in early medieval graves can potentially tell us about the contemporary population’s relationship with the past during this later period. |
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Carla Brain (CB p/t) |
The practice of “public religion” in private space in Pompeii My research focuses on religious/ritual artefacts and depictions in Pompeian households of gods in the Roman pantheon, such as Mars, Venus, Jupiter, as opposed to the household gods, lares. The temples and cult buildings in Pompeii show us what the inhabitants wanted to present to the emperor and visitors as their public displays of devotion, but it is important to see whether this corresponds to their private devotions as this may reveal the gods that individual Pompeian households found important. Key questions to address include: Do the wall paintings, sculpture/statuary and material culture of Pompeian households suggest that the Roman state pantheon were venerated in the home as much as in the public sphere? Was Venus, as patron goddess of the city, more common in the material culture of households than the other gods? Were different deities associated with any particular provenance or room in the house? Was religious paraphernalia visible from certain areas of the house? Was there a decline in public deities, gods from the Roman Pantheon, being represented in private households over time? I will examine to what extent religious artworks can be considered devotional or decorative by analysing the context in which they were found. |
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Antonino Crisa (CB)
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Archaeology in northern Sicily during the post-Unification period (1861-1915): a historical reconstruction based on a study of the sites of Tindari, Lipari and Tusa. This research examines the principal excavations at Tindari, Lipari and Tusa (Messina, Sicily) during Italy’s post-Unification period. The subject explores the history of 19th-century Sicilian archaeology and analyses substantial sets of unedited records from Italian archives. Particular themes of study are cultural heritage protection, excavation histories, sales of archaeological collections abroad and finds judicial attachments. I will compare archaeological research during the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the post-Unification period in northern Sicily; clarify relationships between the Ministry of Public Education, the Museum of Palermo and local government authorities; reconstruct the discovery and the export of Lipari finds to Britain; and contextualise this work in terms of European antiquarianism. I will also continue my earlier research on the history of archaeology in Sicily - see Numismatic and archaeological collecting in northern Sicily during the first half of the nineteenth century (BAR International Series 2411, Oxford 2012). http://leicester.academia.edu/AntoninoCrisà |
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Paul Dickinson (CB) |
Obsidian Tools as evidence for Value, trade and exchange: The microscopic analysis of use wear and residue on Araho’s type 1 obsidian tools from Willaumez, New Britain, (5900 – 3600 BP). The Pacific islands of remote Oceania are understood to have been colonised by an eastward wave of migrations originating in the Bismarck Archipelago around 3300 BP. There is increasing evidence that exchange networks played a key part in propelling and sustaining these transoceanic migrations. My Research aims to use microscopic examination of the use-wear and residues present on obsidian artefacts from New Britain to find evidence that such social systems in which the function of some objects was understood in terms of value and prestige were present in the Bismarck Archipelago at a time before the human dispersal outwards into the wider Pacific began |
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Hayley Dunn (CB) |
Roots of the British 1000 BC - AD 1000: Histories, Genetics, and The Peopling of Britain This is an inter-disciplinary PhD in which I will be drawing on my background in both archaeology and genetics to investigate cultural discontinuity verses population replacement in the British Isles covering the period 1000 BC to AD 1000. By comparing modern Y chromosome regional variation with archaeological data, this project also aims to establish whether this kind of genetic analysis has sufficient temporal resolution to make the distinction between the late mesolithic colonisation of the isles and subsequent Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions. This PhD forms part of the greater collaboration between the history, archaeology, genetics and linguistics departments. |
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Claudia Eicher (CB) |
Religious Transition in the Late Antique Countryside: Agency, Identity, and Change in a Gallic Province There is little engagement with theory in the archaeology of early Christianity. Identity is being discussed to a certain degree, but issues such as agency tend to be ignored. In the first part of my research project I will explore whether theories of agency and psychological theories of mind offer possibilities for understanding how religious identities are adapted, negotiated, and represented. In the second part of my project I will apply the theory and try to identify the relevant contexts for religious identity renegotiation as well as the heterogeneity of responses to the Christian religion in the late antique countryside of the Gallic diocese of Lugdunensis Senonia. |
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Ahmad Emrage (CB)
Marta Fanello (CB)
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Fortified farms and Roman forts in the region of the Wadi Kuf, Cyrenaica (eastern Libya) The main aim of the research is to gain a greater understanding of fortified structures patterns, their purpose, distribution, chronology and relationship with each other. In general, the project main questions are: what role did fortified farms play in the economy, were they a reflection of domestic security or a more organized system of collective defence? Did military fortifications and fortified farms exist at the same time and if they did, did they act together to form part of a greater regional system, to protect the main towns, cities and ports during periods of increasing tribal raids from the desert?
Later Iron Age Coinage in Britain: My project aims to examine the Later Iron Age coinage of Britain in order to reconstruct endogenous characters of the various communities throughout Britain. By choice of sample locations, whose nature is archaeologically defined and which are characterized by the presence of coins as hoards or single findings, I will investigate differences in production, distribution patterns, iconography, use and deposition as a means to identify features of the social structure, different forms of hierarchy and the representation of power, with particular attention to attitudes to change and reception of continental/Classical influences during the period from 150 BC to the Roman final conquest in AD 61. One key aim is to contribute to a wider comprehension of the actual issue of "Celticity" of the Iron Age communities of Britain. |
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Glen Farrugia (DL)
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Maltese Late Roman and Byzantine Funerary Architecture: A Multidisciplinary and Holistic Approach Important archaeological studies on the Late Roman and Byzantine Hypogea of the Maltese Islands have been conducted since the early 19th Century. This archaeological endeavour yielded significant information on the distribution, decoration, and dating of these sites, as well as on the different religions present on the Island during the 3rd to the 7th century AD. It seems however, that for the scholars who pioneered the study of the catacombs ‘absence of evidence’ was the same as ‘evidence of absence’. Therefore, to date, little importance was given to the interpretation and presentation of these sites. This research will try to shed more light on other aspects which were completely neglected and which might help to acquire greater knowledge of the social system present during the development of the Late Roman and Byzantine funeral sites. Furthermore, this research will see how different approaches in the field of archaeology, some of which are new but others more traditional, can help in the interpretation as well as in the public presentation of these sites. A multidisciplinary and holistic approach will be employed to understand the links between the cultural role and the architecture of the catacombs. |
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Mireya Gonzalez Rodriguez (CB) |
Death is another country: mortuary rituals and cultural identity in Fazzan, Libya This research project will identify and define mortuary practices in Fazzan (Libya), seeking to explain variability and diversity in relation to the creation of cultural identity and social memory. It has a special focus on the western Wadi al-Ajal (area surrounding the capital of the Garamantian civilisation, Garama), where Charles Daniels’ surveys in the 1960s and 1970s estimated over 120,000 visible tombs. A significant proportion of these monuments relates to the ‘Garamantian’ funerary landscape, which varies from simple cairns to mudbrick pyramid tombs. The funerary landscapes of the Garamantes (c.500BC to c.AD500) provide a wide variety of cemetery and monumental typologies, including tombs, stelae and offering tables, and distinct burial forms. The analysis of the space (cemeteries), place (funerary monuments) and burial rituals (including the treatment of the body; preparation of disposal facility; material culture), within a contemporary theoretical framework, based on recent ideas and developments in mortuary archaeology, would aid in gaining a deeper understanding of the communities living in the Wadi, their representations of social and cultural identity and belief systems. |
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Sergio Gonzalez Sanchez (CB) (* Project poster) |
Roman-Barbarian Interaction: "Myths" and national traditions in archaeological interpretation in North-Western Europe My research involves the critical comparison of the ways in which various national scholarly traditions in northern European countries have understood and represented their origins in the Roman era, with special attention to the 'filtered' historical and archaeological interpretations given to the historical episodes of Roman-Barbarian interaction in the northern frontiers of the Empire and beyond from 50 BC to AD 250. While my main case studies are The Netherlands and Denmark - these being representative of two very different types of historical roots and formations - I will analyse other areas (notably Britain, Germany, lower Scandinavia) as part of a wider geographical and archaeological context in NW Europe; I also reflect critically on my own Spanish national tradition of archaeological interpretation. The analyses of regional and European interpretations will thus enable a detailed profile of the uses and misuses of Roman archaeology across this area and timespan. |
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Rebecca Gordon (CB) |
Feeding the city: zooarchaeological perspectives on urban provisioning in post-medieval England (AD 1500-1900) Animal bones are ubiquitous archaeological finds and their analysis can inform upon a range of past human activities including: diet and subsistence, craft and industry, religion/ritual and economic regimes. Despite this, the study of animal bones in British archaeology remains exclusive to the earlier periods, resulting in a lack of detailed analyses of faunal material from the post-medieval period. As a period that witnessed immense social and economic transformation there is a unique opportunity to use animal bones to understand the socio-economic repercussions of the changes in this era. Through integration of zooarchaeological and historical data, this research aims to reveal how human-animal relationships can inform upon: social status, livestock ‘improvement’ and food consumption behaviours in post-medieval England. By creating a database of faunal data and conducting primary analysis on post-medieval animal bones from Chester, this research hopes to enrich our understanding of the populations and evolution of our modern cities. |
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Poul Graversen (DL) |
The Archaeology of Free African Americans in the Antebellum United States This study will be analyzing the settlement patterns of freed slaves and free African Americans in the antebellum United States. This research will be looking at the socio-economic, political, and religious reasons behind the placement and layout of these settlements. Various aspects of the lives of freed slaves and free African American people will be analyzed via the archaeological record. The ramifications of extended exposure to European influence by the formerly enslaved and free African American Diaspora is also an important component of this research. The new information gathered in this study will add to the debate over the emerging African American culture during this time period. |
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David Griffiths (CB p/t)
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The Social and Economic Impact of Artificial Light in the Roman world The uniquely human activity of consuming artificial light has received little attention in studies of pre-industrial societies. ‘After-dark’ activities are structured by access to artificial light. It changes the lives of people, effecting behaviour and perceptions of objects and space. The Roman period witnessed significant levels of urbanisation and economic growth, consuming artificial light on a scale never seen before. The aim of this study is to assess the social and economic significance of the consumption of artificial light, testing the hypothesis that a reliable and affordable supply of fuel and lighting equipment was a major constituent in Roman urban living. |
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Frank Hargrave (CB p/t) |
Late Iron Age shrines in context The discovery of the Iron Age shrine at Hallaton, Leicestershire has questioned many of the assumptions of religious sites during the Iron Age. In light of Hallaton I am researching British shrines in the context of their European counterparts, focusing on their zennith in the decades before and during the Roman invasion. I hope to explore their role in society and perhaps even shed some light on the mysteries of the religion/s of Iron Age Britain. |
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Mohamed Hesein (CB) |
Bridging the Eastern and Western Mediterranean: The coastal sites of Cyrenaica during the Roman period My PhD explores the archaeology of the coastal settlements in Cyrenaica which is located in north-eastern of Libya during the Roman period. The research aims to obtain a comprehensive understanding of maritime activities and Cyrenaica's role in wider Roman economic activities. Also to be examined are those trade routes between the coastal settlements and the major harbours lying in Mediterranean basin and the hinterland of Cyrenaica. |
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Margaret Hilditch (DL) (*project poster) |
The Gardens of Ancient Greece Whilst Roman gardens have been widely researched, their Greek predecessors are under-explored and largely unknown. My research will investigate the nature of differing types of Greek gardens and examine their practices. ‘Garden’ is necessarily being interpreted as a wide-ranging term, covering several different applications and interpretations, from humble vegetable plot to extensive crop-producing estates, from religious grove to Adonis gardens. Additionally, it seeks to understand Greek gardens within the context of their whole environment: not only physical and economic, but also social, political and religious, with an especial interest in gender and the garden and in the question of pleasure gardens. Evidence will be taken from the full range of literature, vase iconography, archaeological rural and urban sites, epigraphy, and linguistic usage, which will allow comparisons to be made between practical reality and recorded perceptions. |
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Ruth Humphreys (CB)
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The Kingdom of Kush: the archaeology of its development This PhD was undertaken as a collaborative venture between the University of Leicester and the British Museum. It will undertake fundamental work relating to the development of Bronze Age Nubia (northern Sudan), utilising largely unpublished data including information gathered during recent rescue fieldwork in the region (Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project [MDASP], concluded in 2008). My research focuses on several cemetery sites excavated during the Amri to Kirbekan Survey which span across several phases of Kerma development. Situated in the area surrounding the 4th Nile cataract, these provide a strong sample from which to test and enhance existing ceramic typologies and seriation relating to early Bronze Age practice in the Sudan. |
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Raminder Kaur (CB p/t) |
How important were the roles of royal patronage and lay donations in the rise and establishment of Buddhism in early historic South Asia? The research aims to examine this question through a comparison of sacred and secular literary texts and archaeological evidence, such as architecture, inscriptions, coins and art. Specifically, I examine what Buddhist texts say about donations, how this is reflected archaeologically and what the role of the Buddhist Order was in promoting dhamma to society. The portrayal of certain kings, such as Asoka and Menander, as supporters of Buddhism will be looked at against their portrayals in other religious and secular texts, and the archaeological evidence available to support or refute the claims made. The role of royalty was important in the rise and establishment of Buddhism as a major belief system, therefore an examination into how rulers might have encouraged lay support is necessary. The motivation behind support, such as the benefits spiritually, politically, socially and economically, and what the reasons were for patronage and donations will form a part of the research. There will be a comparison of peripheral areas of the subcontinent, such as Gandhara and Sri Lanka, with the core area of Buddhism in the Gangetic basin. A key question is what constitutes patronage – is it merely supporting the followers of Buddhism or did it involve embracing the faith personally? To what extent did supporting Buddhism lead to the creation of ‘Buddhism’ as a distinct belief system from other heterodox sects and the orthodox faith? |
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Heather Keeble (CB p/t) |
Roman finds in Victorian and Edwardian newspapers My research considers how the reporting of Roman finds in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century newspapers reflected people's understanding of the urban archaeology of the Roman world and the views of their own past. This period saw huge changes in the understanding of Roman Britain, which is evident in the writings of scholars, politicians and novelists and has already been documented. I intend to focus on the understanding of the wider population rather than just the learned few. By the late nineteenth century newspapers were being read by even the poorest in society and as a source of contemporary information they should highlight the population's interests and concerns, and therefore offer the chance to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their views on Roman Britain and archaeology in general. |
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Ijaz Khan (CB)
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Settlement History of Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan My research aims to identify a range of sites with which to characterize the chronology of settlement in the region and thus construct a broad settlement history of Lower Dir. I will be carrying out original research using methodologies which are either new or under-utilized in Pakistan archaeology in order to characterize the settlement of Lower Dir both temporally and chronologically and determine key settlement trends. I will be using the site of Timergaraha in Dir (excavated and published by Dani in the 1960s) as a case study in order to consider the so called Gandharan Grave sites within the wider landscape. There are many question about these late Bronze/ early Iron Age grave sites, and the presence of the nearby associated a settlement site provides an opportunity to consider how the people living in this site and using the cemetery interacted with their landscape and any other contemporary sites in the area. |
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Rebecca Kibble (CB) |
Digital Datasets and Faunal Assemblages: Using GIS to digitise Multi-Variate Bone Assemblage Data across Complex Spatio-temporal Domains within Multi-scalar Platforms My research aims at creating and analysing a digital dataset that can incorporate complex and multi-strand statistical data formulated from the identification, analysis and interpretation stages of archaeo-faunal assemblages at a variety of scales. The main purposes of my research are two-fold; first, to create a digital dataset that statistically amalgamates whole archaeo-faunal assemblage data within a GIS platform capable of much deeper spatio-temporal visualisation and analysis at multiple scales. Second is to illustrate the capabilities of GIS in terms of successfully creating, visualising and spatio-temporally querying multi-variate assemblage data, fully exploiting the research potential of GIS applications specific to the archaeological discipline. |
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Alexander Kirkish (DL) |
Bead Usage among the Historic Kumeyaay of Eastern San Diego County The focus of my research will be to describe and explain the unusual spike in the number of shell and glass beads at selected sites during the Historic Period in San Diego County. The reason for this apparent increase in bead use is problematic; however, one particular explanation which I favor deals with the profound impact the Spanish colonial presence had on Native populations and the resultant transformations made by indigenous groups. It is my belief that the demographic disruption ensuing from the Spanish incursion created a cascading effect leading to a plethora of changes in Native exchange systems, social structure, ideology, and settlement patterns. |
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Antonio Leonardis (CB) |
Uncovering Indigenous Ethnic Identities in Pre-Roman Italy: A Case Study on the Messapians in Puglia, South-east Italy My research will question the nature of the identity of Messapians, an indigenous people of pre-Roman south-east Italy in the region of modern Puglia. Is this identity based in individual settlements or did it extend across a larger region identified in the literary tradition, both ancient and modern? I am looking back to the origins of this civilization before the arrival of the Romans, to periods of less-impressive or monumental material culture, and will see if this identity persists beyond the individual settlement. During this period, and in the more remote regions where the settlement of my case study is located, much of the material remains occur in a rural, domestic context. I will investigate the agrarian culture, including cooking ware production and usage, domestic activities such as weaving, food consumption and landscape as areas where the proto-indigenous culture manifests itself. Does the material cultural confirm this larger, extended regional identity? I will focus on ongoing excavations, as case-studies, at the sites of Muro Tenente near Mesagne and Latiano, Brindisi, San Pancrazio Salentino, Li Castelli, near Lecce and Amastuola, near Taranto. |
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Anna Lewis (CB) AHRC Collaborative Award |
Free Reins and Guiding Hands: Iron Age and early Roman chariot fittings from western and central Britain Terrets (chariot rein-rings) occur frequently in the archaeological record of Iron Age and Roman Britain, but have received comparatively little attention. No new studies of terrets have been undertaken for several decades, and the studies that do exist have focused on northern and south-eastern Britain. Terrets can show considerable regional variation, and the development of the Portable Antiquities Scheme has brought to light large numbers of terrets from western and central Britain; these will be the focus of the PhD. Records of terrets throughout the region of study will be drawn together into a database, and it is hoped that analysis and comparison of the artefacts will enable new understandings of British society during the Iron Age-Roman transition. Areas of research will include technological and artistic development, expressions of regional identity, and responses to Roman invasion. The project is an AHRC-funded collaborative doctoral award in association with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. |
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Renata MacDougal (DL)
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The Archaeology of Family Ritual, Remembrance and the Dead in Second Millennium Mesopotamia Defining the relationship of family members to their deceased in ancient Mesopotamia involves seeking archaeological evidence for funerary ritual as well as care for the dead long after their transformation to etemmu (spirit or ghost). Despite traditional portrayals of this relationship as involving apotropaic ritual in defense from hostile ghosts, modern death studies and ethnographical research suggest remembrance and drawing the deceased family member into current memory to be a more actual occurrence. This study endeavors to clarify the real lasting bond the ancient Mesopotamian family created with their deceased and examine the nature of the evidence for remembrance and ritual associated with incorporating the dead into the living descendant line. |
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Tammy Macenka (CB) |
Society and Politics in Iron Age East Yorkshire My thesis will seek to establish what constitutes the “Arras Culture”. Can this label be applied to areas beyond East Yorkshire, long thought to be the only area that square-ditched burials existed? If square-ditched burials documented in North and West Yorkshire are part of the same cultural manifestation, would it significantly change the way we look at the Iron Age of Yorkshire? I plan to look at the society in terms of social structure/stratification as well as how the society may have functioned. In doing so, I plan to examine the human remains that come from a variety of contexts, such as cemeteries, settlements, hillforts and isolated burials. Where this differs from other studies is that I will not confine my examination to the major cemeteries but will include all data on human remains. Previous studies have concentrated on specific aspects or on specific cemeteries, while others have offered “overarching” perspectives but there has been nothing done to tie these various aspects together to form a coherent narrative of what society would have looked like during the Middle to Late Iron Age in the Yorkshire region. |
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Katie Mackey (CB) |
Making and Using Cheddar Points: Their implications for Late Upper Palaeolithic Britain The aim of my research is to examine the role of Creswellian and Cheddar points in expressing an embedded social vision, unifying the hunters of Britain and differentiating them from possibly related hunter-gathers on the European mainland. It seeks to examine the boundaries between social networks, specifically looking at intergroup relations between Britain and northwest Europe. Cheddar points in Britain plus European assemblages with Creswellian affinities will be examined using the concept of the chaine operatoire, with the specific aim of understanding morphological variability but also to embed lithic technology into wider aspects of human behaviour and organization. |
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Meghann Mahoney (CB) |
Meat Consumption in a Small Town: an examination of Romano-British dietary choices and identities at Ashton My research focuses on the complex ideologies of food production, supply, and consumption in the Roman world through the primary analysis and interpretation of a substantial assemblage of animal bones from the Romano-British small town of Ashton in Northamptonshire. The complete excavation of one seventh of this small town presents a unique opportunity to explore fine-grained spatial and temporal patterns of diet and animal husbandry. Drawing together the results of this assemblage with anthropological theories connected to human-animal interactions, I will disentangle the complex web of social and economic drivers that influenced stock raising, meat supply, and household consumption in Roman small towns. |
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Matthew Mandich (CB) |
Power and Place: Imperial Residences in Rome’s South-eastern suburbium (AD 14-394) |
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Ian Marshman (CB) |
Making your Mark in 'Britannia': the use of intaglios and their role in the production, and presentation of identity under the Roman Empire Signet rings offer a unique resource for understanding the way new identities were constructed and presented amongst the elite during the Roman period. They are a microcosm for Romano British society, reflecting everything from imperialism, diaspora, acculturation, long distance trade, Graeco-Roman high culture and art, right down to personal religious devotions, love and marriage, entertainment, agriculture, pets, and individual personal aspirations. By considering the context and deposition of such rings we can see how the different communities of the province presented themselves and how this changed over time. Do such rings really reflect homogonous empire wide imperial fashions? Did soldiers favour the same gods as farmers? For whom was love and marriage most important? Why were there so many parrots? Who preferred which colour of gemstone? What imagery did country folk prefer, and did it differ to fashions in towns? |
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Jess McCullough (DL)
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Religious Identity and Transition in Settlement Era (CE 950-1050) Norse Greenland The Icelandic sagas depict Greenland as a wholly pagan settlement, and its conversion the result of missionary activity instigated by the crown of Norway and carried out by the family of Leifr Eiriksson. Archaeologically, however, very little in the way of Greenland’s pagan past has been discovered. This, coupled with the lack of a traditional conversion narrative in the style of Bede or other medieval chronicler, leaves the pages of Greenland’s conversion curiously blank. By analyzing the dating and spread of private churches in Greenland, burial customs, DNA evidence and genealogical data I aim to bring this blurry period into better focus and secure Greenland a more developed place in the field of North Atlantic conversion studies. |
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Doug Mitcham (CB) |
Fields, farms and megaliths; unravelling the unique Neolithic - Early Bronze Age landscapes of Exmoor, SW Britain. |
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Sue Mitchell (DL)
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At the Water’s Edge: An Exploration into the Social Significance of Waterscape Placed Rock Markings in Northern British Columbia, Canada My research explores the social significance of the placement and imagery of rock markings found in waterscape environments throughout the northern interior of British Columbia, Canada. I employ both archaeological and ethnographic methods as ways to explore the visual presence of rock markings at a landscape and a taskscape scale. I will investigate differences and similarities within the iconography of the rock markings, the distribution patterns of the rock marking sites across the study area, and the ways in which traditional peoples of the past used these waterscape environments. My primary aim is to understand the social role of the rock markings after the images were placed onto the rock surface. Even though this social role has undoubtedly changed over time, it continues into the present day. |
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Jason Morris (CB) |
SHAPING THE EMPIRE: Agrimensores, Emperors, and the Creation of the Roman Provincial Identity This study considers how the Roman government from the dictatorship of Caesar to the death of Alexander Severus employed the agrimensores or land surveyors to shape the empire and create a dialogue of power with the people in the provinces. The study has four main questions: 1. what was the nature of the relationship between the emperor or his representatives and the agrimensores? 2. what was the nature of the relationship between the agrimensores as technical specialists and the people of the empire whose lands they surveyed? 3. how did the imperial government make use of the agrimensores’ skills, and under what circumstances did they undertake surveying work? This broad question will touch on issues such as boundary disputes and the problematic question of whether or not the agrimensores were involved in the collection of cartographic data for the purposes of mapping. 4. how did these surveying activities shape the relationship between the various local peoples and the imperial government at Rome? |
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Jerolyn Morrison (DL) |
The Art and Archaeology of Cooking: The Case of Mochlos, Crete The variety of cook-pots found in the archaeological record supports the argument that there is more to cook-pots than just their measureable properties. I have designed a research program to investigate how one can use cook-pots within their archaeological contexts to explore the dynamic relationship between cooking and society. This approach develops a diachronic and technological typology of cook-pots, which will demonstrate experientially-- by means of ethnography and experimental archaeology - how cook-pots are reflective of society. This model will be applied to the Mochlos material, a multiphase Cretan site that dates from the Bronze Age to the Roman-Early Byzantine periods. |
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Niccolò Mugnai (CB) |
Public buildings in Mauretania Tingitana (Morocco). Architecture, decoration and patronage across the late Mauretanian and Roman provincial eras My thesis investigates the architectural decoration of public buildings in Mauretania Tingitana (northern Morocco), from the 1st century BC up to the 3rd century AD. Seven urban sites will be the focus of attention: Iulia Valentia Banasa (Sidi Ali bou Djenoun); Iulia Constantia Zilil (Dchar Jdid); Lixus (Tchemmich, Larache); Sala (Chellah, Rabat); Volubilis (Ksar Pharaoun); Thamusida (Sidi Ali ben Ahmed); and Tingi (Tangier). The study of public architecture has the potential to reveal the character of political engagement within this territory and to highlight transformations that took place across the Mauretanian and Roman eras. The first step of the research is a general analysis of urbanism and architecture, mostly based on bibliographic and archival study. Epigraphic sources are fundamental to identify the patronage of the works: imperial initiatives; private donations; and constructions financed by local authorities. Next will be the recording of material evidence in situ, enabling me to create a typology of the architectural decoration and to question aspects related to the execution of the ornament and to the cultural background of the stonemasons: did they adhere to Roman official models, or were local traditions deep-rooted over the province? Furthermore I will evaluate the persistence of pre-Roman legacies, such as the Punic and Hellenistic substratum which continued to play a major role in North Africa throughout the course of Roman domination. |
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Erin Ann Nell (DL)
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Greece's Debt to Egypt: the transmission of astronomical knowledge applied to architectural alignments Scholars have long believed that ancient Egyptian astronomy did not evolve further than simple celestial observations paired with the activities of ancient Egyptian deities. As such the modern academic world thinks that the inspiration for ancient Greek mathematical astronomy came from the cultures of Mesopotamia exclusively, and not from Egypt. As the history of astronomy and mathematics are rooted in literary evidence (which, for scientific astronomy, is lacking in Egypt), my thesis explores another form of scientific evidence - the astronomical alignments of the monuments of Egypt and Greece and modes of orientation - in order to determine if there are similarities in alignment patterns and celestial focus between the temples of Greece and Egypt. If so this may indicate that the Greeks borrowed Egyptian astronomical temple alignment technology, thus making Egypt, as well as Mesopotamia, contributors to the development of mathematical astronomy in Greece. |
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Sarah Newstead (CB) |
Bacalhau from Newfoundland: Connecting English and Portuguese Participation in an Early Modern Fishery My research explores what effects the burgeoning 17th-century Newfoundland cod trade had on long-standing dynamics between English and Portuguese merchants, consumers and producers. The use of the Newfoundland fishery as a research orientation point will allow me to focus on important facets of Anglo-Luso interaction that lack previous intense study and the influence of a distinctly Canadian economy on the early modern Atlantic world. England and Portugal have a complex history that stretches back to the 12th century. This project is important because it will introduce material culture evidence into the subject's historiography and will challenge previous assumptions about the changing nature of Anglo-Luso relationships during the 17th century. My research will enhance the general worldwide knowledge of early modern Portuguese coarse ceramics, which, when found in contexts outside of Portugal, suffer from limited research, yet comprise a significant component of archaeological collections associated with early modern Atlantic trade. |
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Laura Nicotra (DL) |
The figurative programme of the Trajan friezes in the Imperial Forums of Trajan and Caesar During the excavations made in the Forum of Trajan in Rome many fragments of figurative friezes and so-called “architraval friezes” with sphinxes, griffins, victories killing bulls and cupids were recovered. Some similar friezes with cupids where found also in the Forum of Caesar, restored at the time of Trajan. Why were griffins used to decorate almost all the buildings of the complex of the Forum of Trajan? Why did sphinxes decorate only one of those buildings, the Basilica Ulpia? Is this a communication of messages of political propaganda through the decoration ? And what is the relationship between the choice of the decorative motifs of the friezes and the buildings they decorated? My research project aims to: 1. Retrace the history of the figurative motifs also decorating the friezes of the Forums of Trajan and Caesar (at the time of the restoration of Trajan); 2. Catalogue fragments with these figurative decorations; 3. Study how these symbolic-decorative motifs where used in the art of imperial propaganda; 4. Compare the friezes of the Forum of Trajan and the Forum of Caesar to ones decorating other imperial monuments in Rome and elsewhere; 5. Connect the meaning of the friezes to the use of the buildings they decorated. |
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Julia Nikolaus (CB) |
Roman Funerary Reliefs and North African Identity: A Contextual and Comparative Investigation of Iconography in Tripolitania and Beyond In Tripolitania, Roman period cemeteries are rich in mausolea decorated with funerary reliefs and statues that depict ritual, religious and symbolic scenes, as well as representations of daily life. Research on these reliefs has been predominantly conducted on scenes correlating with Roman or Punic artistic norms, with the focus on individual sites or monuments. As a result, many aspects that influence or determine the choice of relief depictions on funerary monuments have received very limited attention despite their potential to elucidate much about localized traditions, religion and rituals in and beyond the boundaries of the North African Roman provinces. I will investigate how the iconography of funerary reliefs reflects local identities and/or ethnicity rather than simply being a by-product of ‘Romanisation’ and ‘Imperialism’. What symbolism underlies the reliefs in the different geographical areas of Tripolitania? how can they be compared and interpreted and to what extent can we speak of adoption, resistance or continuation of local traditions within these images? How evident are earlier Punic influences? Does trans-Saharan contact influence these depictions? My study will incorporate approaches also from anthropology and modern sociology to interrogate the data in a new way and widen the ‘traditional’ avenues of enquiry. |
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Bori Nyiri (CB)
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Chasing dragons through time and space: changing representations of Martabani storage jars, Sarawak, East Malaysia. Martabani storage jars were first produced during the Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) in kilns of South China and North Vietnam. Their primary function was to store fresh water and consumables on trading ships carrying their goods towards India, the Near East and not least Southeast Asia. As soon as these large stoneware vessels decorated with fierce dragon designs reached the coastal towns of Borneo, they became sought after objects in their own right and were highly prized by many indigenous groups across the region. My research area is located in the heart of Borneo, in the Kelabit Higlands of present day Sarawak (East Malaysia), where these objects were important heirloom pieces passed down through generations and also used as burial containers in pre-Christian cemeteries. This cross-disciplinary research focuses on the changing representations of dragon jars in funerary, ethnographic and museum contexts in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial historical settings and aims to explore the concept of material culture and the notion of value in a broader perspective. |
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Kate Parks (née Nicholson) (CB)
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Arable practice in the Iron Age and Roman East of England Agriculture was the occupation of the majority of the Iron Age and Roman population of Britain. It was central to everyday practice, subsistence, and economy, and a major factor in Iron Age social and political organisation. Variation in arable practice is therefore expected to reflect wider themes in the archaeological record. This research uses data from Iron Age and Roman (c. 800 BC – AD 400) archaeobotanical studies from the East of England to identify variation and interpret patterns in arable practice. Specific lines of inquiry are the species cultivated, the crop processing derivation of archaeobotanical samples, and the weed ecological evidence for cultivation practice. |
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Elisa Queenan (DL) |
My research will attempt to gauge the value of slavery in Roman Egypt and Antebellum Virginia. My examination will be conducted through a cost benefit analysis of slaves in the urban and rural setting compared to their free wage counterparts in four realms of society. The investigation will take place in a social, economic, governmental, and financial sphere in order to fully examine the implications and affect of slavery on the individual and society. The objective of this research is to address the following questions: 1) Was slavery the most cost effective initial option for those who wished to accrue laborers? 2) What were the costs associated with slavery from a financial, economic, and social perspective? 3) What were the benefits associated with slavery from a financial, economic, and social perspective? 4) How did the fluctuations of urban slaves affect free wage artisans and what were the costs and benefits correlated with maintaining urban slaves? 5) What value did slaves provide for the government? |
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Marcella Raiconi (CB) GTA
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Travelling objects: commercial relationships and cross-cultural interaction in the Western Mediterranean in the Archaic Age My research focuses on issues related to the interaction among the indigenous populations of Western Mediterranean regions like Southern France and North-Eastern Spain and foreign incomers like Phoenician, Etruscan and Phocean/Massaliote traders between the late VII and the early V century BC, a period of great innovation and changes in both of these regions. In particular, I consider the ways in which some of the objects acquired through these encounters were integrated in the material culture of these regions, the contexts in which they have been integrated and the possible dynamics and networks of relationships that might have been part of their 'journeys'. |
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Kelly Reed (CB)
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Farmers in Transition: The archaeobotanical analysis of the Carpathian Basin from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age From the late Neolithic through to the late Bronze Age we see the occurrence of many socio-cultural and economic changes in European societies, such as the introduction of metallurgy, the growth of trade and evidence for increasing centralisation of power. Agriculture is central to everyday life in this time period, and must have both underpinned these developments and been changed by them. By examining the botanical remains of arable crops and weeds from Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia I will investigate the changes in agriculture that took place then and how these articulated with wider archaeological evidence from the region. |
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Carmen G. Sanchez Fortoul |
The economy of the Late Postclassic Maya: a regional perspective based on the analysis of ceramic production of northern Yucatan, Mexico My research examines the nature of Maya society during the last pre-Hispanic period, the Late Postclassic, a time of deep transformations in Maya society. The objectives of this study are twofold. One aim is to contribute to a better understanding of Late Postclassic economy by examining ceramic production techniques, patterns of technological variations, and pottery provenance and distribution. In particular, this study examines technological variations in the light of the observed homogenization of ceramic style over the study region. The second aim is to contribute to a better understanding of Maya identities, technological traditions and communities of shared practices, and the articulation among those communities. This thesis adopts the principle that pottery is the physical representation of a complex context of historical, social, political, and ideological meanings. Therefore, variations in pottery technologies represent variations in the cultural context and may uncover identities, traditions, and social boundaries. The results of this research are compared to current propositions for the organization of Late Postclassic ceramic production and distribution in northern Yucatán informing current Late Postclassic perspectives. |
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Giacomo Savani (CB) |
The Evolution and the Role of Private Baths in Roman Britain: An Elite Becoming and Being Roman This research seeks to contribute to and enhance our current understanding of the processes of cultural change in Britain through the study of private baths and their diffusion in Roman Britain, as a social and cultural phenomenon linked to the appearance of public baths. How far do these baths provide an index of Romanisation or how far do they denote an evolution of society within the period of Roman rule? Are these baths a reflection as much of society as of technological and cultural availability? When do they appear in both town and country private contexts? When is their peak and how and why do they evolve? A key target will be to compile a complete catalogue of private baths in Southern Britain, bringing together previously disparate forms of evidence, in order to identify both regional and chronological developments. There will be consideration of specific case study areas to assess better the cultural milieu. To help understand this evolution and reconstruct its origins, comparison will be made with examples from other provinces, notably Gaul and Spain. The British evidence will be evaluated in the context of recent scholarship regarding the adoption and adaptation of 'Roman' forms from the pre-conquest period onwards. Finally, an analysis of both the artistic and architectural aspects of private baths, helped by innovative computer reconstructions, will seek to give fuller 'life' to these bath complexes to understand their design and working. |
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Michaela Senkova (CB) |
Healing in Archaic and Classical Greece My PhD focuses on the roles of gods and sanctuaries in healing, asking the question of how people dealt with illness in Archaic and Classical Greece. In particular I am interested in answering how people sought healing through the supernatural/divine. I approach this from the viewpoint of individuals as ‘consumers’ of healing, exploring what options were available in the Greek world based on region, wealth and gender, beyond ‘professional’ doctors or the big Asclepian cults that were perhaps patronized more by elites or by people who lived in close proximity to them. I ask how ‘ordinary’ people who would not have had a big Asclepian cult nearby used sanctuaries to other deities whose roles included healing, addressing the issue of popularity these places would have enjoyed, who specifically used them and how, and whether specific health conditions based on gender and/or age and life stage could be linked to particular religious cults. The envisaged result is a comprehensive and contextualized study of the choices available for people who sought healing. |
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Gavin Speed (CB p/t) |
Towns in the dark? Archaeologies of urbanism from late Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England Did towns fail after Rome in Britain? Were these ruinous shells really neglected by Early Saxon settlers and leaders? Certainly, the traditional view of urban decline and desertion needs serious and through reassessment, since increasing archaeological evidence now indicates levels of continued occupation, with major changes in the use of urban space. By using selected case studies across England, the research builds upon my professional and academic experience, to explore, question, and analyse, the locations and usage of urban space during this dramatic period of change. |
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Dorothea Stavrou (DL)
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Greek identity under new management: the gymnasion and the ephebeia in the Hellenistic East My thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of how Hellenic identity was constructed and negotiated in the new kingdoms of the post-Alexander Hellenistic East, in the Ptolemaic, Attalid and Seleucid kingdoms. Focusing on the institutions of ephebeia (youth training) and gymnasion (which are often taken as institutions of the Greek communities there) I will examine how these institutions were set up in the Greek and non-Greek communities of the east. The different physical character and changes in these institutions in addition to the alteration of the nature of these institutions in different kingdoms and locations show that these institutions were not static but changed depending on different parameters each time. The participation of non-Greeks in the institutions of ephebeia and gymnasion and their access to Hellenic culture and paideia (education) is a subject of negotiation of identities. Their participation in these institutions was not only an educational issue but also had social, economic and religious features. |
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Beverley Straube (DL)
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Surprises from the soil: unexpected objects from Jamestown and what they reveal about life in England’s first colony This study will use the vast quantity of closely dated artefacts from recent excavations of James Fort in Jamestown, Virginia, to elucidate aspects of life in the early colony that are not fully understood by the historical documents. Three thematic groupings of material culture - economics, religion and exotica - will be considered within the social and cultural context of Jamestown and in comparison with evidence from other early New World sites and contemporary sites in England and Ireland. |
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Clay Swindell (DL)
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Role of Animal Based Subsistence among Carolina Algonkian Communities from the Late Woodland Period (A.D. 800 to 1585) through the Contact Period (1585-1650). There have been no comprehensive zooarchaeological studies conducted on Carolina Algonkian archaeological assemblages despite decades of data collection for that purpose. The Carolina Algonkians were a sub-group of American Indians related to the maritime adapted Coastal Algonkians who were distributed along the east coast of North America from Canada to North Carolina. At the time of sixteenth-century European exploration in the region, Carolina Algonkian communities were arranged into a group of small hereditary chiefdoms. English accounts from the period described their subsistence strategies as heavily reliant on maize agriculture and placed minimal importance on the role of animal-based subsistence. These accounts and those that followed represent a terminal snapshot of Algonkian subsistence practices and are not representative of the entire 800-year sequence. The temporal bias of these early accounts and the lack of comprehensive studies have lead to confusion in our dietary reconstruction of the Carolina Algonkians. What were the food resources that contributed to the development, support, and decline of these chiefdoms? Were coastal environments alone, productive enough for the task? These are a few of the questions this research will attempt to address. |
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Eric Tourigny (CB) |
Upper Canada foodways: An analysis of faunal remains recovered from urban household and rural farmstead sites in the area of York (Toronto), AD 1794-1900. The study of faunal remains recovered from North American historic period sites represents an increasingly popular subject of study. This project deals with the analysis of animal bones recovered through various CRM projects in southern Ontario. It represents an effort to provide a nuanced understanding of foodways and subsistence patterns in the city of York (now Toronto) for the period between AD 1794 and 1900. The project will provide a critical appraisal of food consumption and provisioning practices and their relationship with social identities throughout this period. Analyses will involve the comparison of urban household deposits to rural farmstead deposits alongside the integration of documentary sources. |
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Mark Van Der Enden (CB) |
The influence of human choice (agency) on the formation of ceramic distribution patterns in the Hellenistic / Early Imperial East. My research wishes to contribute to a better understanding of economy and society in the Hellenistic / Early Imperial East by acquiring insights in the way ceramic assemblages are created and the influence of agency upon these processes. Both phases of research will be embedded in a middle range theory from which the functionality of Hellenistic / Early Imperial ceramic assemblages can be explored and its variety in composition explained. |
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Daan Van Helden (CB) |
Exploring the limits of the archaeological study of identity I will be working to explore the limits of the study of past identity using archaeological evidence. It is hoped that this project will make an important contribution to debates about investigating identity in archaeology. I will mainly be using Roman material, but will also take approaches from other branches of archaeology into account. By analyzing the approaches that have been adopted so far to study identity using archaeological material, I hope to demonstrate the usefulness, or otherwise of various approaches and methodologies. Also, I hope to develop a method to quantify the success of archaeologically studying identity to determine at what level, if at all, identity can be studied most fruitfully using archaeological material. |
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Anna Walas (CB) GTA |
Early imperial Roman military bases as social spaces My research traces relationship sbetween the architectural setting of the Roman military base and the social dynamics of military communities. The remains of Roman military bases comprise a huge volume of data rarely problematized or theorized, traditionally understood within the framework of literary sources and unit organization. Earlier agendas address the spatial nature of Roman military bases in a very selective manner, rarely expanding beyond lists of buildings. The role of spatial setting was a complex two-way process: official interest and the soldiers' perception of unit identity fed into each other. Military order materialized in architectural form was a very strong source of power - institution reaffirmed on daily bases its presence in the minds of the people who lived in the spaces, while the soldiers themselves endowed their bases with special value. My thesis explores the social reproduction of the organisation of military spaces, their ideological significance, the relationship between institutional identity and the built form, the impact of the size of the base on its functioning and shaping of relations between people and the role of the temporal dimension in the garrison life. |
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Emily Williams (DL) |
Stories in Stone: Memorialization, the Creation of History and the Role of Preservation This project focuses on the study of two 19th century tombstones excavated in Williamsburg, Virginia. Carved for a manumitted slave and her father, the tombstones have been: in use, discarded, buried, uncovered, reburied, excavated, and part of an ongoing conservation effort. Their histories raise a number of questions. What is the role of memory in creating identity? What happens to memory when identity is lost? How do we create history through the preservation of memory and identity? What role does conservation play in creating or cementing identities? Do the choices that we make in preserving objects affect identity? It is clear that our choices not to preserve an object may result in a loss of identity or may reflect the creation of our own present identities rather than preserving past identities; but is it also possible that we preserve materials at the cost of memory, identity, history and historical truth? My thesis seeks to examine these questions by studying the tombstones and their relations to broader communities both locally and regionally over time. |
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Jack F. Williams (DL)
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Archaeological Ethics in Armed Conflicts Archaeology is no stranger to human conflict. In addition to the personal danger risked by an archaeologist in a hostile region, archaeologists may also be thrust into deep and divisive cultural embattlements. Cultural property may be destroyed, intentionally or unintentionally. Graves, including potential evidence of genocide or mass murder, may be disturbed. Archaeologists may find themselves embroiled in all of these disputes and violent events, leading to difficult and complex ethical issues. This viperous nest of ethical concerns is amplified where an archaeologist is present as part of, or perceived to be related to, an occupying force. My research goal is to develop a conceptual and pragmatic virtue-based ethical construct that may guide an archaeologist and archaeology policy through the thicket raised by modern human conflict. The present ethical systems, based primarily on utilitarian principles manifested in ethical codes or standards, are deficient because they fail to establish the embedded archaeologist as an objective professional, fail to address adequately the matrix of duties and beneficiaries thereof, and fail to identify and develop the virtue of “trust” that ensures objectivity across the interests of all stakeholders. |
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Jacqueline Wiiliams (p/t) |
The household slave - representation, identity and place My research will aim to expand upon current understandings and perceptions of of the household slave in the Roman world. The often prevalent representations of the household slave as unruly, lazy or devious contrasts sharply with that of the slave as a beloved valued part of the family. The slave as an unsettling source of fear within the household also contrasts with that of the loyal slave as a potential family protector. These recurring themes are presented to us from an elite male perspective but what of the slave? To what extent did a slave identity exist? My thesis sets out to trace how far religion, ethnicity or stigma were signifiers of slave identities. Given the problems of coherent archaeological signatures of slaves in the Roman period it is important to exploit comparative evidence by drawing on the imagery, documentation and material evidence for 19th-century American slaves in their various guises (field-, plantation- household). How valid is such a comparison? How far can Roman sources – poetry, epitaphs, belongings, rooms – guide us on slave roles, status and identities? |
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Javier Williams (DL) |
Buckles, fibulae and coins: portable wealth in late antique Spain and Western Europe The migrations period (AD 380-580) witnessed several newcomers establish themselves within Rome's old western frontiers. Under the premise that fabricating, using and even burying objects convey different messages, this research aims to explore how and if these new groups can be traced in the archaeological record, through comparative analysis of their material culture. Made objects imply certain conscious as well as unconscious decisions made by their makers and users, and together they can form a corpus of messages to be understood or at least conveyed. The study will use the Visigothic kingdom of Spain as a case study with which to compare to contemporary groups, including late Roman and Byzantine. I will assess the roles that these other material cultures played in use, in trading and in death; were they markers of identity, and symbols of social status to be emulated by all regardless of their social background? Or items that pointed to other types of identities such as economic, regional or religious ones? |
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Michael L. Young (DL) |
The Style of Quaker Consumption in British Colonial New Jersey: The Link between Identity and the Archaeological Record of The Society of Friends This research focuses on the role of ethnic and religious identity at an 18th-century Quaker Site in British Colonial New Jersey and its transformations through time. Evidence is drawn from building techniques, ceramic and glass tablewares, foodways as manifest through storage/ preparation vessels and faunal remains, alcohol and tobacco-related objects, and materials related to dress and personal adornment. British Colonial New Jersey was a primary area of settlement for Quakers in the late 17th and 18th centuries, though the archaeological evidence of Quaker households remains relatively poorly documented. The culturally diverse colony of New Jersey provides an ideal study ground for the hybridization and transformations of identity in a colonial setting. The region has the advantage of ample primary-source historical documentation, housed at many local repositories in the Delaware Valley, which may be combined with archaeological data sets to provide new insights into the study of colonial identity. |
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Eleonora Zampieri (CB)
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Propagandist town planning between the Republic and the Principate: Caesar, Pompey and the attainment of consent My research plans are to investigate the development of the political propaganda of Caesar and Pompey at the level of evergetism, with an interdisciplinary approach aimed at an interpretation of the archaeological evidence. While Augustan propaganda (in terms of art, architecture especially) has been broadly studied by archaeologists in recent decades, the same cannot be said of that of Pompey and Caesar, two major figures of the late Republic whose historical impacts are so prominent. Although published work regarding their building projects in Rome especially exists, so far only a few archaeologists have advanced any detailed ideological interpretation of these. |
