In this thesis, I argue that the folklore in Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath is an active part of the landscape in which the protagonists live (Alderley Edge,...Show moreIn this thesis, I argue that the folklore in Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath is an active part of the landscape in which the protagonists live (Alderley Edge, Cheshire). I use Jung and Macfarlane to define the concepts of mythology and ecocriticism. Chapter 1 focuses on locality and the concepts of time and place. Bakhtin’s chronotope links archaeology to the imagination and to literature, which results in an analysis of the development of magic through place and time. This leads to the conclusion that Garner uses maps as time-machines. Chapter 2 applies my research to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and discusses how the book uses landscape descriptions to create an awareness of local folklore and nature. All mythical creatures have their own place in the landscape, and the protagonists are pulled into the magical world through exploring this landscape. In chapter 3 applies these concepts to The Moon of Gomrath, in which not only the mythical creatures live in the landscape, but the landscape itself comes to life as the Old Magic, based on moonlight and natural energy, is woken. Both novels allow readers to be immersed in the landscape of the area without being there, and confirm that nature speaks to the imagination.Show less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
open access
The Corded Ware culture (c. 2900-2450 BCE; CWC) was a prehistoric phenomenon encountered throughout Europe, characterized by standardized material culture and burial practices. Recent studies...Show moreThe Corded Ware culture (c. 2900-2450 BCE; CWC) was a prehistoric phenomenon encountered throughout Europe, characterized by standardized material culture and burial practices. Recent studies incorporating new scientific methods such as ancient DNA and stable isotopes suggest that this phenomenon was the result of mass migrations from the Pontic Caspian steppe, thus confirming traditional hypotheses regarding the origin and fast spread of this archaeological culture. Moreover, the grand narrative of this period includes a notion of a strict binary gender symbolism and even of a ‘male-dominant’, patriarchal society. Such an interpretation of CW gender is however largely rooted in andro- and ethnocentric, Western assumptions, in which biological sex is equated with gender, and weapons (i.e. the CW ‘battle-axe’) are associated with masculinity. This thesis aims to investigate to which extent the CWC indeed had a notion of binary gender, and to better understand how CW gender was expressed through material culture and its selective deposition in different contexts. A practical methodology with a comparative and multi-contextual approach is developed in order to study CW gender. Two case studies have been selected: the Danish administrative region of Southern Jutland, known for its very typical Single Grave practices, and the state of Bavaria in Germany, which is expected to be a focal point in the mobility of people and the exchange of raw materials. The emphasis is placed on the co-occurrences between different object categories and their ‘embodiment’, and different depositional contexts: the funerary context as well as depositions (i.e. buried objects without a body) and single finds. Strikingly, CW gender appears to have been constructed through an interplay of supra-regional and local burial styles and artefacts. The binary dichotomy seen in the funerary context is more likely the result of normative ideas regarding a supra-regional CW identity and – more idiosyncratic – local identities, although gender clearly played a role in these norms. The prehistoric reality of CW gender may thus have been more locally variable than the grand narrative would suggest.Show less
Amethod to measure local tilt angles of two-dimensional materials in LEEM is developed. To create these local tilt angles graphene is stamped on top of pillars which are 55 nm high and 1 μm in...Show moreAmethod to measure local tilt angles of two-dimensional materials in LEEM is developed. To create these local tilt angles graphene is stamped on top of pillars which are 55 nm high and 1 μm in diameter. The measurement method uses an aperture to select a spot on the sample and moved the sample to measure all over the sample. These spots are measured in diffraction space. By analyzing all diffraction images, a magnitude and an orientation of local tilt angles are obtained. The spatial resolution of this method is bound by the size of the aperture. In this experiment a spatial resolution of 338 nm is achieved. The angular resolution depends on the locating method of the diffraction spot. In this experiment an angular resolution of one degree is achieved.Show less
The relation between archaeology and education contains a paradox. Where archaeologists have advocated the importance of education for archaeology, this advocation has not been adapted by policy...Show moreThe relation between archaeology and education contains a paradox. Where archaeologists have advocated the importance of education for archaeology, this advocation has not been adapted by policy stakeholders, in order to develop archaeology education programs. Three studies in Canada, the United States and United Kingdom have entailed that the relation between archaeology and education has poorly been investigated. This research builds upon the results on the other three studies to start the investigation on the state of affairs on the inclusion of archaeology into primary education in the Netherlands by investigating policy stakeholders perspectives. These values are investigated by interviews among representa- tives of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, provincial heritage institutes and museums, and placed into broader perspective by analyzing the results of monitor surveys on three history and culture education programs, and two legislative restrictions. Then, the combination of interviews and document analysis results in a synthesis where an alternative approach for archaeology education is presented for archaeologists, policy stakeholders and Primary school teachers in the Netherlands . The study ends with the request for further research that is built upon the results presented here.Show less
