This thesis provides an insight into the textiles of the Tarim Basin, focusing on colours and patterns. It provides a dataset of a hundred samples to compare and study the basin’s textiles and...Show moreThis thesis provides an insight into the textiles of the Tarim Basin, focusing on colours and patterns. It provides a dataset of a hundred samples to compare and study the basin’s textiles and through them, the cultures they came from. It discusses the Roman-centric view of western archaeologists and whether this is visible when studying the available archaeological data. There is a clear difference in chronology visible in the textiles, as earlier textiles were made using individually dyed threads woven into patterns, while later textiles have patterns painted on the fabric. There is also a shift in the use of colour and patterns within sites over the centuries, much like fashion trends come and go in the modern day. Most of the samples in the dataset are silks, proving that silk was not purely used as a valuta within the Silk Roads, but was also used for luxury garments, accessories and for religious use. The site of Loulan is an archaeological treasure, and within this thesis there is a focus on textiles from this site in particular, next to other sites like Niya and Sampula. Comparing the textiles show that it is almost impossible to attach cultural labels on these samples through colours and patterns, as they are a product of a melting pot of cultures coming together in the Tarim Basin. One sample will have multiple cultural influences, and can therefore not be placed in one category. Much remains unknown about these textiles and further research is necessary to be able to shed more light on a fascinating piece of history of the ancient Silk Roads.Show less
Feminist and queer archaeology both find their origins in the academic feminist movements of the 1970s and 80s. They opposed the political and academic androcentric climates of the time, and have...Show moreFeminist and queer archaeology both find their origins in the academic feminist movements of the 1970s and 80s. They opposed the political and academic androcentric climates of the time, and have since achieved legitimacy in academia. Still, we are constantly developing our understanding of gender in ancient cultures. This thesis takes the next step in deconstructing our understanding of gender, namely building our interpretations of gender identities of people in the past with incorporating our modern biases. The main question in this thesis is How can we practically research queer gender identities in the Ancient Near East based on the material evidence? To do this, the author focusses on literature about case studies from across the ancient Near East. In this study, the author analyzes these diverse case studies to pinpoint what methods those researchers used and what evidence they built their arguments about gender constructs and gender identity in the past. This study puts a specific emphasis om material, iconographic, and textual evidence. Based on these case studies, the author aims to construct a strategy future researchers can use in their research of gender in the ancient Near East, to reconstruct gender identities without incorporating their own personal biases. This research shows it is especially important to understand that the way people in the past conceptualized gender and the gender identity of themselves and those around them may be very different from the way we think now. This means, we can only ever make reliable claims about gender constructs and anyone’s gender identity with sufficient evidenciary support. The author has found, that the best first step is understanding the context of gender in that time. Usually textual evidence, such as laws, stories, and religious rules, are particularly useful to develop such an understanding. Afterwards, once the researchers has a sufficient understanding of gender in a specific past culture, they can being theorizing over individuals. This should be done based on iconography and textual evidence connected to that individual.Show less
The Iron Age hillfort phenomenon, or the ‘oppidum’ as it is referred to in mainland Europe, represents an important shift in the spatial and political dynamics in the areas where they can be found...Show moreThe Iron Age hillfort phenomenon, or the ‘oppidum’ as it is referred to in mainland Europe, represents an important shift in the spatial and political dynamics in the areas where they can be found but despite the archaeological research going as far back as the 19th century, there still exist debates surrounding their function and what role they ultimately played in the socioeconomic dynamics of the people constructing and inhabiting them. In southern France we find them scattered across a frontier connecting the Ligurian and Celtic people to the Etruscans and to the Eastern Mediterranean through the Greek settlers who, after the foundation of Massalia around 600 B.C, form a permanent presence greatly influencing the material repertoire of the indigenous populace. Through the interactions between the occupants of the oppida with their local surroundings as well as with foreign cultures, and through the analysis of these monumental structures, it can be seen that the military function can be put into question and that the symbolic value may have been a more important factor to their builders.Show less
The First and Fourth Crusades of the 11th and 13th centuries were major historical events, with great influence on the geopolitics of their time. This study aimed to explore if following these...Show moreThe First and Fourth Crusades of the 11th and 13th centuries were major historical events, with great influence on the geopolitics of their time. This study aimed to explore if following these crusades specifically through their mortuary archaeology is possible, aiming to trace their routes and identify the burials they left behind in Anatolia, Greece, and the Levant. The research encompassed a detailed analysis of historical background, the course of the crusades, and their outcomes. Furthermore, burial practices in Anatolia and Greece during the 10th to 13th centuries were examined as a baseline for comparison with crusader burial customs. Despite the abundance of historical records pinpointing crusader routes and battle locations, the mortuary archaeological evidence remains surprisingly scarce. While a great number of crusader burials sites exist along the known routes, few can be directly linked to the First or Fourth Crusades. All identified crusader burials display noticeable similarities. This uniformity across burial practices complicates associating specific graves with a specific crusade. Additionally, the resemblance between crusader and local burial customs in Greece and Anatolia makes it difficult to identify graves as being crusader and results in a lack of evidence in these regions. In contrast, crusader burials in the Levant demonstrate a firmer adherence to the Frankish standard, aiding in identifying the crusader burials here. In conclusion, while the crusades made an undeniable mark on the Middle East and Asia Minor's archaeology, isolating specific crusader burials to follow their respective routes proves challenging. Nevertheless, this study serves as a starting point, highlighting the need for further research to uncover hidden crusader burials and expand our understanding of crusader archaeology in Anatolia and the Levant. The available historical data presents ample opportunities for further archaeological research in these regions, offering prospects for greater insights into the crusades' archaeology.Show less
This thesis evaluates an exhibition at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam called Face to Face: The People Behind Mummy Portraits. Mummy portraits were made on wooden panels or linen in Egypt...Show moreThis thesis evaluates an exhibition at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam called Face to Face: The People Behind Mummy Portraits. Mummy portraits were made on wooden panels or linen in Egypt during the Roman period. They were inserted in a mummy or a cartonnage case. After their discovery in the late nineteenth century, most of the portraits had been collected, without proper documentation of their find contexts. Because of this, much is unknown about the mummy portraits. Additionally, they were also often removed from their mummies; thus only few portraits are together with their corresponding mummies. The naturalistic portrayal of the dead in wooden panels did not just gain attention from collectors. Many exhibitions have been held that showcased the portraits, sometimes without much information on their funerary context. Even the word mummy was avoided in some cases. These past exhibitions, along with recent new research collaborations on the portraits make the temporary exhibition at the Allard Pierson an interesting topic to study. Just how does the museum represent the portraits? To answer that question, the paper combines literature and the contents of the exhibition. The literature is used to provide an archaeological and museological context to the mummy portraits. In the archaeological context, the portraits are described and the terminology is explained. Related topics such as funerary art, ancient Egyptian history and identity are all discussed extensively. As for the museological background, this chapter focusses on the portraits in terms of their provenance, provenience, and exhibition history. Though this chapter also discusses museum theory. After both chapters on contextual background, the contents of the entire exhibition is described. Here, the halls and their contents are mentioned but not yet discussed. That is done in the discussion chapter, it which some of the choices in designing the exhibition are analyzed and critiqued. Finally in the conclusion, several key points of the presentation choices from the exhibition are analyzed. The way the museum portrays the portraits in terms of object category is an important example of that. It is argued that the museum presents the mummy portraits as art. The conclusion of the research is that the museum presents the portraits corresponding to the topic of the hall they are in, with much focus on all the different groups of people that were part of their history.Show less
Knowledge is scarce regarding the impact of the transition from Late Roman period to the Early Middle Ages and how this affected the diet of individuals in Late Roman and Early Middle Age cities....Show moreKnowledge is scarce regarding the impact of the transition from Late Roman period to the Early Middle Ages and how this affected the diet of individuals in Late Roman and Early Middle Age cities. Studying diet can help establish a link between cultural change and dietary change, giving a better insight as to what extent political, social, natural and economic shifts affected individuals. Isotopic values extracted from human bone remains from the sites of Castro dei Volsci (Italy), Portus Romae (Italy), Edessa (Greece), Helike (Greece), La Selvicciola (Italy), Romans d’Isonzo (Italy), Eleutherna (Greece) and Messene (Greece) and contemporary written sources from Apicius and Anthimus will give insights into the dietary composition and how this changed over time. Results show that during the Late Roman period people in both Italy and Greece mainly consumed C3 crops like wheats and barley, with the addition of some marine resources and terrestrial animal products. This changed in the Early Middle Ages as the consumption of marine resources in both Italy and Greece declined. Besides the impact of socio-political changes, other factors like cultural changes, environment and migration seem to have influenced a person’s diet. Further investigation can help reveal a new perspective into a broader context of dietary change in the Mediterranean as well as help explain the dietary pattern of outliers. With this knowledge, future study could look into the impact that this transitional period had on the diet of communities throughout the Mediterranean as well as the origin of the outliers identified within this thesis.Show less
This thesis explores the different ways and gradations of rebuilding, as a way of bringing back a heritage site that has been destroyed by either conflict or natural disaster. With the increasing...Show moreThis thesis explores the different ways and gradations of rebuilding, as a way of bringing back a heritage site that has been destroyed by either conflict or natural disaster. With the increasing impact of war and climate change on heritage sites in Europe, it is important to look into the different ways of dealing with the aftermath of a disaster, in this case specifically after the site has been damaged beyond the stage ability of repair. With rebuilding being one of the solutions for dealing with the destruction of heritage sites, more focus should be on the development and exploration of the different ways to rebuild a heritage site, and what makes a certain approach suitable for each case. This thesis proposes such a model that could help determine what approach is most suitable for a destructed heritage site, based on what elements of the site wished to be preserved or altered. Based on the works of Bosma and Wagenaar (1995) and Bold et al. (2017), a new scale has been developed with the different gradations of incorporating historical accuracy in the rebuilding design, together with a set of determining factors that can determine which approach to rebuilding to use for each heritage site. This model is explained further through a series of six case studies of heritage sites in Europe that have been rebuilt this past century.Show less
This research delves into the preservation of wooden furniture excavated from Hercu- laneum, employing experimental archaeol- ogy. The primary goal is to comprehend the sequence of events leading...Show moreThis research delves into the preservation of wooden furniture excavated from Hercu- laneum, employing experimental archaeol- ogy. The primary goal is to comprehend the sequence of events leading to the survival of these artefacts. Central to this study is the research question of how experimen- tal archaeology can elucidate the lifespan and events surrounding archaeological ar- tefacts, particularly the wooden Roman furniture unearthed from Herculaneum. To address this question, the study delves into sub-questions related to the impact of the Vesuvius eruption on Herculaneum, the rep- lication of charring conditions, and the ef- fects of charring on wooden materials. Herculaneum faced pyroclastic surges and flows during the eruption, resulting in a 20-metre layer of ash and debris that pre- served wooden artefacts by rapidly sub- merging and preventing burning through oxygen deprivation. Samples were made in accordance with the wood and toolmarks found on the original artefacts, using ancient woodworking tools and two types of wood, oak and silver fir. Two charring methods, hot-ash and kiln charring, were designed and tested on the samples. Results indicate that hot-ash charring yields less blackening and carbonization com- pared to kiln charring with variations in vol- ume and weight loss between oak and silver fir samples. Notably, the combined process of hot-ash and kiln charring showed com- parable or reduced volume and weight loss compared to the sole kiln process, sug- gesting effective preservation. However, in terms of the traceability of tool marks ap- plied to the samples, no notable differences were found. All tested methods preserved the details of the samples after charring when performed correctly. Emphasising the need for improved meth- ods and tools to refine experiments, the research concludes that, despite challeng- es in method control in hot-ash firing, the combined charring method may result in the best preservation of the artefacts. With minor improvements, this method could be used to produce samples for experimental trials and in extent to gain a better under- standing of the Herculaneum furniture and how Roman carpenters made them.Show less
This study researched the energy efficiency of acorn collecting in the Netherlands through experimental archaeology. The goal of this project was to expand the knowledge about diet in the past....Show moreThis study researched the energy efficiency of acorn collecting in the Netherlands through experimental archaeology. The goal of this project was to expand the knowledge about diet in the past. Diet is an important topic in archaeology, but organic material decomposes after death. This results in a gap in the archaeological record. The animal-plant subsistence rate is currently unknown, however, diversity is important for our diet and plants would have been a part of the subsistence of foragers in the past. According to the optimal forager theory, foragers use the most optimal resources in a habitat for their needs. The archaeological record shows that acorns were gathered by foragers, due to their many benefits. This study researched the energy efficiency of collecting acorns. The experiment was performed in a public park called Leidse Hout in the Netherlands. Eleven volunteers gathered acorns from the ground, while their energy expenditure, their VO2 level, was measured during different phases with a portable VO2 master device. Two standard energetic measurements, MET value, and kcal, were calculated and compared to different activities and studies to understand the intensity of the activity. A few conclusions could be made with the experiment data. Firstly, acorns have a high caloric return rate. Secondly, acorn collecting is, according to the low MET value, a low-intensity activity, comparable to slow walking and playing the cello. Thirdly, compared to other gathering activities, acorn collecting was the lightest. Lastly, this study showed no significant difference between the energy expenditure of men and women. Following the optimal foraging theory, foragers looking for energy efficient resources would have collected acorns, if available, due to the low costs and high benefits of the resource. This experiment archaeology project increased our current knowledge about the optimal foraging potential of acorns and showed that these nuts would have been a great addition to the diet of humans.Show less
Due to the unique difficulties of studying hunter-gatherers in an archaeological context, researchers have been attempting to create accurate models to understand these contexts for decades....Show moreDue to the unique difficulties of studying hunter-gatherers in an archaeological context, researchers have been attempting to create accurate models to understand these contexts for decades. Although many schools of thought have emerged from this work, one of the most promising has been Optimal Foraging Theory, which attempts to model the optimal subsistence behaviour in a given context using environmental and anthropological data as inputs. One of the major limitations of Optimal Foraging Theory is that it requires a broad base of accurate data on the costs and benefits of different subsistence activities in order to create precise models. To help address this problem, we used hip-worn Triaxial Accelerometry to estimate relative energy expenditure during specific subsistence-related activities among the Baka of southeastern Cameroon. Our results demonstrate that hunting activities among the Baka involve significantly more movement than gathering or agriculture, implying more energy expenditure, while gathering and agricultural activities involve roughly similar levels of movement. Through the analysis of other variables, we also found that men perform significantly more movement than women when periods of rest are not included. However, there is no significant difference between these values when periods of rest are included. Furthermore, there are no significant differences in the average movement performed per unit time (including or excluding rest), or in the proportion of time spent at rest, between villages.Show less
The issue of H. neanderthalensis’ diet has long been a debate between archaeologists, with interpretations ranging from faunal assemblages in neanderthal sites, stable isotope analysis, cooking...Show moreThe issue of H. neanderthalensis’ diet has long been a debate between archaeologists, with interpretations ranging from faunal assemblages in neanderthal sites, stable isotope analysis, cooking evidence, and studies of dental calculus. Traditional isotope research has focused on the δ13C or δ15N isotopic signature is based on the use of collagen found in bone, however it suffers the problem of easy degradation in deep time. The introduction of novel isotope techniques focused on the signatures of δ42/44Ca and δ66Zn can bypass this problem due to samples being extracted directly onto bone and enamel, thus decreasing the chances of lacking evidence and presenting similar and accurate results in dietary research. However, results position species into trophic levels and lack data on plant consumption, thus presenting H. neanderthalensis as a nearly exclusive carnivore in the hominin lineage. The objective of this thesis is a comprehensive review of the literature to study the feasibility of adopting such techniques into the research mainstream and the consequences that this would entail. Furthermore, techniques such as biomolecular analysis of dental calculus and faunal assemblages that refer directly to dietary habits and tendencies are both explored and used as proxies for increasing accuracy. While the scope of this thesis has significant limitations to fully asses dietary research techniques used for analysis of middle palaeolithic European neanderthals, the comprehensive review of the latest published literature and a comparative approach between different research methods aims to produce an accurate assessment of both novel isotope techniques and H. neanderthalensis diets.Show less
