Archaeology

Bagan, Myanmar's capital during the country's Classical period (c. 800-1400 CE), and its surrounding landscape was once home to at least four thousand monuments. These monuments were the result of the Buddhist pursuit of merit-making, the idea that individuals could increase their socio-spiritual status by performing pious acts for the Sangha (Buddhist Order). Amongst the most meritous act was the construction of a religious monument. Using the iconographic record and historical literature, alongside entanglement theory, this thesis explores how the movement of labour, capital, and resources for the construction of these monuments influenced the settlement patterns of Bagan's broader cityscape. The findings suggest that these monuments bound settlements, their inhabitants, and the Crown, in a variety of enabling and constraining relationships. This thesis has created the foundations for understanding the settlements of Bagan and serves as a useful platform to perform comparative studies once archaeological data for settlement patterning becomes available.

Author Keywords: Bagan, Entanglement, Religious Monuments Buddhism, Settlement Patterns, Southeast Asia

This thesis approaches the issue of Viewshed Analysis and how it can impact the understanding of a medieval environment. Centered on the High Medieval period of Cilicia, in what is today Southwestern Turkey, the precision of Viewsheds in a complex terrain is evaluated, and the role of the fortifications in the environment is expanded upon. The maps that were generated for this thesis demonstrate that the use of free datasets must be done with caution, and that the use of more than one dataset is crucial in trying to create a clearer picture of the environment. The examination of four separate sets of fortifications within the region leads to new questions about the role of fortifications in the region, as well as a better understanding of what groups such as the Armenian Cilicians and the Knights Templar were doing in the High Medieval period. Finally, conclusions are made regarding the future impact of GIS based studies, and how they can help scholars understand Ancient and Medieval landscapes.

Author Keywords: Armenian Cilicia, Fortifications, GIS, Viewshed

This thesis examines the interrelationship of urban planning and population health at the site of Angkor (c. 802-1432 CE), the capital city of the Classical Khmer state, now found within modern-day Cambodia. The inhabitants of Angkor developed a settlement strategy that relied on the dispersal of water management features, rice fields, temples and residential areas, to best utilize the spread-out environmental resources of the surrounding monsoon-forest climate. Thus, the main question to be answered by this thesis is this: did the city-planning practice of dispersed, low-density agrarian urbanism promote resilience against the disease hazards associated with tropical environments?

To answer this question, methods involved creating assessing environmental and socio-cultural factors which habituated the urban inhabitants of Angkor's relationship to disease hazards. The results of this assessment demonstrate that it was not until the last stages of Angkor's urban development, when non-farming members of the population were concentrated into the "core" area of temples within city, that the city's inhabitants' vulnerability to infectious disease increased. As the city took a more compact settlement form, it was not as environmentally compatible as the earlier dispersed pattern. Significantly, archaeological case studies such as this can illustrate the long-term development and end-result of urban planning to deal with disease hazards, both in terms of everyday occurrences, as well as during crisis events, which has important implications for contemporary research on environmental disasters today.

Author Keywords: Adaptive Strategies, Mainland Southeast Asia, Pre-industrial Urbanization, Resilience, Tropical Diseases

This thesis presents a palaeotopographic reconstruction of the Burleigh Bay region of Stony Lake (Kawartha Lakes Region, Ontario) from 12,600 cal BP to present. The paleotopographic reconstructions are used to model paleoshoreline locations and archaeological site potential for the Late Paleoindian and early Archaic periods. Isostatic rebound following the end of the last glacial period has altered the topography in the region and water levels are now artificially managed by dams constructed in the 1830s. I completed a high-resolution bathymetric survey using a kayak equiped with a GPS coupled single-beam sonar. Utilizing GIS technology and isostatic rebound response surface models, I created paleotopographic reconstructions for 12,600 cal BP, 11,500 cal BP, 7,000 cal BP, 5,700 cal BP, and present. Results show that water levels in Burleigh Bay have been regressing over time until dam construction. Early site potential is centered in northern inland areas. Site potential following 7,000 cal BP is concentrated in northern areas flooded by the dam. Based on the reconstructions, surveys in lacustrine granite shield regions that follow the Ontario Standards and Guidelines for Consultant Archaeologists risk missing areas of high archaeological potential for early sites in these environments. Paleolandscape reconstructions would alleviate this issue by modeling paleoshoreline changes over time.

Author Keywords: Canadian Shield, Early Archaic, Isostatic Rebound, Kawartha Lakes, Late Paleoindian, Paleolandscape

Stone axes and adzes first appeared in the eastern Gobi Desert at 8.0 cal BP and were incorporated into the technological package. At the same time, changes in local ecological conditions reflect a transition from continuous grass/shrub-steppe across the Mongolian Plateau to the development of dispersed patches of dune-field wetland oases and high-elevation forests. This thesis focuses on exploring the adoption and function of axes and adzes in the eastern Gobi Desert and their relationship to the development of these new forested ecologies. Using an experimental and use-wear approach, I analyze 29 axes and adzes from four sites in the eastern Gobi Desert of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. Results indicate that axes and adzes were primarily used for woodworking but include other activities. Furthermore, the adoption and manufacture of axes and adzes represent an increasing investment in producing formal technologies as resources within these new diverse ecological patches were intensively utilized.

Author Keywords: Adaptation, Axes and Adzes, Eastern Gobi Desert, Neolithic, Technological Intensification, Use-Wear

The Upper Paleolithic sequence at Vale Boi, Portugal, represents an early example of resource intensification, for which evidence of both diet diversification and intensified utilization of faunal remains has been published. The current research project tests the hypothesis that bone grease rendering was occurring throughout the Upper Paleolithic sequence at Vale Boi. As there are various issues of equifinality which makes the identification of bone grease rendering challenging, data from experimental bone grease rendering studies were utilized. The resulting analysis demonstrated limited evidence in support of a sustained use of bone grease rendering during the Upper Paleolithic sequence. However, evidence suggested that alternate bone processing activities and discard behaviours may have been occurring at the site. This suggests that the dietary behaviours of the foragers at Vale Boi were more varied than previously hypothesized.

Author Keywords: Archaeozoology, Bone Grease Rendering, Faunal Analysis, Iberia, Resource Intensification, Upper Paleolithic

Olives have been grown in the Mediterranean region for millennia and have been a staple crop in many of its cultures. This was never more true than during the Hellenistic (323 – 133 BC) and Roman (133 BC – AD 450) periods in the Mediterranean. This thesis examines the territory of the Roman city of Sagalassos in the region of Pisidia, modern province of Burdur, and determines if olives could have been cultivated in the territory. While there have been studies that state olives were cultivated in the territory during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, modern farmers as well as agronomic manuals state that such growth is not possible. This thesis present data that indicates that olives were grown in the territory of Sagalassos, but also examines the conditions olives require to grow and if such conditions existed in Pisidia. Through this I will be able to conclude whether the past presentation of data has does indeed prove that olives were grown within the territory of Sagalassos.

Author Keywords: Agricultural Decision Making, Olives, Pisidia, Roman Agriculture, Sagalassos, Turkey

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses were performed on individuals from the Virú Valley, Peru to better understand the people and society in this region of early-state development. This analysis also sheds light on the lives of individuals from a ritual killing event at Huaca Santa Clara. Bone collagen stable isotope analysis revealed that all individuals had diets predominantly based on terrestrial resources, while incremental hair segments, skin, tendon, and nails revealed that marine resources made small, non-seasonal contributions to the diet. The prioritization of farming over fishing in the Virú Valley may be indicative of the economic specialization of agricultural and marine subsistence practices by distinct communities and the tendency of state-level societies to monopolize agricultural resources. The isotopic compositions of the individuals from the Huaca Santa Clara ritual killing event showed no evidence of a controlled diet before their death and identified a likely migrant to Virú.

Author Keywords: Diet, Early Intermediate Period, Early-State Development, North Coast Peru, Ritual Killing Event, Stable Isotope Analysis

This thesis investigates the similarities and differences between the tropical epicenters of South and Southeast Asia during the Charter State era, 800- 1400 CE. This study can inform scholars about the relationship between "people and place" by examining the ground plans, activities, and people associated with each epicenter. By using the comparative approach and entanglement theory, this study will examine the ancient states of Central and East Java, Dai Viet in North Vietnam, the Cham in Central Vietnam, the Chola of South India, and the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka. The ancient Maya of tropical Belize will be used as a cross-cultural comparator, which would not have had any contact with the other charter states. An extensive literature review and on-site visitations were necessary to provide the background and date to accomplish these goals. The results indicate striking similarities between tropical epicenters across the Charter States that developed out of the entanglements between humans and things. This thesis will help to further our understanding of tropical urbanism and the nature of epicenters in tropical environments.

Author Keywords: Anuradhapura, Caracol, Entanglement, Thang Long, Thanjavur, Urbanism

The goal of this thesis is to explore the role that civic (i.e. state-sponsored)

feasting and drinking played in early polis (pl. poleis), or city-state formation on Crete in

the Early Iron Age to Archaic transition, ca. 700-500 BCE. Using the two recently

excavated civic feasting structures at the site of Azoria as a model for both "inclusive"

and "exclusive" forms of civic feasting, this project compares and contrasts the role that it

played at a number of other sites in central and east Crete. In order to categorize the

structures as either inclusive or exclusive, all forms of published evidence were examined

including the buildings' architecture and the socially valued goods and ceramics found

within the structures. Ultimately, this project demonstrates that in the 8th century BCE,

inclusive feasting rituals and association with the past were used as means of creating and

maintaining a strong group identity, which paved the way for the use of more exclusive

practices in the 7th century BCE, where sub-group identities and alliances were formed

amongst members of the larger group. However, at the sites where there was evidence for

multiple civic feasting venues it appears that by the 7th century BCE, the interplay of both

inclusive and exclusive forms of feasting was crucial to the process of identity formation

for the citizens of these proto-poleis.

Author Keywords: Archaic Crete, Commensality, Feasting, Identity Formation, Polis formation