Elton, Hugh
The Rise of Property and the Death of the Moral Economy: Enclosure and Social Unrest in Late-Eighteenth Century England
AbstractThe Rise of Property and the Death of the Moral Economy: Enclosure and Social Unrest in Late-Eighteenth Century England – Ewan Martel
Eighteenth-century Great Britain was a kingdom marked by the rise of a property-based and highly individualistic conception of social and economic structures came a doctrine of improvement based upon extracting the most value from a tract of land possible. Parliamentary enclosure was critical to this change, seeing lands converted from something of communal value to individual property. This work argues that the growth and implementation of parliamentary enclosure was a source of immense social unrest in late-eighteenth century Britain as the process and its supporting ideologies were inherently counter-intuitive to traditional systems of communal land ownership and subsistence. This paper utilizes primary sources from both landowners implementing enclosure and the responses of commoners and enclosure's opponents to better understand the agency of the peasantry in their fight against a damaging practice and how forms of unrest were multi-faceted and prevalent, despite the growing power of the land-owing gentry.
Author Keywords: Class, Common Lands, Eighteenth-Century, Enclosure, Great Britain, Social Unrest
Above as below: application of multiple survey techniques at a Byzantine Church at Avkat
Exploring Least Cost Path Analysis: A Case Study from the Göksu Valley, Turkey
Least cost path analysis is considered by many scholars as being a good proxy for studying movement and interactions between sites in the landscape. Although it is widely used, there are many limitations and challenges yet to be overcome concerning the reliability of the results. The examples used from the Göksu Valley during the late Roman Imperial rule emphasize the need to clearly understand how the tool works in generating least cost paths and how these can be interpreted and related to human movement. The resolution and accuracy of the elevation data used also play an important role in least cost path analysis and these depend on the topographical area being studied. New venues are constantly being sought and the success of any analysis depends on how the results are compared and tested in concert with data obtained from various sources and through more visually advanced mapping software.
Author Keywords: GIS, Göksu Valley, Turkey, Late Roman period, Least cost path, Roads, Routes, Communication, Spatial analysis
A GIS-based Spatial Analysis of Visibility and Movement Using the Ancient Maya Center of Minanha, Belize
It has long been hypothesized the location of the ancient Maya center of Minanha was a strategic one based on its ability to control the flow of communication and key resources between major geopolitical zones. Situated in the Vaca Plateau, at the nexus of the Belize River Valley, the Petén District of Guatemala, and the Maya Mountains, Minanha became a Late Classic polity capital that was tapped into a regional economy as well as long-distance trade networks. In this thesis I present a GIS-based spatial analysis that includes viewshed and cost surface analysis (CSA) to model visibility and movement within the north Vaca Plateau and neighboring regions to address specific questions concerning Minanha's strategic value. The results indicate that Minanha occupied a visually prominent location in proximity to major corridors of movement that suggest it was strategically, and in fact ideally located, as a polity capital with the ability to monitor the movement of people and resources.
Author Keywords: Belize, GIS, Least Cost Path, Maya, Minanha, Viewshed
Digital Elevation Models and Viewshed Analysis: A Case Study from 11th-13th Century Turkey
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
Assessing Quality of Life for the Urban Inhabitants of Classical Angkor, Cambodia (c. 802-1432 CE)
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
Olives in the Mountains: A Case Study of the Roman city of Sagalassos
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
How to Forge an Empire: Arms Production in the Middle Byzantine Period
The goal of this thesis is to explore the production of ferrous (iron) armaments in the Middle Byzantine Empire, and more specifically the tenth century. Three cornerstones define the current research: (1) An exploration of the technology at use in the production of ferrous armaments. (2) A comprehensive look at the logistical and organizational structures which facilitated this industry. (3) A closer look at the labour investments required to manufacture armaments through an ethnographic and experimental approach. The tenth century document known as the De Cerimoniis forms a foundational pillar of the current study. The document details the quantity and types of military equipment required for a naval expedition launched by the Byzantines in A.D. 949. The information provided within has made this inquiry into logistics possible, and has allowed for the assessment of overall trends in the tenth century arms production industry.
Author Keywords: armour, arms production, Byzantine military, logistics, metallurgy, weapons
Ritual, Social Organization, and Monumental Architecture: A Case Study of Monumental Tombs in the Göksu Valley
New archaeological material was discovered in 2006 by the Göksu Archaeological Project in an area of Southeastern Turkey known as Rough Cilicia. This thesis documents and explores the material remains from funerary contexts at the sites of Dağpazarı and Topkaya. Architectural analysis of the material from Dağpazarı demonstrates that the remains are of a monumental temple tomb dating to the late second or early third century A.D. Although the remains from Dağpazarı are fragmentary, the evidence is examined to suggest possible architectural reconstructions. The examination of the Topkaya tomb cluster sheds light upon an ornately decorated rock-cut temple façade tomb dating the Roman period. Both sets of tombs are stunning examples of monumental architecture from the Roman period in an area that suffers from a lack of surviving architectural material. In order to understand the variation in monumental tomb forms the relationship between death, burial, and monumental architecture is examined from a functional perspective. The rites of passage are used as a theoretical framework for examining the functional role that monumental architecture plays in the performance of funerary ritual and the formation of social organization in Roman Rough Cilicia. Ultimately, it is demonstrated that monumental funerary architecture serves as a physical manifestation of abstract concepts that aid in the performance of the rites of passage associated with death and the funeral. Thus, this thesis highlights how abstract information can be gained from seemingly limit physical remains.
Author Keywords: Burial, Monumental Funerary Architecture, Rites of Passage, Roman, Rough Cilicia, Social Organization
Analyzing agricultural decision making in the Late Roman Empire: a case study from the Göksü Valley, Turkey
In the Roman World, at least 80% and up to 95% of the population lived and
worked in a rural environment, driving the agronomic economy of the empire. During the Late Roman Empire (AD 300-600), there were a number of widespread political, social, and economic changes faced by the people who made up the empire. Through all these changes, the empire maintained its tax collection and households maintained agricultural
production. I will be examining settlement in the rural region of Isauria (Rough Cilicia) to understand the Late Roman agricultural production in a rural environment. This thesis focuses on the decision making that all economic levels of households would face when producing goods within this Late Roman Economy. Using an economic theory of the peasant economy, I develop a framework through which to view the agronomic
production of the Late Roman Period which I use to understand the household as an agent.
Author Keywords: Ancient Economy, Isauria, Late Roman, Peasant Economy, Roman Economy