South Uist is one of the southern isles of the Western Isles of Scotland where the broch of Dun Vulan resides. The book Between Land and Sea: Excavations at Dun Vulan, South Uist contains an account of the excavations done by Sheffield University’s SEARCH project, along with affiliates, between the years 1991 and 1996. The analysis of this site is consistent with the severed views of the northern and southern divide of the Iron Age, as described by J.R. Collins (1996), as is necessary. Dun Vulan was not invaded by the Romans and the Iron Age was able to continue on without the conquest’s affect. Instead of comparisons with the southern sites, wheelhouses and other broch excavations are used as points of reference, keeping in mind that unfortunately at the time of excavation there was little knowledge of broches as few were excavated in the Western Isles and none in South Uist. The archaeologists behind this book use the evidence they uncovered and use these comparisons to make important subjective social archaeological interpretations about the broch and its purpose, as was a goal set prior to the excavation start.
The use of broches has been left to interpretation, ranging from domestication to defence to religion, but the finds at this site are consistent with people living within the walls and farming. There is a commonality between the finds at the Dun Vulan site and other domesticated Iron Age sites such as; the pottery shards with evidence of food storage, grain remains related to planting, and bones of common animals (Collis, 1996: Gwilt, 1997: Hill, 1995). The organic contents found within the midden combined with the environmental analysis are consistent with these findings and point towards domestication and fa...
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...y of the Iron Age settlement at Wakerley, Northamptonshire, in A. Gwilt, and C.C. Haselgrove, (eds) Reconstructing Iron Age Societies, Oxbow Monograph 71, Oxford, 153-66.
Hill, J. 1995. The Pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain and Ireland (ca. 800 B.C. to A.D. 100): An Overview, The Journal of World Prehisotry, 1995, vol 9(1), 47-98.
Oswald, A. 1997. A doorway on the past: practical and mystical concerns in the orientation of roundhouse doorways, in A. Gwilt, & C.C. Haselgrove, (eds) Reconstructing Iron Age Societies, Oxbow Monograph 71, Oxford, 87-95.
Parker Pearson, M. 1999. Food, sex and death: cosmologies in the British Iron Age with particular reference to East Yorkshire, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 9, 43-69.
Parker Pearson, M. and Sharples, N.M. 1999. Between Land and Sea. Excavations at Dun Vulan, South Uist, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield.
George the Second, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, King, Defender of the Faith, I write to thee from the heart of South Carolina, Charleston to impart my knowledge of the region. My travels have been long and arduous. I arrived by way of a freight ship bearing finished goods for the colony on the twenty-eighth day of March, in the twenty-third year of thy reign. All that province, territory, or tract of ground, called South Carolina, lying and being within our dominions of America is well.
In 476 AD, centuries of amassed knowledge in science and philosophy, literature and the arts lay in peril of destruction alongside the physical Roman Empire. Thomas Cahill's book How the Irish Saved Civilization sheds light upon the role of the Irish people in the conservation and rebirth of civilization and the Western tradition after the fall of the Roman Empire. It is here that Cahill opens his book and after a brief description of classical civilization, that we are given a look at another people, far different from the Romans and Greeks- the vibrant and intriguing Celts. How these people came in contact with the civilized world and how they assisted in pulling the West out of the Dark ages is, then, the paramount of Cahill's argument.
“A Pilgrim’s Visit to The Five Terraces Mountains”. Making of the Modern World 12: Classical & Medieval Tradition. Trans. Richard F. Burton. Ed. Janet Smarr. La Jolla: University Readers, 2012. 108-110. Print.
5. Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. From the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. N.p.: Longman, 1992. Print.
The wooden lintels, writing, and the unique calendar reveal clues about life in a society that thrived for over 1000 years. Many massive building are visible today, those built to pay tribute to kings and to please the deities. The M...
In this ancient place there were all different kinds of remnants from what looked to be a permanent settlement, which led us to believe that it was formed in the Neolithic period. Scientists also believe from the skull fragments found that the Cro-Magnons were the hominid type that inhabited the area. Some of the fossils found helped to prove that the settlement was immobile because the fossilized plants were apparently in a specific arrangement, showing that they were planted purposefully. Some of the cotton grown in this area was apparently used to make woven cloth. Remnants of corn meal were used to make some of the mortar for their establishments, along with mud and sand. They also made their bricks, which were much larger than today’s, from mud. Some of the teeth from the Cro-Magnons were found to be stained. They were thought to be from the coffee ingested due to the high amounts of caffeine deposits in the bones.
Clarke, D., & Maguire, P. (200). Skara Brae: Northern Europe's best preserved neolithic village ; (p. 14). Edinburgh: Historic Scotland.
Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. A World History: Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Volume 1. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 533.
8. Edmondson, J. C., and MyiLibrary. “Augustus”. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 May 2014.
Price, Douglas. " Chapter2: The First Europeans, Chapter 3: The Creative Explosion." In Europe before Rome: A Site-by-site Tour of the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. Oxford University Press, 2013. 15-122.
By the 1970s, historian Peter Brown sparked an interesting debate about the Roman civilization. He dubbed a period in Roman history, ‘The Late Antiquity’, starting around 200 AD and lasting up until the eighth century, marking this was a period in time where the Roman civilization was not in decline, but in a state of transformation due to religious and cultural revolution, and causing many historians to agree or debate about this matter. Bryan Ward-Perkins, author of The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, critiques the theory of ‘The Late Antiquity’ and firmly believes the decline of Roman civilization is influenced by its barbaric invaders. He supports his position on Rome’s Fall with evidence from the diminishing economy. Ward-Perkins raised an issue about pottery made by the Romans after the invasion of barbarians and transformation of the empire, “Three features of Roman pottery are remarkable, and not to be found again for many centuries in the West: its excellent quality and considerable standardization; the massive quantities in which it was produced; and its widespread diffusion [geographically and socially].
Roger Babusci et al. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1994. 115-136. Print. “The Medieval Period: 1066-1485.”
Frame, R. (1995). The Political Development of the British Isles, 1100-1400. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
I shall gather various types of archaeological publications dealing with deviant burial. It is important to include differing types of publications to see if it affects the way in which deviancy is dealt with. I will then determine if any common patterns are apparent within the study of deviant burial. If common patterns are found, each one will be explored individually. Searching for specific statements within the texts, I will attempt to determine how the patterns relate to the interpretation of deviant burial. As I have not previously dealt with deviant burials, I will also briefly convey my interpretations – as a simulated intended audience reader – of the way in which deviancy is conveyed through the material. This will give a distinctive perspective as to how the true intended audience of the publications may view the evidence as presented by the archaeologists. A discourse analysis is never complete as there are too many aspects to ever fully dissect a subject (Dijk 2001; Phillips and Hardy 2002). However, it is my intent to try to examine deviant burial as thoroughly as this thesis permits, as well as to bring a unique point of view to the
Rice, Eugene E. and Anthony Grafton. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. 2nd. ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1994.