CACIQUES AND COMMUNITY: HISTORICAL MAYA ARCHAEOLOGY AT RANCHO KIUIC, YUCATÁN, MÉXICO

This dissertation examines the socioeconomic relationships between Maya-speaking landowners and laborers at Rancho Kiuic (ca. 1760-1950): a small, privately-owned cattle ranching estate in the Puuc Hills region of Yucatán, Mexico. Owned and worked by generations of indigenous caciques and an indebted laborer population, the complex relationships between landed and laboring community members are inscribed in the community’s household and religious space, and woven throughout the oral history of the rancho. While the site’s architectural remains seem suggestive of a relatively homogeneous rural community, that narrative is complicated by the laborers’ memory of the status of the landowning family. Three lines of evidence—archaeological materials from household and chapel contexts, archival documents related to baptisms of Rancho Kiuic residents, and oral histories from descendants and neighbors of the community—reveal the extent to which inequality and narratives of indebtedness to the Rancho’s indigenous cacique family are evident in the site’s household and chapel assemblages. Archaeological analysis of architectural and artifact remains highlight the differential realms in which status was expressed. Ecclesiastical records, documenting the religious life of the community, also are considered alongside the social memory of labor relations at the Rancho in exploring the role of debt in sustaining ties between landed and laborer community members. These relationships are materialized in households and spaces for religious celebration, which highlight the subtle ways in which the rancho’s owners wielded authority, and laborer families persisted. The enduring memory of the locale’s complex position as a resource-rich refuge, a space for community-building, and an oppressive labor landscape, reveal insights into relationships that continue to shape the attitudes of descendants into the present.Doctor of Philosoph

"The Romano-British Villa and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Eccles, Kent"

The Romano-British Villa and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Eccles, Kent presents a study of the central and lower Medway valley during the 1st millennium AD. It takes as its focus the Eccles Roman villa and Anglo-Saxon cemetery, excavated between 1962–1976 and directed by Alec Detsicas. An account of this important villa throughout its long history is outlined, and a re-assessment of the architectural evidence which Detsicas presented, with fresh interpretations, is provided. In the middle of the 7th century, a large Anglo-Saxon cemetery was established south of the villa. It started as a typical ‘Final Phase’ cemetery but continued into the late Saxon period. The evidence from the cemetery is presented as a site report, with a burial catalogue, a discussion of the grave goods and a study of the wider aspects of mortuary practice. The monograph also includes a chapter on some fragmentary Iron Age evidence and a discussion of an Anglo-Saxon timber building and its relationship to the cemetery. The evidence from the villa and Anglo-Saxon cemetery is discussed within the context of the Medway valley, which highlights the important contribution that Eccles makes to archaeological knowledge. The significance of the area is further investigated by studies devoted to the pre-English place-names of the valley and the documentary evidence of the area during the Anglo-Saxon period. The volume concludes with a general discussion, which draws together all the strands of evidence and evaluates the significance of the Medway valley during the 1st millennium AD

"The Romano-British Villa and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Eccles, Kent"

The Romano-British Villa and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Eccles, Kent presents a study of the central and lower Medway valley during the 1st millennium AD. It takes as its focus the Eccles Roman villa and Anglo-Saxon cemetery, excavated between 1962–1976 and directed by Alec Detsicas. An account of this important villa throughout its long history is outlined, and a re-assessment of the architectural evidence which Detsicas presented, with fresh interpretations, is provided. In the middle of the 7th century, a large Anglo-Saxon cemetery was established south of the villa. It started as a typical ‘Final Phase’ cemetery but continued into the late Saxon period. The evidence from the cemetery is presented as a site report, with a burial catalogue, a discussion of the grave goods and a study of the wider aspects of mortuary practice. The monograph also includes a chapter on some fragmentary Iron Age evidence and a discussion of an Anglo-Saxon timber building and its relationship to the cemetery. The evidence from the villa and Anglo-Saxon cemetery is discussed within the context of the Medway valley, which highlights the important contribution that Eccles makes to archaeological knowledge. The significance of the area is further investigated by studies devoted to the pre-English place-names of the valley and the documentary evidence of the area during the Anglo-Saxon period. The volume concludes with a general discussion, which draws together all the strands of evidence and evaluates the significance of the Medway valley during the 1st millennium AD

LIPIcs, Volume 274, ESA 2023, Complete Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 274, ESA 2023, Complete Volum

Advanced Syncom - Syncom II summary report

Spacecraft systems design, reliability, support equipment, alternate configurations, and radiation instrumentation payload for Syncom I

Irish Passage tombs : Neolithic images, contexts and beliefs

This thesis seeks to take the motifs on Irish Passage tombs beyond their traditional role as passive epiphenomenon and furthers understands them as performing active roles in the Neolithic. Rather than view the images through a textual representational analogy, I utilise visual cultural and neurological studies, set within a worldview perspective to paint a picture of the possible ambiguities of life and belief at some passage tomb locations. I explore the richness of evidence from the archaeological data and literature, to move beyond previous positions, and suggest new ways to deal with a past that develops multiple narratives. Such an account is thick with paradoxes, similarities, differences, tensions, emotions, life, death, pleasures and pain. Visions, context and belief layered together often generate ruptures in daily life that can facilitate new imaginings within the rhythms and sequences of images. Within such a perspective the Irish passage tomb motifs present fresh conditions for possibility and diverse understanding. In combining broader and more fine-grained analysis of particular passage tomb sites located in the north, east and south of Ireland, I demonstrate that social complexities operate at all scales. Magnified via cosmological perspectives, images on passage tombs interact with spectators through two-way intimate engagements. The assemblages that accompany the motifs are not static, instead they display notions of material animacy. Humans do not control all these interactions, for the motifs and objects are dynamic montages. These actions can be enhanced via process, such as the sequential nature of some images or by the application of liquid solutions, especially when conducted at particular times and places. With passage tombs acting as 'stages' and 'islandscapes', I construct interpretations that include both carnivalesque and axis mundi environments, which subvert, disrupt and perpetuate social beliefs. Such performances may have created dialogues and myths about the specialness of these places. These conversations would in turn factor and texture new illusions and simulations of the world, whilst creating fresh opportunities for experience.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo