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When two spiritualities engage with the same space it can be difficult to know who should be responsible for that space. This is seen even with sacred spaces that are shared by similar spiritual identities, such as the Holy Sepulchre, yet it can create contention when the spiritualities are believed to be opposites. It can be further conflated when outside secular entities involve themselves with the care, management, and potential commodification of the site. This research investigates four sacred sites, two in Scotland and two in Wales, that have active Christian churches upon them while also embodying ancient sacredness through stone circles or yew trees. The purpose of this research is to investigate how those that engage with these sites (church members and pagan community) view their shared landscape. It further researches how the community perceives the non-sacred agencies that claim rights to the landscape, such Historic Environment Scotland and Cadw.

In this thesis we explore the period of renewal that Athens experienced during the second century AD. This century saw Athens at the peak of her cultural prominence in the Roman Empire: the city was the centre of the League of the Panhellenion and hosted a vibrant sophistic scene that attracted orators from across the Greek world, developments which were ideologically fuelled by contemporary conceptions of Classical Athens. While this Athenian 'golden age' is a standard feature of scholarship on Greek culture under Rome, my thesis delves further to explore the renewal of the urban and rural landscapes at this time and the relationship between that process and constructions of Athenian identity. We approach the renewal of second-century Athens through four lenses: past and present in the Ilissos area; the rhetoric of the Panhellenion; elite conflict and competition; and the character of the Attic countryside. My central conclusions are as follows: 1. The renewal of Athens was effected chiefly by Hadrian and the Athenian elite and was modelled on an ideal Athenian past, strategically manipulated to suit present purpose; the attractions of the fifth-century golden age for this programme of renewal meant that politically contentious history of radical democracy and aggressive imperialism had to be safely rewritten. 2. Athens and Attica retained their uniquely integrated character in the second century. Rural Attica was the subject of a powerful sacro-idyllic ideology and played a vital role in concepts of Athenian identity, while simultaneously serving as a functional landscape of production and inhabitation. 3. The true socio-economic importance of the Attic countryside as a settled and productive landscape should be investigated without unduly privileging the limited evidence from survey, and by combining all available sources, both literary and documentary, with attention to their content, cultural context and ideological relevance.

This thesis investigates the problem of contemporary historiography and regime representation in Flavian Rome through a close study of a text not usually read for such purposes but which has obvious promise for a study of this theme, the Jewish War of Flavius Josephus. Having surveyed the evolution of our conception of Josephus' relationship to Flavian power, taken a broad account of issues of political expression and regime representation in Flavian Rome outside Josephus and examined questions relating to the structure and date of the work, I will provide a series of thematically-focused readings of the three senior members of the Flavian family, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian, as represented by their contemporary and client Josephus. Key topics to be explored include the level of independence of Josephus' vision, his work's relationship to how the regime is depicted in other contemporary sources, how Josephus makes the Flavians serve his own agenda (which is distinct from the heavy focus of most previous scholarship on how Josephus served their agenda), and the viability and usefulness of certain types of reading practices relating to figured critique which have recently become influential in Josephan scholarship. The thesis offers a new approach to Josephus' relationship to the Flavian Dynasty and sheds new light on contemporary historiography and political expression in the Early Principate.

The Late Intermediate Period in northern Chile has been strongly influenced by the mobility models of vertical archipelago and the gyratory mobility. The vertical archipelago model proposes altiplano colonies would have lived in the lowlands controlling trade and distributing economic resources. The gyratory mobility suggests trade was rather controlled by pastoralist groups from the highlands, travelling across the Andes using llama caravans. Following new studies on stable isotope analysis for the LIP in the Atacama Desert, there is little evidence to support the colonies hypothesis. For this reason, the aim of this thesis is to evaluate the presence of colonies and specialised highland pastoralist groups in the lowlands of northern Chile through the use of d13C, d15N, d18O and 87Sr/86Sr as well as radiocarbon dating. Human remains were analysed for tooth enamel, bone collagen, bone apatite, and hair-keratin. A second aim of the thesis was to provide new analysis of archaeological plants and animals of the area. Plants results present incredibly high d15N values for the crops, suggesting use of fertilisers on them, probably seabird guano from the coast. This is also supported by the absence of a marine reservoir effect on the radiocarbon dates, reflected in the lack of offset between paired dates of bone collagen and textiles in individuals enriched in 15N. The results obtained for the human remains suggest there is no evidence to support neither the 'colony' hypothesis nor the gyratory mobility model. However, a small number of outlier individuals for d13C, d15N, d18O and 87Sr/86Sr suggest a non-local origin. Mobility patterns were diverse and flexible including female and male individuals that moved at different moments of their life (infancy and adulthood). This study shows that dietary patterns in the Atacama Desert during the LIP were associated with strong local traditions.

This thesis looks at the genre of Greek declamation in the second and third centuries of the Common Era. Communis opinio sees the genre as 'nostalgic', a chance for Greeks dissatisfied with their political powerlessness under Rome to 'escape' to the glorious classical past of a free Greece. I argue, by contrast, that despite its famous classicism of language and theme, Greek declamation remains firmly anchored in the present of the Roman empire, and has much to say to that present. The thesis explores in three sections three contemporary contexts in which to read the genre. Each section is made up of two chapters, the first of which examines the context in question and reconstructs the sort of reading process it requires, while the second illustrates and explores that reading process through extended examples. In the first section (chapters one and two), Greek declamation is read in the context of the extraordinary developments in rhetorical theory that were taking place in this period: I argue that the reading of declamation through rhetorical theory was more widespread than has hitherto been appreciated, and that the relationship between theory and practice in declamation should ultimately be seen as dialogic. In the second and third sections (chapters three to six), the genre is read in its contemporary context more broadly. In the second section (chapters three to four), I explore how we might read declamation as 'mythology', that is, as a sort of safe space for exploring major contemporary concerns. In the third section, I make the case for 'metalepsis' in declamation, which I define as a breaking of the boundaries between a declamation and its immediate performance context, used above all by declaimers to talk about themselves and their careers, and also frequently to make reference to their audience.

This thesis reconsiders the cultural and economic relevance of landownership for the Roman republican peasants. In the Introduction, I define direct agricultural producers (hereafter 'peasants') as the object of my investigation. In Chapter 1, I argue that throughout the republic peasants owned little or no land, and private landholdings had a marginal role in peasants' production strategies. The frequent land schemes did not make the distribution of property more egalitarian, because they were not designed for that purpose, and due to their poverty peasants were unable to maintain control of the allotments. In Chapter 2, I explain that in ancient literature peasants were idealized as symbols of complete independence and self-sufficiency, and in political reflection they were considered the most perfect citizens. In accordance with the widespread view that Roman power had peaked and was now declining, already by the time of Fabius Pictor early and middle republican Rome was idealized as a society of peasants, whose supposed decline was threatening the republic. I conclude that in the Gracchan period peasants' discontent may have been a consequence of growing inequality, rather than utter impoverishment. In Chapter 3, I argue that in order to understand whether the free peasantry was actually declining we should consider variations in peasants' opportunities for dependent labour on the one hand, marketing on the other. Therefore, I reconsider the available data on the demography of Roman Italy and on commercial agriculture. I conclude that, while peasants could profit from increased access to markets, there is no conclusive evidence that competition for labour grew. In Chapter 4 I explain that the late republican peasants were perfectly aware that land had an economic value, and were even able to carry out evaluations. I suggest that this was a consequence of census procedures.

The study of ancient Eurasian metallurgy has been suffering from (or preoccupied by) two conventional perspectives. One is that of the diffusion model emphasising the importance of the settled empires of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, of south-eastern Europe and of China (Shennan 1986, 1993; Kristiansen 1984). The supremacy of these 'cradles' of early civilisation is marked not only by social hierarchies, but also by technological inventions such as metal production. This view sees the mobile populations of the Eurasian steppe as occupying the "hinterland" of these early settled states in the south, believing that the emergence of metal technologies in the Steppe was the result of the expansions of "advanced" civilisations. The second perspective is rooted in the provenance study which traces metal objects back to their geological sources (Pernicka 2014). It assumes that chemical and isotopic composition of metal is static and only reflects a simple linear relationship between artefacts and specific ore deposits. Drawing from a legacy database of approximately 9,000 chemical analyses of copper-based artefacts, this thesis rejects the simplicity of both the diffusion and the provenance models. While admitting that the use of metal might have originated from western Asia, the development of metallurgy in the Eurasian steppe should be understood on its own terms. It is constantly re-shaped by vigorous circulation of metal artefacts across mobile communities on a regional or inter-regional scale. This observation is based on the application of a new innovative framework to interpret the patterns of compositional data (Bray et al. 2015). This novel method argues that metal can flow, quite literally, from one object to another as it is re-melted, re-mixed and re-cast in different shapes and colours, depending on different social contexts. Thermodynamic modelling and modern experiments have shown that during the copper melt, some volatile elements in copper alloys (e.g. arsenic, antimony, and zinc) are preferentially removed through oxidative loss. Instead, some elements, such as silver, nickel, and gold, tend to be preserved in metals. These predictable patterns of elemental losses provide valuable information to trace the directional flow of metal units between regions/cultures, if we combine chemical data of metal artefacts properly with archaeological context, landscape and chronology. By using this new methodology, several routes of copper supplies have been identified in the Steppe during different periods. They feature the exchange of metals within regional networks, fuelled by local copper sources. The Urals, central Kazakhstan, the Altai, and the Minusinsk-Tuva regions were the primary copper production centres that developed distinct trace-element chemistry and artefact typology. By contrast, alloying techniques employed by steppe peoples, generally demonstrate the long-distance connections based on two major metallurgical practices: arsenical copper in the western steppe and tin-bronze in the eastern steppe. Copper-arsenic production was concentrated in the Caucasus but the recycling of its arsenical copper became more apparent further away towards the Urals. On the other hand, the invention of tin-bronze metallurgy was triggered by the formation of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon (c. 2100- 1800/1700 BC) in the Altai, and this alloying tradition was amplified by the emergence of the Andronovo culture (c. 1700-1400 BC) in the Ural-Kazakh steppe. Tin-bronze ornaments, in particular, were exchanged between eastern and western mobile communities over a considerable distance, through the mechanism of pastoral seasonal movements. In conclusion, traditional views of diffusion and provenance theories cannot be uncritically applied to the inception of ancient metallurgy in the Eurasian steppe. Mobile pastoralists developed multi-regional production hubs based on the accessibility of ore resources and the variations in subsistence strategies. Although steppe metalwork revealed some technological borrowings from settled communities, steppe peoples had transformed them into locally adapted products that could fit into their socio-economic systems. That is, when dealing with the issues of Eurasian metallurgy, we should acknowledge the complexity of human engagement with metal and look into subtler differences in cultural context, landscape, and ideology.

In this thesis, I look at the use of inscriptions on stone in the Lycian peninsula during the fourth and third centuries BC, considering the effect of internal and external events on the production of inscriptions in the area, and looking at aspects of continuity and change across the two centuries. In Chapter 1, I discuss the development of the Lycian alphabet, arguing that origins of the alphabet are far more complex than has usually been believed, and involved elements of both organic development and conscious devising of letters forms. Building on the work of earlier scholars, I consider the alteration of certain letters-forms over time, and use these - and other available indications of date - to allocated number of inscriptions from different sites to 'early' or 'later' periods; the results of this work are presented in the 'harts' at the back of my thesis. In the subsequent chapters, I build on my conclusions from the first chapter to discuss certain aspects of the epigraphy of Lycia in a broadly chronological fashion, first setting out the what we know about the historical background of each period under discussion, and then considering inscriptions of particular interest. In Chapter 2, dealing with the late-fifth and early-fourth century, I look at the earliest of the Lycian epitaphs, as well as the uniquely long inscriptions of the rulers of Xanthos. I consider the development and structure of the 'building formula' which is so common in Lycian inscriptions, and how this relates to other Anatolian epigraphy. Chapter 3 looks at the effect of the internal strife in early-third century Lycia, and particularly the figure of Perikle, on the epigraphic culture of Lycia, with particular discussion of the ẽnẽ ... Xñtawata 'ruler formula', while Chapter 4 discusses the changes brought about by Hekatomnid rule over Lycia, and the beginnings of the use of Greek in private epigraphy. Finally, Chapter 5 looks at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period, arguing that Lycian continued to be used in both official and private inscriptions, and discussing the ways in which official epigraphy became more similar to that of other Greek poleis - while retaining specifically Lycian features.

The main body of this thesis is a commentary on sections 1.19b-33 and 1.97-109 of Cicero's De Inuentione. These sections treat partes orationis in general (1.19b), then exordium (1.20-26), narratio (1.27-30), partitio (1.31-33), digressio (1.97), and conclusio (1.98-109). Due to the imposed word limit, the sections on confirmatio (1.34-77) and reprehensio (1.78-96) could not be included in the thesis. The structure of the commentary on each of these sections will be: introduction to the section, references to parallel passages in other Latin and Greek rhetorical texts, the most important general literature on the subject of the section, comparison of the passage in Cic.Inu.1 with the corresponding one in Rhet.Her, individual lemmata. The lemmata will cover various kinds of information, such as textual, grammatical, and linguistic issues, background information on persons, objects etc. mentioned, the young Cicero's position within the rhetorical tradition for a particular point (i.e. influence on and by Cic.Inu.). To the commentary proper, a number of introduction chapters have been added. Due to the word limit, only a selection of these can be included in the thesis: the title 'De Inuentione' and Cicero's intention to write on all five partes artis; the structure of Cic.Inu.; subdividing the art; rhythm and clausulae; the young Cicero's knowledge of Aristotle's works; the relationship between Cic.Inu. and Rhet.Her. (abbreviated version); the proems of Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version); preliminary comments on Narratio; the Orestes case in the rhetorical tradition; examples in Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version). The structure of the commentary on each of these sections will be: introduction to the section, references to parallel passages in other Latin and Greek rhetorical texts, the most important general literature on the subject of the section, comparison of the passage in Cic.Inu.1 with the corresponding one in Rhet.Her, individual lemmata. The lemmata will cover various kinds of information, such as textual, grammatical, and linguistic issues, background information on persons, objects etc. mentioned, the young Cicero's position within the rhetorical tradition for a particular point (i.e. influence on and by Cic.Inu.). To the commentary proper, a number of introduction chapters have been added. Due to the word limit, only a selection of these can be included in the thesis: the title 'De Inuentione' and Cicero's intention to write on all five partes artis; the structure of Cic.Inu.; subdividing the art; rhythm and clausulae; the young Cicero's knowledge of Aristotle's works; the relationship between Cic.Inu. and Rhet.Her. (abbreviated version); the proems of Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version); preliminary comments on Narratio; the Orestes case in the rhetorical tradition; examples in Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version).

This thesis aims to compare the words and governing ethical pattern of thought in the catalogue of virtues and vice in Colossians 3:5, 8, 12-17 to Greco-Roman and Jewish texts that are antecedent to, or contemporaneous with the writings of the apostle Paul and the Epistle to the Colossians. In carrying out this study, I will interact with and critique the arguments of scholars who have proposed that Paul and the author of Colossians are operating from a Stoic, Cynic or Aristotelian governing ethical pattern of thought. I will demonstrate that such positions are called into question in light of the lack of both central Greco-Roman ethical terms, and the lack of essential ethical concepts in both the generally agreed upon genuine Pauline epistles and in the Epistle to the Colossians in particular. Lastly, I will combine the results of the comparative studies of Colossians and the Greco-Roman and Jewish sources with an exegesis of Colossians in order to propose that: (i) the ethical terms of Colossians - while incidentally and peripherally influenced by the various Hellenistic ethical schools of thought - are most directly influenced by words found in the texts of the Jewish traditions, (ii) several of the ethical terms used by the author of Colossians are largely absent from and certainly uncommon in the Greco-Roman sources surveyed but widely attested in the Jewish sources, and that (iii) the author of Colossians presents his ethical material through an inherited binary format derived from the Jewish Two Ways tradition that is driven by a governing pattern of thought which focuses on Christlike transformation through the enactment and reception of cruciform love.

This thesis offers a new contextualisation of weather signs, naturally occurring terrestrial indicators of weather change (from, for example, animals, plants and atmospheric phenomena), in antiquity. It asks how the utility of this method of prediction was perceived and presented in ancient sources and studies the range of answers given across almost eight hundred years of Greek and Roman civilisation. The presentation of weather signs is compared throughout to that of another predictive method, astrometeorology, which uses the movement of the stars as markers of approaching weather. The first chapter deals with the presentation and discussion of weather signs in a range of Greek texts. It sees hesitant trust being placed in weather signs, lists of which were constructed so as to be underpinned by astronomical knowledge. The second chapter assesses how these Greek lists were received and assimilated into Roman intellectual discourse by looking to the strikingly similar practice of divining by portents. This lays the foundations for the final chapter, which describes and explains the Roman treatment of weather signs. Here, the perceived utility of weather signs can be seen to reduce rapidly as the cultural significance of astronomy reaches new heights. This thesis provides new readings and interpretations of a range of weather-based passages and texts, from the Pseudo-Theophrastan De Signis, to Lucan's Pharsalia, to Pliny's Natural History, many of which have previously been greatly understudied or oversimplified. It allows us to understand the social and scientific place of weather prediction in the ancient world and therefore how abstract and elaborate ideas and theories filtered in to the seemingly commonplace and everyday. I argue that between the 7th century BC and the end of the 1st century AD, the treatment of weather signs changes from being framed in fundamentally practical terms to one in which practical considerations were negligible or absent. As this occurred, astrometeorology comes to be seen as the only predictive method worthy of detailed attention. These two processes, I suggest, were linked.

This thesis offers a technically informed examination of Plato's pervasive, though not innocent, use of musical theory, practice and musical concepts more generally within the ambitious ethical project outlined in many of his dialogues: fostering the ‘excellence' of the soul. Starting from Republic 3, Chapter 1 will focus specifically on music stricto sensu in order to assess Plato's interpretation of the basic ‘building blocks' of musical performances, creating a core repertoire of musical concepts that will prepare the way to analyse Plato's use of musical terms or categories in areas that, at first sight, do not appear to be immediately connected to this art, such as politics, ethics and psychology. Chapter 2 examines a selection of passages from Laws 2 concerning the concept of musical beauty and its role in ethical education, demonstrating how Plato's definition is far from being moralistic and, instead, pays close attention to the technical performative aspects of dramatic musical representations. Chapter 3 looks first at the harmonic characterisation of the two central virtues of the ideal city, sophrosyne and dikaiosyne, showing how their musical depictions are not purely metaphoric: on the contrary, Plato exploited their cultural implications to emphasise the characteristics and the functions of these virtues in the ideal constitution. The second half of Chapter 3 analyses the Platonic portrayal of musical παρανομία, studying both its educational and psychological repercussions in the dialogue and in relations to contemporary Athenian musical practices. Chapter 4 looks at how different types of music may be used to create an inner harmonic order of passions in the soul in different contexts: the musical-mimetic education outlined in the Republic, the musical enhancement of the psychological energies in the members of the Chorus of Dionysus in the Laws, and finally the role of the aulos in the Symposium.

This thesis is a regional history of Lesbos and the adjacent regions of Troas and Aiolis in NW Turkey during Greco-Roman antiquity. This area represents a zone of transition between the Mediterranean and inland Asia Minor, and therefore provides us with a case study of how regions which lie at the margins or beyond the theoretical framework of Horden and Purcell's The Corrupting Sea (2000) function. Rather than defining the area of study simply in terms of physical geography, I instead argue that we can identify a region which I term the coastal interface that is characterized by the overlapping and intermingling dynamics of the maritime and terrestrial worlds. This zone of transition can extend out to sea to include nearby islands which are orientated towards the mainland, for example Lesbos in the case of my thesis, or equally it can stretch inland up river valleys or along other routes of communication to places which, although out of sight of the sea, were nevertheless profoundly influenced by their connection to the maritime world. The chapters of the thesis aim to demonstrate that the concept of the coastal interface can help illuminate the social and economic history of communities living within this region, with Chapters 1-3 focusing on the Troad and Chapters 4-7 looking at Lesbos. The subjects covered include Hellenistic Ilion and the koinon of Athena Ilias (Chapter 1), Theophrastos as a source for the social and economic history of the forests of Mt. Ida (Chapter 2), large-scale state-directed horse breeding in the middle Skamander valley (Chapter 3), Mytilene's peraia in coastal Anatolia from the seventh century down to 427 (Chapter 4), Mytilene's minting of billon and electrum coinage in the fifth century (Chapter 5), the refoundation of the Lesbian koinon in the early second century BC (Chapter 6), and the Aiolian aspect of Mytilenaian identity in the first centuries BC and AD (Chapter 7).

The purpose of this thesis is to study the travel infrastructure that existed in the Late Antique Levant (defined as extending from southern Asia Minor to the Sinai Peninsula), and how it enabled people to travel around the region for a variety of official, professional or personal reasons. What were the motivations, and what mechanisms facilitated or constrained travel for different groups of people? Road conditions and road maintenance are discussed, as is the availability of amenities, and the means of transport (wheeled vehicles, animals) and the various hazards that travellers might have faced. Chapter 3 addresses the conception of space and distance. This includes not only how geographical space was described, but also how distance was measured and broken up into manageable increments for travel. This chapter details how the incremental landscape was applied, e.g., through the staging posts of the cursus publicus and set itineraries for pilgrimage. Chapter 4 focuses on travel by water, examining the different factors, such as ship construction, seasonal weather patterns, navigation and hazards, to determine whether the risks and benefits were in balance. An examination of the Tigris, Euphrates, and Orontes and their role in transportation relies on a combination of texts and archaeology from Late Antiquity itself, and ethnographic comparanda from both earlier and later periods. Chapter 5 is devoted to specific evidence for networks in the Late Antique Levant. The four case studies look at the connections between the Levant and the imperial capital, military routes to the Mesopotamian frontier, caravan routes through Syria, and pilgrim roads leading to Jerusalem. These strands are brought together in Chapter 6, a regional study of southern Palestine and Transjordan. Changes in routes over time reflect military and commercial concerns, as well as the interest of pilgrims in the holy sites of the area.

In this thesis, I examine the nature and role of persuasion in Roman politics in the period immediately following the assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March 44 B.C. until the capture of the city of Rome by his heir Octavianus in August 43 B.C. The purpose of my thesis is to assess the extent to which persuasion played a critical role in political interactions and in the decision-making processes of those involved during this crucial period in Roman history. I do this by means of a careful discussion and analysis of a variety of different types of political interactions, both public and private. As regards the means of persuasion, I concentrate on the role and use of oratory in these political interactions. Consequently, my thesis owes much in terms of approach to the work of Millar (1998) and, more recently, Morstein-Marx (2004) on placing oratory at the centre of our understanding of how politics functioned in practice in the late Roman republic. Their studies, however, focus on the potential extent and significance of mass participation in the late Roman republican political system, and on the contio as the key locus of political interaction. In my thesis, I contribute to improving our new way of understanding late Roman republican politics by taking a broader approach that incorporates other types of political interactions in which oratory played a significant role. I also examine oratory as but one of a variety of means of persuasion in Roman political interactions. Finally, in analyzing politics and persuasion in the period immediately after Caesar’s assassination, I am examining not only a crucial period in Roman history, but one which is perhaps the best documented from the ancient world. The relative richness of contemporary evidence for this period calls out for the sort of close reading of sources and detailed analysis that I provide in my thesis that enables a better understanding of how politics actually played out in the late Roman republic.

This dissertation treats the theory and practice of C. S. Lewis's theological imagination, focussing upon the imaginative use he made of his professional expertise in medieval and renaissance literature. Its approach is principally expository rather than an evaluative. Chapter One outlines the centrality of the imagination to a proper understanding of Lewis's works. Chapter Two examines Lewis's own theory of imagination and surveys how he practised it as a literary critic. We compare and contrast Lewis's theory and practice of imagination with that of his friend, the theologian, Austin Faffer. Chapter Three looks in more detail at Lewis's imaginative practice, in particular his fascination with the images supplied by the seven planets of the Ptolemaic cosmos, which he termed 'spiritual symbols of permanent value'. We analyse what he meant by 'sprit' and 'symbol'. Chapter Four introduces the main argument of the dissertation namely that these seven spiritual symbols structure the works for which Lewis is best known, the seven 'Chronicles of Narnia'. We claim to have uncovered the governing imaginative blueprint of the septet. We address Lewis's capacity for and interest in secrecy and consider why this planetary theme has remained hitherto undetected. In Chapters Five to Eleven we take the seven planets in turn and trace the use Lewis made of them through out his writings. We analyse the planetary symbolism undergirding each Chronicle and conclude each chapter with an exegesis of the Christological message of each book so understood. Chapter Twelve examines factors which motivated Lewis to focus his imaginative energies upon Ptolemaic cosmology and suggests one particular occasioning factor behind the composition of the Chronicles. In addition, we consider theological and pedagogical reasons why he kept silent about the planetary theme. We conclude by indicating certain consequences that our argument has for future readings of these seven works.

This thesis addresses gaps that exist in the theory and knowledge of ancient DNA (aDNA). Much of the underlying basis of the field has been neglected in the excitement that followed the first aDNA studies. Therefore the results of many studies have been based on untested assumptions about the nature of post mortem DNA damage, sample preservation, contamination, and the efficacy of sample decontamination techniques. The validity of such results is questionable if the assumptions prove false. Hydrolytic post mortem DNA damage may modify recovered aDNA sequences. This thesis reports new insights into the biochemical basis of, predisposition of certain sequences and nucleotide positions towards, and subsequent effects of, such damage. Parallels of post mortem damage with in vivo mutation also enable insights into DNA sequence evolution. The long-term survival of DNA, and contamination of samples with exogenous DNA are two related problems characteristic to aDNA. The survival of endogenous DNA within bone, teeth and hair samples, the susceptibility of such samples to contamination, and the efficacy of decontamination techniques used to remedy such problems are investigated. The results highlight serious flaws in using bone and teeth as a DNA source. In contrast, the results demonstrate that hair may present a valuable DNA source for future studies. Numerous studies have reported the retrieval of ancient pathogen DNA from human samples. Analyses of the DNA content within teeth extracted from putative victims of the 2nd plague argue that such studies are at great risk from DNA degradation, and contamination arising due to environmental microorganisms. An extrapolation of these results using basic physical and chemical theory is used to evaluate the potential survival of aDNA in ancient Egyptian remains. This suggests that positive results from such samples are unlikely.

Until now, the horse was one of the few members of the British Late Pleistocene and Holocene fauna which had yet to be fully investigated. In this thesis, chronological, palaeoecological and morphological data based on direct investigations of British and European fossil and sub-fossil horses are presented. The time-frame encompasses the latest certain wild horses in Britain and continental Europe through to the early diversification of domestic types, and thus spans the interval from c. 15,000-2,000 years before present (BP). The gazetteers presented are the result of a thorough survey and intensive study of all relevant British (as well as selected continental) collections of fossil and sub-fossil horse material. Furthermore, the incorporation into this project of a radiocarbon accelerator dating programme has provided 45 new, direct horse dates from 31 British/Irish sites. A systematic review of all new and previously obtained dates reveals a complex pattern of chronological and geographical distribution for horses during the study interval. These data are interpreted with reference to known climatic and environmental events which are detailed. Further investigations are presented which reveal the ecological reactions of wild horses to underlying environmental factors such as climate change and vegetational succession. Questions of body size variability as well as taxonomic and relationship issues are addressed by means of a detailed morphological investigation. Cranial and postcranial measurements are employed to expose variation and diversification of size and form among wild and domestic animals of three key periods: Mid-Devensian, Late Glacial/early Post Glacial, middle to later Post Glacial. In addition, body size comparisons are made between British and continental horses for each episode. Finally, there is discussion of alternative ways of revealing relationships between ancient and modern horses. In particular, molecular evidence is reviewed with the aim of assessing its value to taxonomic, morphological and chronological studies

Six related problems in calendrical study are addressed. In Chapter 2, the West, inheritor of Rome, is seen as solar-calendrical, unfamiliar with Hebrew calendrics apart from the Church's specialised use of a luni-solar calendar for Paschal calculations. Ancient calendars were usually lunar-based, although most periodically synchronised with the seasons (luni-solar). These models are reviewed. In Chapter 3, ANE and Mediterranean calendars show improved international astronomy - historically, the province of priestly astronomers. Yet, in Chapter 4, the third problem is that Mishnaic and Talmudic evidence speaks of strict observance of New Moons and ad hoc intercalation. If mathematical schemes for the lunar month were in operation in the Hebrews' milieu by 380 BCE, why were they so far behind in rabbinical times? The solution is: they deliberately chose to rely on observation. This cannot exclude an earlier, more mathematical tradition (Segal, 1957). The fourth problem, in Chapter 5, is the 364-day solar calendar, associated with Jaubert (1953, 1957), supported by VanderKam (1979), and Davies (1983). By acknowledging the comparative calendrical realism in the Mishmarot, luni-solar and solar evidence is examined in the Primeval History where Creation and Flood evince synchronistic ideas. The fifth problem, in Chapter 6, is the 'Key of Enoch', the idea that Enoch's full age in Gen 5:23 represents 365 days. It is shown that Gen 11:10-26 contains a synchronistic calendar of 6 years and 84 years, similar to that hypothesised by Glessmer (1996) for the 'Otot. This covert scheme is called Genesis 11 Synchronistic Calendar. The sixth problem, in Chapter 7, is the pre-history of Qumran's synchronistic calendars, which the Genesis calendar illuminates. A failure to recognised the covert calendrical genre was caused by unfamiliarity with ancient calendrics, and a traditional reading of P's genealogies.