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• No evidence is supportable for domesticated dogs at three important Pavlovian sites. • The high frequency of wolf remains at Pavlovian sites argues against the presence of dogs. • There is also no evidence of domesticated dog even in succeeding Late Gravettian sites. In the current volume of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Germonpré et al. comment on our article "Friend or foe? Large canid remains from Pavlovian sites and their archaeozoological context" (Wilczyński et al. 2020). The authors say there are inaccuracies or errors in our paper, in an attempt to refute our rejection of the hypothesis of wolf domestication at the Předmostí site and, in broader sense, by the Pavlovian community. Here we counter allegations and in so doing clarify our arguments against wolf domestication during mid-Upper Paleolithic in Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Gini index is used to measure differentiation in house size as a proxy to interpret inequality across a large environmental lidar dataset that documented a palimpsest of Maya archaeological settlement and landscapes. • We identify consistent patterns and Gini coefficients across the Maya lowlands, with notably lower values in peripheral areas, including coastal zones and the Western lowlands. • Despite the narrow lidar transects, the results of this study align with regional and site-based approaches across the Maya area. The emergence and expansion of inequality have been topics of household archaeology for decades. Traditionally, this question has been informed by ethnographic, ethnohistoric and/or comparative studies. Within sites and regions, comparative physical, spatial, and architectural studies of households offer an important baseline of information about status, wealth, and well-being, especially in the Maya lowlands where households are accessible in the archaeological record. Between sites, more research is necessary to assess how these physical measurements of household remains compare. This paper investigates the intersection of landscape, household, and community based on a multi-scalar analysis of households using the Gini index across southeastern Mexico, in the context of a broader study of land use, land management, and settlement patterns. Notably, this paper represents a region-wide analysis of nearly continuous LiDAR data within and outside of previously documented prehispanic Maya settlements. While we conclude that the Gini index is useful for establishing a comparative understanding of settlement, we also recognize that the index is a starting point to identify other ways to study how household to community-level social and economic variability intersects with diverse ecological patterns. Highlighting the opportunities and limitations with applying measures like the Gini index across culturally, temporally, and geographically heterogeneous areas, we illustrate how systematic studies of settlement can be coupled to broader studies of landscape archaeology to interpret changing patterns of land management and settlement across the Maya lowlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasizes the landscape as a key factor in the long-term standing of one of Norway's largest prehistoric burial grounds: the Iron Age cemetery of Hereid, located in the village of Eidfjord in the Hardanger region. A recent field investigation generated important new data on the Hereid site, which has contributed to the high-resolution analysis of the cemetery presented here. The paper explores the wider 'meshwork' of people, animals, farm settlement, outfield resources and tracks within a new materialist perspective to argue that the Hardanger landscape served as a co-agent when constructing a regional mortuary order. Theories of relational agency are used to investigate whether Hereid's geography and topography can explain its scale and continuity. It is argued that Eidfjord constituted a focal point for wayfaring to and from the Hardangervidda mountain plateau, and the significance of the site is closely tied to its favourable location with regard to these communication routes and outfield resources. Beyond this case, the funerary settings in other large and medium sized cemeteries in Hardanger mirror Hereid remarkably. They all draw our attention to landscapes that facilitated movement and demonstrate the societal importance of burials and cemeteries in a long time perspective. • Analyses one of Norway's largest prehistoric burial grounds using newly gathered field data. • Examines whether the landscape served as a co-agent when constructing a regional mortuary order. • Highlights how the social significance of wayfaring is conveyed in all the cemeteries in the study region. • Demonstrates how similar topographic conditions triggered similar configurations of the mortuary landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper uses a 'braided knowledge' approach to explore Aboriginal ancestral narratives, geomorphological interpretations and archaeological evidence relating to the Murray River (Rinta) in South Australia's Riverland region. • Commonalities between Aboriginal and Western knowledge systems are outlined through a number of key threads relating to the geographic directionality of peopling in the region, river dynamism (particularly in relation to the deglacial transformations from 15 ka) and more. • Differences between knowledge systems are also explored and include descriptions of 'Indigenous frameworks' which embed multiple levels of meaning, as well as Aboriginal interpretations of the subsurface. This paper uses a 'braided knowledge' approach to explore Aboriginal ancestral narratives, geomorphological interpretations and archaeological evidence relating to the Murray River (Rinta) in South Australia's Riverland region. The 'knowledge carriers' of ancestral narratives are honoured and complexities regarding the ways in which their wisdom was recorded by Europeans are considered. Commonalities between Aboriginal and Western knowledge systems are outlined through a number of key threads relating to the geographic directionality of peopling in the region, river dynamism (particularly in relation to the deglacial transformations from 15 ka) and more. Differences between knowledge systems are also explored and include descriptions of 'Indigenous frameworks' which embed multiple levels of meaning, as well as Aboriginal interpretations of the subsurface. The paper shows that through a collaborative exchange of ideas, together with the conscious positioning of Aboriginal knowledges, normally disparate systems may be explored to amplify our understandings of Indigenous riverscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Preservation of meat is difficult to be demonstrated in the archaeological record. • This paper attempts to refine methods for recognizing meat preservation. • Mobile hunter-gatherers preserve and store meat. • The study makes a contribution to the archaeological visibility of meat storage. Even though pivotal for understanding many aspects of human behaviour, preservation and storage of animal resources has not received great attention from archaeologists. One could argue that the main problem lies in the difficulties of demonstrating meat storage archaeologically due to the lack of direct evidence. This paper represents an attempt to refine zooarchaeological methods for the recognition of meat preservation and storage at prehistoric sites. Drawing on the faunal assemblage from Kharaneh IV, an Early/Middle Epipalaeolithic aggregation site in eastern Jordan, this study demonstrates that a combination of taphonomic and contextual analyses alongside ethnographic information may indeed lead archaeologists to insights not directly available from the archaeological record. The empirical evidence presented here contributes to the archaeological visibility of meat preservation and storage, providing a clearer concept of the nature of these practices in pre-agricultural societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Time has consistently been regarded as the missing dimension from our renderings of space, having a significant impact on how we interpret and represent past interaction. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than in discussion of maritime mobility. This paper outlines an innovative approach to mapping maritime spaces by taking into account the performance of Bronze Age sailing ships in different weather conditions and the subsequent time of sailing journeys. The use of cartograms is demonstrated to be invaluable for reconceptualisation of maritime space and rethinking maritime connectivity in the past. This marks a step-change in approach, which has implications for regions beyond the case study area (eastern Mediterranean). The results presented in this paper foreground meaningful differences in maritime connectivity between Egypt and the Levant during the earlier Bronze Age than are easily realised through traditional static representations. This demonstrates the significance of developing alternative representations of space/time for archaeology. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Mediation with mapping for maritime spaces. • Modelling the maritime space-time of ancient sailing by accounting for environmental rhythms and vessel performance. • Distorting space according to time with linear cartograms. • Rethinking maritime connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a detailed response to Professor Pernicka's critique of our paper entitled “Iridium to provenance ancient silver”. We have concluded that Pernicka's hypothesis, which suggests that elevated levels of iridium in ancient silver artefacts is a consequence of silver deriving from the cementation (parting) process, does not account for the available evidence and that his critiques of the analyses we presented seem misplaced. We offer a simpler solution and show that the structure of our transformed data is founded on logical reasoning which is borne out by the empirical results. Essentially, this response supports our view reported in the original paper that the variation in iridium in ancient silver is largely geological rather than a consequence of de-silvering gold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different approaches are used to study wood provenance, but most of them are based on tracers in wood that are generally controlled by climatic factors. The strontium isotopic ratio 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in trees and soils is related to the signature of the local bedrock. Despite being used in diverse archaeological studies, Sr isotopes have rarely been used to trace the provenance of archaeological wood and especially wood from shipwrecks. In addition, recent analytical advances have allowed the detection of mass-dependent fractionation of Sr isotopes during biogeochemical processes, as reflected in the variation of δ 88/86 Sr values between different environmental materials. The δ 88/86 Sr values could be used in conjunction with the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope ratio to improve constraints on the sources of Sr in the archaeological materials being studied. This paper discusses the potential and limitations of using both of these Sr isotope ratios to trace the provenance of wood from shipwrecks. We review the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and δ 88/86 Sr variations in rocks, waters, soils, plants and other living organisms and discuss how to determine the local Sr isotopic signature of potential sites. We also compile a list of known wood post mortem modifications in seawater. Possible implications in terms of the modification of the original Sr isotope ratios of wood during storage in seawater are illustrated through preliminary observations. This paper points out some limitations and perspectives for using Sr isotopes in provenancing wood from shipwrecks, and suggests future research to test and apply this approach for tracing the origin of archaeological wood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being human embodies understandings of space and spatial relationships which are embedded within the material world and are underpinned by complex frameworks of knowledge and experience. Just as this applied to people living in the past, so it applies to those of us concerned with trying to understand those past lives through the archaeological record. Most, if not all, archaeological material has a spatial component and it is not surprising, therefore, that spatial thinking has been central within archaeological endeavour since the beginnings of the discipline. Specific forms of spatial thinking have changed with developing theory and methods and with changing analytical and technological opportunities resulting in the rich variety of approaches available to us today. Within this development, the rapid adoption of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology since the early 1990s has had a major impact on archaeology and related disciplines and its use is now almost taken for granted. Although the use of GIS in archaeology has always been, and still is contentious at the theoretical level, the attractions of the technology are usually seen to outweigh any restrictions or disadvantages. In this paper we situate the use of GIS, including the papers in this volume, within the wider arena of spatial thinking in archaeology in an attempt to assess the impact that this technology has had on how we think spatially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 30 years ago, Kintigh and Ammerman (1982) outlined and applied a heuristic approach to spatial archaeology that balanced quantitative analyses and culturally and historically contextualized archaeology. The theoretical and methodological messages were that we need to do more than “eyeball” spatial patterns, we need to apply the proper analyses based on the characteristics of our datasets, and we need to ensure that our models, quantitative analyses, and resulting interpretations are based in the proper cultural and historical contexts. My goal in this paper is to examine how two of the concepts in this approach, significance and context, apply to a modern spatial archaeology that heavily utilizes geospatial computing tools. Although these tools help to solve several concerns that existed in the field 30 years ago, they can also cause others, such as mistaking autocorrelation for correlation or confusion about which of the multitude of available analytical tools is appropriate for particular questions and datasets. In this paper, I present a simplified version of the methodology I have used to address these concerns. I use archaeological, historical, and GIS-modeled data to compare the regional patterning of hierarchical and egalitarian societies in southeastern North America to examine why hierarchical sociopolitical organizations may have arose where they did. I end with a critical review of this approach and a discussion of how such research can be improved moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the performance of archaeology in the field. To do so it examines the notebooks recording the British Museum excavations in Cyprus during the period 1893–1896. Archaeologists have described the practices of writing and drawing as a performance that accords archaeology its disciplinary identity. However, there have not been systematic studies of the centrality of fieldwork in the disciplinary culture of nineteenth-century archaeology as there have been for other field sciences. Histories and geographies of science have shown that field knowledge was produced through a variety of spatial practices – including inscriptive practices – whose meaning, processes and intentions were embodied in the material artefacts of science, such as instruments and notebooks. Drawing on that work, this paper locates the British Museum notebooks as material objects of science in the disciplinary landscape of late nineteenth-century Cypriot archaeology and in British classical archaeology more broadly. In doing so, this paper furthers our understanding of how classical archaeology became established as a field-based scientific discipline in the later nineteenth century. This paper argues that the British Museum notebooks functioned as paper tools in the field: they constructed a new interpretative model of the ancient Cypriot artefacts that placed the island within the prehistoric Greek world. This archaeological model was established through the more accurate, schematic, abstracted and numerical syntax of the notebooks. Importantly, the British Museum archaeologists through the use of the notebooks as paper tools created a new entity, the excavated Cypriot artefact, that was firmly associated with the conditions of its discovery and evaluation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the nature of copying errors in the cultural transmission of material culture is highly relevant for students of cultural evolution, especially in the field of evolutionary archaeology. In this paper, we set up a classic transmission chain experiment, which involves making clay anthropomorphic figurines, to explore the nature of the copying error related to the production of 3D objects. The experiment consists of four independent transmission chains, each with 10 participants. Three chains are non-expert chains, as they consist of students of archaeology and psychology with no formal training in arts. The fourth is an expert chain consisting of art students. Our results show that the copying error predictably differs between the experts and the non-experts – it is lower in the expert chain. However, in both groups, the error is higher than predicted by the models that assume that the copying error is only due to imperfections in the perception of linear dimensions. Taken together, these two results suggest that, in addition to the error in perception, the error in the execution contributes significantly to the overall error, as predicted by the recently formulated object-mediated transmission model (Crema et al., 2023). The results of our experiment also show that the errors are often biased rather than random, suggesting that the transmission process involves the transformations anticipated by the cultural attraction theory. • Transmission chain experiment is carried out with clay anthropomorphic figurines. • Copying error of linear dimensions is higher than the Weber fraction (3%). • Art students make less error than other students in copying features of figurines. • Copying errors are often biased, as predicted by the cultural attraction theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Variability in and significance of hunter-gatherer aggregation sites are reviewed. • The Cadfael archaeological site is a Dorset aggregation in the Canadian Arctic. • The aggregation site contains stone longhouses as well as ritual features. • Change over time at the site results from interaction between Dorset and Inuit. Most hunter-gatherer lifeways revolve around periodic large gatherings – aggregations – that serve as social, ritual, and economic anchors for their annual cycles. However, in archaeological contexts they are often difficult to recognize. This paper describes and interprets a particularly large and well-preserved example of a warm season aggregation site dating to the Late Dorset period in the eastern North American Arctic. This site extends for over 750 m along coastal beach ridges and contains four boulder-outlined "longhouses" of up to 38 m in length as well as hundreds of other features used for storage, cooking, and ritual activities. In addition to interpreting the range of activities occurring on the site, this paper discusses the clear evidence for change over time in the ways its inhabitants interacted with the built environment, and with each other. Because these changes took place mainly during the 13th century CE, they likely represent a reaction to the arrival in this region of ancestral Inuit, who migrated from Alaska during this period and ultimately replaced Dorset populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue examines new trends in phytolith scholarship and assesses the future direction of this field of research. The papers presented represent a broader shift in phytolith research into a new phase called the “Period of Expanding Applications”. It is characterized by 1) a rapid increase in the number of phytolith publications; 2) a diversification of research topics; 3) a reassessment of the use of radiocarbon and other isotopes in phytoliths; 4) the development of digital technologies for refining and sharing phytolith identifications; 5) renewed efforts for standardization of phytolith nomenclature and laboratory protocol; and 6) the development of the field of applied phytolith research. This paper argues that interdisciplinary collaborations and a continued effort to understand the basics of phytolith production patterns are essential for the growth of the discipline and its application in archaeological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitional moments in prehistory are of broad interest in archaeology. Immediately following the Last Glacial Maximum, two technological shifts occurred in SW Europe: in France, at ∼18,000 uncal. BP, an industry characterized by large Solutrean projectiles was replaced by the well-defined Badegoulian industry; a thousand years later in Vasco-Cantabrian Spain, Solutrean technologies were gradually replaced by Magdalenian antler point ( sagaie ) and lithic inset composite weapons. The Solutrean–Magdalenian transition remains ill-defined in Vasco-Cantabria, where very few “transitional” assemblages dating to the c. 17–16,000 uncal. BP interval have been identified, leaving questions as to how the changes occurred and what kinds of relationships existed between French and Spanish groups during this period. Urtiaga cave (Guipúzcoa) Level F (17,050 ± 140 uncal. BP) contributes a new Initial Magdalenian archaeological sample to the discussion of Last Glacial behavioral change during a technological transition. This paper synthesizes the results of a detailed lithic analysis with findings from previous studies of fauna and osseous industry from Urtiaga Level F. Then, the analysis explores Initial Magdalenian organizational behaviors through a series of lithic procurement/mobility models that show dynamic land use in eastern Vasco-Cantabria. Finally, Urtiaga Level F was compared to four other Initial Magdalenian occupations in the region, demonstrating that lithic maintenance—in manufacture, use, and rejuvenation—was a significant factor in how Initial Magdalenian groups organized their landscape-level behavioral strategies. The archaeological assemblages from Urtiaga cave are important contributions to archaeological questions surrounding the Solutrean–Magdalenian transition, providing further evidence for in situ technological change in Vasco-Cantabria. Additionally, the economic analyses discussed in this paper provide new attributes that archaeologists can use to identify Initial Magdalenian sites on the landscape. This study develops a methodological procedure that is broadly applicable to archaeological studies related to prehistoric cultural transitions and to those studies that apply data from collections recovered during the early 20th century to modern interpretive frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As archaeologists continue to be interested in understanding how people encountered and engaged with past landscapes, layering them with social knowledge, it is important to harness geospatial techniques that are not tethered analytically to discrete points and can represent the flow of processes across a whole landscape. This paper explores landscape permeability modeling as one such geospatial approach. Applied archaeologically, permeability modeling examines the degree to which a given landscape, with a specific mix of physical and social variables, was conducive to the movement of people and the flow of social, economic, political, and/or ideological processes. An archaeological case study is presented that uses a resistant-kernel permeability model to examine food storage suitability in an inland lake landscape in northern Michigan during Late Precontact (ca. AD 1100/1200 – 1600) and how people in their intimate, day-to-day, encounters with this landscape understood the storage potential(s) of this matrix. While a specific case is detailed in this paper, the procedures employed are adaptable to other archaeological landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Case study of war in the ancient Maya kingdom of Piedras Negras. • Settlement location, fortifications, weapons, human remains, and epigraphy. • Chronological changes in violence across the first millennium A.D. • War and processes of polity formation and collapse. • Evidence for total war and attacks on community. Through a case study of the Classic period (A.D. 350–900) kingdom of Piedras Negras, this paper addresses a number of debates in the archaeology of war among the ancient Maya. These findings have broader comparative use in ongoing attempts to understand war in the precolonial Americas, including the frequency of war, its role in processes of polity formation and collapse, the involvement of non-elites in combat, and the cause and effect of captive-taking. This paper provides the first synthesis of a number of datasets pertaining to war and violence in the region of Piedras Negras while presenting new settlement data gleaned from recent lidar survey of the area. Focus is especially on tracing the material, iconographic, and epigraphic evidence for war in diachronic perspective. Material evidence includes the spatial distribution of settlement, presence of fortifications, weaponry, and human skeletal remains demonstrating evidence of traumatic injury. Additional data are drawn from epigraphy and iconography. As with all archaeological contexts, there are crucial gaps in the record. Nevertheless, by combining these datasets it is possible to reconstruct a history of warfare within this precolonial indigenous polity of the first millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the significance and relevance of concepts presented by Lewis Binford in “The Archaeology of Place” (1982) in studying the process of human colonization in Patagonia. Models and observational techniques inspired by and presented in that seminal paper have been instrumental in the discussion of the mobility of the first inhabitants of southern Patagonia. The result is a flexible ecological model of a slow process of human expansion into the southern end of the continent, and the recognition of at least three early occupational nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aboriginal people have lived in Australia, continuously, for tens of thousands of years. Over that time, they developed complex knowledge systems that were committed to memory and passed to successive generations through oral tradition. The length of time oral traditions can be passed down while maintaining vitality is a topic of ongoing debate in the social sciences. In recent years, scientists have weighed into the debate by studying traditions that describe natural events, such as volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts, which can be dated using scientific techniques. Here, we bring together a trans-disciplinary team of scholars to apply this approach to Tasmanian Aboriginal (palawa) oral traditions that were recorded in the early nineteenth century. These traditions describe the flooding of the Bassian Land Bridge connecting Tasmania to mainland Australia and the presence of a culturally significant "Great South Star", identified as Canopus (α Carinae). Utilising bathymetric and topographic data of the land and sea floor in the Bass Strait, we estimate the Bassian Land Bridge was finally submerged approximately 12,000 years ago. We then calculate the declination of the star Canopus over the last precessional cycle (26,000 years) to show that it was at a far southerly declination (δ < −75°) between 16,300 and 11,800 years ago, reaching its minimum declination approximately 14,000 years ago. These lines of evidence provide a terminus ante quem of the Tasmanian traditions to the end of the Late Pleistocene. This paper supports arguments that the longevity of orality can exceed ten millennia, providing critical information essential to the further development of theoretical frameworks regarding the archaeology of orality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Introduction to the special issue "alcohol, rituals, and politics in the ancient world". • Review of the intellectual history of alcohol studies in anthropology. • The impacts of alcoholic beverages in shaping the course of human history. • Recent advancements in archaeological methods for identifying prehistoric alcohol use. This special issue brings together recently developed theories and methodologies for understanding alcoholic beverages in the ancient world. While alcohol has continued to be a relatively overlooked research topic within anthropology/archaeology, the papers assembled for this special issue center the relationship between alcohol, rituals, and politics through novel archaeological fieldwork, analytical techniques, and theoretical concepts. In this introduction, we review established theoretical approaches to alcohol and drinking, explain the deep history of alcohol in human societies, and introduce papers in this special issue. We argue that alcohol production and consumption can be studied as a set of unique social phenomena that construct social identity, formulate political power, and precipitate historical transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper introduces a special issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science that considers the current state and future directions in lithic microwear analysis. There is considerable potential for lithic microwear analysis to reconstruct past human behaviour as it can provide direct insight into past activities. Consequently, it is a technique worthy of significant additional investment and continued development. To further the cause of methodological maturation within microwear analysis and to promote standardization, calibration, and innovation, the following collection of papers present various approaches and perspectives on how greater methodological refinement and increased reliability of results can and should be achieved. Many of these papers were part of a session held at the 2011 Society for American Archaeology Meeting (SAA) in Sacramento, California, while others were selected from the 2012 International Conference on Use-Wear Analysis in Faro, Portugal. The purpose of the SAA session and this special themed issue is essentially two-fold. The first is to promote awareness of the need for methodological standardization, calibration, and continuing innovation. The second is to open a serious dialogue about how these aims could be pursued and achieved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using archaeological data, this paper investigates past population trends in Ireland as a response to recent genomic studies that have identified admixture signals in the genomes of Irish people caused by historically-recorded migration events. Among these was Norse settlement in the 9th-10th Centuries CE, which has a greater than expected signal in the contemporary population of the island. Here, we contextualise these discoveries using a large database of recently discovered archaeological sites with radiocarbon dates that we have analysed using Kernel Density Estimation techniques. We argue that the Viking migrations occurred following a 300-year period of population decrease in Ireland. This new, data-driven synthesis of the archaeological record contrasts with previous accounts of early medieval Ireland as a period of ever-growing expansion and progression. However, this new interpretation is also aligned to evidence for economic and environmental change, including recent discoveries concerning the soil nitrogen cycle and agricultural intensification. We compare historical evidence for Viking migrations to later episodes of migration between Britain and Ireland, where more details are known about the size of the incoming groups, ultimately wishing to confront the opinion that past population sizes cannot be fathomed for cultures without documentary records. Through comparison with historic analyses and census records, we make broad estimates of absolute population size in Ireland since prehistoric times, including during these demographic events, and argue that much value is added to genomic evidence for migration when these points in time are contextualised in terms of evolving population trends. • A database containing over 8000 radiocarbon dates of human activity in Ireland has been assembled. • Contextualizing the data for the period 400 to 1200 CE reveals a pronounced oscillation in activity throughout the landscape. • A long-term population model has been developed for Ireland using these radiocarbon data and historical records. • We suggest haplotype admixture in Ireland took place in the context of long term population decline. • These results mirror recent palaeoisotope studies of intensification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Assyrian conquests and colonization created a new bureaucratic organization in the provinces. • Colonization involved settlement of imperial personnel with new habits and needs. • Deported potters navigated their craft in order to fit the imperial demands. • Navigating across cultures, deportees produced material culture that preserved their identity. • Deportees gave relevance for their lives in a new world through daily practice of material culture. Practiced by most ancient empires, forced movement of populations distinguished by ethnicity, class, religion or profession had far-reaching political, economic and cultural consequences on indigenous societies. Assyria's expansion westward in the late eighth – early seventh centuries BCE not only enhanced forced population transfers from and into its conquered regions; it was a regular feature of its policy. Recent studies have emphasized the role of archaeology in illustrating diverse imperial strategies practiced by the Assyrians. By following the archaeological footprints of the massive movement of people and products across the imperial space, I will emphasize the agency of deported craftsmen in the empire-building act and its implications for the economy and social composition of local communities. The Iron Age II remains at Tel Dan are the focus of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• History of initial human exploration of Central Western Patagonia. • Importance of human pulses of occupation of Central Western Patagonia. • Ethnographic information is used for understanding exploration and colonization. • Oldest human remains in Patagonia. Identifying the process of initial exploration of any given area is complex in the sense that it lies in the boundary between the absence and presence of reliable anthropogenic evidence. However, how can we be certain that the data are in fact the result of exploration and not the result from a low-density archaeological record or other process that might be mimicking this process? This paper presents selected ethnographical data to shed light on regional data that are key to understanding the process of exploration. Information on the human dispersal into new lands and on the management of knowledge is presented in the frame of hunter-gatherer territorial organization, mobility, technology and the use of resources, and then discussed in the context of the archaeological record of Central Western Patagonia. It is suggested that although low in visibility, exploration is identifiable in the regional archaeological record. Hunter-gatherers of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition occupied the Andean fringe, moving out of some eastern occupational node and sacrificing the security of the motherland in exchange for extending territorial reaches. The study provides solid grounds for discussing a case of exploration with broader implications for the understanding of the archaeological correlates of exploration of new lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Child labor has been called an archaeological "enigma" because its expression varies with age, gender, social organization, and economy. There are negative connotations in Western societies, especially given the abuses of the industrial revolution, and for hunter-gatherers it seems to contradict the notion of original affluent societies. Yet the adoption of tasks marks progress toward adulthood. There is no reason to assume that children were not willing participants, or that labor is onerous. Child labor is an expected and natural element of growing up. This paper examines foraging behavior with a specific focus on the collection of mollusks at the Main Street Kronprindsens Gade (KPG) site, St. Thomas, USVI (circa cal. 400 CE). It is argued that an abundance of small, rocky intertidal and shallow seagrass inhabiting mollusks reflects foraging by children. General characteristics of these food items and the behaviors they represent are proposed as a model for identifying one aspect of labor by children. The association of mollusk collecting with children also helps to explain what would appear to be non-optimal foraging by adults, and the social relations of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Elaborate palace compound on Cerro Baúl in southern Peru was locus of ritual event. • Death of elite woman accompanied by ritual feasting and abandonment. • Deposits have food refuse of camelids and fishes as well as remains of ritual animals. • Significant expenditure of labor and material resources is evidenced. • Spatial arrangement and distribution of local and exotic goods was intentional. Abstract Ritual was an effective power building strategy in many archaic states and early empires. In this paper we describe the ritual abandonment of a palace residence at the Wari site of Cerro Baúl in southern Peru. This exclusive ritual event brought provincial and local elites together and included a funerary internment, feasting, and the intentional creation of numerous and varied offerings throughout the structure. We document the patterning and contents of these deposits including food animals, non-consumable and exotic animals, lithics, and broken ceramic vessels. We posit that lavish offerings such as the one we document here were sponsored by the state and communicated institutional facts to participants. Elements of these rituals may have been repeated across the Wari Empire and been integral to Wari institutions. As such, the study of ritual depositions and other patterned practices may be one means by which the presence of Wari elites or control by the Wari polity may be assessed through material remains. The features of ritual deposits may shed light on the strategies elites used to exert power over their subjects. This methodology may have broad application in the study of expansive polities in the Andes and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth-working spades were crafted from bone, stone, and wood in preindustrial societies. In the early Hemudu culture (7000-6000 BP) in eastern China, bone, particularly wild water buffalo scapulae, was preferred for crafting spades to modify the margins of wetlands for cultivation and occupation. Experimental and ethnographic research show that earth properties in the area adequately explains why wooden spades were less common; however, preference for bone spades over stone spades requires explanations beyond techno-functions during use. This paper identifies potential factors during the manufacturing procedure that might have encouraged the development and persistence of the scapular spade tradition. Replication experiments reconstructed the manufacturing procedure of the Hemudu scapular spade in comparison to that of a groundstone equivalent. The results showed that the manufacture knowledge was sophisticated for bone as well as for stone. However, the adequate level of know-how for successful production was lower for bone. Surprisingly, the costs in time and manufacturing tools for crafting a good enough bone tool were higher than those for a stone counterpart. In fact, the manufacture of bone tools involved the use of advanced groundstone tools. Overall, the Hemudu tool producers appear to have made their technological choices based on traditional conformity as well as resistance to motor skill adjustment rather than comprehensive cost-benefit assessment. The persistence of the scapular spade tradition led to increased investments into sophisticated modifications to cope with increasingly arduous earth-working tasks and likely led to increased investment into raw material procurement when bone raw materials became scarce. The results also suggest that technological ease and manufacturing costs in tool production should be evaluated carefully within the behavioral contexts, while taking into account that implements crafted from a variety of raw materials were employed in manufacturing the tool and that the costs and benefits in production are not equally perceivable to decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the ritual deposition of whetstones on native-type farmsteads in the northern-most parts of the Gallo-Roman Province of Gallia Belgica. The phenomenon occurs mainly in the lower river Scheldt valley (Belgian East and West Flanders and the southwestern Netherlands), where these whetstones, as well as other objects, are most often found in the domestic environment of timber-framed stable-houses. We show that the stone tools were buried deliberately in a specific structural component of the house, and that there was no intention of reclaiming them afterwards. By burying these whetstones, native Gallo-Roman-period farmers removed them from their primary, functional use, but at the same time initiated a new trajectory in their cultural biography. They received a ritual, apotropaic function in the course of the domestic life cycle of the house and its inhabitants, connected to the seasonal rhythm of the annual harvest cycle. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of structured (building) deposits in archaeology and, more generally speaking, to the various aspects of the cultural biography of houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lead (Pb) concentration and isotope analyses in human remains are powerful analytical tools used to examine differences in Pb exposure over time or between populations and to examine the movement of peoples and Pb-containing cultural materials. While there was a large increase in the use of dental tissues for measuring Pb in the last 30 years, there has yet to be a critical evaluation of how these analyses are conducted or the data are used to answer archaeological questions. This article reviews 55 papers published between 1979 and 2021 on Pb concentrations and isotope analyses of teeth from archaeological populations to examine how they were used, areas where they were misused or insufficient information given, current limitations of the approaches, and future studies needed. This was applied across three broad topics: sample choice, concentration interpretation, and isotopic ratio interpretation. While major limitations exist, largely related to missing information in methodological approaches, there are a few overarching themes of use that need to be considered. First is considering the biological/cultural age of the teeth and therefore of the individuals represented, and the variability introduced when comparing disparate tooth types. Second, is the need to consider archaeological, ethnographic, and historical documentation when evaluating natural versus anthropogenic exposures. Finally, we recommend that greater consideration of the contributions from both environmental and cultural sources, including those that could be imported into different cultural regions. The consideration of all these factors is integral to future studies involving Pb concentration and isotope analyses in bioarchaeology. • Sample choice, preparation, and analytical technique details are often missing • Roles of natural versus anthropogenic sources should be assessed using archaeological, ethnographic, and historical contexts • Both imported and locally produced cultural material sources must be considered when interpreting Pb exposure [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Money, finance, and debt are interdependent parts of historically contingent economies. • Money, finance, and debt are socially enacted and socially transformative. • An archaeology of money explores how it is embedded in social relations. • An archaeology of finance traces strategies for shifting resources and risk in time. • An archaeology of debt recognizes it as a fundamental component of human societies and economies. • Archaeologists study money, finance, and debt from under-represented times and places. • An archaeology of money, finance, and debt defies narratives of smooth and uncontested progress. This paper establishes the parameters for an archaeological study of money, debt, and finance as interrelated aspects of human economies. We begin with economic anthropology's roots in the works of Mauss, Malinowski, and Polanyi before proceeding to the individual topics of money, debt, and finance and the ways in which they overlap in theory and practice. Archaeological research into these topics is of particular value because it expands our view of the social and political dynamics of economies beyond production, distribution, and consumption. The insights of economic anthropology and other social sciences can push archaeologists to look beyond material instruments to the effects of money, finance, and debt in the material world. When archaeologists recognize money, finance, and debt as socially enacted and socially transformative (just as they do for production, exchange, and consumption), they are able to study the origins of these fundamental components of human economies as well as their long, contentious, and dynamic histories. This paper showcases the contributions of the other papers assembled as part of a virtual special issue and calls on all archaeologists to examine economies of the past in new ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the papers of the JAS Special Issue: Radiocarbon Dating that were presented at the First Frison Institute Symposium at the 2013 Society for American Archaeology annual meeting. Papers here fall into two categories that reflect two growing trends in archaeology: the use of summed probability distributions as measures of human population, and the use of Bayesian statistics to refine radiocarbon age estimates. While caution is required, these two methods combined offer archaeology the possibility of tracking change in the size of human populations through time and across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper calls attention to the presence of countless ancient paths on the basalt-covered surfaces characteristic of harra landscapes in north-eastern Jordan. These paths have developed over the course of at least the last two millennia, and potentially prior to that, by trafficking of nomadic peoples and animals. These paths facilitated movements through terrains that were otherwise difficult to traverse. Paths can be recognised on high-resolution satellite imagery, which allows for systematic documentation and the reconstruction of potential routes through the landscape. The identification and mapping of these paths is important for better understanding mobility patterns of nomadic peoples who inhabited these desert landscapes in antiquity. Highlights • Ancient paths were identified on harra surfaces in northeastern Jordan. • Paths can be systematically mapped using high resolution satellite imagery. • Paths developed as a result of trafficking of people and animals. • Paths were used to traverse the landscape at least for the last 2000 years. • Routes relate to nomadic exploitation of the environment on a local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron Age martial ritual sites constitute some of the richest archaeological evidence that violence and mass behavior not only became increasingly a part of the political reality in the Iron Age, but that it subsequently began to permeate the religious sphere. Of particular interest are the post-conflict ritual sanctuaries of Northern Gaul and the war bogs of Scandinavia, both of which display the remains of violent conflicts with exceptional amounts of (often mutilated) weapon paraphernalia and/or human remains. The purpose of this paper is to examine the linkage between these two traditions in the period 200 BC–AD 200. It is based on a new compilation of 80 sites with post-conflict ritual practices from this period. We suggest that the significant latitude in the combination of different martial practices and elements points both to local customs and to supra-regional links. This pattern is explained by the existence of a partly shared symbolic reservoir of symbols and practices. Dependent on differing ritual governance structures, different patterns come about in the archaeological record. In this respect, post-conflict sites represent largely self-organized settings associated with large-scale conflicts, assembled groups, and high-arousal group behavior. They thus differ from governing structures at community or family group level. This approach gives post-conflict rituals a new and more central role in the development and upholding of ritual traditions across Iron Age Northern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies concepts from the fields of historical ecology and human niche construction theory to interpret archaeological and palaeoecological data from the Brazilian state of Acre, southwest Amazonia, where modern deforestation has revealed hundreds of pre-Columbian monumental earthworks called ‘geoglyphs’, largely built between ca. 2000–650 cal. BP (calibrated years before present). Our main objective was to move away from the debate which currently dominates Amazonian archaeology over large- vs. small-scale pre-Columbian environmental impacts, and instead offer a more nuanced interpretation of human-environment interactions in our specific study area. Despite the difficulties presented by working with an incomplete regional archaeological dataset, interpreting our findings in light of these theoretical frameworks allowed us to re-think landscape history and ask new questions about a possible relationship between anthropogenic forests, symbolic capital and monument building in our particular study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lumps of mineral pigments are the more widespread archaeological remains found at Mousterian sites that may have been used by Neanderthals for symbolic activities. The characterisation of their chemical composition is essential to identify behavioural consistencies in their selection, transformation, and use, reconstruct changes through time in Neanderthals cultural practices, and discuss the emergence of symbolic cultures. In the Dordogne department of France, hundreds of black lumps, often bearing traces of intentional modification, were recovered at Middle (MP) and Upper Palaeolithic (UP) sites. In this paper we apply particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) to a representative sample of black lumps recovered at three MP and four UP sites as well as eight geological outcrops from this region with the aim of using major, minor, and trace elements content to identify potential sources and explore intra- and inter-site variability in the use of black colouring matter. Results suggest that MP and UP communities systematically searched for and surveyed Mn-rich formations to collect Mn-rich lumps. Differences in composition indicate that archaeological lumps were collected at a number of different outcrops, not sampled in the present study. A higher compositional variability is observed at UP compared to MP sites with single cultural layers. This suggests that UP modern humans may have, in some cases, exploited a wider range of Mn-rich sources than Mousterian Neanderthals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the results of a use-wear study of quartz micro-notches identified during a technological analysis of lithics from the Howiesons Poort layers of Sibudu Cave. Building on the technological analysis and preliminary functional screening of the archaeological material, a series of experiments was designed to evaluate different hypotheses for notch formation (blank production, intentional notching, hafting, projectile use, and trampling). The experimental reference collection was compared with archaeological micro-notches and a large sample of other archaeological quartz pieces (including bladelets, bipolar blanks, flakes and retouched pieces). This allowed us to evaluate the causes of micro-notch formation in the studied assemblage. Results indicate two novelties in the Howiesons Poort hunting technology at Sibudu: the use of quartz barbs and non-retouched quartz blanks. It seems that in addition to backed pieces (segments, obliquely backed points, etc.), unretouched pieces were mounted as elements in hunting weapons during the Howiesons Poort techno-tradition. Seven probable and 29 tentative barbs were identified. We thus present one of the strongest and oldest bodies of evidence for the use of barbs as projectile elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine archaeological surveying in deep waters has so far been challenging, mainly due to operational and technological constraints. The standard tool has been Side Scan Sonar (SSS) towed behind a surface vessel. Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) technology is not subject to the traditional range/resolution trade-off, and produces results of considerably higher quality than traditional SSS. In 2015 and 2016 a comprehensive mapping of wrecks in Skagerrak, a large deepwater area off the south coast of Norway was undertaken, using an interferometric SAS system deployed on an autonomous underwater vehicle. By examining data from two passes of one of the many historical wrecks that were detected in the survey area, we demonstrate how SAS can be used to produce very high resolution imagery and bathymetry of wreck sites. Furthermore, post processing techniques are applied to exploit the high information content inherent in SAS data, enhancing aspects of the data for relevant archaeological analysis and interpretation. We show in this paper how SAS technology represents significant improvements in our abilities to conduct high quality and high resolution seabed mapping. The adoption of this technology will both benefit archaeological research and provide knowledge for better decision making in underwater cultural heritage management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the study of the extractive metallurgical technology that was employed in four colonial mining-metallurgical sites in the high plateau (Puna) of Jujuy, Argentina, dedicated to silver exploitation during the 17th and 18th centuries. In these archaeological sites, we have identified the presence of reverberatory furnaces. We explore the development of this technology and show the results of the study of the furnaces found in the Puna of Jujuy, their functions and performance, based on our fieldwork and on the results of archaeometric analyses of smelting slag and vitrified clay samples. The excellent conservation of most of the furnaces makes them not only a great source of information for the study of colonial metallurgy in this region, but also a contribution to our understanding of mining and extractive metallurgy in the Andes, of the circulation of workers and technical knowledge and of the changes generated by the Spanish conquest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the invention of modern, large-scale engineering projects, terrace systems were rarely built in single phases of construction, but instead developed gradually, and could even be said to have evolved. Understanding this process of landscape change is therefore important in order to fully appreciate how terrace systems were built and functioned, and is also pivotal to understanding how the communities that farmed these systems responded to changes; whether these are changes to the landscape brought about by the farming practices themselves, or changes to social, economic or climatic conditions. Combining archaeological stratigraphy, soil micromorphology and geochemistry, this paper presents a case-study from the historic and extensive terraced landscape at Konso, southwest Ethiopia, and demonstrates – in one important river valley at least – that the original topsoil and much of the subsoil was lost prior to the construction of hillside terraces. Moreover, the study shows that alluvial sediment traps that were built adjacent to rivers relied on widespread hillside soil erosion for their construction, and strongly suggests that these irrigated riverside fields were formerly a higher economic priority than the hillside terraces themselves; a possibility that was not recognised by numerous observational studies of farming in this landscape. Research that takes into account how terrace systems change through time can thus provide important details of whether the function of the system has changed, and can help assess how the legacies of former practices impact current or future cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The addition of pottery additives (temper) provides both production-based benefits gained during the initial vessel formation phase, and performance-based benefits associated with post-firing vessel daily use. This paper presents the results of a controlled archaeological experiment designed to assess the opportunity costs associated with the addition of temper to clay during prehistoric pottery production sequences. Specifically, this study builds upon earlier research using material science methods to more broadly assess whether vessel strength is sacrificed by the addition of temper into the clay body. Standardized experimental ceramic test specimens, based directly upon petrographic analysis of archaeological samples from a regional context (South Central Ohio, USA) and produced using glacially-deposited illite-based clay, were subjected to mechanical strength tests using an Instron Series IX universal testing machine. The results demonstrate that there are indeed opportunity costs associated with temper addition: lost potential strength and reduced vessel use-life. Overall, untempered samples were significantly stronger than samples tempered with the most commonly used regional tempers—grit, limestone, and burnt shell—in terms of peak load and modulus of rupture. In other words, the results presented here suggest that prehistoric potters were losing the opportunity to create significantly stronger vessels in favor of the benefits that come with the addition of temper. Understanding of the existence, kind, and degree of opportunity costs that come with the addition of temper to clay emphasizes just how important the benefits of tempering must have been for the technology to be invented, experimented with, and ultimately so widely adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to apply a previously published method (Bargalló and Mosquera, 2014) to the archaeological record, allowing us to identify the hand laterality of our ancestors and determine when and how this feature, which is exhibited most strongly in humans, appeared in our evolutionary history. The method focuses on identifying handedness by looking at the technical features of the flakes produced by a single knapper, and discovering how many flakes are required to ascertain their hand preference. This method can potentially be applied to the majority of archaeological sites, since flakes are the most abundant stone tools, and stone tools are the most widespread and widely-preserved remains from prehistory. For our study, we selected two Spanish sites: Gran Dolina-TD10.1 (Atapuerca) and Abric Romaní (Barcelona), which were occupied by pre-Neanderthal and Neanderthal populations, respectively. Our analyses indicate that a minimum number of eight flakes produced by the same knapper is required to ascertain their hand preference. Even though this figure is relatively low, it is quite difficult to obtain from many archaeological sites. In addition, there is no single technical feature that provides information about handedness, instead there is a combination of eight technical features, localised on the striking platforms and ventral surfaces. The raw material is not relevant where good quality rocks are used, in this case quartzite and flint, since most of them retain the technical features required for the analysis. Expertise is not an issue either, since the technical features analysed here only correlate with handedness (Bargalló and Mosquera, 2014). Our results allow us to tentatively identify one right-handed knapper among the pre-Neanderthals of level TD10.1 at Gran Dolina (Atapuerca), while four of the five Neanderthals analysed from Abric Romaní were right-handed. The hand preference of the fifth knapper from that location (AR5) remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the benefits of GIS are widely touted among archaeologists today, less attention has been paid to the potential pitfalls and drawbacks of this undeniably important methodological tool. One of the greatest challenges of geospatial modeling is unbalanced data: due to the nature of the archaeological record, we can never assume that the remnants of past behavioral processes we are working with constitute a fully representative sample. Rather, our datasets are reflective of differential social and natural preservation conditions, as well as research biases. Most regional geospatial studies must collate diverse data collected over decades by researchers with varying backgrounds and goals, using assorted spatial scales and levels of technological sophistication. Such factors contribute substantial uncertainty to our models, uncertainty that should be recognized, quantified, and mitigated. If GIS techniques are to continue shifting the way we conduct archaeology and improve our abilities to answer questions regarding past behavior, then we must question the infallibility of GIS as a methodological tool and direct more attention toward developing robust geospatial applications that can meet the idiosyncratic needs of archaeological analysis. This paper explores one example of how such uncertainty investigation can be conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As spatial technology has evolved and become integrated in to archaeology, we face a new set of challenges posed by the sheer size and complexity of data we use and produce. In this paper I discuss the prospects and problems of Geospatial Big Data (GBD) – broadly defined as data sets with locational information that exceed the capacity of widely available hardware, software, and/or human resources. While the datasets we create today remain within available resources, we nonetheless face the same challenges as many other fields that use and create GBD, especially in apprehensions over data quality and privacy. After reviewing the kinds of archaeological geospatial data currently available I discuss the near future of GBD in writing culture histories, making decisions, and visualizing the past. I use a case study from New Zealand to argue for the value of taking a data quantity-in-use approach to GBD and requiring applications of GBD in archaeology be regularly accompanied by a Standalone Quality Report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses in archaeology have been criticized by archaeologists for being reductive, environmentally deterministic, and reproducing a disembodied experience of the landscape. However, research over the past 20 years has demonstrated the power of GIS data and analyses to explore complex social questions about past human experiences. Indigenous knowledges of landscapes have not often explicitly informed GIS analyses in archaeology, even though archaeologists and indigenous communities around the world are forging collaborative relationships. This paper proposes an integrated approach GIS-based least cost analysis, where Indigenous traditional knowledge, historical documentation, and archaeology can be brought together for a more nuanced and locally-grounded model of past landscapes. A case study from the movement of the Métis people of Canada is used to test typical models of cost path movement used in archaeology against known historic trails information, followed by a discussion of possible future applications of movement models and variables related to local Indigenous knowledge of current and past landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how human societies interacted with environmental changes is a major goal of archaeology and other socio-natural sciences. In this paper, we assess the human-environment interactions in the Pampa del Tamarugal (PDT) basin of the Atacama Desert over the last 13,000 years. By relying on a socio-environmental model that integrates ecosystem services with adaptive strategies, we review past climate changes, shifting environmental conditions, and the continuities and discontinuities in the nature and intensity of the human occupation of the PDT. As a result we highlight the importance of certain key resources such as water, an essential factor in the long-term trajectory of eco-historical change. Without water the outcome of human societies becomes hazardous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on previous research at smaller scales, in this paper we assemble paleoecological data and archaeological time-series for deserts located in three latitudinal bands along the South American Arid Diagonal (16°–41°S, ∼1,236,000 km 2 of area). Diverse proxies suggest the existence of arid and extremely arid conditions in large parts of these deserts. Working with a database composed of 914 archaeological dates falling between the first human presence in each region and 3000 years BP, which produce a minimum number of 578 occupational events, we identify a series of patterns at a macro-regional scale: a robust increase in the temporal signal at the beginning of the mid-Holocene (8000–7600 years BP) followed by two troughs (7600–7200, 6800–6400 years BP) during this period. The spatial scope of the data presented provides an opportunity for disentangling processes of spatial re-localization from actual changes in population size. We present a demographic hypothesis at a macro-regional scale, which suggests the existence of mid-Holocene population bottleneck(s). This hypothesis would account not only for the mid-Holocene troughs, but also for the posterior record of an intense and relatively rapid population growth (release) observed in many regions of the arid diagonal. These mid-Holocene events provide the context for independent trajectories of economic intensification based on different sets of resources -marine foods, camelids, and also probably wetland resources-, some of which lead to domestication processes. These cases occur in association with a tendency towards reduced residential mobility in regions that may have acted as refugia during arid periods of the mid-Holocene. The analysis produces testable expectations for future research at different scales and for different research domains, including human DNA and morphometric evidence. We consider that these issues have a fecund comparative potential, since the analysis of the socio-demographic meaning of archaeological discontinuities in different continents shares a similar conceptual structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor between southern and eastern African populations. Alluvial fans presently blanket the areas adjacent to major river systems, which were key areas of prehistoric human habitation. These sets of variables have created conditions that are both challenging and advantageous to conduct archaeological research. Lateritic soil development has resulted in poor organic preservation and facilitated insect bioturbation, which has demanded an integrated micro-macro scale approach to building a reliable geochronology. An integrated field and analytical methodology has also been employed to identify the nature and degree of post-depositional movement in alluvial deposits, which preserve a wide range of spatial integrity levels in buried stone artifact assemblages between 47 and 30 ka in Karonga, northern Malawi. This paper describes the methodological advances taken toward understanding open-air Middle Stone Age archaeology in sub-tropical Africa, and explores the inferential potential for understanding Pleistocene human ecology in the important southern Rift Valley region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pleistocene continent of Sahul was first settled by people who arrived by watercraft from Island South East Asia about 50,000 years ago. Some of the oldest archaeological sites in Sahul are located in the southern Kimberley, in northwest Australia. This area lies within the southern zone of influence of the tropical monsoon and thus has always been highly sensitive to changes in monsoon dynamics over time. How these climatic changes have affected the colonisation and occupation of Australia is an important research theme in Australian archaeology. This paper illustrates the contribution and challenges of micromorphology in deciphering palaeoenvironmental and anthropogenic markers in a still largely unexplored Australian context. Micromorphological analysis of two archaeological sequences in the Napier Range (Carpenters Gap 1 and 3) provides a complementary and comprehensive reconstruction of the human-climate history in this area spanning nearly 50,000 years of Australian human presence. The results demonstrate an opportunistic use of sites by people through time, surprisingly independent of local climatic variation, suggesting highly flexible subsistence strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geospatial landscape connectivity modeling techniques are widely used in archaeological studies of past human movement patterns and landscape interactions. Recent advancements in the development of omnidirectional modeling approaches present new avenues for research design and require introduction into the field. In this paper, we present a novel adaptation of a point-based omnidirectional model design that we use to advance understandings of early colonial expansion (ca. 1600–1750 CE) into a social and ecological frontier landscape in the Northeastern United States, the Great Bay Estuary. We build case-specific resistance surfaces and use Circuitscape modeling to simulate the outward dispersal of settler colonists from the landscape's central water bodies while accounting for the influences of both water-based and overland travel, as well as the availability of specific natural resources. The outcome of the simulation performs well when tested statistically against the archaeological record and the value of multivariate model parameterization is highlighted both quantitatively and qualitatively. This case study offers a framework others could use to advance their own contextually-informed modeling of past human dispersal and landscape interactions. • Omnidirectional geospatial modeling methods are needed in archaeology. • We present a point-based circuitscape model of colonial dispersal in New England. • Input resistance surfaces consider navigable waters, overland travel, and wetlands. • Model performance is tested against the archaeological record with success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skeletal remains of two equid species, Equus caballus (horse) and Equus asinus (donkey), have been found in archaeological contexts throughout Iberia since the Palaeolithic and Chalcolithic periods, respectively. These two species play different economic and cultural roles, and therefore it is important to be able to distinguish between the two species to better understand their relative importance in the past human societies. The most reliable morphological features for distinguishing between the two domesticated equids are based on cranial measurements and tooth enamel folds, leading to only a small percentage of archaeological remains that can be identified to species. Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis can be used to reliably distinguish the two equids, but it can be cost prohibitive to apply to large assemblages, and aDNA preservation of non-cranial elements is often low. Collagen peptide mass fingerprinting by matrix-assisted laser desorption time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry, also known as zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS), is a minimally destructive and cost-effective alternative to aDNA analysis for taxonomic determination. However, current ZooMS markers lack resolution below the genus level Equus. In this paper, we report a novel ZooMS peptide marker that reliably distinguishes between horses and donkeys using the enzyme chymotrypsin. We apply this peptide marker to taxonomically identify bones from the Iberian Peninsula ranging from the Iron Age to the Late Modern Period. The peptide biomarker has the potential to facilitate the collection of morphological data for zooarchaeological studies of equids in Iberia and throughout Eurasia and Africa. • Novel ZooMS biomarker discriminates between horses and donkeys. • Novel biomarker provided species level identification for archaeological samples identified only to Equus. • The enzyme, chymotrypsin, reliably provides unique peptide markers for ZooMS analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]