Search

Research of cremated human remains are limited by severe analytical constraints. Estimation of basic anthropological parameters such as sex of individuals or their age at death is often uncertain. A method for assessing the sex of cremated individuals measures the lateral angle of the petrous part (PP) of the temporal bone, known as the lateral angle (LA) method. In the cemetery of the Lusatian culture in Czernikowice (51.317389°N, 15.871469°E), 6 well-preserved PP were identified. The analyzed PP belonged to 6 different individuals: 3 adults and 3 children. Based on standard anthropological methods, sex was estimated for adults individuals: 2 males and 1 female. The identified PP served as the basis for application of the LA method. The bones were scanned by computed tomography (CT) and the tomographic imaging allowed measurement of the lateral angle. The absolute values of intra-observer errors did not exceed 1°. Relative technical errors of measurements (rTEM) fell in the range below 5%, which is indicative of their high precision. Individuals for which the LA value was greater than or equal to 45.0° were qualified as females and those for which it was less than 45.0° – as males. The LA values for female individuals ranged from 48.0 to 49.1°, (average 48.5±0.78°, median 48.4°) and for male individuals were in the range of 24.9-37.5° (average 33.4±5.80°, median 35.5°). The absolute difference between the average values for female and male individuals was considerable (15.1°) and statistically significant (p < 0.001). The LA method provides good reliability of measurements when it comes to this analysis with regard to cremated osteological material, and the use of non-invasive CT enhances its value in the context of archaeological remains. However, its capability for sexing subadult individuals should be approached with caution and requires further research.

Cremated cemetery and three settlement sites were surveyed. Magnetics and electrical resistivity provided a suggestive location for the cemetery. Magnetic prospection of the surrounding settlements provided a less clear picture. Surface material indicated the presence of previously unregistered episodes of settlement.

Bones from the inhumation graves in Świbie were very poorly preserved. The skeletal fragments analysed were significantly eroded. The poor state of preservation of the skeletons is most likely due to the environmental changes taking place in the area occupied by the necropolis and the unfavourable post-depositional conditions prevailing there. Osteological materials have been preserved in only about 33% of the graves. Anthropological analyses were carried out on bones identified in 220 graves: 100 skeletal, 93 cremations, and 27 bi-ritual graves. A total of 242 individuals have been identified, of which 114 were inhumed and 128 cremated. The presence of more than one individual was observed in 21 burials (excluding burials where bones were lost: 1+?), with three graves: 33, 211, and 427 containing remains of three individuals. Estimating the sex was possible in 62 cases (25.6%), and due to the very poor condition of bones of inhumed individuals, this was more often possible for individuals from cremation graves (26.6%) than from inhumation graves (24.6%). For 33 individuals, tomographic examinations were also undertaken to determine sex based on the LA method. Age at death assigned to a single age category was determined for 98 individuals (40.5%): 32 (28.1%) from inhumation graves and 66 (51.6%) from cremation graves. In addition, 83 individuals (34.3%) were classified into the general age categories of “infans” – 8 individuals (3.3%): four each from cremation and inhumation graves; and “adult” – 75 specimens (30.9%): 50 (43.9%) from inhumation graves and 25 (19.5%) from cremation graves. For 34 individuals out of the 35 examined, a precise age determination was obtained using the TCA method. Based on the data obtained from the constructed mortality tables, the life expectancy of a newborn (e0) was approximately 21 years, or within a range of 13.05–14.27 years after estimating the missing number of deceased children (d0-14.9). According to the data thus compiled, inhumed individuals had slightly higher life expectancy parameters (e0=22.03 years, after d0-14.9 estimation: 13.89–15.06 years) compared to individuals from cremation graves (e0=19.79 years, after d0-14.9 estimation: 12.60–13.84 years). Individuals of reproductive age (e20) lived to 28 years on average. The average age of death for adult individuals was 28.27 years (28.52 years for inhumed individuals and 28.16 years for cremated individuals). Almost 70% of the population survived to this age, but only 2.3% reached an age above 40 years. The structure of the living population calculated based on the Cx parameter suggests a relatively stable nature of the community using the cemetery, with the structure of inhumed individuals corresponding to a developing population and the structure of cremated individuals to a stabilised one. Children were more than twice as likely to be cremated, particularly those in the Infans I age category (chi2=4.7635, df.=1, p=0.021809). No such trend was observed among adults, although the data collected suggest that individuals from the Adultus category were inhumed less frequently. For individuals from cremation graves, the total bone mass was determined along with the weight of the distinguished bone fractions. The weight distribution of individual specimens ranged from 0.22 g to 2123.82 g (X=294.35 g; Me=81.46 g; SD=419.739 g) with the most numerous range from 0 to 100 g. Paleopathology was found in a total of 33 individuals (13.6%). Most of the conditions identified were related to nutritional deficiencies and manifested as linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), interglobular dentin (IGD), cribra orbitalia and hyperostosis porotica. Degenerative lesions (osteophytes, eburnation of the radius head, metatarsal bones fusion), probable changes from respiratory diseases (SES), non-specific diseases (periostitis), diseases of unknown aetiology (HFI), and congenital diseases (Klippel-Feil syndrome) were also found. In addition, the presence of epigenetic traits were observed in three individuals.

Reconstructing the palaeodiet of populations associated with the Lusatian Urnfields is an important part of the study of prehistoric communities. It is particularly important because of the limitations arising from the widespread use of cremation in this period, which precludes the determination of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios in bone collagen. The stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) were analysed in bone samples selected from the 23 individuals recovered from inhumation burials in the bi-ritual cemetery of the Lusatian Urnfields in Świbie, Gliwice District. Samples from preserved fragments of long bone shafts and cranial bones, and in one case a fragment of the last lumbar vertebra, were selected for analysis. Due to the very poor state of preservation of the skeletons, it was impossible to carry out palaeodiet reconstruction studies for many of the individuals. No animal bones with diagnostic characteristics were preserved in the Świbie cemetery, so the trophic background was determined based on the published data for fauna from Neolithic and Late Bronze Age sites. All bone samples were mechanically cleaned. The obtained samples were then subjected to the standard collagen extraction procedure used in the Radiocarbon and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, which is based on the modified Longin method. For most of the individuals examined, some measurements of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were obtained despite their clear, macroscopically determined contamination with organic compounds. Most of the samples analysed showed a C/N ratio that met the quality criterion, which ranged between 2.9 and 3.6. Samples of two individuals, from graves 2 and 259, were contaminated, with subsamples for the individual from grave 2 well outside the range obtained for the others. The δ13C values ranged from -21.22‰ to -17.63‰ (X = -18.86; S.D. = 0.825), while the δ15N values ranged from 4.62‰ to 9.5‰ (X = 8.25; S.D. = 1.003), excluding the data for the contaminated samples. The sample selected for an adult of undetermined sex, from grave 2, came from a pre-WWII excavation carried out around 1936. The contamination, shown by isotopic testing, most likely came from a preservative, which was probably isinglass (fish glue). It was most likely made from the swim bladders of freshwater fish. Most of the individuals examined to establish their palaeodiet were characterised by a high trophic level, indicating a balanced diet based on food of inland origin, with C3 plants and a high proportion of food of animal origin. The individual of undetermined sex and age at death from grave 79 was characterised by a plant-based diet. Individuals falling into the Infans I, Infans II and child age categories, due to their likely high milk consumption, were characterised by the highest δ15N parameters, which are characteristic of a ‘pastoral diet’. The range of stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values obtained for the male individuals placed them at a slightly higher trophic level than the females, but these differences were not statistically significant (Mann-Whitney U test: for δ13C p-value 0.88076; for δ15N p-value 0.64552). Individuals of indeterminate sex and age at death displayed a wide range of carbon and nitrogen isotope values.

The study addresses remains of two peculiar graves unearthed at the site Mikulin 9 in the Dobużek Scarp (Pol. Skarpa Dobużańska) area in Western Volhynia. Unique character of the burials under consideration consists in the peculiarity of funeral ritual performed, scenario of which was basically divided into two acts of burning of the deceased – once on cremation pyres, and then in the eventual places of their interment (grave pits). Both the graves under consideration as well as analogical finds from the western part of the Lublin-Volhynian Upland and its northern foreland can be connected with an impact form the Pontic area and dated back to the Early Scythian Period. Historically, their presence is commonly considered as a result of westward migrations of forest-steppe people form the area of nowadays Ukraine triggered by the appearance of Indo-Iranian Scythian tribes. In the case of the presented burials no less significant from the peculiar eastern burial rite performed seem their localization. When discussing the Dobużek Scarp area as a destiny point of one of such migrations, clearly Pontic character of the escarpment’s physiography should be taken into consideration. The local conditions of the already unsettled loess paha of Dobużek escarpment must have peculiarly attracted pastoral communities arriving from the east. Moreover, the graves were placed in a very exposed point within the preexisting prehistoric landscape, to wit – they were dug into today non-existent but then dominating the area long barrows of the Funnel Beaker Culture. It seems likely that by the act of burying their kinsman into the exposed Eneolithic mounds the incomers tried to create an ancestral tie with the area and thereby justify their presence “here and now”.

The bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis gave rise to devastating outbreaks throughout human history, and ancient DNA evidence has shown it afflicted human populations as far back as the Neolithic. Y. pestis genomes recovered from the Eurasian Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (LNBA) period have uncovered key evolutionary steps that led to its emergence from a Yersinia pseudotuberculosis-like progenitor; however, the number of reconstructed LNBA genomes are too few to explore its diversity during this critical period of development. Here, we present 17 Y. pestis genomes dating to 5,000 to 2,500 y BP from a wide geographic expanse across Eurasia. This increased dataset enabled us to explore correlations between temporal, geographical, and genetic distance. Our results suggest a nonflea-adapted and potentially extinct single lineage that persisted over millennia without significant parallel diversification, accompanied by rapid dispersal across continents throughout this period, a trend not observed in other pathogens for which ancient genomes are available. A stepwise pattern of gene loss provides further clues on its early evolution and potential adaptation. We also discover the presence of the flea-adapted form of Y. pestis in Bronze Age Iberia, previously only identified in in the Caucasus and the Volga regions, suggesting a much wider geographic spread of this form of Y. pestis. Together, these data reveal the dynamic nature of plague’s formative years in terms of its early evolution and ecology.

In this research, sampling optimisation and modelling based thereon follow from the assumption that each human skeleton can be treated as a set of heterochronous carbon reservoirs capable of supplying at least an elementary sequence consisting of two 14C dates corresponding to the moment of birth (otic capsule) and that of demise (ribs), as well as an anthropologically defined lag between them. Two case studies demonstrate that the approach can raise the precision of 14C dates related to the death of the individuals. The benefits and main issues of this sampling strategy as well as the involved bioarchaeological conflict potential are taken under discussion.

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ∼12,000 y B.P. This shift is hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a decline in physiological health as inferred from skeletal remains. Here, we consider osteological and ancient DNA data from the same prehistoric individuals to study human stature variation as a proxy for health across a transition to agriculture. Specifically, we compared “predicted” genetic contributions to height from paleogenomic data and “achieved” adult osteological height estimated from long bone measurements for 167 individuals across Europe spanning the Upper Paleolithic to Iron Age (∼38,000 to 2,400 B.P.). We found that individuals from the Neolithic were shorter than expected (given their individual polygenic height scores) by an average of −3.82 cm relative to individuals from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (P = 0.040) and −2.21 cm shorter relative to post-Neolithic individuals (P = 0.068), with osteological vs. expected stature steadily increasing across the Copper (+1.95 cm relative to the Neolithic), Bronze (+2.70 cm), and Iron (+3.27 cm) Ages. These results were attenuated when we additionally accounted for genome-wide genetic ancestry variation: for example, with Neolithic individuals −2.82 cm shorter than expected on average relative to pre-Neolithic individuals (P = 0.120). We also incorporated observations of paleopathological indicators of nonspecific stress that can persist from childhood to adulthood in skeletal remains into our model. Overall, our work highlights the potential of integrating disparate datasets to explore proxies of health in prehistory.

[Significance] The bacterium Yersinia pestis has caused numerous historically documented outbreaks of plague and research using ancient DNA could demonstrate that it already affected human populations during the Neolithic. However, the pathogen’s genetic diversity, geographic spread, and transmission dynamics during this early period of Y. pestis evolution are largely unexplored. Here, we describe a set of ancient plague genomes up to 5,000 y old from across Eurasia. Our data demonstrate that two genetically distinct forms of Y. pestis evolved in parallel and were both distributed across vast geographic distances, potentially occupying different ecological niches. Interpreted within the archeological context, our results suggest that the spread of plague during this period was linked to increased human mobility and intensification of animal husbandry., The bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis gave rise to devastating outbreaks throughout human history, and ancient DNA evidence has shown it afflicted human populations as far back as the Neolithic. Y. pestis genomes recovered from the Eurasian Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (LNBA) period have uncovered key evolutionary steps that led to its emergence from a Yersinia pseudotuberculosis-like progenitor; however, the number of reconstructed LNBA genomes are too few to explore its diversity during this critical period of development. Here, we present 17 Y. pestis genomes dating to 5,000 to 2,500 y BP from a wide geographic expanse across Eurasia. This increased dataset enabled us to explore correlations between temporal, geographical, and genetic distance. Our results suggest a nonflea-adapted and potentially extinct single lineage that persisted over millennia without significant parallel diversification, accompanied by rapid dispersal across continents throughout this period, a trend not observed in other pathogens for which ancient genomes are available. A stepwise pattern of gene loss provides further clues on its early evolution and potential adaptation. We also discover the presence of the flea-adapted form of Y. pestis in Bronze Age Iberia, previously only identified in in the Caucasus and the Volga regions, suggesting a much wider geographic spread of this form of Y. pestis. Together, these data reveal the dynamic nature of plague’s formative years in terms of its early evolution and ecology., This study was funded by the Max Planck Society, Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean and the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement 771234 – PALEoRIDER (to W.H.), 856453 – HistoGenes (to J.K.), and 834616 – ARCHCAUCASUS (to S.H.). The Heidelberg Academy of Science financed the genetic and archeological research on human individuals from the Augsburg region within the project WIN Kolleg: “Times of Upheaval: Changes of Society and Landscape at the Beginning of the Bronze Age. M.E. was supported by the award “Praemium Academiae” of the Czech Academy of Sciences. M.D. was supported by the project RVO 67985912 of the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. I.O. was supported by the Ramón y Cajal grant from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spanish Government (RYC2019-027909-I). A. H€ubner was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany’s Excellence Strategy (EXC 2051 – Project-ID 390713860). J.F.-E. and J.A.M.-A. were supported by the Diputación Foral de Alava, IT 1223-19, Gobierno Vasco. A. Buzhilova was supported by the Center of Information Technologies and Systems (CITIS), Moscow, Russia 121041500329-0. L. M., L.B.D., and E. Khussainova were supported by the Grant AP08856654, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A. Beisenov was supported by the Grant AP08857177, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of the Y chromosome (NRY), have been used for the past 30 years to investigate the history of humans from a maternal and paternal perspective. Researchers have preferred mtDNA due to its abundance in the cells, and comparatively high substitution rate. Conversely, the NRY is less susceptible to back mutations and saturation, and is potentially more informative than mtDNA owing to its longer sequence length. However, due to comparatively poor NRY coverage via shotgun sequencing, and the relatively low and biased representation of Y-chromosome variants on capture assays such as the 1240 k, ancient DNA studies often fail to utilize the unique perspective that the NRY can yield. Here we introduce a new DNA enrichment assay, coined YMCA (Y-mappable capture assay), that targets the "mappable" regions of the NRY. We show that compared to low-coverage shotgun sequencing and 1240 k capture, YMCA significantly improves the mean coverage and number of sites covered on the NRY, increasing the number of Y-haplogroup informative SNPs, and allowing for the identification of previously undiscovered variants. To illustrate the power of YMCA, we show that the analysis of ancient Y-chromosome lineages can help to resolve Y-chromosomal haplogroups. As a case study, we focus on H2, a haplogroup associated with a critical event in European human history: the Neolithic transition. By disentangling the evolutionary history of this haplogroup, we further elucidate the two separate paths by which early farmers expanded from Anatolia and the Near East to western Europe., Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This study was funded by the Max Planck Society, the French (ANR) and German (DFG) Research Foundations under the INTERACT project (ANR-17-FRAL-0010, DFG-HA-5407/4-1, 2018-2021) to M.R. and W.H., the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant agreement no. 771234-PALEoRIDER to W.H., the award Praemium Academiae of the Czech Academy of Sciences to M.E. and the project RVO 67985912 of the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague to M.S.

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Artikel befasst sich mit zwei gänzlich unterschiedlichen Bestattungsarten, die vom archäologischen Standpunkt der gleichen „Kultur“ angehören und höchstwahrscheinlich auch im Hinblick auf die Chronologie sehr vergleichbar sind. Die Unterschiede schließen sowohl Grabkonstruktionen als auch die Wahl der Grabbeigaben ein und sind ein Beweis für die Vielfalt der Ansätze im Bestattungsritual. Alle angesprochenen Gräber befinden sich auf dem zur Schnurkeramischen Kultur rechnenden Fundplatz Magnice im südwestlichen Polen. Der Beitrag richtet den Fokus u. a. auf Grabkonstruktionen, dem Zustand der entdeckten menschlichen Überreste und auf Gebrauchspuren beigegebener Steinartefakte. Die Annahme der Verfasser ist, dass selbst kleine Lokalgruppen gültige Regeln der Bestattungspraktika erfahren, erlernt oder erspürt haben müssen. Obwohl das Konzept des „idealisierten Grabmodels“ sicherlich ein Teil der allgemein bekannten und geteilten kulturellen Regeln darstellte, zeigte die archäologisch nachgewiesene Praxis, dass diese auf unterschiedliche Weise umgesetzt wurde und dass die Umsetzungsphase auch die sozialen Verhandlungsmuster mit einbezog.

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ~12,000 years before present (BP). Subsistence shifts from hunting and gathering to agriculture are hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a simultaneous decline in physiological health as inferred from paleopathological analyses and stature reconstructions of skeletal remains. A key component of the health decline inference is that relatively shorter statures observed for early farmers may (at least partly) reflect higher childhood disease burdens and poorer nutrition. However, while such stresses can indeed result in growth stunting, height is also highly heritable, and substantial inter-individual variation in the height genetic component within a population is typical. Moreover, extensive migration and gene flow were characteristics of multiple agricultural transitions worldwide. Here, we consider both osteological and ancient DNA data from the same prehistoric individuals to comprehensively study the trajectory of human stature variation as a proxy for health across a transition to agriculture. Specifically, we compared ‘predicted’ genetic contributions to height from paleogenomic data and ‘achieved’ adult osteological height estimated from long bone measurements on a per-individual basis for n=160 ancient Europeans from sites spanning the Upper Paleolithic to the Iron Age (~38,000-2,400 BP). We found that individuals from the Neolithic were shorter than expected (given their individual polygenic height scores) by an average of −4.47 cm relative to individuals from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (P=0.016). The average osteological vs. expected stature then increased relative to the Neolithic over the Copper (+2.67 cm, P=0.052), Bronze (+3.33 cm, P=0.032), and Iron Ages (+3.95 cm, P=0.094). These results were partly attenuated when we accounted for genome-wide genetic ancestry variation in our sample (which we note is partly duplicative with the individual polygenic score information). For example, in this secondary analysis Neolithic individuals were −3.48 cm shorter than expected on average relative to individuals from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (P=0.056). We also incorporated observations of paleopathological indicators of non-specific stress that can persist from childhood to adulthood in skeletal remains (linear enamel hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia, and porotic hyperostosis) into our model. Overall, our work highlights the potential of integrating disparate datasets to explore proxies of health in prehistory.

Bell Beaker pottery spread across western and central Europe beginning around 2750 BCE before disappearing between 2200–1800 BCE. The mechanism of its expansion is a topic of long-standing debate, with support for both cultural diffusion and human migration. We present new genome-wide ancient DNA data from 170 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 100 Beaker-associated individuals. In contrast to the Corded Ware Complex, which has previously been identified as arriving in central Europe following migration from the east, we observe limited genetic affinity between Iberian and central European Beaker Complex-associated individuals, and thus exclude migration as a significant mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, human migration did have an important role in the further dissemination of the Beaker Complex, which we document most clearly in Britain using data from 80 newly reported individuals dating to 3900–1200 BCE. British Neolithic farmers were genetically similar to contemporary populations in continental Europe and in particular to Neolithic Iberians, suggesting that a portion of the farmer ancestry in Britain came from the Mediterranean rather than the Danubian route of farming expansion. Beginning with the Beaker period, and continuing through the Bronze Age, all British individuals harboured high proportions of Steppe ancestry and were genetically closely related to Beaker-associated individuals from the Lower Rhine area. We use these observations to show that the spread of the Beaker Complex to Britain was mediated by migration from the continent that replaced >90% of Britain’s Neolithic gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the process that brought Steppe ancestry into central and northern Europe 400 years earlier.

International audience; Successful fieldwork in a tropical forest requires both a comprehensive preparatory scenario as well as a framework of everyday methods. Dense vegetation impedes navigating the terrain and interpreting the relations between the anthropogenic and natural landscapes. Additionally, the forest hampers using accurate measurement systems, such as GNSS and Total Station systems or UAV platforms. It hinders the logistics, effectively limiting the amount of equipment that can be used. L'habitation La Caroline Parts of the colonial plantation La Caroline were excavated in 2016. Located 30 km from Cayenne near the river Mahury, it was active since the end of the 18 th century until the 1870's. Cloves and rokou were its main crops. It had a regular, somewhat iterative layout. The remains of some buildings, e.g. the maisons de maître, a free-standing kitchen and slave or labourer quarters are still discernible. A monumental stairway leading down to a now defunct canal and road system is also preserved. Today, the whole area is covered with a tropical forest and the building remains are hidden in thick undergrowth. Large scale overview Airborne Laser Scanning was conducted during the preparatory stage. This allowed to create accurate land relief and use models. The measurements were made using a RIEGL LMS-Q560. Point clouds of high density were obtained, but the thick vegetation caused the area to be irregularly covered many measurements classified as the terrain. This necessitated conducting a series of experiments aiming to find the optimal classification parameters. Eventually, an area of 17,5 km 2 measured. It encompassed several adjacent plantations and revealed the spatial layout of buildings, elevated fields, roads and other infrastructure. Feature recording Photogrammetry was utilised during the fieldwork and supplemented the traditional recording. This allowed to save time spent on documentation and provided high resolution data. Structure from motion techniques were especially useful in recording highly detailed and complex contexts such as the architectural remains. DEMs, orthophotographs and 3D models were the final result of field image-based modelling. Combined with comparative studies of similar structures, they allowed us to model, reconstruct and visualise the buildings in 2D and 3D. Summary Although the array of measurement methods that could have been reliably used in the dense rainforest vegetation was quite limited, they have nonetheless proven to be highly effective and yielded satisfying and valuable results. ALS was used both for prospection and recording. It provided unique data sets imaging the otherwise inaccessible terrain. Feature photogrammetry allowed to record the features found during excavations quickly and in a high resolution, with minimal time and equipment requirements. The data became a base for models, which allowed us to notice new details during post-excavation analyses of architecture. The spatial data helped to image structures on many different scales: from the landscape, through relations of buildings, down to excavation features. Importantly enough, all data was unified in a common mapping system, easily usable in CAD or GIS environments. Finally, the digital data provide a base for multiple scale 3D visualisations, successively uploaded online as interactive models. As such, they promulgate not only our results and the methods we used, but historical archaeology in French Guiana as well.