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Human–animal relations have been a fruitful research topic worldwide. The importance of deer in hunter–gatherer societies is undeniable, with cervids being commonly found in archaeological and past artistic records, with a notable amount of information recovered in the Iberian Peninsula. This relevance continues during Late Prehistory, but the attempt to discuss cervids under broader perspectives and based on different types of data is not as common. We intend to approach human–deer relations in Central and Southern Portuguese Late Prehistory by considering the zooarchaeological records, both deer abundance in faunal spectra and their presence in “meaningful” assemblages and structured depositions, as well as the use of deer and deer body parts in other socio–cultural and ideological practices. The synthesis of available data shows that human–deer relations changed through time and space, with different abundances related to hunting depending on chronology and geography. The use of deer or their body parts as a resource of symbolic nature also varied, being included in food-sharing events, offerings, structured depositions, and graphic representations. Changeability is part of the different relationships, ontologies, and cosmogonies that humans and deer developed in the Late Prehistoric relational world.

During the 2021 season, a team of researchers from the Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University conducted an exploration of an Umm Tuweyrat site located in southern Jordan. The site constitutes a dolmen field located near the modern city of Ash-Shawbak. More than a dozen dolmens and other structures were identified on the site, indicating the use of the area by communities living in the region during the late prehistoric periods. As part of the research carried out on the site, the available areas were explored, all structures were cleaned and digitalized, and geological and material analyses were proceeded. This activity proved that future research on southern Jordanian dolmens has the potential to shed even more light on the rich cultural history of the region and deepen our understanding of the late prehistory.

Fluorite ornaments have been recorded in different sites of Europe since Upper Paleolithic. Due to its visual appearance and physical properties, some translucent or transparent mineralogies like fluorite were searched for or casually acquired by late prehistory’s human communities. After intensive research on archaeological contexts from the Iberian Peninsula with personal ornaments from 4th to 2nd millennia BCE, we have recently identified and characterized for the first time an important number of fluorite ornaments, confronting a previous background where little attention was paid. Our work has been carried out in different archaeological collections and museums from the whole Iberian Peninsula by non-destructive techniques (Raman spectroscopy, portable X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD), that revealed the nature of fluorite ornaments and points to its consideration as scarce and highly symbolic items during late prehistory. A total of 36 fluorite beads from 23 sites are here recorded and studied, many of them unpublished or wrong catalogued as other mineralogies. These adornments could have important roles in trade and use among the communities of Iberia from the 4th millennium BCE onwards, because of their scarcity and its recurrent association with important funerary complex and exotic materials. Fluorite ornaments could have been significant and special symbols in the development of new and exclusive raw materials in the context of increasing social complexity and inequality.

El yacimiento de la cueva de Abittaga, excavado por J.M. Barandiarán entre 1964 y 1965, contiene una secuencia arqueológica con ocupaciones del Magdaleniense Superior y de la Prehistoria Reciente. Este yacimiento apenas ha participado en los debates de la prehistoria vasca de los últimos 40 años, fundamentalmente porque el yacimiento había sido estudiado de manera parcial y porque la información estratigráfica resultaba confusa. En este trabajo presentamos la revisión la colección arqueológica de Abittaga (industria lítica, ósea, cerámica, macrofauna y restos humanos). Se presentan además nuevas dataciones para las ocupaciones magdalenienses (nivel VII), y las de la Prehistoria Reciente (niveles I-III), y los resultados de la intervención arqueológica realizada en 2016. Estos resultados proporcionan una visión actualizada de un yacimiento usado con fines sepulcrales en la Edad del Bronce y como campamento ocasional, dentro de una amplia red de emplazamientos en la cuenca del Lea, durante el Magdaleniense Superior. _____________________________________________ ABSTRACT The archaeological site of Abittaga cave, excavated by J.M. Barandiarán between 1964 and 1965, has yielded a stratigraphic sequence with Late Magdalenian and Recent Prehistory occupations. For several reasons, this site has barely contributed to the debates about the Basque Prehistory during the last 40 years, debates such as the subsistence strategies and cultural transformations of the last hunter gatherers in the region, or the use of caves by the first farmer communities. This can probably be explained not only by the absence of a complete comprehensive analysis of the site and the archaeological materials, but also because some of the information provided by J.M. Barandiarán about the site, specially about its stratigraphy, was rather confusing. In this work we present the systematic revision of the archaeo-palaeontological collection, and we offer new data about the lithic tools, bone industry, pottery, and faunal and human remains. The analysis of the documentation of the site recorded by J.M. Barandiarán and J.M. Apellániz complemented with the results of the excavation made in 2016 at the site, suggest that the archaeological deposits excavated by J.M. Barandiarán probably correspond with deposits in primary position preserved only by the right wall of the entrance hall of the cave. The analysis of the pottery assemblage suggests different uses of the cave between the III and the I millennium cal BC. The presence of a single human individual buried in levels I-III, directly dated between 1895-1689 cal BC, indicates a funerary use of the cave during the Bronze Age. Levels IV-VI are really poor in archaeological materials and thus very difficult to interpret. Level VII presents the bulk of the archaeological material and it has been dated between 14321-14051 cal BP. In this level, the lithic assemblage is well preserved, with different refitting series. Almost all the lithic artifacts have been knapped using Flysch flint, but there are examples of flint varieties coming from more than 50 km of distance. We have recognized an in situ bladelet production obtained from carinated burins and small blocks, and the production of larger blades outside the cave, that were subsequently carried to Abittaga. The retouched toolkit is composed basically by burins, partially retouched blades and backed bladelets, with a remarkable absence of endscrapers. On the other hand, the bone industry is rich and varied, with bone points, single-row barbed harpoons, and rods. This lithic and bone industry is similar to other coeval sites in the same region such as Santa Catalina or Atxurra. The Late Magdalenian occupation of Abittaga cave is interpreted as a short-term occupation which was part of a wider settlement network that existed at that time in the Lea basin.

The HLC (Heritage–Landscape–Community) archaeological metaproject, carried out since 2016 by the Jagiellonian University in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, targets the archaeological heritage of southern Jordan (Tafila region), focusing currently on remains of the Early Bronze Age and earlier cultures that were found in the region. The project has already identified and verified several previously undocumented or poorly documented sites. Its main objective is to establish chronological phasing of human activity in this microregion, particularly during the Early Bronze Age, and to assess the scale and nature of human presence in that period. Two sites, Faysaliyya and Munqata’a, were excavated within the frame of the project. The article presents the preliminary results of this work. An important side issue is the protection of Jordanian heritage in the Tafila region through the identification of natural and human agents that may damage or destroy it.

On the northern fringes of Serra do Extremo, overlooking the valley of the river Minho, the hills of Monte Faro and Monte dos Fortes revealed an exceptional collection of prehistoric rock carvings belonging to the Iberian Atlantic Art tradition. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, A. Leite da Cunha e E. J. Silva studied here the well-known sites of Monte da Laje, Tapada do Ozão e Monte dos Fortes. Between 2013 and 2015, a new research project amplified the numbers to over one hundred carved rocks, amongst which 91 are dated to Late Prehistory. This allows us to acknowledge that this is the largest assemblage of Atlantic Art identified, so far, in Portugal. This paper, which inaugurates the dissemination of the research outcomes, reveals how the project was structured, the methodology adopted and offers a preliminary description of the archaeological sites.

Evidence from several sites suggests that the late prehistoric communities in Sudan developed over transitional times and regional diversities. Central and Northern Sudan have yielded an important record of late prehistoric settlements with several Mesolithic and Neolithic sites. New data from current projects such as the Sabaloka Dam Archaeological Project (SDASP, El Salha project) are progressively updating the archaeological map of Sudan and bringing fresh information about the complex transitions having occurred during the late prehistoric periods. Although many topics have been discussed, some issues remain untouched and geographical gaps are still uninvestigated. This paper reports about the survey and excavation conducted in the Sabaloka area, North of Khartoum, since 2013-2015. It is also a first attempt to discuss the importance of the area in the field of Sudanese prehistory and to explore the range of regional diversities through comparative studies.

Westward on the High-Hilled Plains. The Later Prehistory of the West Midlands is the second volume of the project The Making of the West Midlands. This is an ambitious six-volume series which puts together the proceedings originally presented at the seminars held, between June 2002 and June 2003, under the title the West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology. This second book of the series, edited by Derek Hurst, complements the assessment and research agenda for later prehistory (Hurst 2011) more recently published in The Archaeology of West Midlands: a framework for research (Watt 2011) and focuses on the Late Prehistory of the West Midland region, from the Middle Bronze age to the Late Iron Age.

This paper aims to highlight developments in archaeological knowledge relating to dog remains found in deposits from Late Prehistoric contexts at sites along the Iberian Peninsula. Preliminary results from ongoing osteometric and 2D Geometric Morphometric studies applied to these remains are here presented and discussed to contextualize future studies by the author.

La cueva es el lugar ritual aparentemente mejor conocido de la Edad del Hierro del Cantábrico Centro-oriental. Sin embargo, faltan estudios que analicen los fenómenos religiosos desarrollados en ellas, ya que la investigación tradicional se ha centrado en su función sepulcral. En esta aproximación se realiza un estudio desde el punto de vista arqueológico que propone nuevas interpretaciones a través del análisis de los hallazgos localizados en su interior y de puntuales comparaciones con otras cuevas de zonas aledañas y del occidente europeo. Además se tienen en cuenta otros aspectos como las características formales de la cueva, la distribución de los hallazgos en su interior, las evidencias del uso del fuego, así como la tipología de sus depósitos.

Contrary to the general attitude that the role of written sources in archaeological research marks the separation between two distinct fields of research – prehistorical and historical archaeology, the critical research into the history of the discipline points that the development of archaeology has not followed this pattern. Rather, the dominant role of the written sources in the study of classical past has been transferred onto the practices of prehistorical archaeology. Discussing the role of ancient sources in the research of the so-called "Illyrian question", this paper addresses the consequences of this dominant role of written sources in the archaeological study of the past and points to the ways in which the interpretation of the classical texts influenced the theoretical- methodological framework of research of the late prehistory of the Balkans.

Contrary to the general attitude that the role of written sources in archaeological research marks the separation between two distinct fields of research – prehistorical and historical archaeology, the critical research into the history of the discipline points that the development of archaeology has not followed this pattern. Rather, the dominant role of the written sources in the study of classical past has been transferred onto the practices of praehistorical archaeology. Discussing the role of ancient sources in the research of the so-called “Illyrian question”, this paper addresses the consequences of this dominant role of written sources in the archaeological study of the past and points to the ways in which the interpretation of the classical texts influenced the theoretical-methodological framework of research of the late prehistory of the Balkans.