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This paper examines the Longquan celadon industry, located in Zhejiang province in China, which flourished mainly between the Southern Song and early Ming dynasties. The products of this industry are found on archaeological sites across China and the Indian Ocean. This paper attempts a quantified analysis of the development of the industry based on archaeological data, focussing on four aspects: production, domestic consumption, overseas consumption and, to a lesser degree, workshop organisation. Although much of the data is still problematic, and many of the conclusions drawn are necessarily, therefore, tentative, these are the only data available. They allow us at least to demonstrate the value and timeliness of the approach by charting the development of this industry and by arguing that the close integration of the four aspects examined indicates that the Longquan celadon industry was an industry of considerable economic significance across much of the Indian Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the links between South American Amerindian ontologies and the contextual study of knapped lithic technology is the main goal of this paper. To this end, we focus on a study case from eastern Catamarca province, Argentina, during the 1st millennium A.D. We identified projectile points in only one context, a rock art rock shelter (Oyola 7), while in other archaeological sites in the area, we have not recorded this type of stone tool. Drawing on ethnohistoric and ethnographic data regarding the connection between arrows and shamanic practices of illness and healing, we propose considering the agencies of these objects, as well as their intrinsic danger and their multiple possibilities of affecting beyond their traditional functional interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The congress of the British Archaeological Association in Canterbury in September 1844 was the first archaeological conference in Britain. This paper examines the visual practices of performance and display incorporated within the congress, focusing on three events: a trip to watch a barrow excavation; a visit to the Faussett collection of antiquities; and an unrolling of an Egyptian mummy. Through an analysis of these events the paper examines the ways in which members of the nascent British archaeological community in the early Victorian era learned how to observe archaeology within the correct social, intellectual and spatial frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeology of inundated cultural landscape sites is not new and is an important component of the global record, yet these sites are distinct from shipwrecks and other site types underwater. Just as on land, underwater sites are subject to a dynamic range of formation processes, which must be analytically controlled. However, there are lingering misconceptions about underwater sites, specifically how they are formed, how much has been preserved, and their contribution to the broader field of archaeology. This paper discusses issues of preservation, context, and formation processes using misunderstandings of the Pompeii premise in underwater research as a conceptual guide. Ultimately acknowledging that, just as on land, archaeological sites underwater are diverse and unique, with site-specific pre- and post-depositional transformations. Different sites supplement each other, and the unique preservation underwater makes them a particularly valuable complement to the terrestrial record and a vital part of world archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A response by the authors to a paper which suggests that some of the Bayesian models they have developed from various archaeological sites are not reliable and cannot be used in dating the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition, is presented. Topics covered include issues that should be considered when conducting Bayesian modelling and testing the resulting models, testing the modified La Quina model, and critique of the radiocarbon dating and modelling of the Swabian site in Germany.

Recent discoveries in north-west China and the Central Asian steppes have shed new light on the study of power display and material connections amongst nomadic groups during the development of gold-making technology in Iron Age Eurasia. Bringing together material science and archaeological approaches, this paper presents an interdisciplinary study of serially produced gold artefacts recovered from the elite burials of north-west China, to gain a better understanding of the inventive nature of early gold-making industry. In particular, we find that the technology used to craft the gold appliqués found in the Xigou cemetery (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) in north-west China attested to the use of moulds or matrices for serial production, closely linked to technological practice of the central Asians steppes. We consider the spread of the peculiar technique and iconography as a tangible way to examine technology transfer and cultural interactions. The contextual analysis reveals that the mould-pressing technique, the animal-style gold artefacts, and the burial practice of using prestigious gold as body adornment constitute a shared set of material expressions of the status and power of nomadic elites in north-west China, Kazakhstan and southern Siberia. Technological practice, in turn, opens up new research avenues in the field, recalibrating our recognition and understanding the active involvement of material objects in human life and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review the growing evidence of anthropogenic landscapespresent in the semi-deciduous neotropical forest biomes of eastern NW Argentina,which have remained relatively neglected in favour of arid to semi-arid western Andean regions. The evidence gathered in de El Alto-Ancasti provides animportant case study where multidisciplinary methodologies have beenapplied to sites that document the emergence and variability in food productionstrategies across the eastern Andean forests and grasslands of NWArgentina. We discuss evidence offarming structures from archaeological surveys, plant management from phy-tolith analysis, and the tempo and nature of settlement from archaeological excavations undertaken at a variety of sites in the El Alto Ancasti mountainrange. We suggest that the communities that inhabited this region during thefirst millennium AD (ca. 1500–1000 BP) established a strategy of 'overlappingpatchworks' of food production that were able to contend with considerableseasonal variability. We argue that, through the use of cross-channelling, low river areas, erosion control techniques and the establishment of mesothermal crops,including maize, legumes, and tubers, throughout the region, these societies adopted flexible strategies to adapt to life in a region prone to climatic change [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iron Age-Early Historic landscape of southern India has been subject to scholarly study and scrutiny for over a century now. There is much variation in the chronology, typology and understanding of sites from this period. This paper looks at the habitation, burials and habitation-cum-burial sites of the Iron Age-Early Historic period, from the northern part of Tamilnadu, India. Historians have also used the Sangam texts of classical Tamil, which are believed to be contemporaneous with the archaeological sites considered, to understand the society and culture of this period. However, most of the previous literary and archaeological researches have progressed parallel to each other, thereby resulting in different perspectives for the same research questions. This paper uses the excavated sites from northern Tamilnadu as a case study to explore the possibility of combining archaeological and literary-historical approaches, while examining the advantages and limitations of each approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notions of risk and resilience are increasingly relevant to cultural heritage. Archaeological sites and monuments in particular are widely perceived to be vulnerable and subjected to growing risks of deliberate destruction, e.g. in the context of armed conflicts. At the same time, it has become a familiar claim that cultural heritage needs to be conserved as an important resource for fostering cultural resilience, reducing disaster risk, and supporting peace and reconciliation in the future. In this paper, the author takes issue with that latter view and suggests instead that cultural resilience, risk preparedness, post-disaster recovery and mutual understanding between people will be best enhanced by an increased ability to accept loss and transformation. The evident changes of heritage over time can inspire people to embrace uncertainty and absorb adversity in times of change, thus increasing their cultural resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 Ma) was a period of major evolutionary changes in the hominin lineage. The progressive consolidation of bipedal locomotion, alongside increases in cranial capacity and behavioural flexibility, allowed early Homo to exploit an increasing diversity of resources and environmental settings within the changing landscapes of East Africa and beyond. These complex processes were not necessarily linear or spatially uniform, given the technological diversity documented, particularly during the Oldowan–Acheulean transition. In this paper, we argue that human populations experienced a considerable demographic expansion from c.1.7–1.5 Ma onwards, expressed in the number, size, density, and distribution of archaeological sites. These patterns resulted from the interplay of high-yielding animal resource exploitation strategies, technological investment, prosocial behaviours as well as increasingly structured land use patterns. A more consolidated hominin demographic structure led to the extinction of large sympatric carnivore species, while larger group sizes would have led to more successful Out-of-Africa dispersals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of faunal discard reveal the everyday use of animal resources in the past. However, taphonomic processes, fragmentation due to butchery, equifinality, and other factors hamper identification of the practices responsible for creating accumulated faunal assemblages. In this paper, we suggest a way to reconceptualize mundane faunal waste from archaeological sites. We apply an everyday life theoretical framework to examine archaeofauna from domestic contexts at Jecosh, a settlement located in the Callejón de Huaylas of north-central Peru. Zooarchaeological analysis of 1,806 bone fragments demonstrate that from the Final Formative through the Late Horizon (ca. 340 BCE - 1630 CE), local camelid husbandry supplemented by deer hunting was a crucial economic resource, enmeshed in Jecosh's everyday routines. Simultaneously, we argue that the centuries-spanning continuity in animal use was not a static process. Continuity perseveres through changing practices, but the epistemological limits of archaeological analysis restrain their exact identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpreting paths and trails remains problematic for archaeologists working within the landscape paradigm. The perspective offered in this paper suggests that paths and trails are meaningful places in their own right, engaging other nodes within the landscape but with a particular significance emerging from the specific associations of movement, with all aspects presenting complex issues of archaeological interpretation. The difficulty of fitting paths and trails into a space/place dichotomy mirrors broad conceptual deficiencies in understanding such features and the methodological challenge presented by ambiguous archaeological evidence. This paper explores these issues, in particular the relationship between movement, paths and conflict as expressed in the idea of ‘the war path’, an eighteenth-century conceptualization of indigenous patterns of movement on the American frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers current issues in the teaching of archaeological fieldwork skills, using a British university's summer excavation as a case study. Analysing diary accounts submitted by participants - including members of staff, undergraduate students and local volunteers - on an hourly basis throughout one working day provides a unique insight into the training process. Key issues such as the hierarchy and structure of the project itself can be seen in the light of their impact on the effective teaching of field skills. The different needs of students and local volunteers are discussed, and the extent to which these needs are addressed is also considered. The backdrop to this paper is the current debate in British archaeology between those who favour field schools/training excavations and those who believe that students learn more when placed on pure research excavations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hillforts in Ireland and Europe have often been regarded as defensive structures or monuments built to facilitate and strengthen community cohesion and identity. Recent discourse, however, stresses the importance of competitive display, promoting the idea that hillforts were built to convey the power and strength of a community. The enclosing elements themselves were an effective mechanism to display this, being highly visible and permanent features in the landscape. The costly act of construction, in terms of time, effort and resources, reflects the conspicuous and highly visible consumption of resources and labour. As such, larger and more elaborate works could reflect a bigger community who had a more substantial labour force and resource base. Impressive enclosing earthworks found at many hillforts in Britain and mainland Europe contrast with the unimpressive nature of Irish sites. This paper considers the Irish evidence with regard to this recent narrative and assesses whether Irish hillforts were built to signal the power of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the role of costly signalling in the ritual expressions of Middle Bronze Age human culture of Central Italy. A wide overview of the existing literature and the accurate examination of recent case studies enabled us to demonstrate that costly signalling is especially identifiable through the study of the ecofactual remains found in caves that are central ritual sites in Apennine protohistory. The dozens of perinatal domesticates from Grotta Mora Cavorso and the quintals of burnt seeds from Grotta di Pastena, had they not been considered in their burial and strongly ritual framework - which has been identified with certainty also thanks to these ecofacts - could have provided only a general and highly unreliable palaeoenvironmental and palaeoeconomic subsistence reconstruction. The same remains, analysed in a social perspective, have allowed us to recognize a complex set of symbolic practices and to clarify some possible features of the society that performed these rituals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most archaeological discussions of surplus production tend to focus either on its role in the emergence and maintenance of social complexity (whether among hunter-gatherers, farming communities or incipient states) or on the enabling properties of surplus as a basis for technological advances and aesthetic elaboration. Here, we offer a rather different perspective on surplus as an initiator of communitas and driver of ethnogenesis following a period of intense socioecological stress, environmental degradation and localized demographic decline during the nineteenth century. The particular case study concerns the Maalanguage-speaking Ilchamus community who currently occupy areas around the southern end of Lake Baringo in the Central Rift Valley, Kenya. Drawing on a combination of new archaeological evidence, oral accounts and archival sources, the paper details the processes whereby destitute groups were drawn together into acts of surplus food production, initially of grain via the implementation of a system of irrigated agriculture and subsequently of cattle through the mobilization of kinship and related ties. In so doing, disparate older identities were abandoned or transformed and a different, unifying ethnicity - Ilchamus - emerged based on a new moral economy of shared prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on burial ritual and cultic practice among the Scandinavian peoples during the Viking Age (c. AD 750–1100) has generated an increasing interest in the notion of performance as one of their integral components. Building on earlier studies that have addressed the issue in principle, this paper focuses on the practical ways in which evidence for funerary and cultic drama can be recovered from the archaeological record. With an emphasis on the reconstruction of participatory movement and the time frame of ritual, a series of case studies is explored, drawing on both excavated graves and the archaeology of sacred space. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although archaeological study of ritual as performance has garnered increasing attention in recent years, such research has primarily focused on large-scale, complex societies and, therefore, on the relation of performance to politics and power. In contrast, this paper explores archaeological assessment of public performance within small-scale societies, considering especially the significance of specific practices to social integration, identity, and historicity. This analysis is informed by emerging interdisciplinary theory on ritual, dramatization, and performance, and draws on archaeological evidence of cyclic communal mourning rites in coastal southern California that reveal aspects of performance including item manufacture, burning, pigmentation, sequential fragmentation, and structured deposition in ‘persistent places’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relatively recent availability of terrestrial lidar for mapping archaeological subjects has allowed for great advances in representation and reconstruction but the analytic potential of this technology remains under-developed in archaeology. This paper provides an overview of the analytical directions we are taking with point cloud data generated through ground-based laser scanning at the imperial Inca site of Caranqui in northern Ecuador. Our approach to data analysis employs insights and ideas from the domains of GIScience, remote sensing, cartography, computer vision and hydrology. While creating a comprehensive visual record of the site was an important project goal, we also sought to develop improved methods of feature extraction and surface calibration to better understand water manipulation and flows at the site. Here we highlight some of the preliminary results of our analyses as well as the challenges and benefits of employing terrestrial lidar to investigate a mid-sized archaeological site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we reconstruct the palaeodietary setting of LBK Vaihingen an der Enz, south-west Germany (later sixth millennium cal. bc) using δ13C and δ15N values of human and faunal bone collagen and of charred plant remains from cereal crops (e.g. emmer and einkorn wheat) and pulses (lentil and pea). Our examination of this Neolithic dietary 'food web' incorporates crop δ15N values within a linear-mixing model to examine the estimated proportions of animal and plant protein in the human diet. We interpret the stable isotope dietary model outcomes together with accompanying archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence to shed light on the role of crops in land use strategies and human diet, and conclude that (manured) crops probably formed the dominant protein source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the author explains the issue's focus on the archaeological study of pregnancy, noting such topics as ritual processes related to pregnancy, the representation of pregnancy on Roman votives, and infant rites of passage.

A database of 480 Archaic-aged babies buried in twenty-one sites in the Ohio Valley was divided into fetuses, newborns and infants 2 months to 24 months old in order to examine potential differential treatment of the three classes of babies. Most of these babies died between 7000 and 3500 years ago. Burials were examined for single or group interment and types of grave goods. Unlike other papers investigating infants, this research is not directed at social status of parents but rather at the evidence for ritual killings of babies (n = 55) and for infanticide (n = 16). In so doing it has also been possible to offer observations on adultery killings of women and other treatments of mothers. The only significant difference between Middle Archaic and Late Archaic treatment of newborns and older infants was the greater inclusion of both age groups in multiple graves during the Late Archaic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That pregnancy can be perceived as a blessed or cursed event is well-recognised in many contemporary societies, but it was a lived and embodied experience for African-American women in the Deep South of the United States in the 19th century. Oral histories from healers, root doctors and midwives of the late 19th and early 20th centuries paint a portrait of the fetus as an invasive spiritual malignancy to be driven from the body, or an ephemeral spirit that could be accidently frightened from an unwelcoming body. This paper explores these beliefs and practices and examines their archaeological signatures. It considers how during and after birth, the infant remained only lightly bound to this world with the spiritual world beckoning beguilingly to them and where spiritual-medical intervention was required to entire the infant's soul to anchor itself to the physical body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores connections between infant mortuary rites and strategies of wealth transmission in Mesopotamia prior to urban expansion. By considering the social roles of infants in relation to lineage and household reproduction, it challenges interpretations linking ‘rich’ infant burials to ascribed rank at birth during the Late Chalcolithic period. Drawing upon recent theoretical developments in the anthropology of childhood and models of gift exchange, the intramural burial of infants is explained as a positive measure that revived the productive capacity of households. Building on this argument, it is suggested that the ambiguous status of infants sanctioned the removal of wealth from circulation as part of mortuary rites, thereby guaranteeing its future flow within the closed context of the household group. A reappraisal of the infant burial record demonstrates how mortuary rites can form part of the cultural strategies that allow kin groups to expand their authority and capital over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the notion of infant and child burials in early and late medieval Poland which differed significantly from the normative funerary behaviour. Particular attention is devoted to the so-called ‘atypical’ or ‘deviant’ inhumation graves that contained allegedly apotropaic objects or stones placed directly on the deceased as well as the peculiar burials of infants in ceramic vessels. In addition to discussing archaeological materials, the authors also examine historical sources and folkloristic evidence for unusual and magic practices associated with newborns in the Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Northumberland has a long history of public engagement surrounding its ancient rock-art. Recent advances in digital technologies have enabled archaeologists to enrich this engagement through the provision of open access to substantial rock-art datasets online. Building on these achievements, the Rock Art on Mobile Phones (RAMP) project allows Northumberland's countryside visitors to access in situ interpretation at three rock-art areas on their mobile phones. During the RAMP co-experience workshops it emerged that the key issues the public expected to be addressed by the mobile interpretation included locating rock-art, the desire for ambiguity and speculation about rock-art, and connecting to the landscape. The paper discusses, on the one hand, how these themes were incorporated into RAMP's conceptual design and, on the other hand, how RAMP themes compare with the Audience Development Plan produced by the archaeologists who created an online database. We consider the implications of these findings for the development of open-access online resources and in situ public interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many American cultivated species have been domesticated in the Neotropical Lowlands. While the southern limit of some cultivars (e.g. maize) is relatively well known for the Andean Region, the south-western limit of lowland horticulture has been poorly established in South America. Sixteenth-century European accounts mentioned the presence of cultivated plants in the Delta of the Paraná River, but until now this had not been confirmed by direct archaeobotanical data. This paper presents and discusses the results of starch grains analysis from six archaeological sites of the Paraná Delta (Argentina), ranging from 1302 to 1492 years cal. ad, which confirm the pre-Hispanic presence of cultivars in the area. Wild (algarrobo; South American mesquite) and domesticated (maize and beans) plant remains were found in ceramic containers and on grinding tools from those sites. Our research contributes new data on the late dispersion of cultivated species in the Paraná Delta, an area so far excluded from continental models for the dispersal of cultivars in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the prehistory of Sindh and Las Bela coast (Balochistan) before and after partition, and the role played by the Italian archaeologists since the 1980s. Until a few years ago the prehistory of Sindh was known mainly from the impressive urban remains of the Indus civilization and the discovery of Palaeolithic assemblages in the desert landscapes close to India, while very little was known of the remains of other periods, their radiocarbon dating and the importance of the coastal zone. Our knowledge of the prehistory of the country has improved greatly during the last twenty-five years, thanks to systematic surveys and excavations in unexplored landscapes, which radically transformed our knowledge of the prehistoric archaeology of this important region of the Indian subcontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over forty years, archaeologists working along Papua New Guinea's southern coastline have sought evidence for early ceramics and its relationship with Lapita wares of Island Melanesia. Failing to find any such evidence of pottery more than 2000 bp, and largely based on the excavation of eight early pottery-bearing sites during the late 1960s into the early 1970s, synchronous colonization some 2000 bp along 500km of the south Papuan coastline by post-Lapita ceramic manufacturers has been posited. This paper presents conclusive evidence for the presence of Lapita ceramics along the Papuan south coast between c. 2500 and 2900 cal. bp, thereby indicating that current models of colonization by ceramicists for the region need to be rethought. We conclude with a brief reflection as to why these Lapita horizons were missed by previous researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neolithic flint mines of Britain have been identified as sites of intense flint extraction. They occur chronologically in two phases: the earlier Neolithic examples in Sussex and Wessex (including the sites of Cissbury, Harrow Hill, Blackpatch, Church Hill, Easton Down, Martin's Clump, Long Down and Stoke Down) and the later Neolithic flint mine at Grimes Graves in Norfolk (Barber et al. 1999). Interpretations of prehistoric flint mines have commonly focused on the functional aspects of flint extraction: the method of extraction and quantity of flint that resulted (e.g. Mercer 1981a, 1981b; Sieveking 1979; Sieveking et al. 1973). Only recently has it been argued that prehistoric flint mines were monumental spaces and hence should be considered as monuments in their own right (Russell 2000, 2001). This paper further challenges the functional interpretation of flint mines as simple abstraction sites by discussing hidden in situ chalk art found within them. This art has wider parallels in markings discovered at other Neolithic sites and the examination of these mine and non-mine chalk examples suggests that collectively they indicate an early Neolithic art tradition that has hitherto been ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The form of buildings does not depend only on function, but also on climate, topography, available material and techniques, on symbolism and social structures. This can even be demonstrated by the example of modern architecture, for which the maxim 'form follows function' was originally coined. The functional interpretation of prehistoric architecture is especially difficult, because of its fragmentary state of preservation and because possible functions are not known a priori. Therefore this paper presents and evaluates five groups of methods, which allow interpretations of archaeological building features: 1) Ad hoc interpretations: these are mostly made implicitly and should be replaced by systematic approaches; 2) equalization of building types with functions: this method has limits because functional equivalents have to be considered; 3) conclusions by analogy: they depend mostly on the choice of objects for comparison; 4) circumstantial evidence: time-consuming and expensive techniques of excavation and sampling as well as careful studies of taphonomy are necessary; 5) contextual analyses: easily run into the danger of circular arguments. In practice often only a combination of various methods provides good results; that is why a clear explanation of analytical methods is so important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2000 and 2004, field seasons at the Lagar Velho rock-shelter (Lapedo valley, Leiria, Portugal) were dedicated to the excavation of strata preserved from the destruction that had affected the site prior to the discovery of its archaeological potential in December 1998. Those years of excavation confirmed that several archaeological contexts were spared, some with limited post-depositional disturbance and excellent preservation of the original spatial organization of the settlement. This paper presents preliminary results of the ongoing analysis of a short-term Gravettian occupation of the shelter, Geoarcheological Field Unit EE15, dated to c. 22,500 bp. A medium-scale overview of settlement organization is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wetlands of medieval Britain represented a valuable regional resource, and contributed to the success of some of the wealthiest monasteries in Britain. Drainage systems and transport mechanisms created an interdependent regional economic environment that needed administrative elites to manage and maintain its resources and ensure the continued survival of urban communities. This paper will compare recent excavations at Swavesey and Burwell and demonstrate that, while the letter of Wittfogel's classification of a 'hydraulic society' is not applicable to medieval England, aspects of it can be used to understand regional communities and wetland environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Waterlogged' organic archaeology beneath historic towns represents a major archaeological resource, but changing ground conditions are seemingly leading to its decay. This issue should not concern just archaeologists and others in the heritage industry: there will be significant loss of data concerning past ecology, micro-evolution and human daily life, as well as ground settlement and release of greenhouse gases. The information that will be lost is not restricted to that from macro- and micro-fossils in a conventional sense; the deposits contain a wide range of potentially equally illuminating biomolecules, including DNA and lipid residues (papers in Brothwell and Pollard 2001). Preservation mechanisms for buried organics are poorly understood, although both archaeologists and - ironically - the waste disposal industry are making progress. Here we issue a clarion call for fundamental research to determine factors influencing the balance of decay and survival of organic remains, especially in urban archaeological sites, and to establish methods for monitoring the health of the deposits. Meanwhile, following the precautionary principle, strategic research excavations with fully integrated and comprehensive post-excavation programmes should be carried out in case the resource cannot be conserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When analysing skeletons to assess the health status of the inhabitants of a particular archaeological site, the aim is to obtain an impression of their general well-being and adaptation. In this paper data from skeletons from various sites were pooled, in an attempt to get an overview on health changes throughout the Iron Age and post-colonial era in the northern part of SA. Skeletons were divided into four groups: Early Iron Age, circa-Mapungubwe period, Late Iron Age but before 1830, and post-1830. These groups were compared as far as their demographic profiles, incidence of cribra orbitalia, diagnosable infectious diseases and signs of trauma were concerned. Unfortunately the skeletal sample is small, but it seems as though the health status after contact with white settlers remained unchanged for a long time, and may even have worsened. Signs of trauma increased in later years, which may reflect the unstable situation resulting from the difeqane, white settlement, and the Second Anglo-Boer War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the results of archaeological work carried out during the past eight years on the Passos/Santa Comba Mountain in northern Portugal. The more important sites there are thirteen painted rock shelters. One of them, Buraco da Pala, was occupied for three millennia, making it reasonable to assume that it played a part in different social, economic and symbolic systems. It was used for settlement purposes between the late sixth/early fifth millennium BC and the beginning of the third. A high number of burnt cereal grains shows the introduction of farming in the interior of northern Portugal. Buraco da Pala was used as a granary and storage was carried out in large pottery vessels that occupied most of the usable space in the shelter. These levels provide evidence both for the intensification of agricultural production in this area during the Chalcolithic period and for different ways of symbolically appropriating the surrounding territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the excavations made in the early 1960s to the late 1970s of the architectural remains in front of the Mogao Caves: their structure, date and method of construction, and the relationships between the caves and the architectural remains. Also discussed is the present state of the caves located to the north, which have been excavated during the past few years although as yet no report is published. The history of the caves is then examined within the contest of Cao family patronage, which provides the rationale for monumental works in north-western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the crime of archaeological excavation addressed in the article (26/a/1) of the Antiquities Law of (1988). Clarification of the pillars of such crime required the adoption of descriptive and analytical approach. It included reviewing relevant viewpoints of jurists and judicial jurisprudence. A Thorough analysis included the determination of material, moral elements of the crime and applied penalty. This crime acquires the description of a misdemeanor in crime classification system. Thus, illegal archaeological-excavation activity forms the material element of such misdemeanor. Moreover, illegal archaeological excavation must be carried out in an archaeological site. The moral element of this crime is represented by the general criminal intent. It means that the offender was aware that he is illegally excavating in an archaeological site. The Jordanian legislator required the existence of a special intention expressed in the offender's aim to find antiquities or archaeological remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polynesian stone adze quarries anchor the system of tool production, distribution and consumption and are critical for examining changing social organization, symbolic values attributed to particular stone sources, economic intensification and ancient interaction. Although major adze quarries are known from most Polynesian archipelagos, a geologically informed archaeological survey was designed for discovering the variability in stone-tool-quality rock sources. Thirteen quarries and sources within the ∼20,000 hectare traditional land unit of Kaluako'i (literally, the adze pit) on Moloka'i, Hawaiian Islands, vary considerably in size, production output and settlement context, suggesting that individual adze quarries were accorded different roles across the social landscape. Some sixty-four radiocarbon age determinations and U-series dates from quarries and habitation sites with artefacts originating from quarries, document the temporal sequence of use beginning in the Late Expansion Period (ad 1400-1650), at least two centuries after settlement of the island. Further studies will report on adze technology and on-going geochemical sourcing analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the lifeways of the commoner populations that supported the expansive pre-industrial cities of Southeast Asia. Archaeologically driven understandings are constrained by the fact that the architecture and much of the material culture utilized by ordinary citizens were made from perishable materials, and many living floors were also raised above the actual ground surface on piles. The challenges associated with searching for and interpreting these quotidian remains, once they are found, can be mitigated to some degree through the integration of ethnoarchaeological insights. This study outlines the results of detailed ethnoarchaeological investigations within ten traditional Myanmar villages located in proximity to the remains of 'classical' Bagan's walled and moated royal city. We then explore how these findings have helped our excavation team recognize and interpret a range of residential remains associated with the ancient city's peri-urban support population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the period of the adoption and spread of nomadic pastoralism in the eastern Eurasian steppe early pastoralists were developing animal husbandry as well as forming the social networks and political systems that went along with the new needs of a food production economy. The building and modification of diverse types of stone monuments and the long-term development of monumental landscapes constituted costly signals that communicated information about the size and organization of communities and the depth and strength of the connections of their elite lineages with the increasingly farreaching social networks of this period. This information-rich monument building was a hallmark of this period and a critical tool, a critical tool in the success of early pastoralist adaptation. A costly signalling model of monument building offers explanations for re-entry into graves of this period, the reproduction of distinctive types and styles and monuments and an underlying framework for the political landscapes of emerging regional polities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, anthropologists argued that tropical rainforests were unattractive environments for long-term human navigation, subsistence and occupation. Meanwhile, archaeologists have traditionally held thatHomo sapiensonly intensively colonized rainforests during the Holocene, from c. 11 thousand years ago (ka). New discoveries and re-appraisal of Pleistocene (c. 200–12 ka) archaeological sites in Africa, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Sri Lanka, have, however, indicated the possibility for human occupation of rainforests from c. 45 ka and, more controversially, c. 200 ka. We critically review the archaeological evidence for Pleistocene human rainforest occupation from several regions. We argue that clear evidence exists for human adaptation to rainforest ecologies from c. 45 ka, with tantalizing hints of even earlier colonization. More research, however, is needed in order to understand the dynamism and diversity of palaeoecologies commonly classified as ‘rainforest’, as well as the regional extent, nature, and longevity of early human rainforest habitations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Radiocarbon dating was long neglected in Iron Age research, with dates on the ‘Hallstatt plateau’ (800–400bc) considered too broad to be useful compared to artefact typo-chronologies. Such views are now untenable. Around fifty British Iron Age settlements and cemeteries have been dated using Bayesian methodologies, yielding two important general results: (1) typological dating produces sequences that are regularly too late; and (2) many phenomena, from chariot burials to settlement shifts, represent brief horizons, rather than being long lived. Drawing on a selection of studies, this article explores the impact of Bayesian modelling on British Iron Age studies. It highlights potential pitfalls and issues that must be considered when dating the period, illustrates some major successes and looks to the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2013, an ivory bowl was discovered in a chalky matrix in the Early Iron Age (Philistine) levels in Area A at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Conservation revealed it to be a shallow vessel with a single lug handle, decorated in the interior and on the base with an incised twelve-petal lotus-rosette surrounded by five concentric circles. Applying an object biography approach, we investigate the history and far-flung socio-cultural connections of the Tell es-Safi/Gath bowl, which is unique within Philistia. Specific reference is made to parallels in the ivory hoard from the Late Bronze/Iron Age transition (c. late twelfth century/early eleventh century bce) palace at Megiddo, Stratum VIIA. It is proposed that the Tell es-Safi/Gath bowl was one of a set manufactured somewhere in Canaan. The vessel became separated from the set, ending up as a foundation offering at this Philistine site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dún Ailinne is one of the major ceremonial sites of the Irish Iron Age (600bce–ce400), a time when society was becoming increasingly centralized. We argue that these sites were a focus for the process of centralization, facilitated by performance though the site’s construction and use. Physical movement in the context of ritual has been shown to affect the perception of social relationships. These would have been experienced through performance, including movement through the landscape, the visual dominance of the hill and the site located on it, the hierarchical arrangement of spaces within the bank and ditch, and the resulting ways in which movement and access are gradually more constrained through time. Experienced through the medium of ritual performance, these various aspects would have reinforced ideas of power and elite status, providing a context in which such constraints could have been created, justified, maintained and perhaps resisted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Three-dimensional object scanning for both diagnostic and collection management has become more accepted within archaeological research over the last few years. However, the ability to scan vast numbers of cultural artefacts effectively has been stunted by the lack of technical expertise, cost of both hardware and software tools, and access to full collections. This article examines the issues related to mass scanning techniques and their potential effectiveness to enable research on and access to extensive archaeological collections. It attempts to lay the groundwork for sustainable and effective scanning methodologies within multiple contexts of practice, including cultural resource management and collections management facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic resource exploitations in human evolution have raised many questions related to cognitive abilities and subsistence developments. It has been pointed out that the evaluation of freshwater resource consumption based on conventional stable CN isotopic composition of bulk bone collagen faces some difficulties, primarily because isotopic distinction between terrestrial and freshwater animals can be ambiguous and, even worse, can show similar values. In this study we tested the potential of nitrogen isotope analysis of individual amino acids in this evaluation. Our preliminary results for archaeological human and faunal remains from Mesolithic and Epipalaeolithic sites in France (Noyen-sur-Seine and Pont d'Ambon) show that estimated trophic positions for terrestrial animals based on δ15N of glutamic acid and phenylalanine are more precise than the bulk collagen isotopic method, allowing human aquatic resource consumptions to be identified. However, since the ability to quantify is still limited, a combination of several approaches is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care for pregnant women constituted an important aspect of interaction between monastic communities and the laity at the Jetavana Buddhist monastery. Figurines found at the monastery date to the first millennium CE and portray a deity with both maleficent and beneficent attitudes toward the unborn. The deities that such figurines depict have previously been interpreted as precursors to the Brahminical pantheon. However, archaeological evidence from the Jetavana monastery suggests that figurines were also drawn into Buddhism. As members of monastic communities were celibate, it is argued that figurines played a role in interaction with the laity. The beneficent attitudes of the deities they depict complemented the medical care that Buddhist monasteries offered pregnant women and the unborn. Examining figurines in their archaeological contexts highlights the diverse character of Buddhism. This study has implications for understanding the religious dimensions of care offered during pregnancy and childbirth and the concept of syncretism in ancient religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little has been written about female fertility and maternal mortality from an archaeological perspective. Typically debates focus on the physical aspects of childbirth, ignoring an obvious truth: the biggest single cause of death for women was childbirth. Whether death took place as a result of mechanical malpresentation, infection or blood loss, the root cause was undeniable. In this article we argue that post-mortem extrusion is improbable and that young infants and women found buried together are likely to have died together. However, most deaths would not have been simultaneous and so we build on demographic data to conclude that the early Anglo-Saxons engaged institutions which controlled female sexuality. Late marriage, cultural and legal taboos and an emphasis on mature fertility acted to limit the probability of death; however, the risk to the individual was real and each funerary party was the agent that constructed death ways to manage loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]