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"Households on the Mimbres Horizon: Excavations at La Gila Encantada, Southwestern New Mexico" by Barbara J. Roth is a significant publication for Mimbres Mogollon research, providing insights into the development of households and their spatial and artifactual patterns at early Mimbres Mogollon habitation sites. The author's research at the La Gila Encantada site, uncluttered by overlying pueblo remains, allows for a clearer understanding of site layout, habitation, and contextual relationships of features and artifacts. The volume includes seven chapters, with contributions from specialists, covering topics such as excavation methods, ceramic data, stone artifacts, jewelry, and plant and animal remains. This book is valuable for researchers studying Mogollon archaeology and early village and household developments in the region. [Extracted from the article]

This article collected papers published by Chinese archaeologists in Chinese and World core journals (CCJs and WCJs for short) in the past century. Based on bibliometric analysis, the general characteristics and trends of Chinese archaeology were summarized. In a macroscopic perspective, historiography-rooted archaeology focusing on historical periods and central areas of China and preferring traditional archaeological methods (mainly a culture-historical paradigm) will continue to occupy a leading position in China. Simultaneously, interdisciplinary research and internationalisation will likely continue to develop and diversify Chinese archaeology, though the speed is unknown due to the impact of the pandemic. In comparison, more attention needs to be paid to theoretical research and to publishing more results of historical archaeology in WCJs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Global Byzantium" is a book that aims to assess the world from the perspective of Byzantium and its relevance to global history. It challenges traditional barriers and shows that Byzantium's connectivity extended beyond the Mediterranean and European states. The book primarily focuses on documentary analysis and art-historical criticism rather than archaeological investigation. It includes papers on various topics such as the library of the Monastery of St Catherine, textile manufacture and exchange, the slave trade, Islam in the Mediterranean, connections between Byzantium and India and China, the Eurasian trading system, and the stucco decoration of Lombard monuments in Italy. The conclusion of the book discusses the role of archaeology in the politics of colonizing the Negev and similar semi-deserts. Overall, the book aims to put Byzantium back on the world stage and highlight its significant role in global connectivity. [Extracted from the article]

Irving has done an excellent job in describing Childe's political journey and mapping it onto his prehistoric archaeological scholarship in a way that enhances both. While many of Childe's specific proposals about European history have either been amended or have evolved to the point where he no longer remains a touchstone, European archaeology still operates in the framework largely created by Childe's grand syntheses. After this Childe found work as private secretary to John Storey, NSW Labor member for Balmain, first in opposition and then in government, Storey becoming Premier in 1920. [Extracted from the article]

Bioarchaeology lacks a system for recording the morphology of muscle and ligament attachment sites, called entheses, in growing individuals. Such information is useful in investigating factors that affect bone growth and development, including sex, age, puberty, pathology, and activity. This paper presents a standardized recording method for nonadult entheses based on 29 archaeological individuals of archivally known sex and age-at-death, ranging from two to 17 years. This paper (a) assesses the range of osseous changes of 16 entheses in the upper and lower limbs of growing individuals, and (b) presents a scoring method for each enthesis, which is evaluated through inter-and intra-observer comparisons. Nonadult entheses show a wide range of morphological variation. Method reproducibility is established. This method will allow researchers to further investigate factors affecting bone development in nonadult skeletal remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Royal Archaeological Institute is inviting researchers, academics, and professionals in the field of archaeology to submit original research for publication in The Archaeological Journal. The Journal, which has been published since 1844, welcomes articles, reports, and analyses on all periods of human history, with a focus on England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. The Journal is known for its high-quality academic publications and its ability to publish both shorter research articles and larger reports and studies. All submitted manuscripts undergo initial appraisal by the Editor and are then subject to double-blind peer review. The print version of the journal is published annually, but all papers are made available online shortly after acceptance. [Extracted from the article]

Archaeologies of Slavery and Freedom in the Caribbean: Exploring the Spaces in Between: edited by Lynsey A. Bates, John M. Chenoweth, and James A. Delle, University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 2016. ix, 358 pp., ill., maps. The volume concludes with remarks by Laurie Wilkie (Chapter 14) who draws on her own deep experience with plantation archaeology in both the Bahamas and the southeastern United States, to synthesize the preceding chapters and reflect on which "spaces in between" remain understudied. Seiter points out how on many small islands, sugar monoculture was slow to develop as the climate, challenging topography, and political instability were impediments to sugar cultivation and plantation slavery. [Extracted from the article]

Following the discussions of how to define a city, in Chapter 4 Storey guides the reader through case studies of primary cities. In his primer on ancient urbanism, Glenn Storey provides an introductory text that encompasses many crucial topics across a range of past urban sites. Storey classifies cities into "hyper" and "hypo" cities, which are compact high-density or physically large areas of with low-density populations, respectively. [Extracted from the article]

However, the comprehensive exposition and discussions of the merits/shortcomings of proxies, methodologies, etc., should be regarded as essential reading for student and professional alike, particularly given the easy narrative writing style of the authors. They illustrate how settlement area may not be the best population proxy in all settlement scenarios (for Chifeng, although statistically significant, it is a comparatively poor proxy). Determining the best practice for elucidating settlement demography as an integral part of cultural reconstruction clearly requires thoughtful planning in the data-collection phase and an understanding of the differential merits of the material culture for meaningfully reconstructing the settlement landscape. [Extracted from the article]

A growing body of scholarship exploring Cambodia’s cultural-religious environment alongside reinterpretations of ancient Angkorian epigraphy has illuminated the enduring sacredness of Cambodia’s ancient religious places and objects. This assertion comes despite apparent dissociation of these elements from their original ascribed identities (Brahmano-Buddhist) and disuse as focal points of politico-religious congregation at some point in the past. Although documented within Cambodian archaeological studies since the 20th century, fieldwork conducted at ancient Theravāda Buddhist monasteries (vihāra/praḥ vihār) within the Khmer civic-ceremonial center of Angkor Thom between 2017 and 2023 have substantiated that these ancient statues and holy spaces continued to serve as equivalently spiritual, highly localized arenas of ancestral animist practices and cultural-historical negotiation over time. This paper assesses several categories of these archaeological data within the framework of reidentification, reuse, and transformation beyond initial discard, including the deposition of statuary and acts of place-making in the vicinity of older ruins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the techno-typological study of seven bone projectile points closely associated with a burial assemblage excavated from El Alto 5 (~550 cal BP, Sierras of Córdoba, Argentina). The bone points provide a comparative model for interpreting the function of arrow points, primarily concerning how archaeologists can accurately differentiate the arrow tips used for warfare or hunting. Bone points have barbed shoulders to resist removal from the wound and serrated stems for secure hafting. They required shafts a few millimeters thicker than stone-tipped arrows for hafting, involving more kinetic energy to inflict severe injuries. Identifying a dark residue spattered over the blades opens the possibility that poison was applied to enhance the effectiveness of the shoot. The study is considered a starting point to build more accurate models to identify interpersonal violence during the Late Prehispanic Period, where most bone points occurred as domestic refuse of campsites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the materiality of lighting influenced the development of ancient rabbinic teachings that would later become the foundations of Jewish law. Drawing on ideas and frameworks from scholarship on material religion, I bring together archaeological finds, experimental archaeology, and references to objects in classical rabbinic literature to argue that the ways that lighting was used provided the earliest rabbis with tools and fodder for developing new expressions of piety that could be performed in one's household. How lamps, oils, and wicks were used in Roman-era Palestine (second-third century CE) played an influential role in the development of rabbinic Judaism. I show this through rabbinic prescriptions on lighting lamps on Friday evening to mark the onset of the Sabbath, as the different wicks and oils created opportunities for one to choose to perform the custom in rabbinically-prescribed ways. I next demonstrate how the rabbis drew on common lighting practices to reinterpret biblical laws on the now-destroyed Jerusalem Temple cult into expressions of piety that can be performed in households throughout Roman Palestine. In this way, the materiality of light contributed towards the ancient rabbis' role in transforming Judaism in the post-Temple age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'problems' and 'solutions' of modern education are overwhelmingly produced and tailored by the modern episteme, institutions, truths, and powers of the Global North. To find new ways of thinking and doing sociology, this paper will explore the outlines of a new Global Sociology of Education Imagination (GSEI) inspired by pre-modern epistemes selected precisely because of their distance from modern European standpoints: the ancient lost matriarchal societies and commons-based societies organised around shared goods in pre-modern Europe. Using Foucault's archaeological methodology, this paper finds inspiration in these epistemes to outline a new GSEI capable of questioning certain tenets of the modern sociological episteme regarding science, knowledge, truth and its order, roles, voices, commitments, and 'places'. It concludes with an invitation to experiment with a new GSEI inspired by these pre-modern epistemes, as a tool to openly challenge modern (education) domination and make it intolerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The normative significance of posthumous wishes is commonly presented as supervening upon the normative significance attributed to past people. The problem with this strategy is the lack of consensus on the normative significance (if any) of past peoples. In this paper, I sidestep this issue by casting posthumous wishes as but a type of choice people make, thereby presenting their normative significance as supervening on the normative significance we attribute to choice-making (agency) and not on the normative significance of past people. It will be my argument that so long as one’s hypothetical interlocutor assigns value to (at least their own) agency, they are categorically compelled to assign normative significance to posthumous wishes, regardless of their beliefs concerning the ethical status of past people or the nature of death. I then conclude the paper by presenting the implications of this framework in the context of archaeological practice to demonstrate this perspective’s capacity to yield intuitive, actionable guidance with firm philosophical foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the concepts of heritage-making, communal identity formation, and landscape production to analyse the spaces that contribute to local, provincial, and national identities. Specifically, we examine how these spaces, now valued for their natural and historical significance, shape contemporary collective identity. Our study is located in the Andes mountain range, in an area called Manzano Histórico, in central- western Argentina, which is part of a larger nature reserve created to protect the headwaters of the basin and mountain areas from large-scale economic projects. This paper utilises a qualitative methodology that combines archaeological and historical studies with ethnographic techniques and a survey to describe and analyse the millennial occupation of the region. This continuous occupation has been shaped by multiple ways of inhabiting the world, some dominant and others marginalised or made invisible, resulting in ongoing present-day tensions. The heritage landscape proposed is a partial result of these tensions, a textured, fractured, and patched product of diverse, historically enabled practices. By analysing these spaces, we aim to acknowledge the various ways of being in the world that intersect within them, as well as the identity formations of alterity that hierarchise or invisibilise these practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists routinely create backdirt during excavation, but it is rarely acknowledged and remains surprisingly undertheorized. In this paper, we treat backdirt as a uniquely archaeological product that is socially constructed and guided by culturally and historically situated motivations. Using Chaco Canyon as a case study, we examine the ways in which project priorities changed over nearly 150 years of excavation and (more recently) re-excavation. We illustrate the importance of understanding backdirt as a social product by comparing the avifaunal assemblages created by two major excavation projects at the great house of Una Vida. Differences in these assemblages demonstrate how changes in research goals structured what was collected, what was left as backdirt, and how this ultimately impacts interpretations about Chaco history. Finally, we offer thoughts about the future role of backdirt in archaeological praxis as a space to welcome feminist and Indigenous perspectives in the construction of archaeological narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the author's experience of working at Sanam Temple, a 1st millennium b.c. site in northern Sudan previously excavated at the beginning of the 20th century a.d., this paper attempts to reframe current archaeologists' attitudes towards the backdirt of their predecessors. Using a symmetrical archaeology framework, it centers the concept of backdirt and analyzes it as a means by which different time periods and actors at the site influence each other, drawing them together into a network of relations. The strength of the relationship between these entities, facilitated through backdirt, produces surprising echoes and parallels across different historical periods, including between current and past archaeologists. Though backdirt is disdained, ignored, or rejected by different actors in the temple, it in fact repeatedly acts as a focus for creative engagement at the site and opens up new avenues of interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces and evaluates forensic traceable liquid technology as a potential deterrent for trafficking in cultural property, earlier employed in the UK to reduce heritage crime and recently implemented in Iraq to protect over 573,000 archaeological objects in five museums. The study suggests a theoretical framework and unveils novel qualitative and quantitative empirical datasets acquired through surveying and interviewing 42 law enforcement practitioners from 21 countries. The acquired data confirms the theoretical underpinnings and reveals that forensic traceable liquid, physically applied at the source, is viewed as an efficient deterrent on the market side, providing hard evidence of provenance, enhancing traceability, increasing the certainty of being convicted of dealing in illicit material, introducing risk, and invisibly guarding objects along the trafficking chain. Notably, source-country respondents appear more enthusiastic about this innovation than market-country ones, while the support for its wider implementation is unanimous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomb inscriptions containing information about tomb-building craftsmen have been found inside imitation wood tombs dating from the 11th to 14th centuries in China's Central Plains region. These inscriptions are valuable because they provide a different angle from which to analyze the designs and functions of tombs. Scholars have viewed tomb building as a domestic act. If the deceased were pleased with their burial arrangements, then their descendants would be blessed. The inscriptions suggest that this beneficial connection relied deeply on the capacity of craftsmen, whose talent was recognized by patrons. By considering how craftsmanship contributed to religious efficacy, as well as the intermediary role craftsmen played to achieve it, this paper explores how the above-mentioned inscriptions deepen our understanding of the functions of tombs and the roles played by craftsmen in burial practices in terms of historical, religious, and social factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last material evidence of the former Palace of Brussels, the Coudenberg archaeological site, is situated at the heart of the city, constitutes a remarkable part of its heritage, and has been listed as a legally protected monument. Following the redevelopment of the Royal Quarter in the eighteenth century, the successive archaeological discoveries of the last twenty-five years, and the progressive growth of the areas accessible to the public, the various components of the site have not all been preserved in the same condition. The work involved in developing such a complex has already necessitated considerable resources, and still requires more today. The owners, the City of Brussels and the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the site's managers, the not-for-profit association 'Palais de Charles Quint', are continuing their programme of developing, promoting, and preserving the remains in order to hand down this important historical evidence to future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much conflict archaeology is undertaken by or with the involvement of community groups and individual volunteers. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach are considered in the light of three initiatives underway in East Yorkshire, which include both relicts of modern warfare and more historic conflicts. The paper argues for ethically informed and sensitive narratives to be derived from conflict archaeology projects of all periods and not just modern conflicts. Community-led archaeological initiatives are seen as posing a challenge to achieving this by overly functionalist approaches to interpreting and communicating the remains of conflict archaeology. The paper concludes that the involvement of community groups and volunteers in conflict archaeology in general, in the construction of narratives and the process of memorialisation is essential. Narratives need to be less functionalist and more social to be more sensitive and informative. In achieving this conflict archaeological projects will meet societal needs, deliver better academic outcomes and in a local authority context meet the requirements of paymasters and politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper firstly presents Statement Archaeology, an innovative and rigorous method devised to systematically operationalise the approach to historical exploration used by Michel Foucault in pursuit of the question "how do certain practices become possible at particular moments in history?" Drawing on an analysis of the theoretical basis of Foucault's broad – and arguably equivocal – approach, a series of methodological procedures by which it can be systematically operationalised are set out. These focus on the interrogation of "statements", through a series of questions, against three criteria: Formation, Transformation, and Correlation. Secondly, through the use of a specific policy development in English Religious Education as an exemplar, the paper establishes the potential of the approach. Deploying Statement Archaeology in relation to this example reveals that the change under investigation became possible at a nexus of changes in the rules of what is thinkable and unthinkable within different domains of discourse, and complex and messy processes of changing legitimacies and normalisations, with previously unacknowledged policy-influencers playing an important role. Many existing accounts of this change have overlooked these matters. The paper concludes by arguing that Statement Archaeology has potential significance in any domain of enquiry that seeks answers to the question "how did this particular practice become possible at that particular moment?" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses some theoretical and philosophical concerns related to modular synthesis performance practice. Taking an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon concepts from cognitive archaeology, anthropology and the philosophy of technology, the paper seeks to frame modular synthesis practice as a dance of agencies in the context of human–machine performance. In this paper, I explore how musical ideas, technical objects and performances co-evolve as part of a set of interdependent practices. To contend with this entangled human–machine relationship, I propose a consideration of how material agency helps define the direction of these creative practices, through the process of material engagement. In doing so, we consider the unique ergodynamics of modular systems, and examine the interdependent relationship that exists between the two core sites of musical performance in this practice: that of 'patching', and of live performance. Through reflective practice and theoretical discussion, this paper analyses how an entanglement between human and material agencies challenges traditionally understood notions of musical authorship and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses some theoretical and philosophical concerns related to modular synthesis performance practice. Taking an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon concepts from cognitive archaeology, anthropology and the philosophy of technology, the paper seeks to frame modular synthesis practice as a dance of agencies in the context of human-machine performance. In this paper, I explore how musical ideas, technical objects and performances co-evolve as part of a set of interdependent practices. To contend with this entangled human-machine relationship, I propose a consideration of how material agency helps define the direction of these creative practices, through the process of material engagement. In doing so, we consider the unique ergodynamics of modular systems, and examine the interdependent relationship that exists between the two core sites of musical performance in this practice: that of 'patching', and of live performance. Through reflective practice and theoretical discussion, this paper analyses how an entanglement between human and material agencies challenges traditionally understood notions of musical authorship and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterosexism against bisexuals and transgenders exists not only in the straight community but in the gay and lesbian community as well. Are ‘biphobia’ and ‘transphobia’ examples of ‘phobias’—irrational fears? No, such heterosexist attitudes are all too rational, mirroring social tensions, which only appear to be an ahistorical psychological phenomenon. Rather, as the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) community developed, power relations arose which resulted in the four different groups (G/L/B/T), assigning them different social locations. Prejudice in gay and lesbian communities against bisexuals and transgenders is heterosexism because it is, among other things, an accommodationist attempt to discover these more ‘radical’ forms of sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gobustan, a prehistoric site 60 km south of Baku, has an impressive collection of rock carvings from different prehistoric eras. Near the site, a national museum presents the prehistoric findings in a narrative that connects them with modern-day Azerbaijan, calling the hunter–gatherer tribes that lived in Gobustan ‘our ancient Azerbaijani ancestors’. While many nation-building projects dig deep into the past, reconstruct it, claim ancient civilizations as their own and sometimes even invent historical narratives that never happened, the Gobustan Museum and the narrative it implies (that prehistoric people living in 15,000 BCE were Azerbaijanis) seems like ‘overkill’, an exaggerated effort to connect the past and the present. The data from the museum points to a larger story: the construction of national identity and collective memory in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. This paper presents some of the author’s anthropological field research findings in the museum and explains why the narrative of ‘ancientness’ is so essential in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the catastrophic effect on the historic environment of the ethnic cleansing of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War and how it was dealt with by survivors in the aftermath of conflict. It describes the significance restoring the pre-conflict historic environment held for those who had experienced ethnic cleansing and how the act of 'restoring' their presence in the landscape monumentally, even they were not able to 'restore' their presence physically, became a form of memorialization and remembering. It investigates how the quest for historical truth, justice and reparation for the victims of the horrific events of the war involved not only 'restoration' but 'excavation' and looks at how the practices of archaeology were embedded in efforts to document, recover and restore Bosnia-Herzegovina's devastated cultural and social fabric - and at times to impede it. The role of forensic archaeologists in locating, excavating and interpreting mass grave sites during the many war crimes investigations which took place, is explored, as well as their involvement in the ongoing quest to identify those still missing from the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many square ancient sites exist in the Mongolian plateau region, and locating them is of great importance for archaeological research. In recent years, object detection in Google Earth (GE) high-resolution remote sensing (RS) images based on deep learning has driven archaeologists' research of ancient site detection. Deep learning techniques significantly improve the accuracy of site detection in RS images when compared with traditional detection methods while reducing design and computation time. Based on the characteristics of the research objectives, this paper proposes an improved Faster R-CNN algorithm for the detection of square ancient sites in GE high-resolution RS images, which employs Swin-Transformer, VGG16, Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP), Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks (SENet) to form an improved backbone network, and three methods to optimize the Region Proposal Network (RPN). In addition, a dataset of known square ancient sites containing four typical regions of the Mongolian plateau is built using GE high-resolution RS images for training and evaluating the algorithm model. The experimental results show that the Precision, Recall, F1, IoU, and Average Precision (AP) of the proposed improved Faster R-CNN are 91.38%, 91.16%, 91.27%, 83.49%, and 93.57%, respectively, which are 34.89%, 2.70%, 22.29%, 31.46%, and 7.32% higher than those of the original Faster R-CNN. The algorithm also has high evaluation metrics for object detection in four typical regions: hills, Gobi, cropland, and grassland. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to detect square ancient sites in six selected typical regions, and numerous new ones are discovered. Overall, the proposed algorithm provides an effective method for archaeological investigations in the study region. Deep learning is applied to Google Earth high-resolution RS images of the Mongolian Plateau for archaeological detection. A dataset of square ancient sites on typical regions of the Mongolian Plateau has been created. An improved Faster R-CNN algorithm is proposed by modifying the backbone network and the region proposal network. The proposed algorithm is used to detect square ancient sites in typical regions of the Mongolian plateau with good effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role ordinary people have played in archaeological field research during the late nineteenth century. Its geographical focus is on the Taxila valley in Pakistan. It was in the early later nineteenth century that Alexander Cunningham carried out extensive explorations in the area. He engaged local people during the course of his explorations aiming at gathering information about the valley's archaeological landscape and previous diggings at many sites. Of particular importance was a resident of Shah-dheri village, called Nur. Notwithstanding their potential contribution during the surveys, Cunningham still failed to credit them for it. He rather maligned his local informants and guides as ignorant and destroyers. This paper argues that we need a discovery as well as reappraisal of the role ordinary local people have played in archaeological investigations in the subcontinent. The category of ordinary people under discussion here is different from what native scholarship embodies, viz. scholars, pundits and learned informants. It includes people who are imperceptible, or even absent, in the margins and bottoms of the pages of colonial knowledge. Such researches would not only reveal novel aspects of colonial archaeology but would, at the same time, lead to devise ways for potential engagements between archaeologists and local populations in present-day South Asian archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing rate of global inequality, on the one hand, and hyper-consumerism, particularly among higher socio-economic classes in developed countries, on the other, have resulted in the emergence of new forms of subsistence, lifestyles and settlement types where subaltern groups and populations live and work. This paper investigates the emergence of two of these kinds of settlement in Tehran, Iran, that have developed based on the intersection of two factors: garbage and undocumented migration. In these places, undocumented Afghan migrants sort and sell dry garbage. At the same time, these places shelter the workers, chiefly teenage and underage undocumented Afghan migrants. This paper is a preliminary effort to archaeologically categorize and conceptualize these garbage-based settlements. Archaeology is among the best methodologies to investigate the materiality and inequality faced by such transient subaltern groups in the short and long term. Here I discuss how several factors, beyond absolute poverty, participate in turning garbage into a livelihood and generate garbage-based settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the different perspectives on important issues discussed in archaeological inquiry. Distinction between core beliefs and models; Assumption of the application of model from classical economics to an archaeological problems; Requirement of a recursive relationship between ideas and observations in learning the process of doing archaeology.

The Industrial Archaeology Review's Abstracts provide a selection of articles on various topics related to industrial archaeology. The articles cover a range of subjects, including building materials, ceramics and glass, chemical industries, defence, engineering, food and drink, industrial landscapes and communities, metal processing and manufacture, mining and mineral extraction, textiles, clothing and footwear, timber and paper, transport, and utilities. Each article focuses on a specific topic and provides detailed information and analysis. The Abstracts aim to keep readers informed about recent research and developments in the field of industrial archaeology. [Extracted from the article]

"Cooking with Plants in Ancient Europe and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Archaeology of Plant Foods" is a compilation of 30 papers edited by Soultana Maria Valamoti, Anastasia Dimoula, and Maria Ntinou. The book explores the role of plants in the dietary habits of early humans and their contribution to human evolution. The authors examine various aspects of ancient plant food production in Europe and beyond, using a range of archaeological artifacts. The book highlights the cultural, social, and economic aspects of food preparation and consumption throughout history. It also discusses the use of interdisciplinary methods, such as laboratory research, ethnography, and experimental archaeology, to study culinary transformation. While the book primarily focuses on the Mediterranean region, it includes one article on the foodscape of the Indus Valley civilization. The book is a valuable resource for archaeology students, early career researchers, and specialists interested in the relationship between plants, food, and humanity. [Extracted from the article]

This paper heeds the broader societal calls for decolonisation in Britain and Ireland, and seeks to apply various strands of decolonial practice within the context of Mesolithic archaeology; a subfield which has seen little postcolonial reflection to date. We question the historic interactions between Mesolithic archaeology and colonial hegemony, and argue that Mesolithic research continues to reinforce these hegemonies today. This occurs simultaneously within Europe, and on the inter-continental scale. With this in mind, we explore areas of Mesolithic research practice that hold potential to shift this dynamic, and contribute to the deconstruction of colonially rooted power imbalances. In doing so, our focus falls upon the ethics of ethnographic analogy, and the ontological turn within Mesolithic Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first review of biases impacting Pleistocene and Holocene radiocarbon dates from Central Africa. Based on the pooling of the research expertise of the co-authors, twenty-four biases are listed, explained and documented and their impact on any radiocarbon date corpus demonstrated. To achieve this, a new corpus has been created of 1764 radiocarbon and TL assays from 601 archaeological sites published in the literature. Each date has been checked for its context. The irregular dynamics of research in space and time seriously impact the end result of previous analyses aiming to achieve a regional understanding of past demographic fluctuations. While peaks in the number of dates from the late Holocene seem to correspond to a positive demographic trend, it is suggested that the declines identified cannot be of any such use for the time being and that today's picture does not presently support claims of a population "crash" at a regional or local level for any time period. The numbers are obscured by overall research deficits identifiable throughout the region. The maps of the dated sites presented offer good evidence of this and illustrate the vast expanses where no archaeological research has yet been carried out. The number of radiocarbon dates in Central Africa is more an indicator of the effort archaeologists have put into understanding a settlement than it is of ancient demographics. Successive waves of incoming people since c. 3500–3000 cal. BP, the two most important ones known since the 1990s, have created a cultural mosaic of coexisting technological groups. The last 40 years of research have revealed the inner complexity of these waves, some of which avoided parts of the region for centuries, thereby creating an irregular cultural mosaic of land use that is outlined by patterning in the radiocarbon dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Slavic Expansion during the 300s–700s poses interesting problems of interpretation (§1). This paper considers ways of procuring water, which is inomissible for any population – whether stable or expanding – and suggests that the Slavic Expansion comprised three modes of settlement, (i) along water courses, (ii) by natural springs, and (iii) dependent on hand-dug wells. The progression through these three modes entailed significant changes in the way of life of the Slavs (§2). They are evidenced by hundreds of placenames derived from words for 'spring' (§3) and by the later, widespread semantic change of words for 'spring' to 'well' and the creation of new words for 'spring' (§4). The remarkably diverse Slavic words for 'spring' reflect language contacts in the period before the Historical Expansion in the 500s and are of different age (§5). Their modern geographical distributions in 'spring' econyms reflect population movements at several stages of the Expansion, beginning centuries before the Historical Expansion (§6). They give indications about the relative locations of the Slavs and the contact languages prior to the Historical Expansion (§7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hawthorn Crater is a prominent feature of the former Somme battlefield near Beaumont Hamel, Northern France. It resulted from the detonation of arguably the most famous of nine mines that the British had prepared below German lines on 1 July 1916, as part of the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. However, the crater has not been studied scientifically, as was in private land until recently taken over by the Hawthorn Crater Association. This paper documents three field seasons of multi-disciplinary site investigations. Methods included: remote sensing, drones, ground-based-LiDAR and surface surveys, geophysics and archaeological investigations. Magnetic anomalies were identified as: still-intact German fire pits, barbed wire and equipment, as the crater became the frontline after formation, and Allied shell craters. This study provided a rare opportunity to study a First World War mine crater, and highlighting modern science can assist detection and characterisation of significant archaeological sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rituals are central to the everyday life of the nurse, yet the fundamental roles that rituals play in caring for the dead and dying has often been neglected. This paper explores modern palliative and post-mortem care – its practices, practitioners and arenas – against the background of long-held, global concerns regarding the dead and dying. Comparison with the archaeological and ethnographic records demonstrates the ubiquitous and enduring practices surrounding death, and the centrality of ritual specialists to this complex social and biological process. This deep-time perspective highlights the importance of nurses, and their associated nursing rituals, in the transition of patients between life and death, and the difficult journeys that nurse, patient and family undertake in this mediation between worlds. Such a perspective not only empowers nurses in their daily practices, and places nursing rituals firmly at the centre of modern palliative care work, but demonstrates the value of archaeology and ethnography in contextualising the challenges of today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses interdisciplinary methods to investigate responses to the Little Ice Age in regions where livestock farming was dominant, a neglected subject due to the scarcity of detailed written records regarding pastoral land use. It argues that landscape-level histories which include pollen evidence and archaeology can address this challenge and reveal local processes of climate adaptation. Here we focus on Ireland and Scotland and a fascinating rise in small-scale cereal cultivation on upland pastures during the Little Ice Age. Bayesian modeling is used to test the chronological resolution of field evidence and compare it with climate reconstructions. We can see that the cultivation emerged in late medieval times, when cattle were facing climate-related stresses, and increased in early modern times during the Little Ice Age's main phase. We suggest that it started in an indirect adaptation to climate change, supplementing supplies of food and fodder for pastoralists, but increased as rural populations and external market demands grew. There is a need for finer temporal resolution in pollen records and archaeology, as well as greater integration with socio-economic history, if we are to be more certain about changes in the relative significance of climate in pastoral land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore life during the post-medieval period in a small part of the Ochil Hills in Perthshire, Scotland, and in doing so, demonstrates how landscape archaeology can uncover stories which reflect the complexity and nuance of life in the past. Drawing on a range of approaches, this paper explores the stories uncovered through a programme of landscape archaeology. This includes considering the dramatic changes and reformations that have shaped the landscape over recent centuries, histories of specific people and places - and the relationship between the two. It asks questions of the role of archaeology in telling these stories and considers how a variety of approaches can reveal a multitude of voices and narratives from the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of finger rings and pendants from England and Wales from the period 1400–1700, which have been recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and that feature the shape of the heart or inscriptions of the word 'heart'. The paper explores how these objects can inform us about the embodied experience, perception and expression of love and other emotions in the period in question, and how this reflects contemporary medical and popular ideas held about the heart. It also discusses more generally how objects actively communicated and invoked emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Viking Age in Scotland: Studies in Scottish Scandinavian Archaeology" is a book that emerged from a conference held at the University of Glasgow in 2018. The book contains 26 thematic papers written by scholars from the UK and abroad, providing an accessible introduction to key archaeological material, sites, and concepts related to the Viking Age in Scotland. The papers cover various topics, including the arrival of the Vikings, Native-Norse interactions, burial practices, settlement patterns, economics and exchange, environmental data, and political power in the landscape. The book offers a balanced view of the relationships between the native population and the Vikings, challenging previous assumptions. It also showcases new fields of study and theoretical approaches, making it a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in Viking-Age Scotland. [Extracted from the article]

Since Gero's (1985) germinal article on gender inequities in archaeology, feminist archaeologists have theorized that research processes are gendered: fieldwork is masculine-coded, and lab and museum work are feminine-coded. Goldstein and colleagues (2018) revealed that while more men submit grant applications to the National Science Foundation (NSF) overall, both men and women submit more post-Ph.D. proposals for field-based than for lab-based projects. This paper expands on these data by presenting an analysis of NSF-funded project abstracts (1955–2020) focusing on 1) methods employed, 2) primary regions where research is conducted, and 3) genders and organizational affiliations of principal investigators. We demonstrate that in this dataset, the gendered lab/field divide is not statistically significant; however, there are significant correlations between the genders of PIs and the regions they study. We conclude that the gendering of archaeological methods is in flux but that inequities and gendered patterns continue to shape archaeological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists tell stories about the past through the interpretation of material remains, frequently an emotional pursuit. Even so, the profession is often represented simplistically, dispassionately, or problematically, according to perspectives on practice that have little to do with the actuality. The South Korean stage musical Return: The Promise of the Day is an example of how the representation of archaeology and archaeological fieldwork specifically have been incorporated into staging and storytelling to tell difficult stories about the past to both domestic and international audiences. The practice of conflict archaeology is represented as a means of facilitating the understanding of violent conflict across generations. This paper accounts for how Return makes use of archaeology, further showcasing the potential for representations of archaeology and archaeological practice to tell emotional stories and expand heritage audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last 3 ka, different human communities occupied the Bay of Cádiz (SW Spain), including Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Medieval and Modern settlements. Traces of such historical occupations have been recognized along the bay from a geoarchaeological point of view. Some of them bear a palaeogeographical interest related to the historical location of the shoreline. At the same time, Holocene sedimentary units and geomorphological elements identified along the bay can be interpreted as evidences of its morphological evolution. The objective of the present paper is to represent all the available data about archaeological sites and geomorphology in the northern Bay of Cádiz, with the aim of combining both sources of data for elaborating a simple proposal of landscape evolution during the last 3 millennia. The base for mapping was multiple, from historical aerial photographs to satellite imagery and a digital terrain model with a maximum resolution of 0.35 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of the geophysical surveys carried out in the city of Ugento, specifically in the St. Antonio area and into the Medieval Castle, are presented in this paper. The aim of this study is to integrate the results of Ground-Penetrating Radar and Electrical Resistivity Tomography surveys in order to support archaeological investigations aimed at the elaboration of a detailed archaeological map of the Messapian, Roman and Medieval settlement. Indeed, the obtained data were jointly analysed with archaeological data already known and were georeferenced on the general plans of the site in order to obtain an overall view of the anomalies detected by geophysical instrumentation and related to buried ancient structures. In particular, the geophysical surveys carried out in the St. Antonio area made it possible to reconstruct a stretch of the Messapian city walls and nearby necropolis, while the investigations inside the Castle allowed for the acquisition of very interesting data about previous phases dated to the Middle Ages (and maybe also the Messapian or Roman ages) and about the geo-morphological characteristics of the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and climate change education remains on the margins of education and climate change policy. This paper draws on Foucauldian theoretical resources to examine England's climate change education policy landscape and understand the causes of this marginalisation. Informed by policy historiography, we examine key events and shifts in climate change, education and environmental education since the turn of the millennium. Using policy archaeology, we 'excavate' the contemporary policy landscape and identify that: i) policy is lacking; ii) responding to the climate crisis is overlooked in education; iii) pro-environmental ambition is absent; and, iv) economic values dominate. In a global context where activists have called for 'more!' climate change education, the analyses reveal the complexity of the problem. A 'web of conditions' governing climate change education policy is illuminated. Foucault-informed analytical tools offer insights on how this web may be rebuilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shanghai region is home to millennia of archaeological cultures and a massive modern metropolois. Until recently, this regional history has remained within the overarching framework of a north-China centric archaeology. Throughout the emergence of archaeological cultures in Shanghai and its periphery, however, we can observe striking adaptations to the vulnerability of its landscape, as well as ingenious technical and engineering solutions. This paper uses archaeological data to explore how this fragile environment was treated in the past and how people adapted to it, offering insights into the long-term human-environment interactions with the Lower Yangtze area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the international stage, discussions on theoretical and methodological aspects of settlement archaeology tend to be dominated by Anglo-American scholarship associated with the emergence of the New Archaeology's systemic view of culture and its ecological outlook in which settlement pattern analysis became a crucial approach. Few people are aware that a scholar of Chinese origin, K.C. Chang, contributed substantially to these debates already since the 1950s and introduced western practices of settlement archaeology to China in the 1980s. Since then, numerous international collaborative projects in China have provided a fruitful basis for an exchange of ideas between different scholarly traditions and providing opportunities for methods developed in the West to be tested in a different cultural and environmental context. The present paper traces these developments, highlighting the extent of the Chinese contributions and concluding with some thoughts on the standing of Chinese archaeology within the field of archaeology worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kingdom of Koguryŏ was one of the so-called Three Kingdoms of Korea in the 1st millennium AD. According to the Samguk Sagi (Historical Records of the Three States), it was founded on what is now North Korea and northeastern China. Not only are the archaeological remains a cultural asset that should not be underestimated, they are powerful enough to be claimed for political purposes today. Overland connections from the Chinese mainland east to Japan and Korea are long recognised. These empires were extremely rich and powerful at the time of the Tang (617/18–907 AD) – Nara in Japan, as well as Koguryŏ, Silla and Paekche on the Korean Peninsula. This paper considers the impressive remains of the Koguryŏ culture, not least in China's Jilin Province along the North Korean border and explores the historical and archaeological legacy and power of the Koguryŏ Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]