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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]

"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]

"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]

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]

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]

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]

A response by Barbara Isaac to a letter to the editor about her book "Archaeology of Human Origins: Papers by Glynn Isaac" is presented.

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.

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]

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]

Replicas have the ability to communicate artistic, cultural and intellectual values outside their original context. They do this by physically establishing a canon for ordering and interpreting history. Epigraphical squeezes, as fragmentary impressions of sculpted or incised surfaces, are one example of such replicas, occupying a transitory space between source and copy. However, they are rarely studied within this framework, instead seen primarily as an aide for publication. To better understand how squeezes are implicated in our own processes of knowledge formation, this paper focuses on a single case study, the collection of early Christian squeezes held at Musée L. In mapping the biography of this collection, tracing its connection to the emergence of archaeology as a science based on interaction with material remains at the turn of the twentieth century, this case study will provide a rich model for how squeezes can act as sources for historiographical inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating political ecology and archaeology has resulted in innovative approaches for reconstructing past human-environment interactions and understanding the legacies that shape environmental degradation and resource struggles today. This paper contributes to this emerging interdisciplinarity by proposing a political ecological approach to investigate how archaeological remains are assigned value as resources, drawing on interpretive theories in both archaeology and political ecology. This article applies this approach to examine the archaeological imagination driving expeditions in eastern Honduras that aimed to find the remains of a site of monumental importance associated with the legend of the White City. Through a political ecological lens, it becomes clear that the interpretation of the region's archaeological heritage within the context of a legend is the result of displacement and resource control dynamics. Although archaeologists reject the legend as a credible source, actors continue to exploit its symbolism for prestige and profit. This approach highlights the disjuncture between profit-driven narratives of archaeological heritage and the socio-natures that underpin our imagination of such sites. The paper suggests that engaging with the socio-nature of archaeological sites may lead to more inclusive and nuanced interpretations of the past, showing how political ecology can contribute to public archaeology. [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]

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 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]

Copyright of Journal of the American Institute for Conservation is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ebenezer Howard is one of the foundational figures of town planning. His Garden Cities of To-morrow envisions a Utopian synthesis of the urban and the rural to enhance the well-being of residents, in contrast to the industrial megalopolis of the late 19th century. While realized Garden Cities took many forms different from Howard's original layout, this is the one we find in the urban roots of the deep past. About 4350 BCE we see the formation of large, circular, decentralized settlements in what is today central Ukraine. Elsewhere, in the Brazilian Amazon between 1200 and 1600 CE, we see a transformation of the jungle into a vast park landscape filled with clusters of circular settlements, with horticultural land-use in between them. In addition to similarities in planning, these past settlements also involve the social aspect of countering inequality and fostering freedom and cooperation. This paper explores the possibility of Garden Cities in the past and the implications of decentralized 'rurban' landscapes from the deep history perspective of archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a historiographical approach to review the allied fields of Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology in relation to studies of disability and bodily differences in ancient Egypt. We incorporate critical disability studies and embodiment theories to consider whether ableism is prevalent across these disciplines. The focus of this study has been inverted from 'identifying' disability. Instead our primary driving question is: are Egyptological approaches to bodily differences and disabilities contributing to a production and maintenance of ableism in Egyptology? Here we first identify ableist narratives within numerous methodologies highlighting the need to reconsider existing approaches, terminologies, models, and assumptions regarding studies of disability in the ancient past. We then challenge readers to recognise ableism as a form of inequality in the existing scholarship, and in turn, call for better awareness of assumptions relating to bodily norms, terminologies, and inclusivity in ancient world studies. [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]

In 2018, the University of Birmingham, UK, hosted a weekend of events for the Association for Environmental Archaeology (AEA)'s spring conference 'Pests of Society'. The event was organised in collaboration with Historic England – the publicly-funded 'Arms-Length Body' with statutory responsibility for the historic environment in England. During the course of the one day conference and workshop the following day, multiple aspects were covered of how pests have interacted, and continue to interact, with humans and their day-to-day activities, as well as their presence in the wider landscape. This paper outlines and describes the meeting, introducing the range of topics covered, and summarises the papers that have been published in the resulting special issue. [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]

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]

Copyright of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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 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]

The article discusses the ongoing conflicts in various countries, including Ukraine, Gaza, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Myanmar, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. It emphasizes the importance of studying the archaeology and history of conflict to understand the reality of mass violence and its impact on communities. The article also highlights the need for diverse perspectives and the inclusion of indigenous voices in conflict archaeology research. Additionally, it presents summaries of three papers published in the Journal of Conflict Archaeology, focusing on topics such as the preservation of a Civil War battlefield, glass artifacts from World War I, and the military archaeology of the Italian occupation of Croatia during World War II. [Extracted from the article]

The role of news media in the dissemination of archaeological research is beginning to receive some attention, but this is inadequate when considering the scale of the news media as a tool for public archaeology and mass-distribution of archaeological research in digital news sites. Archaeology needs to urgently address this oversight and begin to construct appropriate and sustainable working relationships with the news media, founded on a critical evaluation of current strategies, to regulate the information that is disseminated through this medium. This paper takes a British perspective, though the themes and necessary improvements have global significance. I suggest that we begin to appreciate the role of the archaeologist in the construction of knowledge through the mass media by embracing ‘archaeo-media’- a neologism here proposed to explore the intersections and interactions between archaeology and news media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, Italy has been at the forefront of mass migration flows. Starting from the late 1990s, facilities for the detention and expulsion of undocumented migrants have been established. In this paper, we analyse one of the earliest examples of such structures in the Mediterranean: the former temporary holding facility (or C.P.T. Centro di Permanenza Temporanea) ‘Regina Pacis’ located in south-eastern Italy. In 1997, the structure was repurposed into one of the largest C.P.T in Italy until its closure in 2005. Through an approach that combines archaeology and ethnography, we aim to understand the role that material culture played in subjugating and controlling the life of the migrants, attempting to evaluate, at the same time, the impact that the facility had on its hosting community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PAMHOP (The Physical And Mental Health of Older Prisoners) is an inter- and transdisciplinary project funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The project has two principal aims: to better understand the physical and common mental health needs of older people within the criminal justice system; and to assess the implementation of some novel tailored interventions that might benefit this community and shape policy, thus reducing costs for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). One intervention was a historic environment project that involved map-based landscape regression, and historic building recording work. This paper describes this intervention and assesses its impacts, including those related to policy. [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 provides new insights into the long-term history of Aboriginal use of mountainous Victoria over the past 25,000 years. It presents results of excavations at Garden Range 2 rock art site located on the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges in central Victoria. The excavations were a research collaboration between the Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC) and Monash University. Results indicate possible ephemeral visitation by the Old People during the Last Glacial Maximum, clear evidence of occupation over the past 11,000 years, and increased activity since 1600 cal BP. The stone artefact assemblage is dominated by flakes of local quartz. Three igneous flakes from ground-edge axes, dating to after 700 cal BP, are contemporary with a grinding stone showing use-wear and residues from stone axe maintenance. The faunal assemblage is dominated by forest and grassland animals, such as macropod and emu, with mussel shells and fish bones indicating the use of nearby Seven Creeks. The rarity of ochre within sediments precludes insights into the age of rock art paintings on the shelter's surface. Fossil pollen documents the nineteenth-century European forest clearances, a period when Taungurung people's use of the site became unsafe. Unburnt fragments of rabbit and sheep bone suggest subsequent use of the site as a fox den. Garden Range 2 illustrates Aboriginal use of mountainous central Victoria during periods of significant environmental changes in the Early Holocene and possibly in the Late Pleistocene. These chronological patterns, including increased activity in the central Victorian uplands during the Late Holocene, match emerging chronological patterns of long-term use of other mountainous regions of southeastern Australia. How sites like Garden Range 2 relate to broader long-term Aboriginal use of more elevated sub-alpine and alpine (snow country) zones of central and eastern Victoria is a question for future archaeological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing literature on underfloor archaeological deposits often observes exceptional material preservation within these matrices. Drawing from recent work at Fremantle Prison, this paper reports on the site formation processes that produced the rich preservation of the underfloor deposit of Fremantle Prison's cell D40. These site formation processes are characteristic of non-soil underfloor deposits and explain why these types of archaeological sites enable the preservation of fragile, organic materials. This understanding of material preservation and decomposition enables a holistic understanding of the deposited materials and related human behaviour over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that the central ontological presupposition in the philosophy of sport is the 'sport-as-play' paradigm. In reconstructing its archaeological origins, a normative narrative is uncovered in which 'play' represents a creative and 'lusory' social practice, governed by game rules. In the philosophy of sports discourse, Homo Ludens is considered as the ideal, virtuous and innocent character, free from repressive, work-related duties or constraints. In the early works of Giorgio Agamben (1942), the conceptual pair play—ritual offers a contemporary frame of reference, rigorously different from our Homo Ludens ideal. In Agamben's later works, the provocative Homo Sacer concept can hardly be more opposite to the utopian Homo Ludens paradigm. As Agamben states, political power in late modernity is based on a so-called 'state-of-exception', in which 'bare life' (as expressed in Homo Sacer) at first is excluded from society, but then again reincluded as an exception, in order to realize law and order. In this paper, I introduce philosophical archaeology as a promising new method in the philosophy of sport, debunking our prevailing Homo Ludens discourse. I argue that modern sports in our times—inadvertently—more and more seem to function as a 'state-of-exception', strengthening bio-political power. [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]

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]

A radical shift in orientation alongside the objects of archaeology has occasioned a reconsideration of what theory is in a very general sense. What function does it serve and how might we define it? In retrospect, these questions arise not in the context of paradigms and strong theories, which some consider to have run their course, but in their absence. Here, there is a danger that theory might be jettisoned altogether if its nature and purpose are not critically re-assessed. The modest goal of this paper is to join in on this conversation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Roman writers wrote about Pre-Roman Central-Italy, they consigned to History a picture made of epic wars and brave warriors. Indeed, the Archaic period is the golden age of the Pre-Roman aristocracy and warrior ideology played a crucial role in building it. In this paper, I will focus on the specific case of the Vestini Cismontani, a Sabine tribe of modern Abruzzo, in order to define the role of war and its display within communities of the same ethne. The high number of weapons and warriors, along with the widespread fortification of the territory, even in areas supposed to be within the borders, are indicators of a society where fighting and rivalries are part of the wider diplomatic balance of the region. In this paper, I will explore settlement patterns and archaeological evidence in order to define the role of war and inter-communal aggression in a mountainous and harsh landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists in the UK work in a variety of structures, but all archaeology is for the benefit of the public. Since 1990 the majority of archaeological work has been undertaken as part of the planning process. A complex system has evolved which attempts to deliver wider public benefit. There are differences between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the underlying principles are broadly the same across the UK. In 2020 radical changes were proposed to the planning system in England which could potentially impact on both the archaeological profession and the public benefits it generates. This paper outlines the evolution and operation of the current UK system with particular reference to England, and highlights some changes that the new proposals could make to the status quo. Some structural issues are highlighted which will need to be overcome for archaeologists to improve things for themselves and for the society they serve in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]