The concept of projectile point series was first developed in California and the Great Basin in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1981, applying the Monitor Valley projectile point key, Thomas (1981) assigned chronological ranges to five projectile point series for the Great Basin, the Gatecliff Series, the Humboldt Series, the Elko Series, the Rosegate Series, and the Desert Series, which were based on the

Migration played a significant role in shaping the Native populations of the southwest United States and northwest Mexico. Large-scale migrations into and across the region were underlain by small-scale (intraregional) population shifts affected by environmental fluctuations (declines and improvements) and social phenomena such as aggregation and the spread of sociopolitical spheres of influence within

Ochres are naturally occurring materials that are abundant in various geological environments and geographic regions and that have been used for a range of different purposes throughout history. Their wide use as pigments in ancient art is well-documented and, due to their abundancy, it is often presumed that ochres were extracted from locally available sources. However, ancient literary sources underline

A broad multidisciplinary approach is deployed to study an exceptional megalithic feature: the stone basin that presides over the chamber of the Matarrubilla tholos, part of the Valencina Copper Age mega-site (Sevilla, Spain). The study, including geoarchaeological characterisation and sourcing of the stone, traceological analysis of its surfaces based on photogrammetry and morphometrics, digital image

Generative models are an underutilized tool in bioarchaeology that make it possible to directly interrogate how age-at-death is influenced by varied risk of exposure to stressors, while accounting for factors which are ordinarily invisible to bioarchaeologists. Further, the visibility of suspected differences within populations at the sorts of sample sizes common to bioarchaeology can also be examined

The discovery of specific parasites in archaeological contexts provides unique insights into the hygiene, sanitation, and socioeconomic dynamics of ancient populations, as well as their patterns of mobility. Paleoparasitological evidence offers a window into the spread of infections across different regions and time periods. This investigation leveraged paleoparasitology to explore the utilization

This paper presents a new method for constructing demographic profiles of archaeological sheep skeletal assemblages drawing on a method developed for Sus scrofa (Zeder and Lemoine, 2020a) and, most recently, for goats (Zeder, 2024a). This method normalizes metric data using the Logarithm Size Index (LSI) scaling technique. LSI values of post-crania metric data of modern wild sheep from Iran and Iraq

The Pike River is an anabranch and palaeochannel of the Murray River located in South Australia's Riverland region, in the southwestern part of the Murray-Darling Basin. The floodplain contains abundant and varied archaeological evidence of Aboriginal life, including extensive deposits of shell midden exposed along the high cliff-line bounding the southeastern margin of the floodplain. The oldest of

Post-mortem alteration of trace elements can complicate the interpretation of original biogenic signals related to diet, environment and enamel maturation processes. This study describes gradients in element concentrations for modern and archaeological deciduous incisor teeth to identify diagenetic variations in specific elements.

Ancient Roman engineers used different methods when building the substructure of the seating area (cavea) of theatres and amphitheatres. In the northwestern provinces of the Empire, they often supported the seats by an artificial earth embankment which posed the structural problem of containing the soil infill. Because the curved perimeter wall of the cavea was not able to withstand the lateral earth

Past research has uncovered a shift in herbivore collagen δ15N values during the Middle to Late Bronze Age (3700–2750 BP) in Ireland, attributed to intensified land-use - another example in a growing body of evidence that suggests that the Anthropocene concept (whereby humans have made significant impacts to the Earth's systems) began far earlier than previously thought (the ‘Palaeoanthropocene’).

Stable sulfur isotope (δ34S) analysis is an important tool for addressing archaeological and ecological questions about diet and mobility. A growing body of work has underscored the value of δ34S for tracing food sources linked to specific kinds of aquatic primary production, including saltmarshes, freshwater wetlands, seagrass beds, and benthic microalgal communities. Comparatively little work has

For researchers studying wildlife distributions of the past, the assignment of faunal depictions and remains to species can often present considerable challenges. Regrettably, many studies do not systematically consider all options and sources of evidence and, as a result, questionable identifications are widespread in the literature, which compromises the trustworthiness of meta-analyses of human-animal

Pregnancy encompasses core socio-political issues: kinship, demography, religion, gender and more. In any society, the ontology of the pregnant body and the embryo-fetus holds core existential concerns. Is a pregnant body one or two beings? When does personhood begin? Yet pregnancy is still a marginal topic in archaeology and its onto-political consequences have scarcely been raised. It would be ludicrous

The Viking Age (c. 800–c. 1050 ad) was characterised by a widespread rise in maritime mobility and interaction, as is made clear by an increasing range of evidence. However, this evidence provides limited information about the sailors and the sailing voyages that connected and transformed the Viking world. This paper presents an approach to reconstruct Viking Age maritime itineraries through the combined

Inductive predictive modelling is a controversial tool in archaeology. Visibility, taphonomy and research history can affect the statistical reliability of an archaeological dataset to be used as a training sample for a predictive model. To overcome these biases, an ethnoarchaeological approach has been proposed. This methodology has been developed and tested on a pastoral context in the Eastern Italian

Our study seeks to explore the beginnings and spread of glazed ceramic technologies across Islamic lands by focusing on the evidence from the southern Levantine coast. We selected 98 glazed ceramic samples recovered through stratified excavations of four sites along the southern Levantine coast. These ceramic samples include glazed tableware (especially the ones that do not feature the use of opaque

Fingerprinting of iron-rich natural pigments commonly known as ochre, provides the opportunity to trace the cultural movement of these ochres in the archaeological past. This manuscript presents a proof-of-concept approach to the analysis and characterisation of ochre deposits, through the application of magnetic analytical methods. The use of measurements such as room temperature – saturation isothermal

This study combines paleopathological data and paleoepidemiological analyses, specifically survival analyses, to investigate the impact of eight physiological and mechanical stress markers on survivorship in a sample of 492 adult Milanese males and females across five historical periods. Pearson's Chi-squared, post-hoc tests, and survival analyses were performed on the entire dataset. The findings

Copper-tin bronzes can be obtained through different techniques (i.e. natural alloying, co-smelting, cementation, co-melting and recycling). This paper presents a methodology and theoretical framework to contextually explain the logic behind the selection of bronze alloying techniques in different contexts, avoiding deterministic, aprioristic and linear narratives. To do so, we selected Northeast Iberia

Humans have shaped island ecosystems for tens of millennia. A crucial part of this process included the anthropogenic translocation of wild animals between islands. Archaeological evidence presented here suggests humans introduced forest wallabies to Island Southeast Asia from Sahul (Pleistocene New Guinea–Australia) before 12,800 years ago. This is the earliest reported anthropogenic translocation

This paper presents a new Geographic Information Systems database of travel and communications routes in England and Wales derived from medieval cartographic evidence. We argue on the basis of archaeological, physical landscape, onomastic, documentary, cartographic and other historical evidence that the network of red distance lines on the Gough Map of Great Britain, dated c. fifteenth century, represents

Rice, domesticated in the Yangtze River Basin, was introduced to the Guanzhong Plain, and became prominence alongside millets during the Longshan period (ca. 4600-4000 B.P.). This study analyzes flotation samples from the Yangyuan site, revealing a significant abundance of charred rice grains and spikelet bases, surpassing those found at other contemporaneous sites in the Guanzhong Plain. The high

The Great Tumulus of Vergina (Aegae) is considered to be the royal burial complex of the Macedonian kings. Beneath it four tombs were discovered, labeled Tomb I, II, III and IV. Several hypotheses have been proposed for the identities of the occupants of the “royal tombs”, but without scientific backing. We present new data from Tomb I (“The Tomb of Persephone”), which contained inhumed (unburnt),

The Mediterranean Sea is the world's second-largest biodiversity hotspot and has been impacted by several environmental changes and human activities since pre-historic times. We present the results of a systematic review of the published literature on the nature and extent of these impacts on the ancient-historic Mediterranean marine ecosystems. We aim to provide an overview of the current state of

This article analyzes the interaction networks in the Tairona chiefdom communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, to investigate settlement patterns and the scales of socioeconomic integration over time. Employing network analysis on the technological and typological attributes of ceramic artifact assemblages from pre-Hispanic settlements within a 40-square-kilometer area of the Regional

Draught cattle, used for ploughing and carting, contributed to drive social transformations in prehistoric societies by replacing or complementing human power. However, identifying draught cattle from archaeological sites has proven challenging due to the dearth of direct evidence. This paper presents a biometric approach to identifying draught cattle in archaeological assemblages based on metapodials

Research into fires and pyrogenic materials found on archaeological sites has grown exponentially in the last decade or so, producing a large specialised body of innovative methods and major interpretative advances. This review examines those developments with respect to our understanding of fire contexts and the materials produced. Although often rooted in soil micromorphology, the approaches used

The past decade saw the proliferation of projects that use 3D and related technologies to engage with Indigenous heritage through museum collections and cultural heritage site digitization projects involving the documentation and sometimes physical replication of objects and landscapes; some of these projects involved Indigenous origin communities. Although 3D technologies have become more widespread

La cueva de Altamira es un enclave declarado Patrimonio Mundial por UNESCO, famoso por sus pinturas y grabados prehistóricos. Aunque el arte rupestre de la cueva de Altamira fue descubierto hace más de 140 años, su evolución cronológica aún no está plenamente definida (Heras, Montes y Lasheras, 2013). Las anteriores dataciones por radiocarbono del pigmento negro de alguna de sus pinturas, sugerían

This paper provides a context for the use of anthropogenic palynology in the study of landscape and land use. Retrospective considerations indicate a history to current trends and inform future developments. Recent and prospective studies secure palynology as an essential element in archaeological and related environmental research. It is stressed that palynology is an inherently spatio-temporal discipline

The Japanese archipelago, surrounded by the sea and rich in marine resources, has a long fishing history, dating back to the Jomon period (c. 14,000-900 BCE). Evidence of this includes discovering fish bones and fishing gear from around 2700 shell mounds. While research on the Jomon fishing nets has focused on various aspects, such as net mesh size and marine life caught, there has been limited attention

Context and chronology are fundamental in archaeological studies, and without rigorous standards in both fieldwork and analysis, researchers risk drawing faulty conclusions. The role of submerged aquatic plants in radiocarbon dating is a case in point. For example, research at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, has dated fossil human and megafauna trackways using Ruppia cirrhosa (Ruppia) seeds

We analyze two technically sophisticated stone points dated between 15,580 and 14,319 cal. BP discovered at the open-air site of Mitshakila, Democratic Republic of Congo, combining diacritic analysis, experimentation, and traditional morphometrics. Diacritical analysis is applied following techno-functional (also called "morpho-structural") and productional approaches. An experimental corpus consisting

Ethnographic accounts of Melanesian exchange systems, such as the Kula and Hiri, have significantly influenced the development of anthropology. These accounts primarily focus on male agency framed by heroic seafaring ventures, while the agency of women and their cultural practices—key to the interconnectedness of Melanesian societies—has often been overlooked. On Papua New Guinea’s south coast details

Paleoindians buried Spirit Cave Man in a Nevada cave, and archaeologists excavated these remains in 1940. Radiocarbon testing in 1996 dated the burial and associated grave goods as older than 10,700 years. Living just 10 miles from Spirit Cave, the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe filed a NAGPRA claim in 1997 requesting the repatriation of the Spirit Cave ancestor they call “The Storyteller.” This claim

Chipped stone tools termed perforators and gravers are characterized by projections. Although the implied function of these tool types differs, there are no guidelines for classifying perforators and gravers based on their morphology. Consequently, researchers classify these tools differently, which precludes meaningful comparisons of the frequencies of these types between assemblages. A use-wear study

Domestic cats have lived alongside human communities for thousands of years, hunting rats, mice, and other pests and serving as pets and a source of pelts and meat. Cats have received limited archaeological attention because their independence limits direct insight into human societies. An adult and juvenile cat recovered from the Emanuel Point wreck 2 (EP2) reflect what are, most likely, the earliest

High latitude habitats are subject to thermally-driven energetic constraints that make their occupation challenging. This is likely to have had a particularly significant impact on energy-expensive tissue like the brain, especially during periods of lower global temperatures during the Mid-Pleistocene Ice Ages. I analyse data on endocranial volumes for archaic humans (Homo heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis

This paper presents a detailed analysis of a unique pointy bone artefact produced by Neanderthals, which was found in 2003 in a Middle Paleolithic layer dated c. 80–70 ka at Mezmaiskaya Cave in the Caucasus. The definition and interpretation of anthropic traces related to technological modifications and functional use of the bone tool were analyzed using stereoscopic and metallographic microscopes

The aim of this paper is to shine light on fundamental statistical concepts that archaeologists do not talk about enough. I argue that more deliberate discussion of these statistical ‘elephants in the room’ can have a positive impact on improving statistical training and on steering us away from perpetuation of poor research practices.