bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bones, teeth, and estimating age of perinates: Carthaginian infant sacrifice revisited
Authors: Schwartz J.H. , Houghton F.D. , Bondioli L. , Macchiarelli R.
Published: January 2015

Writing about the ‘Tophet’, a children's cemetery in Carthage, Smithet al.argued in these pages that the age distribution of the children peaks at 1–1.49 months, supplying “another link in the chain of evidence—funerary practices, texts, iconography—that supports the interpretation of the Phoenician Tophets as ritual sites set aside for infant sacrifice” (2011: 871). In this they had challenged Jeffrey Schwartz and colleagues, who previously argued (2010) that “skeletal remains from Punic Carthage do not support systematic sacrifice of infants”. Here Schwartzet al.restate their position forAntiquityreaders, showing that the verdict on the Phoenician practice of child sacrifice is, at best, not proven.
Watchful realms: integrating GIS analysis and political history in the southern Maya lowlands
Authors: Doyle James A. , Garrison Thomas G. , Houston Stephen D.
Published: January 2015

Travellers naturally prefer to use the most passable routes and establish staging points on the way. Cost surface analysis predicts the easiest routes and viewshed analysis the territory visible from a staging point or destination. Applying these GIS techniques to the Buenavista Valley Corridor, our authors write a history of travel and exchange that vividly reflects the rivalry of two polities and the rise and fall of their nodal settlements.
The occurrence of tortoiseshell on a pre-Hispanic Maya mosaic mask
Authors: Frazier Jack , Ishihara-Brito Reiko
Published: January 2015

The Dumbarton Oaks Maya mosaic mask is shown to have included tortoiseshell on an earlobe—remarkable since this is the only demonstrated use of this material in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. The authors present diagnostic evidence for the presence of tortoiseshell, account for its absence in pre-Hispanic artefacts because of decay, and propose its use (in the mask) as being symbolic of the ocean.
Middle Holocene intensification and domestication of camelids in north Argentina, as tracked by zooarchaeology and lithics
Authors: López Gabriel E. J. , Restifo Federico
Published: January 2015

Using a detailed excavated sequence and a broad range of south Andean sites, the authors show that changes in the bones of camelids and in the lithic assemblages offer an account of how animals were intensively exploited and ultimately domesticated between the sixth and fourth millennia BP.
Excavating in breccia: new methods developed at the Benzú rockshelter
Authors: Domínguez-Bella S. , Ramos J. , Bernal D. , Vijande E. , Cantillo J.J. , Cabral A. , Pérez M. , Barrena A.
Published: January 2015

Excavators examining breccia deposits are faced with the prospect of extracting finds from a material akin to concrete. Nevertheless such deposits are sometimes the only witness of early Palaeolithic occupation. Our inventive authors put aside the hammers, acids and explosives of earlier days, and used quarry techniques to cut the breccia into small blocks, which they then freed from their finds in the laboratory, using tools developed in palaeontology. As a result, they gathered a huge harvest of stone tools, bones and shells. It all goes to show that archaeological excavation is an exercise of infinite variety: to every problem, its solution; to every terrain, its method.
The social construction of caves and rockshelters: Chauvet Cave (France) and Nawarla Gabarnmang (Australia)
Authors: Delannoy Jean-Jacques , David Bruno , Geneste Jean-Michel , Katherine Margaret , Barker Bryce , Whear Ray L. , Gunn Robert G.
Published: January 2015

Caves and rockshelters are a key component of the archaeological record but are often regarded as natural places conveniently exploited by human communities. Archaeomorphological study shows however that they are not inert spaces but have frequently been modified by human action, sometimes in ways that imply a strong symbolic significance. In this paper the concept of ‘aménagement’, the re-shaping of a material space or of elements within it, is applied to Chauvet Cave in France and Nawarla Gabarnmang rockshelter in Australia. Deep within Chauvet Cave, fallen blocks were moved into position to augment the natural structure known as The Cactus, while at Nawarla Gabarnmang, blocks were removed from the ceiling and supporting pillars removed and discarded down the talus slope. These are hence not ‘natural’ places, but modified and socially constructed.
Airborne spectral imagery for archaeological prospection in grassland environments—an evaluation of performance
Authors: Bennett Rebecca , Welham Kate , Hill Ross A. , Ford Andrew
Published: January 2015

The new generation of aerial photographers is using different wavelengths to sense archaeological features. This is effective but can be expensive. Here the authors use data already collected for environmental management purposes, and evaluate it for archaeological prospection on pasture. They explore the visibility of features in different seasons and their sensitivity to different wavelengths, using principal components analysis to seek out the best combinations. It turns out that this grassland gave up its secrets most readily in January, when nothing much was growing, and overall the method increased the number of known sites by a good margin. This study is of the greatest importance for developing the effective survey of the world's landscape, a quarter of which is under grass.
Lost and found: the remarkable curatorial history of one of the earliest discoveries of Palaeolithic portable art
Authors: Bello S.M. , Delbarre G. , Parfitt S.A. , Currant A.P. , Kruszynski R. , Stringer C.B.
Published: January 2015

Reassessment of archives, early publications and the auditing of museum collections have often led to the discovery or rediscovery of long-forgotten specimens (e.g. Hollmann et at. 1986: 330; Fainer & Man-Estier 2011: 506, 520). The combination of initial poor recognition, insufcient scientic analysis and inadequate storage conditions, can cause the loss to science of important archaeological specimens. New analytical techniques may allow reconsideration of previous interpretations (e.g. P illon 2008: 720, 723-24; Hello et aZ. 2011; Higham et aZ. 2011: 522, 524) but in some cases it is the scientific value of a specimen that is not recognised at the moment of its discovery (e.g. Rosendahl et aZ. 2003: 277; Kaagan et aZ. 2011). Particularly revealing examples are those where the specimen found is the first of its kind. This was the case with the first handaxe recognised as manufactured by humans (Gamble & Kruszynski 2009: 468-70) or the rst two sets of Neanderthal fossil remains found respectively at Engis in 1829-30 and Gibraltar in 1848, which were not recognised as an early human species until after the 1856 discovery of _Neanderthal 1 at the Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in the Neander Valley near DUsseldorf, Germany (Stringer & Gamble 1993: 13). Similarly, lack of recognition caused the near loss of an engraved antler from the Magdalenian site of Neschers (France), possibly one of the first examples of Palaeolithic portable art.
Early farming in Island Southeast Asia: an alternative hypothesis
Authors: Denham Tim
Published: January 2015

Several recent articles in Antiqui (Barker et al. 201 la; Hung et al. 2011; Spriggs 2011), discuss the validity of, and revise, portrayals of an Austronesian farming-language dispersal across Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) during the mid-Holocene (approximately 4000-3000 years ago) . In conventional portrayals of the Austronesian dispersal hypothesis (e.g. Bellwood 1984/85, 1997, 2002, 2005; Diamond 2001; Diamond & Bellwood 2003) , and its Neolithic variant (e.g. Spriggs 2003, 2007), farmer-voyagers migrated out of Taiwan approximately 4500-4000 cal BP to colonise ISEA from 4000 cal BP (Bellwood 2002) and the Mariana Islands and Palau by c. 3500-3400 cal BP (Hung et al. 201 1). The descendants of these voyagers subsequently established the Lapita Cultural Complex in the Bismarck Archipelago by c. 3470-3250 cal BP (Kirch 1997; Spriggs 1997) and became the foundational cultures across most of the Pacific from c. 3250-3100 cal BP (Kirch 2000; Addison & Matisoo-Smith 2010; dates for Lapita in Denham et al. 2012). A major problem with this historical metanarrative is the absence of substantial archaeological evidence for the contemporaneous spread of farming from Taiwan (Bulbeck 2008; Donohue & Denham 2010; Denham 2011 ).
Resource and interpretation
Authors: James N.
Published: January 2015

What is archaeology? What is it for? How can archaeologists explain themselves in a country highly literate but little aware of their work; and what can be done about amateur collectors? How can a very small profession respond to the opportunities and challenges of economic development where statutory provision for archaeological mitigation often proves too blunt to explain how to proceed in particular circumstances? In Estonia, the professions middle order, having witnessed the assertion of national independence from Russia in 1991 as youngsters, is now coming into its own with these issues.
A day in the life of an Ubaid household: archaeobotanical investigations at Kenan Tepe, south-eastern Turkey
Authors: Graham Philip J. , Smith Alexia
Published: January 2015

The Ubaid period in south-west Asia constitutes a key period of social and political change anticipating the emergence of complex societies in the following millennium. Well-preserved archaeobotanical assemblages have enormous potential to document these changes at both the site and individual household levels. The conflagration that consumed Structure 4 at the Ubaid settlement of Kenan Tepe in south-eastern Turkey provides a case study through the analysis of almost 70 000 charred macrobotanical remains. The results suggest that labour may have been pooled between households to process emmer wheat to spikelet stage after harvesting. Final processing was conducted on the roof of the house by members of the individual household as need arose. The pooling of resources may reflect the intensification of production and the emergence of elites during the Ubaid period in this region.
Monumental ditched enclosures in southern Iberia (fourth–third millennia BC)
Authors: Márquez-Romero José E. , Jiménez-Jáimez Víctor
Published: January 2015

Large curvilinear enclosures are now established as a principal instrument of human activity in Central Europe from the Neolithic into the Bronze Age(Antiquity, passim). Here the authors introduce us to examples from southern Iberia and make the case that they should be regarded as part of the same continent-wide phenomenon.
The question of prehistoric silks in Europe
Authors: Jørgensen Lise Bender
Published: January 2015

Textiles and clothing are among the most visible aspects of human social and symbolic behaviour and yet they have left all too few traces in the archaeological record and it is easy to overlook their importance. Luxury textiles such as silk can additionally provide evidence of long-distance contact, notably between Europe and China during the Han dynasty and the Roman empire. But can these connections be projected back in time to the prehistoric period? The late Irene Good proposed a number of identifications of silk in Iron Age Europe and was instrumental in bringing the issue to wider attention. Closer examination reported here, however, calls those identifications into question. Instead, the case is put that none of the claimed Iron Age silks can be confirmed, and that early traffic in silk textiles to Europe before the Roman period cannot be substantiated.
Digging deeper in the archaeological psyche
Authors: Campbell Ewan , Leiper Rob
Published: January 2015

In the last 25 years the individual has increasingly come to the fore in archaeology, for example in phenomenology, agency and somatic archaeology, and more recently we have been encouraged to be reflexive in our methodology, and to hear multiple accounts of the past by other ‘stakeholders’ such as local communities. Alongside this focus on the individual in the past there has been a concomitant growth of interest in the history of archaeologists themselves (Murray 1999b: 871), most recently, for example, in the work of the Archives of European Archaeology Project (AREA n.d.), or the oral history of archaeology (Smith 2010). In the non-academic world the search by individuals and communities for a sense of identity in the remnants of the past has become a major issue in the fields of heritage, nationalism and identity studies (Hamilakis & Anagnostopoulos 2009).
Broad spectrum or specialised activity? Birds and tortoises at the Epipalaeolithic site of Wadi Jilat 22 in the eastern Jordan steppe
Authors: Martin Louise , Edwards Yvonne , Garrard Andrew
Published: January 2015

The analysis of rich bone assemblages from an Epipalaeolithic site in Jordan show that wing feathers were being extracted, probably for ornamental or ceremonial purposes, from eagles and buzzards. These raptors were perhaps caught by luring them with tortoises, evident from smashed shells in the same assemblage. The authors speculate on the symbolic value of eagles' wings among these pre-Neolithic people.
Distinguishing exploitation, domestication, cultivation and production: the olive in the third millennium Aegean
Authors: Margaritis Evi
Published: January 2015

The author shows how better recovery techniques have allowed the early history of the Mediterranean olive to be rewritten. Small scale exploitation is detectable in the Neolithic, and is widespread by the Early Bronze Age. Users appear to be first attracted by the olive wood, the fruit benefitting from the pruning effect as the olive bush becomes a tree. This process eventually results in domestication—but this is an unintended consequence of a production process driven by demand. The story now aligns better with the model put forward in Colin Renfrew's thesis of 1972.
The meaning of material: ritual vessel assemblages in Chu burials of the fourth and third centuries BC, China
Authors: Beckman Joy Elizabeth
Published: January 2015

Finely crafted bronze vessels are one of the most distinctive products of early China, and illustrate the emphasis placed on formalised rituals in which these vessels are thought to have played a part. When found in graves, they have also been assumed to testify to the status of the deceased. In this study, it is shown that the repertoire of ritual vessels of bronze are often matched by similar vessels of pottery that were placed in elite graves. Together these suites of vessels indicate not only the status of the deceased but also the social standing of the mourners present during the funerary ceremonies, and in particular, perhaps, the principal heir. Funerals were occasions of ceremony and display in which both sets of vessels—bronze and pottery—may have been used by different participants, including (symbolically) the dead. Thus, early China presents another demonstration of the active and visible role that ostentatious grave goods were designed to play in the living context of funerary ceremonial. The conclusions also emphasise the greater understanding to be achieved by considering different categories of material together, rather than studying pottery and bronzes as separate domains.
Estimating trajectories of colonisation to the Mariana Islands, western Pacific
Authors: Fitzpatrick Scott M. , Callaghan Richard T.
Published: January 2015

The colonisation of the Pacific islands represents one of the major achievements of early human societies and has attracted much attention from archaeologists and historical linguists. Determining the pattern and chronology of colonisation remains a challenge, as new discoveries continue to push back dates of earliest settlement. The length and direction of the colonising voyages has also led to lively debate seeking to trace languages and artefactual techniques and traditions to presumed places of origin. Seafaring simulation models provide one way of resolving these controversies. One of the most remote of these island groups, the Marianas, is shown here to have been settled not from Taiwan or the Philippines, as has been argued inAntiquityby Hunget al. (2011) and Winteret al. (2012), but from New Guinea or Island Southeast Asia to the south. It represents an incredible feat of early navigation over an ocean distance of some 2000km.
Plant foods in the Upper Palaeolithic at Dolní Vӗstonice? Parenchyma redux
Authors: Pryor Alexander J.E. , Steele Madeline , Jones Martin K. , Svoboda Jiří , Beresford-Jones David G.
Published: January 2015

The classic image of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe envisages them hunting large mammals in largely treeless landscapes. That is partly due to the nature of the surviving archaeological evidence, and the poor preservation of plant remains at such ancient sites. As this study illustrates, however, the potential of Upper Palaeolithic sites to yield macrofossil remains of plants gathered and processed by human groups has been underestimated. Large scale flotation of charred deposits from hearths such as that reported here at Dolní Vӗstonice II not only provides insight into the variety of flora that may have been locally available, but also suggests that some of it was being processed and consumed as food. The ability to exploit plant foods may have been a vital component in the successful colonisation of these cold European habitats.
The early chronology of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in Europe
Authors: Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute Giedre , Staff Richard A. , Hunt Harriet V. , Liu Xinyi , Jones Martin K.
Published: January 2015

The majority of the early crops grown in Europe had their origins in south-west Asia, and were part of a package of domestic plants and animals that were introduced by the first farmers. Broomcorn millet, however, offers a very different narrative, being domesticated first in China, but present in Eastern Europe apparently as early as the sixth millennium BC. Might this be evidence of long-distance contact between east and west, long before there is any other evidence for such connections? Or is the existing chronology faulty in some way? To resolve that question, 10 grains of broomcorn millet were directly dated by AMS, taking advantage of the increasing ability to date smaller and smaller samples. These showed that the millet grains were significantly younger than the contexts in which they had been found, and that the hypothesis of an early transmission of the crop from east to west could not be sustained. The importance of direct dating of crop remains such as these is underlined.
Cemetery or sacrifice? Infant burials at the Carthage Tophet
Authors: Xella Paolo , Quinn Josephine , Melchiorri Valentina , Dommelen Peter van
Published: January 2015

Even if the foundation, rise and eventual demise of Carthage and its overseas territories in the West Mediterranean occurred in much the same space and time as the glory days of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece and Rome, there is no doubt that the Phoenicians and their Punic successors (to use the conventional terms) have rarely been regarded as fully signed-up members of the ancient world. Reduced to walk-on cameos as skilled silversmiths, agricultural experts, shrewd traders or military strategists, Phoenician and Punic representations tend to be rather stereotypical (Prag 2010, with earlier bibliography), which perhaps should not come as a surprise, as nearly all these portraits have been sketched by outsiders; they certainly do not add up to a coherent ethnographic or political description.
Land and sea: use of terrestrial mammal bones in coastal hunter–gatherer communities
Authors: Hodgetts Lisa , Rahemtulla Farid
Published: January 2015

Terrestrial mammals are frequently undervalued in interpretations of prehistoric coastal economies where middens are used to examine seasonality and diet. Using case-studies from the Northwest Coast of North America, and from Arctic Norway, a more integrated approach to subsistence and technology is proposed
Testing ancient Egyptian granite-working methods in Aswan, Upper Egypt
Authors: Stocks Denys A.
Published: January 2015

Rose granite was a favoured, but difficult, stone to work in ancient Egypt. Recent sawing, drilling and cutting tests of the granite in Aswan suggest how exacting were those tasks for craftworkers.
In situ preservation as a dynamic process: the example of Sutton Common, UK
Authors: Van De Noort Robert , Chapman Henry P. , Cheetham James L.
Published: January 2015

In situ preservation is a complex and dynamic process, which requires an understanding of the nature and scale of the material to be preserved, an understanding of the context of the site in terms of managerial needs and a programme of scientific monitoring of changes within the burial environment. The example of a rural archaeological landscape in northeast England, which is undergoing a programme of hydrological management, is considered.
Archaeology and human genetics: lessons for both
Authors: Brown Keri A. , Pluciennik Mark
Published: January 2015

New research fields and areas of scientific specialization often bring division and disciplinary divides. Here Brown & Pluciennik discuss the impact of genetic research on archaeology.
Ostrich distribution and exploitation in the Arabian peninsula
Authors: Potts D. T.
Published: January 2015

Ethnohistoric and representational as well as egg-shell evidence shows that the ostrich was widely distributed in Arabia. However, the absence of ostrich bones in the archaeological record suggests that they were not hunted for meat.
Bronze Age Myanmar (Burma): a report on the people from the cemetery of Nyaunggan, Upper Myanmar
Authors: Tayles Nancy , Domett Kate , Pauk U Pauk
Published: January 2015

Rare information is presented on Bronze Age burials from Burma. Skeletal remains of 43 individuals are placed in a broader southeast Asian context.
Were the Scots Irish?
Authors: Campbell Ewan
Published: January 2015

The author attributes the claimed migrations of the Irish into Argyll to a set of élite origin myths, finding no support in archaeological evidence. He goes on to ask how the Iron Age populations of Argyll established and changed their personal and group identity.
Fair Prehistory: archaeological exhibits at French Expositions Universelles
Authors: Müller-Scheessel Nils
Published: January 2015

International exhibitions in the 19th century were used as showcases for scientific and technological advances, but also often included exhibits of objects from the past, including prehistoric times. Three Expositions Universelles held in Paris in 1867, 1878 and 1889 are examined to see how archaeological artefacts were presented to the public and how they influenced the development of the subject of prehistoric archaeology at that period.
Thoughts on the ‘Repacked’ Neolithic Revolution
Authors: Thomas Julian
Published: January 2015

Was the British Neolithic a take-it-or-leave-it “package” which included building monuments and giving up fish? Julian Thomas thinks there was some room for creative packaging on the home front.
A Neanderthal face? The proto-figurine from La Roche-Cotard, Langeais (Indreet-Loire, France)
Authors: Marquet Jean-Claude , Lorblanchet Michel
Published: January 2015

A worked stone from a secure Mousterian context has a bone splinter driven through it and appears to modern eyes like an attempt to represent a face. The authors argue that a face was indeed intended, and that the Roche-Cotard “proto-figurine” can be counted among the earliest art objects. At this place and date it should refer to a Neanderthal people.
Early human burials in the western Pacific: evidence for c.3000 year old occupation on Palau
Authors: Fitzpatrick Scott M.
Published: January 2015

The author reports the oldest human skeletal assemblage found so far in the pacific Islands: at the site of Chalechol Ra Orrak on Palau, Micronesia.
The Warrior of Lattes: an Iron Age statue discovered in Mediterranean France
Authors: Dietler Michael , Py Michel
Published: January 2015

Antiquity is pleased to present a preliminary report on the stone statue of a Celtic warrior recently discovered at the celebrated excavation at Lattes, southern France, and dating to around 500 BC.
The British Museum at 250
Authors: Cunliffei Barry , Renfrew Colin , Gosden Chris , Geake Helen
Published: January 2015

The British Museum marked the 250th anniversary of its foundation this year, with an exhibition, The Museum of the Mind: art and memory in world cultures. We asked four archaeologists to review the show: Barry Cunliffe, professor at Oxford University and a trustee of the Museum; Colin Renfrew, professor at Cambridge University and former trustee; Chris Godsen, curator at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford University and Helen Geake, formerly at Norwich Castle Museum and now working on the British government's portable Antiquities scheme for England and Wales. Here is what they say.
Roots of diversity in aLinearbandkeramikcommunity: isotope evidence at Aiterhofen (Bavaria, Germany)
Authors: Bickle Penny , Hofmann Daniela , Bentley R. Alexander , Hedges Robert , Hamilton Julie , Laiginhas Fernando , Nowell Geoff , Pearson D. Graham , Grupe Gisela , Whittle Alasdair
Published: January 2015

The early Neolithic in northern Central Europe ought to be the theatre in which incoming farmers meet local hunter-gatherers, with greater or lesser impact. By way of contrast, the authors use isotope analysis in a cemetery beside the Danube to describe a peaceful, well-integrated community with a common diet and largely indigenous inhabitants. Men and women may have had different mobility strategies, but the isotopes did not signal special origins or diverse food-producing roles. Other explanations attend the variations in the burial rites of individuals and their distribution into cemetery plots.
A symbol — but of what? Iron Age daggers, Alessi corkscrews and anthropoid embellishment reconsidered
Authors: Carlson Jack
Published: January 2015

An ingenious derivation for the La Tène dagger with anthropoid hilt shows how craftsmen gave an agreeable character to a working weapon. The dagger remained every bit as effective, but the splayed person on the hilt added a touch of playful luxury to the serious business of stabbing. By way of a modern anthropoid corkscrew, the author lures us away from an obsession with symbolism and encourages us to look for a more down-to-earth ‘psychological functionality’ in decorated objects.
Archaeology in current society. A Central European perspective
Authors: Gojda Martin
Published: January 2015

In recent years, Central Europe has experienced an unprecedented acceleration in social development (especially due to the demise of the communist regimes), in streams of thought (for example the post-modern vision of truth and the relativity of scientific knowledge) and, above all, in the availability of new information and communication technologies. Like every discipline, archaeology has been obliged not only to react to the contemporary dynamic but also to adapt to it in a positive — i.e. creative — way. Among the resultant trends to be noted in the Czech Republic are a decreasing interest in a single general theoretical paradigm, coupled with an increasing demand for the conservation and mitigation of sites threatened by development and looting. As a possible consequence of these developments, the past two decades have seen a shift in the agenda of archaeological researchers towards landscape and a realignment of the discipline away from the humanities and towards environmental and geographical considerations.
“Yours (unusually) cheerfully, Gordon”: Vere Gordon Childe's letters to R.B.K. Stevenson
Authors: Stevenson Alice
Published: January 2015

In early 1988 my grandfather, Robert Barron Kerr Stevenson (1913—1992), former Keeper of the National Antiquities of Scotland, was asked about his recollections of his former teacher and colleague Vere Gordon Childe. “There is”, he wrote in reply, “very little that I can say of use to you”. The reason for such a statement seems to be that my grandfather felt that his contacts with Childe had never been concerned with the broad historical and philosophical concepts that scholars were so interested in, believing rather that his own academic perspectives were more from the “worm's eye than the bird's eye view”. Yet what my grandfather knew was a more personal side to Childe that does not come across in his published works.
Sanyangzhuang: early farming and a Han settlement preserved beneath Yellow River flood deposits
Authors: Kidder Tristram R. , Liu Haiwang , Li Minglin
Published: January 2015

The authors present the discovery of a Han period farming site sealed beneath 5m of flood deposits, where courtyard houses have been excavated belonging to the Western Han Dynasty and Wang Mang period (c. 140 BC–AD 23). Preservation is exceptional, both at the village of Sanyangzhuang itself and, by dint of satellite reconnaissance, over a vast landscape contemporarily covered by the flood. Deep profiles show that here land surfaces of the Neolithic and Warring States periods also lie buried. The potential for the study of the early agricultural sequence and a deeper knowledge of Han society is truly outstanding. The discoveries also offer a vivid account of the way a settlement was overwhelmed by flooding.
The oldest maritime sanctuary? Dating the sanctuary at Keros and the Cycladic Early Bronze Age
Authors: Renfrew Colin , Boyd Michael , Ramsey Christopher Bronk
Published: January 2015

The sanctuary on the island of Keros takes the form of deposits of broken marble vessels and figurines, probably brought severally for deposition from elsewhere in the Cyclades. These acts of devotion have now been accurately dated, thanks to Bayesian analyses of the contemporary stratigraphic sequence on the neighbouring islet of Dhaskalio. The period of use—from 2750 to 2300 cal BC—precedes any identified worship of gods in the Aegean and the site is among the earliest ritual destinations only accessible by sea. The authors offer some preliminary thoughts on the definition of these precocious acts of pilgrimage.
Deceiver, joker or innocent? Teilhard de Chardin and Piltdown Man
Authors: Thackeray J. Francis
Published: January 2015

Arthur SmithWoodward, an expert on fossil fish and Keeper of Palaeontology at the British Museum (Natural History), made the official announcement of the discovery of Piltdown Man’ (Eoanthropus dawsoni) on 18 December 1912 at Burlington House in London. The announcement was sensational at the time and attracted interest in a purported new hominid species with a large cranium, apparently associated with an ape-like jaw. It was not until some 40 years later that Eoanthropus (Dawn man’) was discredited (Weiner et al. 1953; Weiner 1955), with Charles Dawson (a country lawyer’, as well as amateur archaeologist and palaeontologist) being identified as the probable perpetrator of a hoax in which human cranial fragments were combined artificially with the modified jaw of an ape (considered to be that of an orangutan), at Piltdown in Sussex. Despite extensive investigations and a plethora of publications, the exact circumstances surrounding the Piltdown hoax remain uncertain (Weiner et al. 1953; Weiner 1955; Spencer 1990a&b; Thomas 2002).
The earliest surviving textiles in East Asia from Chertovy Vorota Cave, Primorye Province, Russian Far East
Authors: Kuzmin Yaroslav V. , Keally Charles T. , Jull A.J. Timothy , Burr George S. , Klyuev Nikolai A.
Published: January 2015

Carbonised textiles were found in a burnt down building inside a cave 30km from the far eastern coast of Russia. The textiles were made from untwisted or hand-twisted blades of sedge grass to form ropes, nets and woven mats. Dated by AMS toc. 9400–8400 cal BP these are the earliest textiles so far known from East Asia.
Roads to recovery: an investigation of early medieval agrarian strategies in Byzantine Italy in and around the eighth century
Authors: Arthur Paul , Fiorentino Girolamo , Grasso Anna Maria
Published: January 2015

The cumulative power of botanical and chemical analysis is demonstrated here by our authors, who succeed in opening a window on Europe's most obscure period, in the south as in the north, the time after the Roman and then the Byzantine empire lost its hold. The emphasis here is on the rise in production and trade of cash crops in the eighth century as detected by survey, pollen, charcoal and residues. Taken together, the new data show a community well on the road to economic recovery after two centuries of recession and monetary failure.
From the battlefield to the labour camp: archaeology of civil war and dictatorship in Spain
Authors: González-Ruibal Alfredo
Published: January 2015

The author explores responses to political violence through the materiality of three aspects of the Civil War in Spain: military lines in the battle for Madrid, a concentration camp in Extremadura and a remote settlement of forced labourers and their families. He shows how archaeology's revelations reflect, qualify and enrich the story of human survival under the pall cast by a dictatorship. Sharing the inquiry with the public of today also revealed some of the disquieting mechanisms by which history is composed and how archaeology can be used to deconstruct it.
Buildings as persons: relationality and the life of buildings in a northern periphery of early modern Sweden
Authors: Herva Vesa-Pekka
Published: January 2015

The author shows how houses in the northern Baltic were constructed using two realities: the reality of timber and the equally potent reality of spirits supporting and controlling the fate of structures. Excavations in seventeenth-century Tornio (now in modern-day Finland) showed that houses were furnished with special offerings when founded and refurbished, while evidence from living folklore suggested that the houses themselves were originally given spiritual personalities and were treated as members of the family. As more modern thinking took hold, this spirituality was transferred to the more mobile and skittish household sprites.
Colonisation, mobility and exchange in New Zealand prehistory
Authors: Walter Richard , Jacomb Chris , Bowron-Muth Sreymony
Published: January 2015

An analysis of the exchange of lithics in settlement period New Zealand (fourteenth century AD) is used to throw light on the mechanisms of colonisation more generally. The early distribution of New Zealand's Mayor Island obsidian demonstrates efficient exploration and dispersal, and the rapid establishment of long-distance exchange networks similar to that seen in early Melanesian obsidian movements. But in New Zealand the motivation is the cementing of social networks, rather than maintaining connections back to a homeland. In the sixteenth century, the distribution of a new high status material, nephrite, shows a different supply system – suggesting trade.
Bioarchaeology of human sacrifice: violence, identity and the evolution of ritual killing at Cerro Cerrillos, Peru
Authors: Klaus Haagen D. , Centurión Jorge , Curo Manuel
Published: January 2015

The excavation of 81 skeletons at Cerro Cerrillos provided the occasion for a rigorously scientific deconstruction of human sacrifice, its changing methods and its social meaning among the Muchik peoples of ancient Peru. This paper shows how bioarchaeology and field investigation together can rediscover the root and purpose of this disturbingly prevalent prehistoric practice. Be warned: the authors' clinical and unexpurgated accounts of Andean responses to the spirit world are not for the fainthearted.
Livestock and people in a Middle Chalcolithic settlement: a micromorphological investigation from Tel Tsaf, Israel
Authors: Hubbard Emily M.
Published: January 2015

Round and rectangular buildings with grain silos at a Copper Age site in Israel suggested social stratification to the excavators. Using micromorphology, the author demonstrates that while the rectangular building was occupied by people, the round ones had contained animals, perhaps as providers of milk, and dung for fuel. While this removes the direct indication of social variance, it strengthens the argument that animals, as well as grain, formed the basis for the creation of surplus.
Grey waters bright with Neolithic argonauts? Maritime connections and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain,c. 5000–3500 BC
Authors: Garrow Duncan , Sturt Fraser
Published: January 2015

Careful examination of the probable natural conditions for travel in the North Sea and Irish Sea during the late Mesolithic are here combined with the latest radiocarbon dates to present a new picture of the transition to the Neolithic in the British Isles. The islands of the west were already connected by Mesolithic traffic and did not all go Neolithic at the same time. The introduction of the Neolithic package neither depended on seaborne incomers nor on proximity to the continent. More interesting forces were probably operating on an already busy seaway.
Early evidence for chickens at Iron Age Kirikongo (c. AD 100–1450), Burkina Faso
Authors: Dueppen Stephen A.
Published: January 2015

An excavated sequence from Burkina Faso shows that the Asian jungle fowlGallus gallus, also known as the chicken, had made its way into West Africa by the mid first millennium AD. Using high precision recovery from a well-stratified site, the author shows how the increasing use of chickens could be chronicled and distinguished from indigenous fowl by both bones and eggshell. Their arrival was highly significant, bringing much more than an additional source of food: it put a sacrificial creature, essential for numerous social and economic transactions, in reach of everyone.
Tomb 100 at Cabezo Lucero: new light on goldworking in fourth-century BC Iberia
Authors: Perea Alicia , Armbruster Barbara
Published: January 2015

A goldsmith's toolkit found in an Iberian tomb reveals ground-breaking details about the manufacture of the gold ornaments for which this culture is renowned. Two blowpipes for joining gold with a high precision jet of air unlock the techniques of brazing, granulation and filigree. The authors go on to propose that the buried man was no ordinary craftsman, but a member of the warrior class in control of producing the treasures of the age.
The best we can do?
Authors: Carver Martin
Published: January 2015

This is certainly a strange business: on the one hand, the thrill of discovery, the glory of gold, the flattery of the media and the purring of officialdom; on the other, the agonised frustrations of academics whose job it is to make sense of everything brought to light on this island. An editor is supposed to remain neutral, but in this case there is no contest. Antiquity champions research — so while we are happy to welcome the arrival of a mass of shiny things, we are bound to lament the loss of an opportunity to understand what they mean. Then there is the paradox of the English system: the treasure hunters are applauded and rewarded, but the archaeologists are seemingly obliged to lurk in the shadows, anxious not to spoil the party. Does it have to be like this?
Representing children in excavated cemeteries: the intrinsic preservation factors
Authors: Djurić Marija , Djukić Ksenija , Milovanović Petar , Janović Aleksa , Milenković Petar
Published: January 2015

Children are often under-represented in excavated populations due to the poor survival of their bones. Using a group of medieval burials from Serbia, our researchers examine the differential survival of children and of different parts of the body within the same terrain, and rightly urge us to take these factors into consideration before attempting demographic, ritual or social interpretations.
An 11 600 year-old communal structure from the Neolithic of southern Jordan
Authors: Mithen Steven J. , Finlayson Bill , Smith Sam , Jenkins Emma , Najjar Mohammed , Maričević Darko
Published: January 2015

The authors present a new type of communal and monumental structure from the earliest Neolithic in western Asia. A complement to the decorated stone pillars erected at Göbekli Tepe in the north, ‘Wadi Faynan 16 Structure O75’ in the southern Levant is a ritualised gathering place of a different kind. It serves to define wider western Asia as an arena of social experiment in the tenth millennium BC, one in which community seems to take precedence over economy.
The Iceman's last days – the testimony of Ostrya carpinifolia
Authors: Groenman-van Waateringe W.
Published: January 2015

The demise of the Iceman is archaeology's current long-running detective story, in which the time and mode of death have yet to be agreed. Recent discussion in these pages favoured a ceremonial burial on the mountain, following his death and the conservation of the corpse in the home village. In a new forensic contribution, the author shows that, in addition to his other woes, the Iceman might have been taking medicine in the form of bark. This in turn implies that his final adventure might have taken place at anytime between spring and autumn, leaving the burial hypothesis without constraint.
Bioarchaeological evidence for conflict in Iron Age north-west Cambodia
Authors: Domett K.M. , O'Reilly D.J.W. , Buckley H.R.
Published: January 2015

Examination of skeletal material from graves at Phum Snay in north-west Cambodia revealed an exceptionally high number of injuries, especially to the head, likely to have been caused by interpersonal violence. The graves also contain a quantity of swords and other offensive weapons used in conflict. The authors propose a context for these warriors in the struggle between emergent polities in the Iron Age before the domination of Angkor.
Across the Indian Ocean: the prehistoric movement of plants and animals
Authors: Fuller Dorian Q , Boivin Nicole , Hoogervorst Tom , Allaby Robin
Published: January 2015

Here is a major research project that is peopling the Indian Ocean with prehistoric seafarers exchanging native crops and stock between Africa and India. Not the least exciting part of the work is the authors' contention that the prime movers of this maritime adventure were not the great empires but a multitude of small-scale entrepreneurs.
Slashing and thrusting with Late Bronze Age spears: analysis and experiment
Authors: Anderson Kate
Published: January 2015

The bronze spearhead at the end of a long shaft is traditionally seen as a thrusting or throwing weapon, as seen in the movies. By examining the damage on a group of Late Bronze Age spearheads from Britain, and replicating their use in combat, the author shows that the spear was an even more versatile weapon — for throwing, thrusting and slashing (with a short shaft). The research puts a spotlight on the formidable skills developed in a Bronze Age life-time.
The prehistory of Southeast Asia: a retrospective view of 40 years research
Authors: Higham Charles
Published: January 2015

When David Clark asked me in 1970 to contribute a chapter on Southeast Asia for hisnew book, Models in archaeology, I faced a dilemma. What could one say about an areathe size of Western Europe of which virtually nothing was known? So I entitled mychapter 'Initial model formulation in terraincognita' and speculated on the basis ofthe handful of sites that had been excavated (Higham 1972). Nor was the prognosisfor the area at all promising. The war inVietnam was spilling over into Laos andCambodia. China remained a looming voidto the north, Burma was not receptiveand Malaysia did not welcome foreignarchaeologists. Only Thailand shone likea welcoming beacon.
Unpacking burial and rank: the role of children in the first monumental cemeteries of Western Europe (4600–4300 BC)
Authors: Thomas Aline , Chambon Philippe , Murail Pascal
Published: January 2015

Examining the earliest grand mortuary monuments of the Neolithic, the authors question the assumption that they mark the resting place of society's higher ranks. Using the skeletal remains, the grave goods and the burial rites, they find no great differences in commemoration between the monumental cemeteries, with their long barrows, and the flat graves, without structures. In this analysis, the children proved to be the most vivid players: while the very young are largely excluded, some toddlers were selected to carry hunting equipment, a distinction shared with selected adult males. Some children were also laid to rest in the long barrows, with some adults. Thus hunting has a spiritual value for these agriculturalists, and whether inherited or marked at birth, the children signal something more variable and subtle than linear rank.
People's finds: context and control
Authors: James N.
Published: January 2015

What should professional archaeologists do about objects discovered by amateurs? The best known cases involve metal-detectorists who, under the English 'Treasure Act (1996), are permitted to make agreements with land-owners to search for antiquities and keep them, although the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS; set up to complement the Act's provisions) encourages them to have their finds registered by an archaeologist. There is no doubt that this has greatly increased knowledge of artefacts discovered in England where, in the past decade, the annual number of 'portable antiquities formally reported has risen steeply (Bland 2008: 71). The British Museum is now promoting a code of practice (Bland 2008: 81–2); and, at pains to avoid counterposing professional archaeologists and amateurs, it is encouraging the opportunities for outreach and 'community archaeology' (British Museum n.d.: 16–18). Thus Bland (2008: 80) welcomes collective knowledge . . . founded on public . . . participation' rather than . . . research . . . conceived and executed by professionals'. Yet there are now fresh anxieties about preservation at detectorists' sites (Pestell & Ulmschneider 2003: 9–10; Wilson 2009; Plouviez 2010).
An Amarna-period ostracon from the Valley of the Kings
Authors: Reeves Nicholas
Published: January 2015

The Amarna Royal Tombs Project (ARTP) initiated its programme of archaeological survey and excavation in the central part of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in November 1998, and has now completed three successive seasons of work under the joint field-direction of Nicholas Reeves and Geoffrey T. Martin. The emphasis to date has been on the documentation and investigation of the ancient settlements which once occupied much of the central Valley — those neglected ‘workmen’s huts’ which previous excavators have occasionally noted, sometimes ‘cleared’, and more rarely planned. A particular focus of ARTP’s work has been that area of settlement located between tombs KV 56 (‘The Gold Tomb’) and KV 9 (Ramesses VI), which in the early years of the 20th century was partially explored both by Theodore Davis (who left little record: cf. Davis 1908: 31) and by Howard Carter (Carter & Mace 1923: 87; cf. Reeves 1990a: plate XIV Reeves & Wilkinson 1996: 84). The greater part of this restricted site — a good deal of its archaeology still intact, despite earlier sondages — has now been excavated down to bedrock, with intriguing results.