These are, as their titles indicate, two very different Maya books: Christina Halperin's is at the hard-core end of theoretical interpretation and aimed at the professional market, while Traci Ardren's is an attempt to explain ancient Maya civilisation to a general audience. Both succeed in their basic objectives and both have annoying minor flaws.

These two volumes arise from Michael Fulford's career-long programme of fieldwork research at the Roman town of Silchester, which is 80km west of London at the intersection of two important roads. The Little London report is part of a wider project examining the developments that took place at Silchester in the first few decades of the Roman occupation of Britain. It is concerned with the excavation

This study presents the strontium isotopic composition of camelid tooth enamel from Huaca Santa Clara, Huaca Gallinazo, and Huancaco in the Virú Valley, northern Peru. These sites were occupied during the Early Intermediate Period (EIP, c. 200 BCE-600 CE) with Huaca Santa Clara and Huancaco being associated with ritual sacrifices of camelids during the late Middle Horizon (LMH, 850–950 CE for Huancaco

As the footprint of the movements and interactions that shape territories, road networks constitute a key archaeological feature for studying long term territorial dynamics. However, most archaeological research has focused on individual routes at specific periods, and little has been done so far to research road networks' long-term evolution at a regional scale. While the widespread availability of

Dental age estimation based on tooth eruption schedules and wear is a useful analytical tool in zooarchaeology for developing demographic profiles for animal skeletal remains, particularly those from ruminants. While tooth eruption schedules are applicable only to younger individuals, tooth wear can be used for older animals as the heights of their crowns shorten over their lifetime, creating recognizable

Taphonomic studies of osteoarchaeological human assemblages have mainly focused on establishing recognisable markers that allow us to discriminate between humanly induced modifications from natural causes, or how to differentiate cannibalism from secondary burial. Less attention has been dedicated to recognise specific taphonomic patterns associated with the different motivations for cannibalism. In

I find myself largely in agreement with the argument presented in Frieman's debate article (2024) on knowing and narrativity in archaeology, and I share the author's view of feminist epistemology as key to embracing the conditions of the discipline (see e.g. Pétursdóttir & Sørensen 2023; Sørensen et al. 2024). Here, I consider some of the perspectives that Frieman leaves slightly underexplored.

The interest that a ragpicker takes in rubbish and detritus, as described by Baudelaire and further developed by Benjamin (1999: 350), is not dissimilar to the archaeologist's concern with the remnants, the things left behind, abandoned. When filling the silences of the colonial archive, the archaeologist collects and catalogues everything that has been cast off, everything broken and discarded. Going

In her debate article, Frieman's (2024) reflections on the idea of unproof are a welcome and elegant addition to current debate on the nature of archaeological evidence, how we construct the stories we tell about the past, and the role of archaeology in the contemporary world. Frieman draws on both feminist and anarchist theory to argue that the value of archaeology is the way it allows us to grasp

Frieman (2024) observes in her own, highly metaphorical language that one can offer an unbounded number of interpretations to explain the distribution of archaeological remains in time and space. These interpretations offer different perspectives that can inform action—in Frieman's case an explicitly feminist understanding of the past informing the present. She provides two brief examples from the

To start: I thank the responding authors for their generosity and thoughtfulness in engaging in this debate about ‘Attending to unproof: an archaeology of possibilities’ (Frieman 2024) and also the journal's editors for facilitating this discussion.

Chemical analyses of archaeological artefacts are often used for provenance studies and for assessing whether specific performance characteristics were targeted by craftspeople in the past. Traditionally, the answers to these questions were sought by identifying compositional averages and by studying their correlations with either the geochemical signatures of candidate raw material sources or the

The manufacturing of ostrich eggshell (OES) beads during Africa's Middle and Later Stone Age followed two production strategies referred to as pathways. Both include the selection of OES blanks, which may or may not be heated, followed by first perforating the fragment before trimming the edges (pathway 1) or by trimming the fragment before perforation (pathway 2), and both conclude with rounding and

Paleolithic archaeologists study regional variation among assemblages of stone tools in order to delineate cultural boundaries and reconstruct mechanisms of cultural transmission in the deep past. Structured population models are especially suited to aid in this endeavor, for they teach us how cultural evolutionary forces—copying error, intergroup transmission, drift, and selection imposed by functional

This paper presents a study of outdoor settlement spaces through the interdisciplinary analysis of combustion structures as key elements. It explores the use of outdoor public spaces and their complexity, multifunctionality, and dynamic contribution to the formation of Neolithic societies. The study focuses on two designated and adjacent outdoor spaces at the Late Neolithic settlement Kleitos 1 in

The Neolithic site of the Knowe of Rowiegar chambered cairn, Orkney, was excavated in 1937 as part of a campaign that saw the excavation of various chamber cairns on the island of Rousay, Orkney (Davidson & Henshall, 1989). Osteological and isotope research undertaken in recent years has reignited interest in the site. The research presented here focuses on mortuary practices, principally through histotaphonomic

The Canary Islands were first settled by North African groups in the first millennium CE and, after a few centuries of interconnections with the mainland and between islands, remained isolated until the late medieval European expansion into the Atlantic. El Hierro is a small island located in the westernmost part of the archipelago that was inhabited by the bimbapes from the 2nd century CE until the

In the history of the “Danubian Neolithic” society, monumental ceremonial centers appeared around 4800 BCE and lost their importance around 300 years later. Among them, one of the most distinctive forms are rondels. However, it is worth remembering the contemporary Rosheim-type circles and Passy-type tombs. The name “rondels” refers to the currently preserved architectural form, dominated by concentric

Maize, one of the primary crops cultivated in South America, has achieved significant interest in regional archaeology. However, the study of maize in regions considered peripheral to major centres of agricultural production, such as Southern Chile, has received minimal attention. Southern Chile is the southernmost point for the dispersal of maize cultivation in the Americas, with archaeological evidence

Ephesus was an important harbor city that flourished during the Roman period and ancient texts mention Almadén in Spain and the Cilbian fields of Ephesus as important cinnabar sources in antiquity. This work investigates whether imported cinnabar was used and whether this could be related to changes in painting activities over time. Microscopic analysis indicates a consistent preparation of cinnabar

The study of connectivity and interaction in the Mediterranean world is a rich and vibrant topic. While most direct attestations of past interaction have been lost, we can use the ubiquity of material markers such as ceramic tablewares to trace the structures and underlying drivers of past networks. In this paper, we use an innovative combination of least cost path analysis and mutual information to

The Uden–Slabroek cemetery yielded one of the richest Early Iron Age burials found in the Netherlands: an inhumation grave of a person wearing elaborate bronze and iron ornaments (ca. 8th century BC). Exceptionally mineralised fragments of wool textiles were found inside the corrosion layer of the bronze anklets and bracelets. Advanced multidisciplinary analysis of these textiles identified them as

Interest in egalitarianism and egalitarian behavior in complex societies has grown in recent years, spurred by anarchist approaches and collective action theory. Sub-Saharan Africa, however, has seldom figured in the discussions, despite the fact that it has been historically home to a diversity of societies that have either rejected political centralization altogether or put limits to it. The aim

Marine mollusc shells hold significant potential for deciphering past environmental conditions and seasonality of hominin subsistence strategies. While stable oxygen isotope ratio values of shells are currently the gold standard, they have significant drawbacks, such as complex and time-consuming sampling procedures and assumptions on the oxygen isotope composition of seawater in the past. The analysis

Open-air accumulations of chipped stone debris are a common feature in arid landscapes, yet despite their prevalence, such archives are often dismissed as uninformative or unreliable. In the canyonlands of Dhofar, southern Oman, lithic surface scatters are nearly ubiquitous, including extensive, multi-component workshops associated with chert outcrops. These sites typically display chronologically

On the Caribbean island of St. Croix, archival documents reference settlements of runaway enslaved Africans in the mountainous range known as Maroon Ridge. These settlements provide an important record of Afro-Atlantic resistance to enslavement. However, as both intentionally secluded and ephemeral places of refuge, these maroon settlements are difficult to locate in the archaeological record. Geospatial

The human cranium is probably the most common single anatomical element manipulated after the death of the individual. However, it is not uncommon to find isolated crania for which it is difficult to unequivocally determine the nature of the deposition, either intentional or natural. In order to establish whether naturally deposited and intentionally deposited skulls are characterised by different

This article focuses on the taphonomy of inequality visible in within-church burials from the site of the Church of St. George at Đurđevac-Sošice, a Medieval church in Northern Croatia. Building on concepts of Whitehead’s Poetics model, the three-body model, and landscape archaeology, we examine the role of church architecture in the development and affirmation of social inequality though burial practices

The landscape of the Middle Tiber Valley in Central Italy was an important crossroads for millennia thanks to the network of transhumance routes, Roman roads, and of course, the Tiber River. Despite this fact, our understanding of the exact routes and relationship with the surrounding landscape is limited. This paper seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge by reconstructing the ancient road network

Taphonomy as it applies to human remains from archaeological contexts typically considers issues of preservation and diagenesis in the burial environment. Less attention has been paid to biocultural taphonomic factors including excavation techniques, expertise of excavators, and post-excavation treatment. The ways in which human remains are transported from the field to the lab and long-term storage

The Inka empire's expansion incorporated diverse cultural and ecological elements in microcosmic representations of their empire. Imperial practices included the resettlement of communities from various regions into labour enclaves near Inka ceremonial, administrative and economic hubs. This degree of imperial control might suggest a limitation on Inka subjects’ freedom to integrate non-local food

In the second half of the first century ce, the Romans built a fort at the mouth of the river Apsaros on the coast of Colchis. A Roman garrison was stationed there also in the second century and first half of the third. One of the reasons for fortifying the estuary of the river, given by both Pliny the Elder and Arrian, was the immediate vicinity of the kingdom of Iberia. Both Roman authors also described

Animal meat, fat, and other animal-derived materials have been essential for human adaptation since the Early Palaeolithic, forming a crucial foundation for many hunter-gatherer societies until rec...