Issue 406 - August 2025

The monumental alignments found in southern Brittany, particularly Carnac, potentially mark the beginnings of the megalithic tradition in north-west Europe. Radiocarbon dates from excavations at a previously unknown section of this extensive megalithic complex, presented here, provide new insights into the dynamic history of construction during the fifth millennium cal BC. This refined chronology reveals not only that the site of Le Plasker—consisting of a pre-megalithic monumental tomb, alignments of standing stones and hearths—developed over 300 years in the Middle Neolithic, but that the choice of location may have been influenced by an earlier Late Mesolithic occupation.

Despite an early surge in copper-ore mining during the sixth and fifth millennia BC (the ‘boom’), evidence for metal production in the Balkans dwindles in the fourth millennium (the ‘bust’). Here, the authors present new evidence for copper mining at Curak in south-west Serbia, c. 3800 cal BC, during this apparent downturn. By integrating field surveys, excavations and provenance analyses, they explore activity at the site, challenging the visibility bias in the archaeological record of this region for this key period. Rather than a societal collapse, the authors argue, fewer artefacts may instead reflect a widening Balkan sphere of influence.

The recent identification of an outlying cemetery at the Maya ceremonial centre of Ceibal, Guatemala, is providing new insights into the Preceramic to Middle Preclassic transition in the Maya lowlands, c. 1000 BC. Identified within the Amoch Group complex and dating to c. 1100–800 BC, the use of a dedicated area for the dead is not previously documented in this region for this period. Here, the authors argue that the emergence and subsequent disappearance of this practice was likely interwoven with social change, involving the adoption of ceramics, increasingly sedentary lifeways and, ultimately, the creation of monumental ceremonial centres.

Connectivity and trade dominate discussions of the Mediterranean Bronze and Iron Ages, where artefacts travelled increasing distances by land and sea. Much of the evidence for the means through which such networks operated is necessarily indirect, but shipwrecks offer direct insights into the movement of goods. Here, the authors explore three Iron Age cargoes recently excavated at Tel Dor on the Carmel Coast, the first from this period found in the context of an Iron Age port city in Israel. Spanning the eleventh–seventh centuries BC, these cargoes illuminate cycles of expansion and contraction in Iron Age Mediterranean connectivity and integration.

First minted by polities in north-central Myanmar as early as the fourth century AD, silver coins bearing Rising Sun and Srivatsa motifs have been found in numerous archaeological contexts across Southeast Asia from Vietnam to Bangladesh. Strong standardisation in the design of these coins highlights patterns of trade and cultural interaction across this region that are otherwise underexplored. Here, the authors draw on a dataset of 245 coins from museums in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar, identifying die links that support trade routes between widely disparate areas, and illuminating the utility of die studies in counteracting the illicit trafficking of antiquities.

The Romans were among the first societies to extensively exploit fish resources, establishing large-scale salting and preservation plants where small pelagic fish were fermented to produce sauces such as garum. Here, the authors demonstrate that, despite being crushed and exposed to acidic conditions, usable DNA can be recovered from ichthyological residues at the bottom of fish-salting vats. At third-century AD Adro Vello (O Grove), Galicia, they confirm the use of European sardines (Sardina pilchardus) and move beyond morphology to explore population range and admixture and reveal the potential of this overlooked archaeological resource.

A system of abandoned ridge/earthwork features covers a large swathe of the Shaṭṭ al-ᶜArab floodplain in southern Iraq, standing as testament to a period of agricultural expansion in the past. Until now, the chronology of these features has been surmised from limited textual evidence that relates their construction to slave labour during the early Islamic period associated with the ‘Zanj rebellion’. This article presents the first absolute dates from this ridge system, demonstrating that these features were in use for a substantially longer period than previously assumed and, as such, they represent an important piece of Iraqi landscape heritage.

As with the peopling of the Pacific Islands, the monumental ritual architecture of East Polynesia is presumed to have spread from West Polynesia. By re-examining the wealth of absolute dates available from ritual contexts across these diverse islands, the authors challenge this generalisation in Polynesian ideological materialisation, identifying three phases of development. They argue that initial west-to-east migration spread the concept of ritual spaces marked by stone uprights c. AD 1000–1300, then the formalisation of monuments diffused in the opposite direction c. AD 1300–1600, before megastructures emerged from localised hierarchisation, perhaps earliest on Rapa Nui c. AD 1350–1500.

From the perspective of the present, the economic development of preceding periods can seem linear and inevitable, guided into being by those who benefitted most from increasing commercialisation. Yet this majoritarian narrative belies the importance of the individual and the everyday, of adaptation and creativity. Here, the author explores the potential of a minoritarian approach to entrepreneurship, in understanding medieval economic development. In tracing pottery-exchange networks as a representation of commercial development, they argue that the entrepreneurial actions of institutions and potters generate insights into economic development that challenge linear narratives, framing it as a patchwork of sociomaterial relations.

The Egyptian antiquities collected by the Chinese diplomat Duanfang at the beginning of the twentieth century were largely overlooked by Chinese scholarship until the early twenty-first century, when interest in translating the inscriptions grew. Yet the collection provides a window not just into the cultural history of Egypt but of China as well. By revisiting the history of Duanfang’s collection, the author examines how its perception was shaped by Chinese antiquarianism and the evolving archaeological and political landscapes of twentieth-century China. In doing so, they reveal new insights into the agency of the replica in archaeological theory and practice.

Eight Acheulean sites are located in an under-researched ecological setting within the hilly terrain of the Upper Son Valley, India. A total of 1348 Acheulean artefacts have been identified across these sites, primarily preserved in high-energy depositional contexts, providing insights into the Pleistocene environment of hominin occupation and available lithic technology.

The Sidi Zin Archaeological Project aims to bridge understanding of the Acheulean–Middle Stone Age transition in northern Tunisia, a relatively understudied region in the context of hominin evolution. The Sidi Zin locality will provide chronological, palaeoenvironmental, geomorphological and cultural insights into Acheulean and Middle Stone Age occupations in Tunisia.

Searching for the Neolithic along the Vardar-Morava River corridor revealed several new sites in a previously underexplored region. Multidisciplinary investigations at Svinjarička Čuka identified Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation. Highlights presented here demonstrate the potential of this new key site for enriching our understanding of the prehistory of the Balkans.

Two new sites, identified during a survey of the Tajuña River Valley, central Iberia, show evidence of both flint extraction and working, specifically for the production of long blades. These are an important addition to the limited number of such sites known in Eurasia.

Analysis of use-wear and chemical composition of five early Bronze Age halberds from Muszkowo reveals that they were crafted over several casting events and meticulously finished, then subjected to use before their final deposition.

Xiangranggounan is an intensively occupied settlement associated with the Kayue culture on the north-eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Excavations in 2022 and 2023 revealed five house types with clear stratigraphic relationships that help to expand current understanding of the evolution of prehistoric settlement patterns in harsh plateau environments.

Somló Hill (Veszprém County, Hungary) is a prominent Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age hilltop settlement. Six new hoards present the unparalleled opportunity to study hoarding traditions and depositional practices, and to evaluate the changing roles and functions of the hilltop site.

Analysis of the particulate and chemical composition of a red pigment discovered in grave 155 (burial 2) at Chervony Mayak in the Kherson Region of Ukraine identified the substance as cinnabar. This is the first definitive identification of this mineral in a Late Scythian context.

Since 1994, the French Archaeological Mission at the Eastern Desert has excavated more than 20 sites in Egypt, focusing on Roman forts and Ptolemaic mining sites. Rich in natural resources, the region was heavily exploited in the Hellenistic Period (332–30 BC). Recent excavations at Ghozza reveal the harsh reality of mining.

The North Caesarea 1 shipwreck, briefly explored in the 1980s, is one of the few hulls of the Hellenistic and early Imperial periods excavated in the Eastern Mediterranean. This investigation relies on the meticulous re-examination of primary excavation data to help answer some questions regarding this hull that probably belonged to a large vessel.

A total of 2848 denarii from the Nietulisko Małe Hoard, one of the largest hoards of Roman coins found in Poland, were digitised and documented using reflectance transformation imaging, highlighting the potential for this technology in numismatic research.

Emerging from a shift in the relationship between archaeology and museums, the ‘Making the Museum’ project investigates the makers of the archaeological and ethnographic collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, positioning archaeological theory and method as essential tools for uncovering the ‘hidden histories’ of these makers.