Issue 408 - December 2025

Blue pigments are absent in Palaeolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues. Using a suite of archaeometric approaches, the authors identify traces of azurite on a concave stone artefact from the Final Palaeolithic site of Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. This represents the earliest use of blue pigment in Europe. The scarcity of blue in Palaeolithic art, along with later prehistoric uses of azurite, may indicate that azurite was used for archaeologically invisible activities (e.g. body decoration) implying intentional selectivity over the pigments used for different Palaeolithic artistic activities.

The use of large Charonia seashells as labial vibration aerophones is documented in various cultures around the world. In Catalonia, north-eastern Iberia, 12 such instruments have been recovered from Neolithic contexts, dating from the second half of the fifth and the first half of the fourth millennia BC, yet they have received little attention in academia. Given that some examples retain the ability to produce sounds, their archaeoacoustic study offers insight into possible uses and meanings for Neolithic communities. While not all can still produce sounds, the high sound intensity of those that do may indicate a primary function as signalling devices that facilitated communication in Neolithic communities.

As a means for both the construction and communication of social identity in diverse human groups worldwide, objects of personal adornment can help to explain some prehistoric lifeways and beliefs. This study examines the materials and manufacture traces of whole and fragmentary pendants found in association with human burials at the Early Period (c. 4200 cal BC–cal AD 250) Ortiz site in south-western Puerto Rico. Using data from microscopy, elemental analysis and petrography, the authors propose that these pendants were a tangible manifestation of group identity, rooted in a sense of localised belonging, which persisted over almost a millennium.

The emergence, on the Loess Plateau of Central China, of settlements enclosed by circular ditches has engendered lively debate about the function of these (often extensive) ditch systems. Here, the authors report on a suite of new dates and sedimentological analyses from the late Yangshao (5300–4800 BP) triple-ditch system at the Shuanghuaishu site, Henan Province. Exploitation of natural topographic variations, and evidence for ditch maintenance and varied water flows, suggests a key function in hydrological management, while temporal overlap in the use of these three ditches reveals the large scale of this endeavour to adapt to the pressures of the natural environment.

Despite almost a century and a half of excavation, the dynamic landscape into which the temple complex of Karnak was embedded is not well understood. Presenting the results of the first comprehensive geoarchaeological survey of the area, the authors show that Karnak was built upon a fluvial terrace segment surrounded by river channels in an island configuration potentially recalling the ‘primeval mound’ of Egyptian creation myths. Permanent occupation of the site became possible after 2520 BC ±420 years, likely during the Old Kingdom. Subsequent landscape changes were dramatic, with the occupants of the island responding both opportunistically and proactively.

The dynamic nature and vast distances of exchange networks in the European Bronze Age are gradually being revealed through an increasing array of provenance studies. Here, the authors report the results of elemental and lead and copper isotope analyses of eight copper-based artefacts from a Middle to early Late Bronze Age settlement in Möriken-Wildegg (Switzerland’s Canton of Aargau). Diverse origins for the copper are identified, including the eastern and southern Alps and, potentially, Cyprus. Given their inconspicuous archaeological context, the authors argue that the objects from Möriken could suggest an influx of Cypriot copper into Central Europe around 1400 BC.

The Scytho-Siberian ‘animal style’ encapsulates a broad artistic tradition, which was widespread across the Eurasian Steppe in the first millennium BC, but the scarcity of secure contexts limits the exploration of temporal and regional trends. Here, the authors present animal-style items excavated from a late-ninth-century BC kurgan, Tunnug 1, in Tuva Republic. The limited range of animals and the utilitarian associations of the artefacts suggest a narrow symbolic focus for early Scythian art, yet stylistic diversity evidences the co-operation of multiple social groups in the construction and funerary ritual activities of monumental burial mounds in the Siberian Valley of the Kings.

The Darband Wall in southern Uzbekistan marks an important political border in the Classical world, yet the dating of its construction is largely relative and contested. Presenting 10 new radiocarbon dates from the wall, the authors argue that construction began in the early or middle third century BC, likely under Seleucid or early Greco-Bactrian rule, while later reconstruction efforts coincide with Kushan expansion around the first and second centuries AD. Early Hellenistic-style fortifications reveal a defensive, and possibly an orientational, shift during Kushan rule that underscores both the strategic significance of the wall and the need for more extensive investigation.

Mountains figure prominently in Mesoamerican cosmogeny, and a deep history of pilgrimage and worship surrounds many, though few have been systematically investigated using modern archaeological methods. Here, the authors present results from the lidar mapping and surface survey of a plateau at the summit of Cerro Patlachique, located at the southern limit of the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico. While ceramic typology establishes Cerro Patlachique as a site of pilgrimage before, during and after the occupation of Teotihuacan, the documentation of 34 carved monuments substantially expands the existing corpus and identifies the summit as a place of convocation with water deities.

An increase in knowledge is usually beneficial but can also highlight misapprehensions of existing data. Such is the case for the Pictish-Norse transition in Northern Scotland in the later first millennium AD. New radiocarbon dates from the key ‘transitional’ settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney, reveal that traits previously published as indicative of incoming Norse influence pre-date the start of the Viking Age, suggesting a greater level of endogenous change than hitherto has been appreciated. Here, the authors underscore the need for a re-evaluation of other settlement sequences across the later Pictish and early Norse periods, reopening many questions about the transition.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the transition to food-producing economies in the Western Valleys of northern Chile led to a decline in foraging in highland areas around AD 650, yet colonial records from the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries attest to the continued existence of foraging groups. Taking the Camarones River Basin as a test case, this study identifies small-scale settlements and hunting installations in upland areas using remote-sensing data. In considering these new data alongside ethnohistorical accounts, the author proposes that foraging endured into the late colonial era, possibly coexisting with herder and agropastoral communities and precipitating tethered settlement patterns.

In Viking archaeology, the study of miniature figurines cast in silver and bronze provides a platform for debates on ritual and mythology, yet much of this discourse focuses on their appearance. Here, the authors use microwear and Reflective Transformation Imaging to survey the physical evidence of complex relational dynamics between 10 anthropomorphic artefacts from Viking Age Sweden and the human bodies they connected with. Through such analyses, and the abandonment of a priori assumptions regarding their purpose and symbolism, these figures can be seen as more than just components of an imposed category, and their varied, transmutable engagements with the world can be explored more freely.

Quarries are information-rich anthropic landscapes, but their unique characteristics often limit the effectiveness of traditional archaeological documentation strategies. Here, the authors present a novel interdisciplinary method for the documentation and analysis of these landscapes, focusing on two ancient marble quarries on the Mediterranean island of Naxos. The workflow, combining lidar, photogrammetry, sculptural and architectural study, geoscience, ecological study and archaeological survey, provides a means for the systematic documentation of quarry landscapes in the Mediterranean and beyond, and aims to promote an understanding of premodern extractive activities not as isolated occurrences but as important aspects of interconnected, evolving landscapes.

Despite lying at a crossroad of Pleistocene hominin dispersals, little is known about human occupation in Iraq during this period. An archaeological survey in the Western Desert is revealing recurrent hominin activity at Shbicha, highlighting the region’s potential in advancing our understanding of hominin behaviour and dispersal across South-west Asia.

Large-scale field investigation in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang identified 108 Palaeolithic/microlithic surface findspots. Pulei Cave reveals the first well-preserved spelean sediment record containing Upper Palaeolithic cultural remains in eastern Xinjiang, dating from c. 45–43 ka BP.

Eşek Deresi Cave provides a new Late Epipalaeolithic sequence in the Central Taurus Mountains, radiocarbon dated to c. 13 200–10 700 years cal BC. Here, the authors present preliminary analyses of finds excavated between 2021 and 2024, which indicate links to contemporaneous sites in Central Anatolia and the Levant.

A newly discovered grave in Wadi Nafūn, Oman, features a unique burial structure, combining monumental architecture and the collective deposition of human remains from multiple Neolithic groups. Detailed analysis of the burial community reveals new insights into Neolithic rituals and subsistence strategies during the Holocene Humid Period in southern Arabia.

Despite its geographic correspondence with a key fourteenth-century BC port, the tell of Yavneh-Yam has yielded only meagre evidence for Late Bronze Age occupation. The recent discovery of a sealed monumental rock-cut burial cave with hundreds of grave goods provides the first clear evidence for a significant polity.

The discovery of an ornament made from Phyllobius viridicollis beetles in a cremation grave at the Domasław cemetery highlights the diverse use of organic materials in funerary rites. Together with dandelion pollen, the find offers interpretative potential for reconstructing the seasonal timing of the burial.

Excavations at the Infantas complex in Chillón Valley, Perú, revealed a U-shaped monumental centre with a central mound, clay staircase and columned atrium. Aligned with structures from the Rímac and Lurín valleys, these complexes anchored ritual-political power, serving as hubs for ideological integration and territorial organisation in early Andean societies.

The Terra Ferrifera project investigates the landscape and environmental conditions of mass iron production in one of the oldest iron production centres in central Europe: Mazovia, Poland (fourth century BC–fourth century AD). Spatial analyses, settlement pattern studies, prospection, excavation and archaeobotanical analyses provide insights into one of its microregions.

A brooch found in a mid-first-century AD context at the Roman port of Berenike, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, represents the southernmost find of an Aucissa-type fibula. The item reflects the identity of its wearer, possibly a Roman soldier, for whom it may have held sentimental value.

Philoxenite, a town and pilgrimage station on Lake Mareotis’ southern shore in Egypt, was carefully planned as a comfortable stop for travellers visiting Saint Menas’ sanctuary from across the Roman world. Archaeological excavations conducted at the site between 2021 and 2024 fully uncovered the remains of a Late Antique church (N1).

In 2022–2023, fragments of figurative wall paintings were discovered in the Royal Palace at Sanjar-Shah, a Sogdian site near Panjikent in Tajikistan. The paintings depict a procession of priests approaching a large fire altar—this offers a rare insight into religious imagery and a representation of fire worship in Sogdian murals.

New research at Ciepłe, a unique early-medieval centre in northern Poland, reveals a Piast-era complex with three strongholds, elite chamber graves and far-reaching connections. Founded in the late tenth century AD, Ciepłe challenges traditional models of Pomeranian integration, offering fresh perspectives on early medieval state formation, frontier strategy and cross-cultural interactions.

Excavations at Alcatrazes, the seat of Cape Verde’s short-lived second captaincy, have exposed a Portuguese colonial settlement, demonstrating continued occupation after the relocation of its official offices. The results include insights into early Luso-African practices and the presence of West African and local-made pottery, with environmental samples ‘clocking’ colonial introductions.

In the highlands of northern Chile, research on industrial mining camps and agropastoral sites (estancias) shows the relevance of a contemporary archaeology perspective for studying the impacts of capitalist expansion, ruination and deindustrialisation for local Indigenous communities.