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In 2018, excavations at Markowice in central Poland produced sound evidence for the uptake of the Baden Culture in the region: the remains of a young male interred with two cattle drawing a funerary sledge were unearthed, along with several other Funnel Beaker (TRB) inhumations that date to 3500–3100 BC.
Recent study of Vlaho in Pelagonia confirms that it is the earliest known Neolithic settlement in North Macedonia. Multidisciplinary research of the architecture and material reveals a complex enclosure site dating to the seventh millennium BC, with dozens of ditches, daub buildings, white painted pottery and domesticated plants and animals.
In 2019, an ethnographic survey of Indian workshops and shops producing and selling putalis (Venetian ducats and their imitations) was conducted in Nashik, Maharashtra. The study, supplemented by information from written and documentary sources, provides observations relevant to archaeologists studying the process of reinterpreting Roman coin design in Early Historic India.
Excavations at Tiaotou reveal evidence for cultural continuity through the late third to the mid first millennia BC. This research explores shifts in subsistence, production and ritual at Tiaotou, and the emergence of the Pishan-Tiaotou Culture (1200–1000 BC). Tiaotou/Pishan-Tiaotou represents a missing link among Taihu Lake archaeological cultures and contributes to our knowledge of complex political formations and cultural change in Bronze Age southern China.
Excavations of the Kopilo cemetery in central Bosnia in 2021 and 2022 have provided the first insights into Bronze and Iron Age burial practices in this part of Europe. We documented a total of 46 inhumation graves, with the variety of finds indicating supra-regional contacts of this population.
A Mongolian-German project is investigating abandoned early modern military and monastic sites in central Mongolia, including how the ruins of these urban nodes continue to shape cultural memory within nomadic society. Initial excavations have revealed a previously unknown site type, interpreted as garrisons from the period of Manchu rule (AD 1636–1911).
The authors present the results of a drone-based airborne LiDAR survey of the fifth century AD Tsukuriyama mounded tomb group in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, revealing the relationship between tomb building and the surrounding landscape during Japan's period of ancient state formation.
A wall relief, comprising five figures carved on a bench in a communal building dating to the ninth millennium BC, was found in south-eastern Turkey in 2021. It constitutes the earliest known depiction of a narrative ‘scene’, and reflects the complex relationship between humans, the natural world and the animal life that surrounded them during the transition to a sedentary lifestyle.
The Tracking Pleistocene Human Occupations in the East of Iran project was initiated with two field seasons in 2020 and 2022. The authors present the results of this fieldwork, which identified 176 Palaeolithic localities, demonstrating the presence of Lower Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic occupations in the Ferdows-Sarayan-Qaen plains.
The authors present preliminary results from a new research project based in Jebel Shaqadud, Sudan. Their findings highlight the potential for this region's archaeological record to expand our understanding of the adaptation strategies used by human groups in arid north-east African environments away from rivers and lakes during the Holocene. Furthermore, they present exceptionally early radiocarbon dates that push postglacial human occupation in the eastern Sahel back to the twelfth millennium BP.
The transition to the Neolithic on the East European Plain was a very different process to the Western model, featuring a long-lasting hunter-gatherer economy and late introduction of agriculture. The authors present results from multiproxy research on a 13.5m-deep core of organic deposits from the Serteya mire as part of an international research project to understand human-environment relations in the Western Dvina Lakeland.
Excavation at Mogou, a Bronze Age cemetery containing over 1700 burials and 6000 individuals, has revealed a diverse range of multiple burials. Building on this dataset, the Mogou Multidisciplinary Investigation Project aims to explore connections between kinship, burial space and social organisation in Bronze Age north-west China.
The authors report on new discoveries from Sanxingdui in south-west China. The multidisciplinary approach used at Sanxingdui has enriched the theory and methodology of field archaeology and sets a precedent for future scientific excavations.
A recent study from Central Europe has changed our perception of the cat's domestication history. The authors discuss how this has led to the development of an interdisciplinary project combining palaeogenetics, zooarchaeology and radiocarbon dating, with the aim of providing insight into the domestic cat's expansion beyond the Mediterranean.
In the spring of 2017, amateur metal detectorists discovered a Late Bronze Age hoard near the village of Kaliska, Poland. Comprising over 120 artefacts, it is one of the most impressive Bronze Age finds within Pomerania. The authors discuss the hoard's contents and context, as well as its chronology.
The authors discuss new sediment coring at the Early Neolithic submerged site of Atlit-Yam, Israel, that reveals stratified archaeological deposits 0.7–0.9m below the seabed. They demonstrate the potential of micro-geoarchaeological analysis to generate new chrono-stratigraphic data for the onset of Early Neolithic coastal occupation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The authors describe a Neolithic ground stone adze, retrieved from an Early Iron Age burial (c. 700–550 BC) at the urnfield cemetery in Miłosławice, south-western Poland. This artefact yields an interesting example of an extended tool biography.
Few systematic investigations of Palaeolithic occupation have been carried out in southern Iran. Here, the authors present the first report from a systematic Palaeolithic survey of a region north of the Strait of Hormuz, providing ample evidence for hominin presence in this area since the Lower Palaeolithic.
Among the rock art in Arabia, a little-known Neolithic tradition of large, naturalistic camel depictions stands out. Their geographic distribution and stylistic traits suggest close links with the Camel Site reliefs. Four newly documented panels appear to have been carved by the same individual (or group), tracing repeated movements over hundreds of kilometres.
The Seleucid town of Nysa-Scythopolis on Tell Iẓṭabba (Israel) was destroyed by the Hasmoneans at the end of the second century BC. In this article, we discuss the exact season and possible year of the destruction using a multimodal approach and argue for its destruction in spring/early summer 107 BC.