Stratified Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in Central Asia are rare. The recently discovered Soii Havzak rockshelter, in the Zeravshan Valley in northern Tajikistan, is a stratified site that contains several phases of Palaeolithic occupation rich in lithic, faunal and charcoal remains that help establish chronology of the region.

Studies with multiple radiocarbon dates often contain useful information on the relative locations of the dated levels. Such information can be used to obtain robust, integrated site chronologies, with at times more precise ages than those of the individual dates, where outliers can be identified and downweighted, and where the ages of any undated levels can also be estimated. Examples include trees with radiocarbon dates separated by exactly known amounts of yearly tree-rings, or sedimentary sites where ages further down the stratigraphy can be assumed to be older than ages further up. Here we present coffee, an R package for Bayesian models that apply chronological ordering for fossils and environmental events. Coffee runs natively within the popular and versatile R environment, with no need for importing or exporting data or code from other programs, and works with plain-text input files that are relatively easy to read and write. It thus provides a new, transparent and adaptable educational and research platform designed to make chronology building more accessible.

The lower Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) section at Nahoryany, south of Lviv (western Ukraine), has been known as a rich source of fossils since 1843. However, the section is not available since a long time ago and fossils collected from it can only be studied in museum collections. In the present paper, ammonites of the scaphitid genus Hoploscaphites are studied based on Nahoryany material, comprising Hoploscaphites pumilus, H. constrictus and H. sp. Specimens from Nahoryany in museum collections lack data on their provenance level within the section so it cannot be determined whether or not they occurred together or formed a succession; data on inoceramid bivalves indicate the presence of two successive zones at Nahoryany. Some specimens from Nahoryany here referred to as H. pumilus are similar to the controversial H. constrictus anterior from the lower Maastrichtian of Poland. This morphology suggests an ancestor–descendant relationship between H. pumilus and H. constrictus, a common species once considered as an informal index for the Boreal Maastrichtian in Europe. The inferred evolutionary transition from H. pumilus to H. constrictus was towards a less robust, recoiled shell, which would have enhanced the horizontal swimming ability and manoeuvrability of these cephalopods. Recoiling trends occurred in several lineages of Late Cretaceous scaphitids.

Brachiopods from the lower upper Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) white chalk succession exposed at Chełm (eastern Poland) comprise Lingula cretacea, Isocrania costata, Cryptoporella antiqua, Cretirhynchia sp., Neoliothyrina sp., Carneithyris sp., Terebratulina chrysalis, T. faujasi, T. longicollis, Terebratulina spp., Gisilina sp., Bronnothyris bronni, Magas chitoniformis, Leptothyrellopsis polonicus and ?Aemula sp. This assemblage is relatively poor in terms of taxonomic diversity and specimen abundance and is dominated by stratigraphically long-ranging species. It is best comparable to that from the micromorphic brachiopod Rugia tenuicostata–Meonia semiglobularis Zone as distinguished in the white chalk successions of Denmark and northern Germany, although this zone is usually placed in the upper lower Maastrichtian. The Chełm succession represents a relatively deep-water and ‘benthos-poor’ variety of white chalk deposited in the Boreal Chalk Sea of Europe. The brachiopod assemblage studied is typical of such a habitat, having been controlled largely by the low availability of minute skeletal substrates suitable for brachiopod settlement.

Durable architecture is a hallmark of Polynesian chiefdoms, associated with centralised control of residential and agricultural land. Previous work in West Polynesia has indicated a relatively late date for the onset of such construction activity—after AD 1000—suggesting that political development was influenced by events such as post-colonisation migration. The authors report new dating evidence from the excavation of a large earth mound on the island of Tongatapu. Its construction 1500 years ago indicates that, in contrast to previous findings, well-developed chiefdoms and field monuments probably dominated the landscapes of West Polynesia substantially prior to the colonisation of more easterly island nations.

This terrestrial and underwater archaeological research project around a Mediterranean islet identifies that it was a commercial centre during the fifth century AD. The results shed light on Late Roman island occupation dynamics.

Current evidence suggests that Indigenous farmers in the North American Southwest began canal irrigation in the second millennium BC, marking an important change in food production technology. Early canal systems are preserved in alluvial floodplains of the US-Mexico Borderlands region, tend to be deeply buried, and can appear as natural fluvial features. Here I discuss some of the challenges in identifying early canals and associated fields and present case studies from the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona where buried channels dating as early as 1600–1400 BC were likely human constructed. These small channels share several stratigraphic properties and are consistent with hypotheses of early canal irrigation practiced by small family groups reliant on mixed farming and foraging. Through time, irrigation canal systems expanded in size, resulting in increased labor investment, sedentism, and productivity and facilitating the development of larger irrigation communities. Stratigraphic and geomorphic properties of early canal systems thus far identified along the Santa Cruz River provide a framework for identifying potential early canal evidence in other fine-grained floodplains of the Southwest, thereby improving our understanding of Indigenous agricultural intensification.

The glaciogenic nature of the Yudnamutana Subgroup was first recognized over a century ago, and its global significance was recognized shortly after, with the eventual postulation of a global Sturtian Glaciation and Snowball Earth theory. Much debate on the origin and timing of these rocks, locally and globally, has ensued in the years since. A significant corpus of research on the lithology, sedimentology, geochronology and formal lithostratigraphy of these sequences globally has attempted to resolve many of these debates. In the type area for the Sturtian Glaciation, South Australia’s Adelaide Superbasin, the lithostratigraphy and sedimentology are well understood; however, formal stratigraphic nomenclature has remained complicated and contested. Absolute dates on the stratigraphy are also extremely sparse in this area. The result of these longstanding issues has been disagreement as to whether the sedimentary rocks of the Yudnamutana Subgroup are truly correlative throughout South Australia, and if they were deposited in the same time span recently defined for Sturtian glacial rocks globally, c. 717 Ma to c. 660 Ma. This study presents a large detrital zircon study, summarizes and compiles existing global geochronology for the Sturtian Glaciation and revises the formal lithostratigraphic framework of the Yudnamutana Subgroup. We show equivalence of the rocks that comprise the revised Sturt Formation, the main glaciogenic unit of the Yudnamutana Subgroup, and that it was deposited within the time span globally defined for the Sturtian Glaciation.

The Rochechouart impact structure, located in the western part of the Massif Central in France, has been suggested to be one of the largest impact structures in western Europe. Various age datings have placed the event in a span from the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic, but the most recent works favour a Late Triassic age. Very little is known about the target environment at the time and location of the impact event. Seemingly coeval, potential tsunamites along palaeoshorelines of the sea that covered parts of continental Europe at the time have been suggested to be related to the impact event and may indicate a marine target setting. Here we apply the method of visual line-logging of the graded suevite in the Chassenon SC2 drill core. This method has previously been used to investigate the depositional environment of similar deposits in several marine target impact craters. It allowed us to compare the deposits at these craters with those at Rochechouart, and in this way not only confirm the marine target setting, but also estimate the target water depth to be ∼200 m. Altogether, our results indicate a palaeogeographic target setting in a newly opened seaway connecting the Paris Basin with the Aquitaine Basin, which may indicate an age of impact at the younger end of the hitherto suggested age-span, i.e. in the late Rhaetian – Early Jurassic.

We report a marine Middle Pleistocene mollusc fauna from a borehole near Luxwoude (Friesland, northern Netherlands). The fauna contains several species, including Bittium species, Acanthocardia paucicostata and Polititapes senescens, that hitherto have been used as indicative for warm (lusitanian) conditions in the southern North Sea Basin during the Late Pleistocene Eemian (MIS5e) interglacial. However, the stratigraphic context of the Luxwoude marine fauna indicates a MIS11 or older age for this new fauna. This thermophilous fauna demonstrates very warm-temperate conditions and probably an open marine connection through the Dover Strait towards the south, during this Middle Pleistocene interglacial. In the North Sea basin, this distinctive lusitanian fauna with Bittium-dominated assemblages can therefore no longer be presumed to be of Eemian age without additional evidence.

At Tell Yunatsite, a prehistoric settlement mound located in the Upper Thracian plain of Bulgaria, stratigraphic relationships between archaeological deposits are incredibly complex. Such complexity then prompted our exploration into developing a new methodology for the documentation of complex stratigraphic relationships. Here, we present the results of a new photogrammetry-assisted methodology that was developed to compensate for the shortcomings of currently utilized stratigraphic documentation methods, such as the Wheeler-Kenyon box grid and the Harris Matrix. First, using a UAV drone, we produce a high-resolution photogrammetric model of the entire site. Second, with structure from motion photogrammetry, we produce 2.5D models of excavation units in stratigraphic succession. Finally, utilizing GIS and Blender (a 3D computer graphics software application), we digitize the horizontal extents of each archaeological deposit and “fill” the space between their successive surfaces (from top to bottom) until a faithful 3D model of each deposit is generated. These deposit models are then combined and rendered simultaneously to form 3D block models of the excavation units that may, in turn, be cross-sectioned in any direction to view stratigraphic relationships in virtual profile.

Sixty-two 14C dates are analyzed in combination with a recently established local floating tree-ring sequence for the Early Neolithic site of La Draga (Banyoles, northeast Iberian Peninsula). Archaeological data, radiometric and dendrochronological dates, as well as sedimentary and micro-stratigraphical information are used to build a Bayesian chronological model, using the ChronoModel 2.0 and OxCal 4.4 computer programs, and IntCal 2020 calibration curve. The dendrochronological sequence is analyzed, and partially fixed to the calendrical scale using a wiggle-matching approach. Depositional events and the general stratigraphic sequence are expressed in expanded Harris Matrix diagrams and ordered in a temporal sequence using Allen Algebra. Post-depositional processes affecting the stratigraphic sequence are related both to the phreatic water level and the contemporaneous lakeshore. The most probable chronological model suggests two main Neolithic occupations, that can be divided into no less than three different “phases,” including the construction, use and repair of the foundational wooden platforms, as well as evidence for later constructions after the reorganization of the ground surface using travertine slabs. The chronological model is discussed considering both the modern debate on the Climatic oscillations during the period 8000–4800 cal BC, and the origins of the Early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean region.

Chronological and stratigraphic frameworks are of the utmost importance for Upper Paleolithic archaeology, physical anthropology, and ecology. Wide ranging radiocarbon (14C) dates were previously obtained for the Sungir burial complex in the central part of European Russia, which is well-known as the richest funeral Paleolithic assemblage in the world yet recorded. The major problem was the contamination caused by consolidants used during the recovery of human bones in the 1960s. The stratigraphy and spatial structure of the Sungir site were also not well understood previously. New radiocarbon and stable isotope data are generated for the Sungir burials. While some dates were younger due to incomplete removal of contamination, the XAD 14C age on S-1 burial (ca. 29,780 BP) was found to be statistically the same as the previously performed HYP 14C age for this burial (ca. 28,890 BP). Four animal bones found in cultural layer below the burial date to ca. 28,800–30,140 BP, suggesting that both this layer and human burials date to roughly this age range. Narrowing these ages further is difficult considering the larger errors of the 14C dates. This shows that future research attempting to 14C date material excavated many years ago needs to eliminate potential contamination from consolidants through analyses such as FTIR, prior to 14C dating. The chronology and stratigraphy of Sungir do not contradict to correlation of its lithic artifacts with the Streletskian assemblage as the East European variant of the Final Szeletian technocomplex (Early Upper Paleolithic).