Instances of cultural interaction between Norse and native American have long been accepted. But current archaeological research recognises that the indigenous peoples of the north were themselves diverse and had diverse histories. Here the author shows that the culture of one of them, the Dorset people, owed nothing to the Norse and probably had no contact with them.

The aurochs was a type of wild cattle not extinct in Europe until the mid-second millennium BC – so they must have co-existed for centuries with the domestic cattle which were to supplant it. Here the authors use stable isotope analysis to show what form that co-existence took: the domestic cattle grazing on the pasture, and the aurochs lurking in the forests and wet places.

The mass deportation of a conquered people from tenth-century Mongolia known from documents is here tracked archaeologically by survey and excavation. The authors found evidence for the maintenance of Bohai tradition in the fortress of Chintolgoi, many thousands of kilometres south of their homeland.

In this ingenious co-operative case study, archaeologists and Indigenous peoples use geophysical survey to scan suitable places for the reburial of repatriated human remains. The process is also building a procedure for the low impact and respectful research of early Indigenous burial locations.

Methods for mapping and determining the condition of archaeological resources while they are still underground have been in development for nearly half a century. The authors here offer an example from the frontiers of the art: the application of a package of remote sensing procedures not only designed to locate sites but to model the valley deposits which contain and cover them. The variation in success of different methods in different deposits offers a guide to the design of evaluation projects on sand and gravel terrain everywhere.

The Acheulean handaxe is one of the most iconic, analysed and fiercely debated artefacts from the prehistoric period. Persisting for over one million years and recovered from sites across the Old World its distinctive, often symmetrical, tear drop or ovate shape appears to be over-engineered for a subsistence function alone. Debate has centred upon trying to unravel the reasons for this form; raw material, knapping technique, subsistence function, cognition, social context of manufacture and sexual selection have all been proposed as key factors (Jones 1994; White 1998; Gamble 1999; Kohn & Mithen 1999; McPherron 2000; Gowlett 2006).

In this paper the authors investigate isotopic signatures of burials from the famous Viking period cemetery at Birka in Sweden, comparing their results on diet with the status and identities of individuals as interpreted from grave goods. These first observations offer a number of promising correlations, for example the shared diet of a group of women associated with trade, and a marine emphasis among men buried with weapons.

Evaluating theories and testing hypotheses that relate to the no-longer observable behaviour of hominin species which have no close analogue in the modern world is an obvious challenge. Machin argues that Kohn & Mithen (1999) did not do so in a sufficiently rigorous manner concerning their so-called 'Sexy Handaxe Theory' (SHT). She is right, of course. Indeed how could it be otherwise when there is always room for improvement by subjecting previously published ideas to newly available data-sets and new types of critical thinking. Machin provides some valuable arguments, bringing together a probably unparalleled breadth of knowledge about the archaeological record, evolutionary theory and sexual selection. Ultimately, however, I am not persuaded that she makes handaxes any less sexy than they had previously appeared.

The authors assess the potential contribution of lidar surveys to national inventories of archaeological resources (‘Historic Environment Records’), and compare the relative costs and sensitivity of lidar and aerial photography.

An examination of the skeletons from the well-known La Tène cemetery of Münsingen-Rain shows that they represent members of a high ranking group, and that they were closely related. These new findings prompt the authors to examine the written documents that refer to nobility in the Roman and Celtic world.

The British Museum and the National Museum of Wales have lent the finds from Kendrick's Cave, in Llandudno, north Wales, for display and storage at Llandudno Museum; and the British Museum has sent the famous body from Lindow Moss, near Manchester, to be shown at the Manchester Museum, 100km away in England. How should metropolitan or national museums relate to provincial museums? Should there be more such loans? The exhibition in Manchester deliberately raises another question too: how – if at all – should human remains be displayed?

The mysterious rock-cut cart ruts of Malta are here examined by geomorphologists. They find that the ruts could be caused by two-wheeled carts with a gauge of 1.40m carrying moderate loads. In wet weather the carts would gradually cut into the limestone and reach their ground clearance of 0.675m, causing the carriers to try another route – so there are plenty of them.

LiDAR is developing into a formidable instrument of aerial survey. Here the author shows how the LiDAR picture can be enhanced so that features picked up by illumination from different directions can be combined in one comprehensive survey.

The important paper by S. Celestino Pérez and C. López-Ruiz that we published in 2006 (Antiquity 80: 89-101) suggested that the warrior slabs (stelae) with their horned-helmet motifs found in Iberia show iconographical influence from the bull-figures seen in the Levant in the early first millennium BC. This of course has important implications for the development of belief systems at either end of the Mediterranean. It was not to the taste of Dirk Brandherm who claims that the Iberian motifs are both different and earlier than any pre-echoes from the east. In a brief response the authors hold firmly to their thesis.

What did the British know about Islam before the modern period? The author reviews evidence which shows that there was contact with, and appreciation of, Muslim culture from almost the time of the Hegira in the seventh century. This appreciation varied and was reflected in different choices of material culture: coinage, ceramics and architecture, in successive periods from the eighth century to the nineteenth.