Issue 407 - October 2025

Cemeteries of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK, 5500–4900 BC) evoke a sense of emerging permanence of place as agricultural subsistence spread westward through Central Europe. Yet assumptions about the sequence of senescence and longevity of cemetery use are based on limited data. Here, the authors challenge the view that cemetery burial was a long-lasting Neolithic practice, modelling 50 new radiocarbon dates from the cemetery of Schwetzingen alongside published dates from eight other LBK mortuary contexts. The results, they argue, indicate a short-lived, largely contemporaneous cemetery horizon across Central Europe, forcing a re-evaluation of Early Neolithic social history.

The Tupí linguistic group is one of the most widespread in South America, indicating a deep history of population movement, yet the ancestral homeland and migration routes of descendant groups remain the subject of debate due to the fragmentary nature of the Amazonian archaeological record. Using a database of more than 660 georeferenced dates from sites of the Tupinambá and Guaraní peoples, the authors deploy a mobility model to investigate the timing of population movements, viable routes and the distances achieved. The results create a more nuanced understanding of the rhythms of migration through an ecologically and socially complex landscape.

With the eastward expansion of the Western Zhou c. 1050 BC, the Jiaodong Peninsula on the north-east coast of modern-day China became part of a large polity. Excavations at Qianzhongzitou, located on this peninsula, are revealing how political control over local populations took place. Here, the authors focus on a sequence of Zhou-period, non-residential platforms, the construction of which signifies new forms of ritual spaces. These types of spaces, also found elsewhere in the region, arguably aided in the state assimilation of local deities, illustrating the critical role that ritual played in political unification of early Chinese states and dynasties.

The tattoos of the Pazyryk ice mummies are of paramount importance for the archaeology of Iron Age Siberia and are often discussed from a broad stylistic and symbolic perspective. However, deeper investigations into this cultural practice were hindered by the inaccessibility of quality data. Here, the authors use high-resolution, near-infrared data in conjunction with experimental evidence to re-examine the tools and techniques employed in Early Iron Age tattooing. The high-quality data allow for the previously unfeasible distinction of artist hands and enable us to put the individual back into the picture of a widespread but rarely preserved prehistoric practice.

Anthracological studies of preserved wooden building materials can help reveal ancient networks of resource mobilisation. Here, the authors report on the analysis of 657 charred timbers from four ancillary pits at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. The frequent use of dark coniferous wood (fir, spruce and hemlock) indicates sophisticated logistical planning and labour organisation—matching historic records of Qin administrative ascendency—because these species required sourcing from across many kilometres of rugged terrain. Identification of a temporal shift towards the use of higher-elevation species points to the ecological impact of large-scale timber harvesting.

Roman amphitheatres were centres of public entertainment, hosting various spectacles that often included wild animals. Excavation of a building near the Viminacium amphitheatre in Serbia in 2016 uncovered the fragmentary cranium of a bear. Multistranded analysis, presented here, reveals that the six-year-old male brown bear (Ursus arctos) suffered an impact fracture to the frontal bone, the healing of which was impaired by a secondary infection. Excessive wear to the canine teeth further indicates cage chewing and thus a prolonged period of captivity that makes it likely this bear participated in more than one spectacle at the Viminacium amphitheatre.

Increasing interdisciplinary analysis of geoarchaeological records, including sediment and ice cores, permits finer-scale contextual interpretation of the history of anthropogenic environmental impacts. In an interdisciplinary approach to economic history, the authors examine metal pollutants in a sediment core from the Roman metal-producing centre of Aldborough, North Yorkshire, combining this record with textual and archaeological evidence from the region. Finding that fluctuations in pollution correspond with sociopolitical events, pandemics and recorded trends in British metal production c. AD 1100–1700, the authors extend the analysis to earlier periods that lack written records, providing a new post-Roman economic narrative for northern England.

Archaeogenetics, the study of ancient DNA, can reveal powerful insights into kinship and the movement of individuals in (pre)history. Here, the authors report on the identification of two individuals with genetic profiles consistent with recent sub-Saharan African ancestry, both of whom were buried in early-medieval cemeteries in southern Britain. Focusing primarily on a sub-adult female from Updown in Kent, the authors explore the societal and cultural contexts in which these individuals lived and died, and the widening geographic links indicated by their presence, pointing back to the Byzantine reconquest of North Africa in AD 533–534.

Kinship can be difficult to discern in the archaeological record, but the study of ancient DNA offers a useful window into one form of kinship: biological relatedness. Here, the authors explore possible kin connections at the post-Roman site of Worth Matravers in south-west England. They find that, while clusters of genetically related individuals are apparent, the inclusion of unrelated individuals in double or triple burials demonstrates an element of social kinship in burial location. Some individuals also carried genetic signatures of continental ancestry, with one young male revealing recent West African ancestry, highlighting the diverse heritage of early medieval Britain.

There are no known written records pertaining to the origins of the enigmatic bronze ‘Lion’ that stands atop one of the two large columns of the Piazzetta in St Mark’s Square, Venice (Italy). Representing the Venetian Winged Lion, a powerful symbol of statehood, the sculpture was installed during a time of political uncertainty in medieval Mediterranean Europe, yet its features do not reflect local artistic conventions. Here, the authors argue that stylistic parallels are found in Tang Dynasty China (AD 618–907); employing lead isotope analysis, they further show that the figure was cast with copper isotopically consistent with ore from the Lower Yangzi River basin.

Historical texts suggest that medieval Christianity condemned the consumption of horsemeat (hippophagy) yet also indicate that this practice persisted. Here, the authors review the contribution of horse to food refuse at 198 settlements across medieval Hungary, highlighting variability in food practices through time and space. Examination of these zooarchaeological assemblages indicates that hippophagy continued after the general conversion to Christianity in the eleventh century but substantially declined following the Mongol invasion (AD 1241–1242) and disappeared by the mid-sixteenth-century Ottoman occupation. Diachronic and geographic trends in this practice reveal ambiguity in food customs, reflecting complex (social, religious and ethnic) local identities.

Ancient stone monuments may have marked the locations of key ritual activities for pastoralist communities. This project is the first to employ multi-method geophysical survey to identify additional features of construction and use at the Chalcolithic-period Rajajil Columns site in northern Saudi Arabia.

Recent investigations in north-west Arabia have revealed that many major oases in the region were enclosed by a network of monumental walls. Confirmation of four newly identified walled oases demonstrates that this Walled Oases Complex had a substantial impact on long-term socioeconomic development in the region.

Multidisciplinary methods permit the first archaeometallurgical study of artefacts from five key first-millennium BC settlements in Poland: Grzybiany, Wicina, Kamieniec, Tarławki and Mołtajny. This project fills a lacuna in our understanding of technical ceramics, metal provenance and the role of settlements in the cultural landscape.

Fortified Island (FORTIS) examines Iron Age fortifications on the island of Bornholm to assess their characters, locations and chronologies. Through a multimethod approach, the project deepens our understanding of fortifications in relation to their physical and cultural landscapes, both on Bornholm and in the Baltic Sea Region more generally.

In 2022, a project was initiated to investigate the cemetery at Nowy Chorów, northern Poland, with Orzeszkowo-type (rectangular) burial mounds. During the excavations, both inhumation and cremation graves were uncovered, along with elements of elite grave goods and evidence of the reopening of the graves.

The early medieval stronghold of Grzybowo, Wielkopolska, was a large complex, comprising two strongholds and an extensive outer settlement, with numerous elite movable monuments. Excavations suggest that this was an important site for the ruling dynasty, with analogies for this form of central stronghold found in Ruthenia and Bohemia.

Medieval elite culture is often difficult to grasp among archaeological records from settlement sites. A silver-gilt amethyst setting, probably part of a brooch, from the moat of Castle Kolno in Poland represents an unusual high-status find from a context related to everyday activity.

This study explores early domestic life at the historic Yoruba site of Orile-Owu. Excavations and ethnography reveal insights into diet and food processing, medicinal practices and the daily routines of occupants during the mid-fifteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries AD.

Since 2015, four non-invasive campaigns have surveyed the San José Galleon shipwreck in the Colombian Caribbean, providing valuable insights into the age and provenance of artefacts found on the seabed. Numismatic, archaeological and historical approaches have been employed to analyse a collection of gold coins recorded within this underwater context.

‘Lamsdorf/Łambinowice: an archaeology of memory’ is an interdisciplinary project that uses archaeological research methods and tools to locate unknown and unmarked graves of prisoners of war (PoW) and civilians related to the functioning of the German camp Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf in the years 1939–1945.

This study uses archival photos and data from lidar, geophysical surveys and excavations to help uncover the physical realities of two Second World War Nazi sub-camps, Czyżówek (AL Halbau) and Karczmarka (AL Kittlitztreben), in the Gross-Rosen network, now in south-west Poland.

Accessibility at the Sterkfontein Caves UNESCO World Heritage Site limits public and scientific engagement. The authors digitally visualised part of the cave using laser scans and photogrammetry, geospatially integrating the digital cave and fossil datasets. This enables broader access for learners, educators and scientists and enhances scientific outreach potential.