Project Gallery

Field surveys in the Esfarayen Plain, north-eastern Iran, documented evidence of hominin occupations at 24 localities in Northern Khorasan. These findings help transform our understanding of Palaeolithic populations in north-eastern Iran and underscore the importance of this region in the dispersal of hominins into the interior of Asia.

First excavated in 1928 by Dorothy Garrod, Hazar Merd represents the earliest documented Palaeolithic site in the Zagros Mountains and a landmark in regional archaeological research. Nearly a century later, renewed investigations are refining the site’s stratigraphy and cultural sequence, providing a more nuanced understanding of its long-term occupation.

New dates from Mujina pećina, obtained through optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), provide the earliest radiometric dates yet recorded from an archaeological site in Dalmatia, Croatia. Associated Mousterian artefacts indicate that humans were present in this part of the Adriatic region c. 30 000 years earlier than previously believed.

From 2022–2025, the Curaçao Cultural Landscape Project conducted archaeological and palaeoecological investigations of Rif Sint Marie and Jan Thiel, Curaçao, to reconstruct long-term landscape history. Results reveal a 5700-year settlement history, strategic adaptations enacted by diverse cultural groups and the legacy of past human activities within the contemporary landscape.

Excavations at Xiaeryamakebu, located in the Qaidam Basin of north-west China, have uncovered a large Bronze Age settlement that includes residences and cemeteries. The site provides crucial insights into the Nuomuhong culture, its mortuary practices and local adaptation to the Tibetan Plateau.

Through autoptic examination, macrophotography and comparative palaeography, this study identifies changes in sign forms, engraving techniques and associated iconography in a corpus of Urartian inscribed bronze bowls. Evolving scribal practices, and the transformation of monumental cuneiform into portable media, highlight the role of inscribed metal vessels in expressing Urartian kingship.

Forced population resettlement constituted a strategic instrument in the territorial expansion of the Roman Empire. Survey and geophysical data from Macchia di Circello (Campania) offer novel evidence on the settlement of a forcibly relocated community, the Ligures Baebiani, transferred from Liguria to Samnium in the second century BC.

Photographed over more than two decades, alterations to the Alto Caramucho geoglyphs in the Atacama Desert show the unfolding of a heritage disaster. This article presents research that integrates new digital technologies (photogrammetry and artificial intelligence) for the evaluation and documentation of the deterioration of the geoglyphs.

In 2021, submissions to an art contest on Margarita Island, Venezuela, showcased Guaiquerí identity. Archaeology was largely absent from the artworks, but areas for meaningful future contributions connecting with existing identity narratives were identified. Intangible heritage, especially the Virgen del Valle and fishing, emerges as central to Indigenous identity formation.