“In times of unrest, insecurity, and what feels like unending chaos, we are reminded of the relevance of the study of prehistory.”

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is a journal devoted to the study of prehistory across the globe. In times of unrest, insecurity, and what feels like unending chaos, we are reminded of the relevance of the study of prehistory. Prehistory reminds us of the long view, of the persistence of change but equally the consistency of human activity.

In our upcoming issue, papers by Richard Bradley and Susan Greaney and colleagues scrutinise time, presenting chronologies of monuments and places that were used, reused, and closed by different communities and highlighting ‘pivotal years of change’. Others focus on the distribution of monuments (Emilie Vannier) and other cultural or genetic evidence (Kerkko Nordqvist & Volker Heyd) to expose how communities may have interacted across great distances and the cultural changes they underwent over time. Interaction did not only occur between groups of people.

Multiple papers focus on human engagement with landscapes through different actions: as sources of raw material (Astrid Nyland), as places for depositing hoards of metalwork (John Chapman & Bisserka Gaydarska), as sites for creating images on stone (Richard Bradley et al.; Peter Skoglund et al.), or as sites of transformation where stones become anthromorphs (Angelika Vierzig) and significant tools (Amber Roy). From the Mesolithic settlements of Scotland (Caroline Wickham-jones et al.) to the earliest farmers of Cumbria (Gav Robinson & Matthew Town) to the late Iron Age of Europe, this year’s volume brings together 12 papers reflecting the diversity and social complexities of prehistoric communities and their interactions with one another and the landscapes which they inhabited, exploited and through which they moved

Looking ahead, the editorial team of the Proceedings and the Council members of the Prehistoric Society will soon be releasing a series of thematic online collections through Cambridge Core. These collections, curated by leading scholars on the subjects, will draw together key papers from the long history of the journal to highlight important topics in the study of prehistory. We also look forward to a new year and new volume, for which work is already underway.

Dr Julie Gardiner BA, PhD, MCIfA, FSA is Editor, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

Access to a special collection of past papers is currently free of charge.