Marks and figurative representations have been recognized as crucial socio-cognitive components that contributed to the transition from foraging to farming of the Neolithic in southwest Asia, during a period in which communities adopted novel social interactions and economic strategies. This article investigates image production and the trajectories tied to the creation of visual codes. We show that since the early Neolithic phases (c. 9700–6600 cal. bc) societies in southwest Asia engaged with specific symbols and created narrative and operational semasiographies, intended to serve as key communicative devices that functioned as community ties and contributed to social interaction across distant groups.

Forgetting, and having recourse to unremembering the past, is useful for different populations. The modern world has provided a range of examples, but the effectiveness of short-term amnesia has not always been highlighted in archaeological scholarship. In this article, a case study from the Roman-period Netherlands highlights that the significance of memory-making in the past may have been overstated. Especially among those societies living under imperial rule, forgetting played an important role, one that calls for more critical focus and understanding. The utilization of cross-cultural and historical examples provides the background for a close analysis of the remains from a single graveyard. The study brings out the repeated amnesiac changes that indigenous groups underwent to adapt themselves to the continuing fact of occupation.

War, captives, and human sacrifice were parts of Late Postclassic (AD 1250–1524) Maya culture in highland Guatemala. Las Casas (1958:152) wrote that the supreme lord “put the heads of the sacrificed on some poles on a certain altar dedicated only to this, where they had these for some time, after which they buried them.” These cultural aspects show up in human remains excavated at Iximche’, the Kaqchikel Maya capital. Here, we integrate previously published and unpublished results of stable isotope analyses and explore their implications for diets and the geographic origins of individuals who were buried at the site on the eve of the Spanish conquest. Data from Iximche’ are compared with available results from other ancient Maya sites.

This article examines a frequently overlooked aspect of cuneiform writing in Egypt: the materiality and technology involved in the production of cuneiform tablets, with a particular focus on the process of tablet firing. It is argued that firing was an integral part of tablet production that required learning and practice by the Amarna scribes. The successful firing of tablets to temperatures around 800°C is attributed to the robust and longstanding tradition of tablet manufacture in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, northern Syria and Hazor. In contrast, the lower firing temperatures observed in tablets from Egypt, Alašiya and much of the Levant are associated with the production and firing of cuneiform tablets as a recent technological innovation that required thorough mastery.

This paper explores the evolving landscape of comparative research between ancient Egypt and China, focusing on various aspects such as culture, writing systems, political economy, and motivations behind these comparisons done in China and international environments. Embedded with the historical context, motivations and methodologies of scholars engaged in this comparative endeavour, the authors suggest that such research is linked to modern China's intellectual history and global engagement. It discusses potential motivations, including economic factors, national agenda and interdisciplinary integration. The authors also raise the need for more deliberate theorizations of Egypt–China comparisons, emphasizing the importance of greater reflexivity and inclusivity in shaping the trajectory of comparative studies. Overall, the document sheds light on the complexities, motivations and potential impacts of Egypt–China comparative research, highlighting its relevance in understanding both historical civilizations and contemporary global dynamics.

Marine aerosols can enter the terrestrial environment via sea spray which is known to affect the stable isotope fingerprint of coastal samples (plants, animals/humans), including δ13C. However, the impact of sea spray on 14C dating of terrestrial organisms at coastal sites has not been investigated so far. Besides a direct effect, sea spray is accompanied by physiological effects, e.g., due to salinity. In an artificial sea spray experiment in the greenhouse, the effect of sea spray on 14C in plant tissue was investigated. Beach grass was sprayed with mineral salt solutions containing only traces of NaCl or with brackish water from the Schlei inlet or the Baltic Sea. These plants should give a 14C signal close to the modern atmospheric 14CO2 composition. However, three treatment groups showed variable radiocarbon concentrations. Plants sprayed with water from the Schlei inlet, Baltic Sea water, or with a mineral salt solution with very high HCO3– concentration are depleted in 14C content relative to contemporary atmospheric composition. While δ13C reflects physiological effects in the plants, caused either by salinity (NaCl) or HCO3– stress, resulting in decreased discrimination against 13C, the uptake of high amounts of 14C (ca. 53–67%) from DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon) partly masks the underlying physiological reactions, as is visible in the radiocarbon signature of the plant tissues. This preliminary study indicates that sea spray effects on plant tissue could potentially influence faunal tissue 14C composition at coastal sites. Further research is required to better understand the observed reservoir effect.

The Manych Depression is a relatively narrow elongated depression of tectonic origin, connecting the Caspian and Azov-Black Sea basins. The Caspian Sea repeatedly discharged its waters through this depression into the Black Sea and further into the Mediterranean Sea during the Quaternary period. The last discharge occurred in MIS 2 when the Khvalynian transgression waters exceeded the drainage divide between those two basins. The geochronology of the last flow of Caspian waters into the Black Sea was established recently based on 14C dating of Khvalynian shells, carried out mainly by liquid scintillation counting, and the end of this event was dated to 12.5–12.8 ka cal BP. Recently obtained OSL dates for one of the most complete sections of the Khvalynian deposits of the Manych Depression indicate an older time for the end of the flow. This study aimed to clarify the timing of the Khvalynian transgression discharge by examining two sections containing the Khvalynian mollusk fauna in layers that, according to their stratigraphic and geomorphological position, belong to the final phase of the flow of the Caspian waters. Four 14C AMS dates were obtained from single shells of Didacna ebersini and Hypanis plicata, which agree with the OSL dating results. The results indicate that the last overflow of Caspian waters through the Manych Depression had ceased at around 14.5 ka cal BP.

In Arabic treatises on algebra, Book II of Euclid’s Elements quickly became a traditional work of reference, especially for justifying quadratic equations. However, in many of these treatises we find a representation of Euclid’s notions that deviates from the “original Euclid.” In this article, I focus on the way in which propositions of Book II were understood and reported by al-Karaǧī (11th c.) in two of his algebraic writings. Inspired by the variety of arithmetical practices of his time, al-Karaǧī transposed these Euclidean propositions from geometrical objects to numbers and applied them to an algebraic context. This allowed him to combine various argumentative strategies deriving from different fields. Building upon al-Karaǧī’s work, al-Zanǧānī (13th c.) no longer needed to mention Euclid and instead conceived of a justification of quadratic equations (the “cause” of the equation) which is completely internal to algebra. These case studies provide evidence for the use of the Elements as a toolbox for the development of algebra. More importantly, they shed further light upon a typical feature of medieval mathematics, namely the existence of a plurality intrinsic in the name “Euclid.”

Avicenna’s distinction between external existence and mental existence is seminal to logic and philosophy in the Islamic tradition. This article examines philosophers who depart from Avicenna’s external-mental existence framework. They view the former as failing to support a general analysis of reality and truth, as mental existence is neither necessary nor sufficient for analyzing propositional truths, i.e., true propositions are true irrespective of “the very existence of minds” and “the perceptual acts of perceivers.” They propose that Avicenna’s semantics for categorical propositions needs revision, as there are true metathetic and hypothetical propositions, i.e., subject terms need not exist – in external reality or in a mind – for such propositions to be true. This counter-Avicennan current of thought articulates a third distinction in the analysis of reality, which focuses on the mind-independent nature of propositional content – particularly propositions with empty, hypothetical, or impossible subject terms – as a way to think generally about reality, in contrast to the Avicennan emphasis on the existential status of terms and essences. Notably, the analysis of mind-independent reality is supported by a novel semantics of “real” (ḥaqīqī) categorical propositions, which avoids external and mental existence conditions.

Nous entendons dans cet article éditer, traduire et analyser un texte datant du xiiie siècle dans lequel figurent des preuves arithmétiques de la proposition selon laquelle la somme des carrés de deux nombres impairs ne peut pas être un carré. Cette proposition avait déjà été démontrée par al-Ḫāzin au xe siècle par le biais des propositions 3 et 5 du livre II et de la proposition 22 du livre IX des Éléments d’Euclide.

Avicenna is well-known for rejecting Aristotle’s dichotomy between perception and the intellect by introducing the so-called estimative power, which connects perception and the intellect. The estimative power is similar to sensory cognition because what is estimated is always mixed with the sensibles. Additionally, the proper object of estimation is the individualised macnā, which seems similar to the object of the intellect as the intelligible macnā. Given the special role of estimation, scholars have recently begun debating whether Avicenna has a conceptualist theory of perception. This article contributes to that debate by focusing on Avicenna’s discussions about the perception of externals in Al-taclīqāt. I argue for a reading that steers between Mohammad Azadpur’s conceptualist reading and Luis Farjeat’s anti-conceptualist reading. For Avicenna, the presence of the sensible form in a sensory power is non-conceptual, but the perceptual judgement exhibits a weak epistemic conceptualism.

This study tries to shed further light on Avicenna’s (d. 1037) philosophical and linguistic innovations as suggested in his various accounts of the problem of individuation. To better contextualize his discussions, a background is given from both Porphyry’s (d. 305) Isagoge and Fārābī’s (d. 950) remarks in his Isāġūǧī. I have also enumerated all the candidates for the principle of individuation in Avicenna’s œuvre. It is argued in this paper that the pre-Avicennian Peripatetic tradition hardly engaged, both epistemologically and ontologically, with individual per se as having its own unique identity. Instead, individual was ontologically treated as instantiation of universals and epistemologically it was inquired about to the extent that it could be only told apart. Introducing the notion of individuation as tašaḫḫuṣ, instead of the traditional individuation as tamayyuz, Avicenna offers a new way of looking at intra-species differences for a more complex understanding of the individual per se. According to this view, individual with its unique šaḫṣiyya must be understood on its own through sense perception. This approach appears to propose that the individual should not be deemed as subordinate to Aristotelian universals whose assemblage, in Peripatetic thought, was vainly expected to lead to the knowledge and definition of the individual.

This article examines the processes involved in materializing the past. The recording of archaeological objects plays a pivotal role in establishing artefacts as valuable data that can be categorized, classified, and analysed to turn into historical narratives. It contributes significantly to shaping our understanding of the past: while conveying information about the objects themselves, this documentation inherently captures the subjective context of its recording and continues to influence our interpretations. In this article, both objective details and subjective conceptions are analysed from the records (drawings, photographs, reports) made at the rock figure of Karabel (Turkey), a monumental bas-relief discovered by European explorers in the 1830s. The author uses Karabel's diverse and controversial interpretations to examine how knowledge and ideas about the past evolve. To counterbalance the conventional linear interpretation of the past, he offers some insights into non-academic aspects of the monument.

Following a time in which dating through the radiocarbon method seemed to take a back seat, recent decades have seen an uptake again. This is due to new technologies used in sample analysis and the new-found ability to combine radiocarbon data with archaeological information via Bayesian statistics, a method devised and developed largely by experts from the United Kingdom. This methodology is now used by most researchers with the purpose of establishing a thorough chronology in archaeology (Bayliss 2015: 677–80).

This study uses stable and radiogenic isotopic data from Chalcolithic (c. 3000–1900 bc) humans and animals recovered from the Rego da Murta dolmens (Alvaiázere, Portugal) to understand dietary and mobility patterns in the populations using these monuments. The results suggest diets based primarily on C3 plants and terrestrial animals, with some possible variation in protein intake by age or status. Analyses of 87Sr/86Sr values identify two individuals out of ten from Rego da Murta I and four individuals out of fifteen from Rego da Murta II as migrants. These data were compared to other Chalcolithic burials in south-western Portugal: while diets were found to be similar across the region, the very high 87Sr/86Sr values recorded for two migrant humans match no known settlement in the broader region. A recent mapping study of 87Sr/86Sr values in Portugal suggests their origins may lie to the north/north-east of the dolmens.