Building on two recent contributions to this journal, this paper investigates the possible connections between Hadrian’s tour of the north-western provinces in a.d. 121–23, the expeditio Britannica, the disappearance of the Ninth Legion, the Hadrianic fire of London and the cessation of work at several sites along Hadrian’s Wall. These events are discussed as independent elements, their date ranges each narrowed to what is normally expected. The convergence of evidence invites a fresh examination of the possibility that a major security crisis erupted following the imperial visit of a.d. 122. Potential causes and consequences are briefly explored, including the apparent suppression of this ignominious episode.

Discussions of the Gallo-Roman dodecahedron often note the significance of the dodecahedron in Platonic and Pythagorean philosophy, but they tend not to relate the archaeology to the textual evidence in any detail. We attempt to do that in this paper. We argue that, whilst it remains the case that there is no contemporaneous description of the Gallo-Roman dodecahedron, there are several texts – including an overlooked passage in Iamblichus’ On the Pythagorean Life – that point to its possible inspiration. We relate these texts to the location of dodecahedra in Gaul and Britain and to the interest of the Druids in Pythagoras, which was frequently remarked upon by Roman commentators.

The natural variability of atmospheric 14C has been significantly altered by anthropogenic activities linked to technological advancements and energy consumption over the past two and a half centuries. The Suess effect, a consequence of the combustion of old carbon (fossil fuels) since the mid-18th century and the bomb peak from the mid-20th century’s thermonuclear tests, has obscured the natural 14C signal in the atmosphere. This study presents a 14C analysis of leaves, flowers, and grass collected from various locations worldwide. Over the last 10 years, more than 150 samples have been collected and used as materials for experiments conducted by students in physics lab classes (Department of Physics, ETH Zurich) or as part of school projects. Short-lived vegetal fragments are ideal material for teaching radiocarbon dating and demonstrating our research. The collection of data presented here underscores the sensitivity of radiocarbon analysis for detecting fossil carbon components. Trees from urban sites worldwide demonstrate a dilution of the atmospheric 14C concentration of 2–3%. Trees growing close to busy roads and traffic show a dilution of up to 10%. Moreover, the data show a fading trend of the bomb peak observed from 2015 to the present, as well as the direct impact of fossil CO2 on the 14C concentration of the living biota around us.

Between 2023 and 2024, the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project and the Libyan Department of Antiquities (DoA) collaborated to apply the newly-developed EAMENA Machine Learning Automated Change Detection (MLACD) method to a series of case studies across Libya. The first of these case studies concerns the region of Lefakat, south of Benghazi, which is facing rapid urbanization, placing heritage sites under immediate threat. An initial desk-based assessment was conducted to identify archaeological sites and apply the MLACD method. Following the remote sensing analyses, a team of Libyan archaeologists from the DoA conducted fieldwork to verify and validate the results. The work involved archaeological and condition assessments of the sites. The remote sensing and fieldwork survey documented 30 archaeological sites, primarily dating from the Roman period, recording new information about these sites. The threats affecting them related primarily to urbanization and vegetation growth, looting and rubbish dumping. The approach highlighted in this article combines advanced remote sensing technologies with fieldwork validation, providing a robust framework for monitoring and safeguarding archaeological sites.

The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth study, including both invasive and non-invasive chemical analyses, and lead isotope analysis, of one of the northernmost Early Neolithic copper flat axeheads in Europe, the Öja axehead from west Sweden. In addition, we present an updated catalogue of the early copper axeheads found in Sweden. Our analyses suggest that the copper used to manufacture the Öja axehead originates from eastern Serbian ore sources, confirming previous studies on other Early Neolithic metal finds from southern Scandinavia. Comparing our results with the current understanding of copper production and circulation across the continent during the 5th and 4th millennium BCE, important new questions emerge concerning early copper mining in south-east Europe and the production and consumption of early copper artefacts in Europe and Scandinavia.

This article examines endangered language protection through domestic legislation, questioning reliance on international linguistic human rights frameworks. While international courts frequently decline to enforce language rights independently, national legislation proves more effective in safeguarding linguistic diversity.

Through a comparative case study of Qatar, Lebanon, and Morocco, this research identifies effective domestic approaches to protecting linguistic diversity. Qatar’s Law No. 7 of 2019 balances Arabic promotion with minority protections. Lebanon’s multilingual educational framework and Morocco’s constitutional recognition of Tamazight demonstrate how domestic mechanisms provide substantive linguistic safeguards. These cases reveal that successful preservation requires enforceable domestic legislation rather than theoretical international frameworks lacking implementation mechanisms.

The article exposes critical gaps between idealistic international instruments and enforceable protections, advocating state-centered approaches that treat language as both cultural heritage and living practice. Effective preservation emerges from coordinated national legislation combined with community initiatives within existing human rights frameworks. This shift from international idealism to domestic pragmatism offers viable pathways for protecting global linguistic diversity – particularly urgent given that approximately 3,000 languages face extinction within the coming decades. The study presents implementable alternatives to failed international strategies, demonstrating how context-specific domestic policies achieve meaningful preservation outcomes.

A copper-alloy spear-shaped mount, found during excavations at the extramural settlement at Inveresk Roman fort, represents a rare British example of a beneficiarius lance symbol. Stylistic parallels are found among a corpus of personal ornaments used by soldiers of the beneficiarii and are typically restricted to sites on the German limes. This paper discusses the style and function of this object and what its presence reveals about Inveresk and its role in the administration and control of Roman Scotland.

Multiple terrorist attacks on cultural heritage since 2001 have drawn heritage into international security politics, reframing it from a Law of Armed Conflict issue to one of hybrid warfare. This exploratory study uses semi-structured interviews with 51 practitioners from two community groups to examine perspectives on terrorism and heritage, testing assumptions in the literature against protection practices. Findings reveal that credible, dynamic threat data is scarce, leading to reliance on historic event data to extrapolate future risks. The article proposes a new multi-layered cultural intelligence framework for more critical threat assessments and argues that concerns over religiously motivated terrorist attacks may be overstated, suggesting a shift toward considering political and ideological drivers within unconventional warfare.

Libya, a country in North Africa with vast arid regions, faces a serious water crisis. With less than 7.5 mm of rainfall each year and evaporation rates over 3,000 mm, water scarcity is a constant challenge. The country relies heavily on fossil groundwater – non-renewable underground reserves – leading to the depletion of aquifers and making water increasingly scarce. As a result, Libya has some of the lowest per-person freshwater availability in the world, with less than 200 cubic metres annually. Population growth, expanding cities and industrial development put further pressure on limited water resources, while overuse, pollution and environmental degradation worsen the situation. Projects like the Man-Made River, which transports water from the south to the north, aim to help but have not fully solved the problem. To secure water for the future, Libya needs a comprehensive, sustainable strategy based on principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This approach involves carefully planning and managing water, land and related resources in a way that considers social, economic and environmental factors. Such efforts can improve efficiency, reduce waste and pollution and boost resilience against climate change. Addressing water scarcity also requires adopting sustainable practices such as collecting rainwater, treating and reusing wastewater, desalinating seawater and promoting water- efficient technologies. Combining these strategies with infrastructure improvements can help make the most of Libya’s water resources, protect the environment, improve people’s lives and utilize concepts like virtual water and water footprinting to bridge gaps and foster better water management. A holistic, sustainable approach rooted in IWRM principles is essential for tackling the root causes of Libya’s water crisis and building a secure water future.

In this paper the Latinate gentilicia Flavius and Iulius, as well as the rank tribunus with its Punic equivalent, found in the Latino-Punic sub-corpus from the necropolis at Bir ed-Dreder are discussed. The texts date roughly to the mid fourth century AD, and attest to the continued survival of Punic in the Tripolitanian pre-desert, also in an official Roman context. While the inscriptions are difficult to understand, direct Latin influence is limited to these three nouns related to their service in the Roman army. The Roman military rank tribunus could, however, also be rendered in Punic. By all accounts, knowledge of Latin was still at best limited in this region during early Late Antiquity.

A cast copper-alloy male figurine with a circular socket projecting from its head was discovered by a metal-detectorist in West Keal, Lincolnshire, and recorded via the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) before inclusion in Britannia’s 2020 roundup. Conservation by the finder revealed further decorative details, particularly on the tunic. This contribution examines these embellishments, their stylistic affinities and implications for dating. The identification of the figure as a servant opens discussion on the luxurious domestic settings of Roman Lincolnshire and high-status sites.

The rooster-headed man in a mosaic at Brading Roman Villa on the Isle of Wight is a mystery that has attracted a dizzying range of explanations since its discovery in 1879. Three broad theories have found favour — that he represents a deity, an exotic beast to be hunted, or a hunter either with a rooster-related name or mocking the emperor Constantius Gallus. In this article I outline the problems with these theories before offering an alternative explanation — that this figure is a damnatus, and the scene an imaginative execution, a so-called ‘fatal charade’. This suggestion both facilitates a more holistic interpretation of the mosaic, and rehabilitates earlier suggestions long summarily dismissed.

Los contextos zooarqueológicos de Pampa y Norpatagonia argentina, permitieron proponer procesos de intensificación y economías de amplio espectro en sociedades cazadoras recolectoras durante el Holoceno tardío. Se presentan los resultados del estudio de los conjuntos de fauna menor del sitio Zoko Andi 1 (transición Pampeano-Patagónica oriental). El sitio presenta dos componentes arqueológicos datados en el Holoceno tardío inicial (ca. 1500-1300 años aP) y final (ca. 800-400 años aP), lo que permite evaluar si existieron cambios en las especies faunísticas explotadas a través del tiempo. Los modelos planteados para el área proponían procesos de intensificación durante los últimos 1000 años aP, pero los resultados obtenidos del análisis conjunto de las especies de tamaño mayor y menor de Zoko Andi 1 indican que las estrategias asociadas con este proceso fueron implementadas desde al menos 1500 años aP. Se discuten y analizan las causas de su desarrollo en función de la riqueza y disponibilidad de recursos y de factores relacionados con la movilidad recursiva, la redundancia ocupacional, la construcción del espacio y su valoración basada en esferas mortuorias y rituales que habrían alentado el desarrollo de estrategias diversas e intensivas en la explotación de recursos.

This paper presents an analysis of the decapitated head found in 2020 under the collapsed wall of the Cantabrian oppidum of La Loma. This settlement was besieged and destroyed by the Roman Army during the Cantabrian Wars (29–16 BCE), either towards the end of the military campaign directed by Octavius   Augustus (26 BC) himself, or during the subsequent campaign, commanded by Gaius Antistius Vetus (26–24 BCE). Radiocarbon dating, taphonomical and anthropological analysis, and DNA analysis assign the skull to one of the defenders of the hillfort. This man’s head would have been exposed on the walls as a symbol of victory before they were razed to prevent reoccupation of the settlement.

Between 2023 and 2024, the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project, in collaboration with the Libyan Department of Antiquities (DoA), organised and conducted a series of training workshops and fieldwork campaigns in Libya, funded by the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund (CPF). The workshops provided training to over 20 members of the DoA in a newly-developed Machine Learning Automated Change Detection (MLACD) tool. This remote sensing method was developed by the Leicester EAMENA team to detect landscape change and aid heritage monitoring efforts. The MLACD method was applied to four case studies in Libya: Lefakat (Cyrenaica), Bani Walid (Tripolitania), the region south of Derna (Cyrenaica) and Jarma (Fazzan). Each of these case studies was followed by a survey campaign by Libyan archaeologists to validate the results of the method, survey the archaeological sites identified, record their condition and assess the disturbances and threats affecting them. This article will provide an overview of the aims and successful outcomes of the EAMENA-CPF training programme, as well as an introduction to the MLACD method and its application to Libyan heritage, providing background and context for the individual case studies, which will be published more fully in separate articles.

Cognitive archaeology focuses on the mental processes behind human material culture, exploring the human mind for patterns of behavioural strategies and their corresponding material expression in artefacts. Sharing some of the aims and perspectives of cultural anthropology, cognitive archaeology has also been called ‘Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology’ (ECA) when it refers to hominin evolution. However, despite the abundance of publications and research projects that focus on ECA, this is a relatively new discipline, in which the earliest analyses were principally oriented to the appearance and evolution of language and symbolism. As there is no standardized method for investigating cognitive evolution, ECA researchers use multidisciplinary and wider theoretical models and methodological approaches. In this sense, partially because it is not unique to the genus Homo, stone toolmaking has been, and still is, an essential criterion for inferring hominids’ cognitive capacities. Aiming to contribute to ongoing discussions, this paper addresses and reviews some of the more relevant evolutionary cognitive approaches related to stone-tool manufacture in general and Acheulean technology in particular, aimed at building a synthesized chronological review of the discipline.