During archaeological excavations at Khovle Gora, in Georgia, in the early 1960s, a remarkable artefact was discovered in the form of a footwear-shaped vessel. The vessel strongly resembles an authentic leather boot, not only due to its colour, which results from a reducing firing process, and its smooth, polished surface, but also because of its decorative elements that imitate stitching. While this particular object, unearthed at level V of Khovle Gora, is a unique find both in Shida Kartli and in the wider context of Georgia, it belongs to a widespread tradition of footwear-shaped ceramic vessels, whose presence has been documented in settlements and burial contexts across Anatolia, the South Caucasus, Northern and Northwest Iran, and Mesopotamia since at least the Late Chalcolithic period. From a cultural perspective, the pottery found alongside the footwear-shaped vessel at Khovle Gora shows typical features of East Georgian pottery of the ninth-to-seventh centuries BC, implying a chronological placement within this time period. This article examines the morphology of the vessel, which incorporates typical elements of ancient, traditionally inherited elements of South Caucasian footwear, while also highlighting its differences from contemporaneous Urartian footwear-shaped vessels.

Geophytes are hardy, resilient plants that are tolerant of cold temperatures and drought and are well documented as a reliable food source for hunter-gatherers worldwide. Human settlement patterns and foraging behaviors have long been associated with the use of nutrient-dense geophytes rich in carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Indigenous communities in the northern Great Basin developed cultural practices centered around gathering, preparing, and consuming important geophytic plants. These practices became deeply embedded in their cultural identity, forming rituals, stories, and traditions that persist today. Although there is strong ethnographic precedent for the significance of geophytes, finding evidence of their use in the archaeological record remains a challenge. This study analyzed archaeological starch residue extracted from bedrock metates in the uplands of Warner Valley, Oregon. Systematic studies of starch granules collected from extant plant communities growing near archaeological sites were applied to the identification of archaeological granules. Starch granules from geophytes, specifically Lomatium spp. (biscuitroot), were identified on metate surfaces at all sites, thus providing direct evidence for the collection and processing of geophyte vegetables. Evidence of geophyte plant processing on bedrock metates contributes to archaeological theories about subsistence strategies, food-processing technologies, social organization, and cultural practices in past human societies.

Social power establishes and legitimizes actions for individuals within a society who accept the structures that create that power. Differences in power can develop without strict hierarchies, however. Here, we explore the power differences among groups living in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico using bioarchaeological data and a case study from the Harris site, a Late Pithouse period village occupied circa AD 550–1000. Aspects of mortuary practices and supporting archaeological data offer nuanced interpretations of individuals with situational power linked to social practices that both solidified and maintained power by particular households. The power differences documented here are not based on coercion; instead, they are tied to cooperation and engagement with the community. For small-scale communities such as Harris, situational power is interpreted for individuals with access to prime agricultural land and/or ritual, or by association with certain land-holding lineages. This system is consistent with a heterarchical structure that embraced flexibility in the use of power.

Since the discovery of the TÜRKMEN-KARAHÖYÜK 1 inscription in 2019, Iron Age Anatolian scholarship has been energised by the appearance of a hitherto unknown kingdom in the Konya Plain ruled by ‘Great King Hartapu’. While the historical context of Hartapu’s inscriptions have undergone dramatic reassessment in light of the new text as well as the archaeology of the associated site Türkmen-Karahöyük, little attention has been paid to the conditions that would have contributed to the rise of this kingdom in the first place. Although archaeological data remains scarce for south-cen- tral Anatolia during the early first millennium BCE, this article proposes several factors that likely played a role in the emergence of the kingdom: cultural and economic interaction with the Neo-Assyrian Empire, similar relations with Phrygia, emulative competition with its Tabalian peer polities and a propitious ecological setting at a time of significant environmental transformations. Interspersed with these arguments are reflections and anecdotes about Hartapu, and especially the way we represent Hartapu visually, that evoke how the effort we have spent on understanding political dynamics in Hartapu’s kingdom has been disproportionately imbalanced toward Hartapu himself, with insufficient consideration having been given to longer term, structural forces. Such reflections lead us to reconsider the potentially disproportionately impactful effect of Hartapu’s monuments in antiquity, and the extent to which Hartapu’s kingdom in fact consisted of his own self-imaging.

Chichilticale is a long-sought-after location on the Coronado expedition route in southeastern Arizona. It is referred to numerous times in documents, and various expedition members stayed there, making it potentially one of the most discoverable of the Coronado expedition camp sites. Nonetheless, it remained lost until recently when data from a variety of sources provided a basis to establish hypotheses that were then tested and retested until Chichilticale was located. This site, 1 km long, has hundreds of Spanish period artifacts related to the 1539–1540 two-month winter encampment established during Melchior Díaz's reconnaissance north to check on Fray Marcos de Niza's report. Crossbow bolt heads, copper lace aglets, caret- or gable-headed nails, copper bells, and many other artifacts and features provide a surprisingly rich archaeological record of this place and of an unexpected and unrecorded battle that changes history for the Sobaipuri O'odham.

This study examines the maritime networks of Patara during the fourth and third centuries BC, employing numismatic and amphora evidence as proxies indicative of the city’s significant role in ancient maritime routes. The two types of evidence offer perspectives on two different types of connectivity. The numismatic analysis focuses on the presence in Patara of low-value civic bronze coins minted by non-Lycian cities, thereby offering a window onto human mobility at the scale of the individual traveller, not necessarily the traders. In contrast, an examination of transport amphorae imported to Patara helps to reveal the extent of Patara’s commercial connections. These findings enhance our comprehension of Patara’s crucial role in ancient maritime networks, illuminating the interdependence of Mediterranean societies during this period. They demonstrate the complexity of these networks, suggesting that different kinds of networks operated simultaneously. This research contributes to the discourse on ancient maritime mobilities, considering the overlaps and interactions between different forms and scales of connectivity.

In the major port city of Patara on the southern coast of Roman Asia Minor, excavations unearthed a pharos (lighthouse) with an inscription that referred to an antipharos (a structure ‘opposite’ the lighthouse). It is unknown where the antipharos stood in Patara’s harbour, and scholars’ brief speculations about its location all assume that the antipharos was a second lighthouse. Yet a number of factors combine to suggest that there was only one pharos at Patara, including cautious Roman nocturnal sailing practices, the norm of single lighthouses in the ancient world, evidence of the pharos’ high visibility, and the only other instance of the word antipharos referring to something other than an operating lighthouse. Instead, the antipharos was probably either an unlit tower or a beacon instead of a lighthouse. I establish six possible locations for such an antipharos, and consider their likelihood based on how they might have ameliorated dangers to sailors entering the harbour. While there is not enough evidence to be completely confident, a rock islet that was in the middle of ancient Patara’s harbour emerges as the most probable location for the antipharos. The choice to build both a pharos and an antipharos, and where to place them, can illuminate the decision processes behind Roman harbour construction and the currently little-understood meaning of the word antipharos in antiquity.

Bioarchaeologists commonly record porous cranial lesions (PCLs). They have varied etiologies but are frequently associated with nutritional anemia without a differential diagnosis. This article provides a literature review, evaluates diet in the US Southwest over time, and identifies issues with associating PCLs with poor diet in this region. Generally, diet was adequate across time and space. Although maize was a dietary staple, other food items such as rabbits and amaranth provided complementary micronutrients. PCLs exhibit varied morphologies, which generally correspond with age: those characterized by fine, scattered porosity are associated with younger ages at death. Variation in PCL morphology indicates different and sometimes unrelated etiologies. Nutritional anemia is an insufficient explanation for PCL frequency in the Southwest, partly because the diet was adequate across time.

The First Hill of Byzantium, the Greek city’s Acropolis, was later the site of the Topkapı Sarayı. Within the 55ha enclosure of the Ottoman palace are the remains of the First and Second regions of the Byzantine city including the church of Hagia Eirene and the excavated traces of other churches and buildings, but commonest are the remains of at least 33 Byzantine cisterns. Based on previous documentation and more recent observations we aim to explore their topographical setting and establish how the hydraulic infrastructure evolved over more than a millennium. In particular we address the question of changing sources of water, from the external aqueducts to rainwater harvesting. Initially we present the setting and distribution of cisterns over three distinct areas: the east flanks of the First Hill down to the Sea Walls but excluding the Mangana, the level hill including the four courts of the Saray and the west slopes including Gülhane Park. The evidence then turns to a consideration of the Byzantine written sources and Ottoman accounts of the Acropolis and the Saray. Finally, there is an attempt to interpret the subsurface as a source for the urban topography of the Byzantine district, and to set the remains in the wider context of evolving water usage and technology transfer from the Byzantine to Ottoman city. Details of the individual cisterns and their location are to be found in the online Appendix together with illustrations.*

Iroquoian groups inhabiting the St. Lawrence Valley in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD practiced agriculture and supplemented their diet with fish and a variety of wild plants and terrestrial animals. Important gaps remain in our knowledge of Iroquoian foodways, including how pottery was integrated to culinary practices and the relative importance of maize in clay-pot cooking. Lipid analyses carried out on 32 potsherds from the Dawson site (Montreal, Canada) demonstrate that pottery from this village site was used to prepare a range of foodstuffs—primarily freshwater fish and maize, but possibly also other animals and plants. The importance of aquatic resources is demonstrated by the presence of a range of molecular compounds identified as biomarkers for aquatic products, whereas the presence of maize could only be detected through isotopic analysis. Bayesian modeling suggests that maize is present in all samples and is the dominant product in at least 40% of the potsherds analyzed. This combination of analytical techniques, applied for the first time to Iroquoian pottery, provides a glimpse into Iroquoian foodways and suggests that sagamité was part of the culinary traditions at the Dawson site.

The Anatolian hieroglyphs SARMA and its variants were employed during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages to invoke the god Sarruma and as theophoric elements pointing to the same god in personal names. In this paper, these SARMA signs are analysed in order to understand the chronological development of the signs, to challenge the use of ligatures, phonetic indicators and phonetic complements with the sign, to determine the precise semantic value of the sign and whether a phonetic value can be confidently identified or dismissed, and finally to investigate how scribes creatively engaged with the sign in various usages and how readers interacted with the sign and its component elements. It will be argued that an increasingly complex phonetic conceptualisation of the sign grew alongside its semantic value, and that Iron Age scribes creatively juxtaposed signs and other graphic elements to evoke memories of the Hittite past and divine legitimation.

Since the emergence of the Thule culture (AD 1200), dog sledding has been perceived as a central means of transportation in traditional Inuit life in the Arctic. However, there is an absence of research concerning Inuit dog-sled technology and the tradition of the craft. This study investigates the Inuit dog-sled technocomplex using enskilment methodologiesby employing experimental and ethno-archaeological observations to explore the relationship between knowledge and technical practice. It involves the reconstruction of a historical West Greenlandic dog sled, shedding light on carpentry techniques and construction processes. This method emphasizes the interaction between humans, technology, and time, providing essential practical data for future archaeological and historical research, particularly for comprehending fragmented archaeological remains. By focusing on process rather than end product, this research provides insight into understanding Inuit dog sled technology and the complexity of the practice. The connection between artifacts and materially situated practice is demonstrated through the reconstruction of a dog sled, which illustrates the value of physicality in enskilment. It highlights how experimental archaeology can improve our insights into the historical and prehistoric Arctic societies’ technologies, economies, and practices.

From the late ninth to the mid-seventh century BCE, the Urartian kings expanded their polity from the Euphrates to Lake Urmia. In this context, the question of Urartian legitimacy and how it was achieved is a key issue. Previous research has suggested that rulers primarily used visual representations to appeal to different segments of society, but this article explores how royal legitimacy was also pursued through religious rituals and festivals, starting from the so-called co-regency of Išpuini and Minua (ca 820–810 BCE). By focussing on these rituals, which possibly reached a broader audience than visual representations, this study seeks to understand the roles of performance and religion in the early formation of the Urartian state.