In the second half of the first century ce, the Romans built a fort at the mouth of the river Apsaros on the coast of Colchis. A Roman garrison was stationed there also in the second century and first half of the third. One of the reasons for fortifying the estuary of the river, given by both Pliny the Elder and Arrian, was the immediate vicinity of the kingdom of Iberia. Both Roman authors also described the local tribes living on the coast between Trebizond and Apsaros and further north. One wonders whether they were the indigenous population of the region and what kind of a relationship they had with the Roman Empire. This study searches for answers to these questions in the preserved written sources and in the archaeological record.

When archaeologists discuss ‘ancestor cults’ or ‘ancestor veneration’, what this might entail in practice usually remains vague, leading to charges that the concept of ‘ancestors’ is often applied generically. In this article, the authors combine bioarchaeological, taphonomic, radiocarbon, and isotopic studies to explore the ritual practice of the selective retention, curation, and deposition of a group of human crania and mandibles. Between 5500–5400 bc, Neolithic people at Masseria Candelaro (Puglia, Italy) deposited broken crania and mandibles from about fifteen individuals in a heap in the centre of the village. These individuals were mostly probable males, collected over the course of two centuries and actively used, with their deposition marking the final disposal of a ritual collection. The motivations for the curation of cranial bone are investigated through comparison with archaeological and ethnographic examples, advancing an interpretation of ritual practice directed towards ancestors.

The Inka empire's expansion incorporated diverse cultural and ecological elements in microcosmic representations of their empire. Imperial practices included the resettlement of communities from various regions into labour enclaves near Inka ceremonial, administrative and economic hubs. This degree of imperial control might suggest a limitation on Inka subjects’ freedom to integrate non-local food resources into their diets. Employing starch grain analysis from stone tools, we seek to identify the range of plant food sources and examine the extent to which the Inka imposed constraints on inter-community interactions and the exchange of comestibles. Focusing on a translocated labour force residing near the Inka provincial centre of Vilcashuamán, our findings reveal the consumption of a variety of edible plants originating from multiple, occasionally distant, ecological regions. The results indicate that, in contrast to the restrictions on trade of other commodities as recorded in ethnohistorical accounts and previous archaeological research, the exchange of edible plant species among the subjugated peoples may have been less regulated. This study demonstrates how food landscapes potentially served as loci of resistance to the Inka empire's manipulative cosmopolitanism.

Textiles have long been recognized as a key feature in the economic and social development of early complex societies. Many comparative dimensions, however, remain unexplored, including within the ancient Near East. Unlike contemporary societies in Syria and Mesopotamia, wool was not used as a staple finance good in the Early Bronze Age southern Levant (c. 3700–2000 bce) since the landscape could not permit adequately scaled production. In larger cultural regions wool was produced at vast scales and helped underpin royal institutions. But without a non-perishable, high-volume and high-value commodity like wool, staple finance in the southern Levant was restricted to seasonally produced grain, wine and oil, primarily used in exchange for local labour. Moreover, without wool there was little need in the southern Levant for the administrative and security technologies used elsewhere, namely seals and sealing, and later, writing. This limited the development of complex institutions and cognitive abilities.

This article seeks to contribute to the growing scholarship on object-focused Roman histories by expanding the conversation to previously overlooked archaeological finds from Roman Palestine. This case study focuses on “Northern Collar-Neck Lamps,” which have been found throughout Roman Galilee and date to the first two centuries CE. I argue that their distinctive high collar, perhaps designed to reduce spillage, also served as an affordance that invited additional modes of interaction, namely placing a supplemental reservoir for oil – such as a pierced eggshell – over the filling hole. Once set up, this would allow for a slow drip of oil to prolong illumination time without human intervention. This usage is suggested from chronologically and geographically proximate sources, namely early rabbinic literature: Hebrew and Aramaic writings from the first centuries that reference physical details and uses of hundreds of objects and could prove helpful for future material histories of the Roman era.

There is an urgent need for climate change–informed decision-making and adaptation actions for cultural heritage. Challenges arise in incorporating and balancing multiple considerations, including robust understandings of climate change vulnerability, the objectives of current management paradigms, the need for meaningful engagement, the risk of maladaptation, and constrained resources to implement. We offer a conceptual framework and guide to integrate climate science and cultural heritage management to produce a range of adaptation actions for cultural heritage, categorized as Acclimate, Dislocate, Abandon, Protect, and Tell the Story (ADAPT) approaches. The ADAPT framework is intended to aid archaeologists and other cultural heritage managers in developing and evaluating possible adaptation actions that directly respond to findings from climate change vulnerability assessments, critically integrating management postures and constraints, and coproducing climate change adaptations with Indigenous rightsholders and community stakeholders.

The site of Guiengola is an example of one of the settlements built by the Zapotecs during their fourteenth- to fifteenth-century migration to the Southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Although Guiengola is well known in the ethnohistorical record as being the place where the Mexica armies were defeated by Zapotec forces during the late fifteenth century, the full extension of the site was previously unknown. Despite evidence of a dense population at the site, it has been mistakenly characterized as a fortress for housing soldiers and troops from the nearby town of Tehuantepec. Here, I present the research of the Guiengola Archeological Project, which conducted a lidar scan and archaeological surveys between 2018 and 2023. In this article, I share a comprehensive map of Guiengola, a Postclassic Mesoamerican city. My analysis identifies a large settlement that covered 360 ha and included a walled system of fortifications, an internal road network, and a hierarchically organized city. The findings of this project expand our understanding of the variations and social divisions in the city's internal urban organization, which in turn, allow us to deepen our comprehension of the transition to the Early Colonial barrio organization of Tehuantepec.

We review shoreline monitoring methodologies used by members of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) Archaeology, Geology, and Wildlife Biology teams from February 2021 to December 2022 on Pockoy Island in Charleston County, South Carolina, USA. Our project objectives were to better understand the driving forces behind the landward movement of the shoreline (transgression), to apply new understanding to the rate of shoreline erosion of the island that directly impacts the Pockoy Island Shell Ring Complex (38CH2533), and to establish best practice for future community science monitoring efforts. Each member of our team used a different shoreline monitoring methodology (a nested methodology approach). Multiple unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV)-derived orthoimagery datasets, on-the-ground transect measurements, and Arrow Gold real-time kinematic (RTK) unit measurements have been collected monthly following significant storms or king (perigean) tide events. Moving forward, the erosion transect approach tested within this project will serve as the foundation for community science monitoring at heritage at-risk sites in South Carolina. In this article, we introduce initial efforts in establishing a community science monitoring program in South Carolina that will influence future research, land management, and policy, and we propose how our research might be adapted for other sites at risk.

In 2003, rescue excavations at Piazzeta dell'Anfiteatro, Trento, identified an extramural funerary area dated to the 5th c. CE. The necropolis yielded 45 coins (3rd–5th c.), most of which were involuntary losses. Owing to the sound stratigraphy of the site, these coins present a reliable sample of coinage circulating in Tridentum during the 5th c. This study presents a brief synthesis of the transformations undergone by the Late Antique city, so as to understand the dynamics attested in Piazzeta dell'Anfiteatro, a description of the stratigraphic units that contained coins, and a detailed analysis of the coins from several perspectives. The aim is to improve our understanding of the Late Antique monetary history of the city and Trentino's territory.

Historical changes from shifting land use, the natural meandering of waterways, and the aftereffects of erosion complicate modern environments and obfuscate precontact landscapes. Although archaeologists can create stratified sampling models or employ systematic surveys, traditional field methodologies are often not suitable for site discovery, thereby limiting knowledge of ancient cultural landscapes. Many water systems in southern Louisiana, and in many parts of the world, have been covered or concealed in backswamps by natural geomorphological processes, development, or environmental degradation. Investigation standards that do not account for these changes will not be effective at identifying archaeological sites in such transformed landscapes. Discoveries made during ongoing archaeological research in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, provide examples of what can be missed and offer solutions through changes in archaeological field methods. This article advocates for a mixed-methodology approach, drawing from historical research and shallow geophysics to look at landforms and landscape changes. Strictly following state survey guidelines can muddle the archaeological record, particularly in places subject to significant landscape change from historical land-use alteration. By applying these approaches, we offer a way to reconstruct ancient landscapes and landforms that are culturally significant but often missed given the nature of modern environmental conditions.