This study explores the impact that recent Bronze Age hoard finds have had on our understanding of hoarding practices across Britain and Northern Ireland. Changes to the legislation of Treasure and the onset of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in England and Wales have produced a wealth of new information on Bronze Age hoards. Beyond a handful of studies which have focused on specific groups of hoards or the distinction between dryland/wetland deposition, however, many of these more recent finds have been overlooked. Our regional understanding of hoarding practices across Britain is also largely based on studies which are now significantly out of date. This paper aims to address this problem by providing a snapshot of hoards and hoarding practices, based on a substantial dataset of 385 hoards (containing 7210 objects) that were reported on between 1997 and 2021. Broad chronological and spatial trends in the distribution are highlighted, with precedence given to characterising these enigmatic deposits based on their size and the categories of objects within them. This investigation provides fresh insights into the selection of certain object groups – particularly axes – during certain periods and within specific regions, whilst also exploring ideas so that we might better understand the scale of metalwork deposition. This research not only demonstrates how recent hoard finds fit into traditional narratives but also how they have the potential to enhance our understanding of regional hoarding practices, offering new and exciting avenues for future research.

The rich architectural heritage of Cyprus from the period of Byzantine and Latin rule includes 10 churches inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list. Most of these monuments preserve wooden elements: whether structural, decorative or furnishings. Many preserve wall paintings that are considered among the best examples of Byzantine and Medieval art in the Eastern Mediterranean. The dating of these paintings as well as the church buildings themselves, has been based mainly on style, with occasional dedicatory inscriptions and related historical interpretation. We report early results from a project investigating the wooden cultural heritage of Cyprus and in particular the combined use of dendrochronology with radiocarbon via tree-ring sequenced 14C wiggle-matching to help place initial tree-ring sequences. This includes a floating 264-year Pinus brutia chronology from several monuments, which, with a ca. 5-year gap, suggests prospects for >700-years of P. brutia chronology for Cyprus, and, with one gap of several decades to fill, ca. 1100 years of Pinus nigra chronology for Cyprus. Several currently floating elements from the multi-phase UNESCO-listed Timios Stravros church at Pelendri, including a terminus post quem for the celebrated liturgical wooden cross, are approximately dated across the 11th to 16th centuries AD.

In-situ cosmogenic 10Be (and 26Al) concentrations in alluvial sediments provide a spatially averaged signal of the erosion rate of the catchment area. Catchmentwide erosion rates reflect the production rate of the entire basin, and their calculation requires knowledge of the complete production rate model. Available calculators determine production rates on a pixel-based approach and achieve computational efficiency by relying on a scaling method that ignores geomagnetic field strength variations. Here we introduce a new python-based tool that determines erosion rates based on the hypsometry of the catchment. The method relies on the fact that production rates are much more sensitive to changes in elevation than latitude. Our tool has two main advantages: (1) computation time is short (<30 seconds) and independent of the scaling method; there is no need to neglect magnetic field variations, and (2) because production rate scaling is performed by a widely used online calculator, the results are fully comparable to exposure ages or point-based erosion rates determined with the same calculator; future updates to production rate scaling are immediately effective for catchmentwide erosion rate calculation. We demonstrate in two case studies that (1) for similar scaling methods, our calculator reproduces pixel-based results within a few percent, and (2) erosion rates determined with different scaling methods may differ by >20%, differences can vary systematically with erosion rate, and using a time-constant scaling method may result in a bias in the interpretation of catchmentwide erosion rates.

In many areas of the world, archaeological research relies on workers without formal training in archaeology or apparent direct input into archaeological knowledge production. While these workers may appear to have little agency within the excavation process, and no direct participation in research outcomes, their role is more complex. Examples of local and international archaeological teams working in Türkiye in the mid-twentieth century and today are used here to explore the articulation of worker roles in field archaeology, as portrayed in field reports. The author assesses the language associated with team members in acknowledgements of their presence and status and examines how relationships are developed and maintained. Awareness of knowledge accumulation among local archaeological workers was articulated in the 1960s and proved advantageous to both workers and directors. Recent reports show little acknowledgement of worker presence, showing that multivocality has had no significant impact in this area of archaeological knowledge production.

Microbial processing of soil organic matter is a significant driver of C cycling, yet we lack an understanding of what shapes the turnover of this large terrestrial pool. In part, this is due to limited options for accurately identifying the source of C assimilated by microbial communities. Laboratory incubations are the most common method for this; however, they can introduce artifacts due to sample disruption and processing and can take months to produce sufficient CO2 for analysis. We present a biomass extraction method which allows for the direct 14C analysis of microbial biomolecules and compare the results to laboratory incubations. In the upper 50 cm soil depths, the Δ14C from incubations was indistinguishable from that of extracted microbial biomass. Below 50 cm, the Δ14C of the biomass was more depleted than that of the incubations, either due to the stimulation of labile C decomposition in the incubations, the inclusion of biomolecules from non-living cells in the biomass extractions, or differences in C used for assimilation versus respiration. Our results suggest that measurement of Δ14C of microbial biomass extracts can be a useful alternative to soil incubations.

A summary of the chronology for the key paleontological and archaeological site of Volchia Griva in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain is presented. Currently, 42 reliable 14C values have been generated on animal bones (37 14C dates) and charcoal (5 14C dates). Three stratigraphic levels of animal bones are established. The 14C ages of the fossils are as follows: the upper level—ca. 10,620–12,520 BP; the middle level—ca. 13,700–17,800 BP; and the lower level—ca. 18,230–19,790 BP. The majority of animal fossils and artifacts are associated with the lower level. Based on the results obtained, we suggest that Upper Paleolithic people occupied the Volchia Griva site during the second part of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ca. 18,200–19,800 BP, and perhaps occasionally afterwards. It is obvious that these humans were well adapted to the cold and dry climate of the LGM, as well as numerous other populations in Siberia south of 58°N. It is noteworthy that the youngest 14C values on woolly mammoth are of ca. 10,620–11,815 BP, and this makes the Volchia Griva one of the latest mammoth refugia in northern Eurasia outside of the Arctic.

The Black Sea is a substantial inland sea and has a very fascinating border on the east and west. It reaches into the Mediterranean through the straits, into Europe via rivers, and toward Asia via the Caucasus. The human relations developed through this network has led to the emergence of cultural landscape elements in the region. The natural landscape elements that have developed inherently in the natural beauty of the region have also become one of the most important pieces of heritage in the region. In this region, many uncontrolled practices that have taken place in recent years have rapidly degraded the cultural and natural landscape. The purpose of this study is to emphasize the beauty of nature, which makes the Eastern Black Sea region one of the most significant cultural and natural heritage areas of the world, and to explore its impact on human life in the context of water heritage as well as to address the dynamic risks of losing this beauty. In this study, the recognition of water as a heritage component is conceptually discussed in the context of the inherent cultural heritage and natural heritage. The unifying and integrative power of the multicultural water heritage that the region possesses is explicated.

We have radiocarbon-dated the main settlement of Skarkos (Skarkos II) on the Cycladic island of Ios, using a set of animal bone samples. The site of Skarkos stands on a hill in a coastal plain, mid-way down the western side of Ios island and about 1 km from the island’s harbour. It is the first time this important settlement with a wealth of finds and an extraordinary building system with two-storey houses is dated in absolute terms complementing the chronology of the Cycladic EBA II period. The radiocarbon determinations show that the major phase of the settlement came to an end between circa 2550 and circa 2500 BC. The dates also confirm the archaeological evidence that the main occupation period is dated archaeologically to the EC II period (Keros-Syros culture). Furthermore, in order to embed the new Skarkos dates within the overall Cycladic chronology and define better the end of the EC II phase, we treated the Skarkos dates together with published dates from other Cycladic sites using Bayesian analysis considering two different models.