The intense use of scientific dating over the last three decades makes it possible for the first time reasonably to connect the topographically diverse parts of the Hittite capital Ḫattuša. Not only was the decision to found a city at this site based on pre-Hittite parameters, but at the same time, it also becomes clear that the settlement is one of the very few in Anatolia which was continuously used from the end of the third millennium BC through the second millennium until the beginning of the Iron Age. Furthermore, the accumulation of radiocarbon dates in individual, archaeologically intensively studied areas of the site makes it now possible to understand the development as a dynamic and fluent process. Based on the results outlined here, permanent moves back and forth of the settled areas within a geographically defined space can be reconstructed. The Hittite city of Ḫattuša was always a construction site. Next to densely built-up districts there existed at all times large expanses of either ruins of buildings or of open spaces, which could have been used as pasture or arable land. The settlement’s map, regularly reproduced as its overall plan, thus represents a status reconstructed or idealised by modern research. Most probably the settlement was at no time occupied to this extent, and accordingly never looked like this in its history.

This article revisits ‘the problem of Classical Ionia’, the long-persisting idea put forward by John Manuel Cook in 1961 that Ionia experienced regional economic impoverishment in the fifth century BCE. By looking comprehensively at the dataset of coinage available from fifth-century Ionia, this article argues that there is actually significant evidence for regional networking in Classical Ionia, and that various communities, even if not continually emitting new coinages at all points in the fifth century, adopted various strategies for maintaining their economic reach and extending their network of trading partners. Formal network analysis is applied to the coinage dataset, taking the shared weight standards to which communities minted their coins as indicative of participation in common economic networks. The network patterns are tested against two other patterns, specifically the distribution of fifth-century Chian and Samian amphoras, and the pattern of Ionian-coin-containing hoards from within and beyond Ionia. Together, these patterns strengthen the case for a high-level Ionian economic resilience, offering a radically different position to Cook and reaffirming that continuing economic networking was crucial to the activities of fifth-century Ionian states.

This article reassesses the so-called Nereid Monument (ca 380 BCE) at Xanthos in Lycia by focusing on the narrative and symbolic role of female figures within its sculptural programme. Constructed as the tomb for the Lycian dynast Erbbina, the monument has been noted for its over-human-size sculpture of Nereids, its historicising city-siege reliefs, as well as its spectacular fusion of visual and architectural styles, motifs and themes from various contexts throughout the Aegean and Anatolia. Building on this scholarship, I turn specifically to the monument’s innovative representations of non-mythological women in prominent areas of its visual programme: Erbbina’s dynastic consort and a distressed woman who is caught in the throes of military violence. By focusing on the role of female bodies in Erbbina’s funerary qua triumphal monument, I argue for the important narrative function of female bodies in articulating dynastic legitimacy and continuity. Finally, this article comments on the importance of femininity in addition to masculinity in dynastic expressions in the fourth century, thus anticipating major art-historical changes in the art of power at the beginning of the Hellenistic period.

This paper discusses the hitherto virtually unknown Byzantine cave monastery in the Ilgarini mağarası in the district of Pınarbaşı/Kastamonu based on its building remains, graffiti (mostly crosses), burials and notable finds. The remains were recorded during two brief surveys in 2012 and 2022. To shed light on the history of the site, an attempt is made to contex- tualise it within the mountainous regions of Middle Byzantine Paphlagonia, as well as with Middle Byzantine texts that relate to monasticism and might refer to the site. Research produces tentative evidence that the Ilgarini mağarası may be identified with the Chryse Petra known from several Byzantine texts, most prominently the Life of St Nikon Metanoite.

The comparisons among 126 14C dates of Carex samples including separated leaf and root parts with acid (A)-treatment and acid-base-acid (ABA)-treatment, and 48 published 14C dates of bulk peat plants on a 92-cm core from Jinchuan Mire in NE China, indicate old carbon influence (OCI) on the 14C dates. The OCI varies with plant species, pretreatment and peat depth. In vascular peat plants such as Carex, humin fractions (remains after ABA treatment) and humic acids are representative of the original plant precursor, while fulvic acids are regarded as the secondary mobile product which should be removed for 14C dating. ABA- treatment removes both fulvic acids and humic acids, whereas A-treatment gets rid of only fulvic acids. Carex roots uptake more dissolved CO2 in peat water. Carex leaves may use more CO2 (involving degassing CO2) above the peat surface. By removing humic acids throughout ABA treatment, the OCI may vary differently over depth (time). ABA treatment cannot eliminate the fixed OCI in humin fractions of vascular peat plants, instead, this treatment may enhance OCI by removing humic acid which may represent the true age of the plants. In addition, Bacon model results on this core could not show rapid changes in accumulation rate.

A major problem in collections management is the lack of training about collections in all facets of archaeology. Ignorance about both ethical obligations and practical steps associated with collections is arguably the leading contributor to the ongoing curation crisis. This work summarizes shortcomings in collections training in academia and in cultural resource management, and it proceeds to identify some steps that can be taken to provide training for students and professional archaeologists. The overriding argument is that more training in all aspects of collections is absolutely essential to addressing and beginning to mitigate the overwhelming problems the discipline faces in caring for archaeological collections.

The concept of a loess transportation surface portends that saltating sands deflate silt/dust and send them into suspension. This process continues until a topographic barrier stops the saltating sand, allowing loess deposits to accumulate downwind. This paper reports on loess transportation surfaces in west-central Wisconsin, USA. During the postglacial period, cold, dry conditions coincided with strong northwesterly winds to initiate widespread saltation of freely available sands, deflating any preexisting loess deposits. Large parts of the study area are transportation surfaces, and lack loess. Loess deposits were only able to accumulate at “protected” sites—downwind from (east of) topographic barriers, such as isolated bedrock uplands and the north-to-south flowing Black River. Loess in locations from these barriers is thicker (sometimes >5 m) than would be expected, and in places has even accumulated above preexisting loess deposits. For example, downwind (east) of the Black River, most of the low-relief landscape is covered with ≈40–70 cm of silty loess, even though it is many tens of kilometers from the initial loess source. Upwind of the river, on the transportation surface, the low-relief landscape is only intermittently mantled with thin, scattered deposits of silty-sandy eolian sediment, and generally lacks loess.

Sounds produced by humans and their environment are perceived and codified based on people's experiences as members of social groups, resulting in some sounds being used as means of communication. In this article, we present an archaeoacoustic study of diverse types of instruments excavated or collected from Comalcalco and Jonuta, two important pre-Hispanic Maya sites located in the modern state of Tabasco (Mexico). We propose a methodology to analyze organological and acoustic characteristics for each type of instrument, considering their relevant archaeological information, so as to provide some interpretations of how sounds could have been materialized, shared, and used in specific moments of Maya ritual and daily life.