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.

This essay considers a mode of thought and a tradition of composition inculcated by four Latin writers, the translator of Anatolius of Laodicea’s De ratione paschali (post ad 283, ante ad 402), Evagrius of Antioch’s translation of Athanasius’s Life of Saint Antony (c ad 360–74), Jerome’s Biblia Vulgata (ad 382) and Sulpicius Severus’s Vita Sancti Martini (ad 397), based upon the Life of Antony, and his latercus (ad 410), based upon the work of Anatolius, all texts known in these islands during the period from ad 410–25 to the seventh century. A simple calculus of literary composition in the anonymous Lindisfarne Life of Saint Cuthbert, dedicated to Eadfrith bishop of Lindisfarne in ad 698, is exhibited in the iconographic elements of the Evangelists’ portraits in the Lindisfarne Gospels, written and illuminated by Eadfrith. The same calculus is displayed both in the iconographic designs and in the inscriptions in Northumbrian Old English and Latin on the Franks Casket of c ad 700 and on the Ruthwell Cross of c ad 730–5.

This article investigates Indigenous persistence within Mission Santa Clara de Asís in central California through the analysis of animal food remains. The Spanish colonial mission system within Alta California had a profound social and ecological impact on Indigenous peoples, altering traditional subsistence strategies and foodway patterns. Past research has highlighted the continued use of precolonial foods within the Alta California mission system alongside the daily consumption of colonial-style beef stews. This article expands on that literature to consider how Indigenous and colonial residents differentially acquired ingredients and prepared daily meals within the Alta California colonial mission system. This assessment demonstrates a sharp divergence between Indigenous and colonists’ daily diet, manifested in the continued use of wild food resources by Indigenous people as well as the maintenance of precolonial culinary practices in the preparation of cattle meat for daily stews. These findings complicate our understanding of foodways within the Spanish mission system and expand our understanding of Indigenous autonomy within conditions of colonialism.

2020 saw the celebration of significant anniversaries connected with several medieval English saints, led most notably by the triple anniversary of the birth (1120), death (1170) and translation (1220) of St Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury (1162–70, canonised 1173). This offered scholars an occasion to review and revisit important aspects of the documentary sources and material culture relating to the saints’ cults in England and across Europe. The celebrations of St Thomas Becket also coincided with the 700th anniversary of the canonisation of St Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford (1275–82, canonised 1320). Renewed scholarly interest in Cantilupe’s posthumous cult has particularly offered insights into daily life and devotion in late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century England and Wales. Likewise, it has recently been demonstrated that, in the wake of the Cantilupe cult at Hereford Cathedral, a period of intense church building occurred throughout the diocese. This paper is the first to assemble and publish a comprehensive catalogue of all known lost and surviving iconographical images of Cantilupe from the Middle Ages. More significantly, keeping the 2020 celebrations of both the Becket and Cantilupe cults in mind, this paper is the first to bring attention to all the examples of medieval iconography that associate England’s two Thomases, demonstrating how Becket was utilised as a model of sanctity par excellence with Cantilupe presented as a ‘second Becket’.

Late Quaternary fluvial channel deposits are notoriously difficult to date. In the midwestern United States, shells of aquatic mollusks can be found within many fluvial channel sediments and therefore can be radiocarbon (14C) dated to determine the age of the deposits. However, carbonate platform rocks are abundant in this region, potentially causing freshwater 14C reservoir effects (FRE) in mollusk shells. We 14C dated 11 aquatic gastropod and bivalve shell samples from specimens collected live from a stream in southwestern Ohio during three different years to assess the modern 14C reservoir effect. Modern samples yielded an average 14C FREmodern of 518 ± 65 14C yrs for 2020 (n=5), 640 ± 34 14C yrs for 2021 (n=2), and 707 ± 76 14C yrs for 2022 (n=4). We also 14C dated matched pairs of organic wood or charcoal and aquatic mollusk shells from late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits in the Four Mile Creek floodplain to determine the FREfossil. These samples, free of any potential influence from nuclear bomb testing, yielded an overall weighted mean FREfossil of 1029 ± 345 14C yrs. We then assess the advantages and limitations of both the FREmodern and FREfossil methods for determining freshwater reservoir effects. Finally, we apply the FREfossil correction to a series of shell ages from fluvial terrace deposits as a case study. The results indicate that although there is a 14C FRE in streams from the midwestern United States, aquatic shells can provide robust age control on fluvial channel deposits. More research is needed to understand the spatial and temporal variability of FREs, as well as any species effects, among various watersheds across the midwestern United States.