Roman remains were discovered by chance at Saf-Saf Lakhdara in the Chott Chergui (Algeria). This article attempts to demonstrate that these ruins are part of a Roman fortification in the south of Caesarian Mauretania, far from the Severan limes, the course of which has been confirmed by numerous archaeologists. A historical-comparative study has been carried out to confirm that the ruins of Saf-Saf Lakhdar are those of a castellum. The corpus of graphic and photographic records and the ‘Khnag ‘Azzir’ inscription, combined with theoretical sources on Roman defensive architecture, confirmed that the fortifications at Saf-Saf Lakhdar were part of a castellum. The ‘Khnag ‘Azzir’ inscription revealed three main facts: it is dedicated to deities to commemorate the victory over the Berber tribes of the Saharan Atlas; it mentions Caius Octavius Pudens, who was procurator during the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus; and it mentions the conflicts between Rome and the Bavarians, a tribe from the ancient Maghreb. We urgently need to protect the site and carry out excavations in the hope of finding pottery or other objects that could shed light on and support this discovery.

Sedimentary records from the Kumtag (also known as Kumtagh) Desert (KMD) in northwestern China are investigated to better understand Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes in this hyper-arid region. Presented here are the results of probably the first systematic survey of sedimentary sequences from the KMD, with the chronology determined by the optically stimulated luminescence dating. The variation of sedimentary facies, supported by granular and geochemical paleoenvironmental proxies, is used to decipher the history of Late Quaternary environment changes. The results demonstrate that a constantly dry condition characterized the eastern KMD since the last glacial maximum, but with occurrences of wetter periods. From ca. 17 to 15 ka, fluvial activity was probably triggered by melting of glaciers in mountains located south of the KMD. A distinctly drier stage (ca. 13–7 ka) was recognized due to the prominent occurrence of aeolian sands. A wetter environment likely persisted between ca. 4.4 and 2.2 ka, consistent with evidence of human activities. While the causes of paleoenvironmental changes in the eastern KMD are still a matter of debate, the melting of glaciers in the Altyn-Tagh Mountains in the south must be considered as an important factor.

Establishing the timing of glacial and nonglacial intervals in the core regions of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) is essential to constrain ice-sheet configuration at times of globally reduced ice volume, such as during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (~57–29 ka). Hudson Bay Lowland (HBL) deglaciation, at the centre of the LIS, has been inferred at MIS 3 based on near-infinite wood radiocarbon ages and limited luminescence ages. To better constrain the age of the penultimate deglaciation of the western HBL, this study initially identified the youngest intertill nonglacial sediments, based on extensive fieldwork and till characterization. Next, vetted radiocarbon ages were combined with revised stratigraphy to show that five previously identified “MIS 3” sites were likely deposited during an earlier ice-free period. Finally, new optical ages targeting the youngest intertill nonglacial bed at three localities yielded ages ranging from 166 to 146 ka; all older than MIS 3. These ages indicate that the penultimate deglaciation of the western HBL likely occurred during MIS 5e. This interpretation better explains accompanying paleobotanic data sets that indicate vegetation similar to vegetation existing under present interglacial conditions. Currently no firm evidence exists in the terrestrial stratigraphic record for the deglaciation of the western HBL during MIS 3.

Many Indigenous groups in Taiwan, including the Bunun, inhabited remote mountainous regions. Beginning in the 1930s, all mountain settlements were relocated to lower-lying areas by the colonial authorities. These groups lost the territories where they used to hunt, practice slash-and-burn agriculture, and carry out other social and cultural practices. Having being separated from their ancestral lands for decades, their knowledge of their former settlements and traditional ways of life is gradually disappearing. In recent years, there is a tendency among the younger generation of Indigenous people to organize and participate in roots-seeking expeditions. As their knowledge about the former settlements is limited, they seek help from the elderly—and archaeologists. Since 2014, I have collaborated with Bunun communities, recording their ancestors’ lands in the Lakulaku River Basin by joining archaeological surveys on roots-seeking trips. During these surveys, I had to learn Bunun values and gain knowledge of the Lakulaku River Basin via the bodily experience of moving through and being in the landscape with its traditional inhabitants. By applying remote-sensing technologies such as airborne lidar in our surveys, our team managed to identify and record settlements that were unfamiliar to the Bunun.

Most recent archaeological studies of prisoners of war have concentrated on resistance to confinement and identity creation within the camps. In contrast, the findings at Les Blanches Banques, Jersey, occupied by German military prisoners during the First World War, are here viewed through the lens of the varied placemaking strategies applied by both prisoners and camp staff. The prisoners created places of meaning within the regimented and confined conditions of their internment, but the guards were also limited by their duties in their assignment to this remote location, though all also saw the camp within its wider island landscape setting. This is the first study to consider placemaking at a prisoner of war camp at nested scales and from different perspectives.

Archaeological and ethnohistorical investigations in the south of the Colombian Plateau, in the Eastern Highlands, suggest that before European contact Guatavita was an important Muisca chiefdom—largely because of the prestige conferred by the presence of ceremonial centers in their territories, especially around the lakes in the hills surrounding the Guatavita-Guasca Valley. The fame of Lake Guatavita as the most important Muisca shrine was fueled by Spanish chronicles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which described it as the core of mass offering ceremonies or of lavish rituals for the chief's investiture, which fed both the story and the myth of El Dorado. This article presents the results of the archaeological survey done around the lake. The type and distribution of the material culture suggest that there was a shrine where small-scale ritual offerings took place, rather than conspicuous celebrations.

The Augustinian friary in Cambridge, England, was founded in the 1280s and dissolved in 1538. Investigations in 1908–9 and 2016–19 have revealed much of the friary cloister, with evidence for an initial late thirteenth–mid-fourteenth-century phase, a major phase of construction in the mid–late fourteenth century and some fifteenth-century construction. This paper will primarily consider what can be reconstructed of the claustral buildings, complemented by what is known of the rest of the friary site. The friary will also be contextualised in terms of mendicant beliefs and anti-fraternal criticisms.

The historiography of Venetian Greece has paid little attention to the colonial experience of Ithaca. While historians are served by extensive published documentary evidence for the administrations of the larger possessions in the region, the uncatalogued Venetian records at the state archive of Ithaca remain unstudied. The recent reopening of this archive has finally made it possible to survey its large Venetian collection and to provide an account of the role of the governors of Ithaca under Venetian rule. The seat of the governor was filled by Cephalonian nobles rather than by Venetian appointees in the manner of the larger Ionian islands. Here for the first time is presented a comprehensive list of Ithacan governors compiled from the Ithacan documents, together with further aid from research in the archives of Cephalonia and Venice. The account of the Ithacan governorship offered here aims to promote interest in the Ithacan archive of the Venetian administration and serve as a guide for future research into this neglected corner of the empire.

Archaeological research conducted in Morocco over the last two decades has revealed a wealth of diachronic maritime cultural heritage resources, under water and in the coastal zone. However, observation and study has revealed that natural and anthropogenic threats are impacting these resources. Given the challenges to managing maritime cultural heritage (MCH) resources in a country with such an extensive coastline and limited human managerial resources, the national heritage agency and external research institutions have developed methodologies that in part aim at mitigating these threats. This development is illustrated through three projects, briefly outlined here: the Oued Loukkos Survey, the CBDAMM Project and the MarEA Project. These projects incorporate approaches that have been tailored to the Moroccan context, considering the type of resources, the extent of the coastline, types of threats, legislation, and people and institutions involved. In conclusion, this article stresses that an interdisciplinary methodological approach to documentation is necessary in order to inform successful mitigation strategies and to plan for future interventions of MCH.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the adoption of online education across all sectors worldwide, which was particularly challenging for disciplines that rely on hands-on learning such as bioarchaeology. Although the impacts of this rapid transition have been well investigated in fields such as anatomy and forensic anthropology, there has been little research into its effects within bioarchaeology. We address this deficit by investigating two common perceptions around online learning from a bioarchaeological perspective: (1) online techniques are inadequate for teaching practical skills, and (2) online learning environments lack a sense of community, thereby negatively affecting learner experiences. To gauge learner perceptions around online practical education in this field, we conducted a qualitative survey of participants in a bioarchaeology masterclass series. Results suggest that students perceive online learning to be as effective for practical training as in-person alternatives and that online learning may engender a sense of community when offered using a collaborative, interactive approach. Based on our results we provide several key recommendations for online education in bioarchaeology, including an active emphasis on social engagement and relationship building, culturally appropriate teaching, and the use of resources to encourage flexibility in learning. A Thai-language abstract is available as Supplemental Text 1.

I propose that the usual role of the Notitia Dignitatum's ‘Saxon Shore’ forts was, on both sides of the Channel, to control chronic, ‘everyday’ piracy and to support imperial operations. An exception occurred under Carausius and Allectus when the British forts were augmented to face likely Roman invasion. There was never any integrated cross-Channel system against concerted barbarian seaborne attack, Saxon or otherwise. The ‘Saxon Shore’ was a late fourth-century political expedient, confined to Britain and with minor military significance.

Feasts in Bronze Age Crete are an important manifestation of material culture. Indications of feasting can be identified in funerary, palatial, and domestic archaeological contexts. As a result of scholarship traditionally focusing on the religious character of funerary practices and palatial feasting, convivial activities within the domestic sphere have been neglected and/or misinterpreted. As a result of this research bias, there is a notable gap in the record of in-depth archaeological analysis of the social, political and ideological reasons of performing a feast in a domestic environment (or within the bounds of a settlement itself). Researchers have found it hard to distinguish between different types of feasts based on the associated cultural material, consequently leading to misinterpretations regarding the differences in feasting symbolism and the contribution of feasting to social organisation. The re-examination of published material from the Neopalatial (c. 1700‒1500/1450 BC or Middle Minoan IIIB‒Late Minoan IB in pottery terms) sites of Pseira, Mochlos and Gournia in eastern Crete reveals that specific patterns of feasts were in fact in existence and socially performed. Furthermore, the data suggest that feasts in settlements functioned as politically motivated rituals which played a leading role in the formation of social organisation through intra-community antagonisms.

El área de Laguna del Diamante (3.000 m snm) tiene una oferta de recursos atractiva para las sociedades humanas durante los últimos 2.000 años. Este trabajo evalúa la variable intensidad en la ocupación humana en Laguna del Diamante en cinco segmentos temporales entre 2030 y 440 años cal aP. Estos segmentos se modelaron a partir de 14 fechados radiocarbónicos procedentes de tres sitios; la densidad de lascas proximales se evalúa como proxy de intensidad de ocupación. Se comparan los pulsos registrados arqueológicamente con la variabilidad ambiental vinculada a aumento/disminución de temperatura y humedad, de los últimos milenios en tres lagunas: Aculeo, Chepical y del Maule (33°-35°S). A partir de diversos indicadores —cobertura vegetal, extensión/disminución de la cubierta de hielo, cambios de la precipitación relacionados al sistema de vientos del oeste y su variabilidad debido a El Niño Oscilación del Sur— se observó en casi toda la secuencia una asociación positiva entre condiciones favorables y ocupaciones intensas. Se discute el registro de dos pulsos de mayor intensidad: entre 1200 y 1280 años cal aP, asociado con aumento de temperatura de verano e intensificación de precipitaciones; y entre 450 y 500 años cal aP, vinculado con condiciones frías y coincidente con la presencia incaica en el área.

El Japón is a 16th century hamlet site in the marshlands of the southern Basin of Mexico in central Mesoamerica. Radiocarbon (14C) dating and OxCal modeling of human bone collagen (n = 11) identifies a range of burials at El Japón cemetery from 1550–1650 cal. CE. The refined chronology identifies use of this rural settlement well after the onset of colonial government-sponsored relocation of Indigenous people to larger settlements (congregaciones). Historically documented information in this work supports chronological modeling beyond stand-alone calibration. Stable isotopic study of bone samples demonstrates similar sources of dietary protein and carbohydrates. The similarity of carbon sources for bone apatite (bioapatite) and collagen offers security that both bone fractions are viable 14C dating opportunities. Recent extension of this work examines bioapatite 14C dates (n = 5) from the same bone samples when quality parameters are met—atomic carbon-nitrogen ratios of 3.2–3.3 and collagen yield of 10–20%. No significant difference is found between collagen and bioapatite dates of the same individuals (p = 0.17, Mann-Whitney U test). 14C dates from human bone samples in this primarily terrestrial dietary context can be successfully acquired from either collagen or bioapatite fractions.

Excavations at the Wacheqsa sector from Chavin de Huantar identified contexts from the Middle Formative (1100–900 BC) and Late Formative (900–550 BC) periods. We present results of starch analysis conducted in culinary equipment (ceramics) retrieved from domestic occupations and a large midden. Microbotanical analysis revealed a variety of plant food resources, such as maize, beans, olluco, and possibly chili peppers.