This study examines the overlooked protests at the 1968 Venice Biennale to reassess the role of the media in Italy’s sessantotto. While mainstream newspapers largely dismissed the student and cultural demonstrations, illustrated magazines and television news offered more varied and sometimes sympathetic coverage, reaching millions. First-hand accounts of police violence in the work of photojournalist Gianni Berengo Gardin and in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s evolving commentary for Tempo magazine show that protest could come from within the media itself. The analysis highlights the significance of television’s innovative current affairs programming, which, despite censorship, brought global and Italian unrest into homes. By exploring the media ecosystem beyond newspapers – magazines, photojournalism, and television – this research shows how these platforms played a crucial role in shaping public understanding of 1968’s cultural and political conflicts, offering a fresh interpretation of Italy’s ‘1968’ and the complex relationship between protest and the media.

Land snail shells are usually avoided for radiocarbon dating, due to the possible presence of dead carbon, although measurements on certain small species can be reliable. However, terrestrial gastropods, which are often abundant and well preserved in favorable sedimentary contexts, may represent an important source of material for precise dating. In this study, the shell selection method and radiocarbon results are presented, based on about twenty dates, from well-known and reliable archaeological contexts mostly from the Languedoc (southern France) and covering different cultural periods of the Holocene. Chronological controls are provided by dates based on plant remains, archaeological artifacts and stratigraphy, as well as geomorphological and environmental interpretations. The results obtained based on gastropod shells show a good agreement with the expected dates. In some examples, the target period is quite large, making it difficult to determine the degree of accuracy. However, other tests give perfectly synchronous dates between botanical or archaeological material and mollusks. Species selection takes into account that terrestrial gastropods living in the midst of vegetation are less likely to ingest fossil carbon and are therefore better suited for dating, especially wetland species, Succinella oblonga and Vertigo pygmaea. These promising results show the potential of terrestrial shells for dating archaeological sequences when prevailing biological material such as charcoal is lacking or is unreliable.

Five unknown Holocene flank eruptions from the Masaya caldera are reported here. These eruptions comprise basaltic lava flows emplaced in Masaya’s northern rift zone along the Cofradía fault zone, east of Managua City. The lava flows were defined as Mosintepe, Portillo, Gorgonia, Campuzano, and Martha units. Paleosol samples were collected below each lava flow, and radiocarbon AMS analyses were performed, yielding ages of 2250 ± 30, 1610 ± 30, 1600 ± 30, 1140 ± 30, and 790 ± 30 yrs BP, respectively. Calibrated age intervals are 285–229 cal BC for Mosintepe, 496–534 cal AD for Portillo, 496–535 cal AD for Gorgonia, 914–976 cal AD for Campuzano, and 1226–1268 cal AD for Martha; all stratigraphically consistent. These eruptions emitted magma bulk volumes between 0.02 and 0.51 km3, reaching up to 8 km from their eruptive vent and 13 km from Masaya’s polygenetic system summit crater. Their mineral paragenesis, and major and trace element geochemical fingerprint reveals a common volcanic provenance from the Masaya caldera due to lateral magma draining. This study demonstrates that basaltic lava flow flank eruptions are common in the Masaya caldera along its northern volcanic rift zone. Therefore, this information should be considered in future hazard and risk assessments.

The green tree python is quite a favorite pet for sale on the international market. The species is therefore protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Since the illegal poaching of large numbers of specimens in the wild might lead to the detriment of native populations, and wildlife breeding farms were found to be serving as conduits to funnel wild-caught green tree pythons out of Indonesia, a forensic tool to distinguish wild-caught from captive-bred specimens could support the enforcement of CITES protections. To disrupt the illegal trade of green tree pythons, we have developed an effective tool to distinguish the animals supposedly bred in captivity from those caught in the wild, based on the strontium isotope composition in conjunction with trace element data. Like in human hair, 87Sr/86Sr values seem to vary according to the relative contribution of endogenous and exogenous sources. Thus, we infer that if there is enough sustainable strontium available for the analysis, it might be possible to use the 87Sr/86Sr values in parallel with trace elements to distinguish wild-originated specimens from the in captivity-bred ones. Indeed, our pilot study on the shed skins of animals where the geographic origin was either the Czech Republic or Indonesia, confirms that shed skins can be effectively used for further forensic Sr radiogenic isotope analyses.

A recent fluorescence of geophysical and archaeological research in Catholic cemeteries illustrates the benefits and challenges of community-engaged projects. Focusing on four ongoing case studies in coastal Virginia and Maryland (the Chesapeake region)—St. Mary’s Basilica (Norfolk, Virginia); Brent Cemetery (Stafford County, Virginia); Sacred Heart Church (Prince George’s County, Maryland); and St. Nicholas Cemetery (St. Mary’s County, Maryland)—this article explores a variety of archaeological strategies in the context of community engagement. These approaches are shaped by the physical characteristics of cemetery sites, the Catholic diocesan or church communities that oversee them, and the African American descendant communities affected by them. The built environment of cemeteries highlights the way that racism and segregation have shaped both the landscape and public memory of Catholic cemeteries in the Chesapeake region.

This paper examines clothing depicted in the portraits painted on the walls of the tombs of elites at various settlements in Campania and Lucania in southwest Italy in the fourth century BC, as it provides important information on sartorial appearances and self-perception, especially in view of the dearth of textiles and lack of textual sources. It investigates the interconnected relationship between dress behaviour, ethnic identity and social status among independent Italic groups in the region in this century, a time of political and cultural tensions triggered by Rome’s aggressive expansion of its territorial control. The images, as well as the material culture from grave assemblages, indicate that people expressed who they thought they were through clothing and dress accessories and that this happened on a local basis rather than on a large scale or ‘national’ level. It was predominantly women who were expressing group belonging through specific garments and styles, headdresses, colours and patterns. These images painted for perpetuity offer us a precious window on dress behaviour and they suggest that women were the primary bearers of small-scale community identities in funerary representation and in life in this period of political and social change.