Este estudio contribuye al entendimiento de la interrelación entre cambio ambiental, modificaciones en las estrategias de subsistencia y movilidad de grupos cazadores-recolectores, y la incorporación de nuevas tecnologías de captura y procesamiento de recursos durante el Holoceno tardío en el centro-oeste de Santa Cruz, Patagonia meridional, Argentina. Se presentan valores inéditos de δ13C sobre apatita y valores de δ15N y δ13C sobre colágeno de 42 individuos recuperados en estructuras de entierros con diferentes cronologías. Se utilizó el concepto de nicho isotópico para entender las continuidades y/o cambios de la dieta cazadora-recolectora. Se evaluó si hubo variaciones temporales y sexuales entre los nichos isotópicos de los individuos con patrones diferentes de organización social y económica en momentos previos y posteriores a los 900 años aP. Los resultados indican cambios en la dieta en los últimos 1.000 años, lo que se plasmó en valores más bajos en δ13Capa de los individuos enterrados en los chenques tardíos y, en particular, en las mujeres. De esta manera, la información paleodietaria apoya la hipótesis de modificaciones en el nicho isotópico a través del tiempo.

The Linear B administrative texts of Late Bronze Age Greece were written on clay tablets, whose production therefore formed the first stage in the process of document creation, though it generally remains unclear whether the tablets’ writers were also their makers. This study combines experimental archaeology with autopsy of the tablets from Pylos in order to investigate the methods by which the Linear B tablets were created at this site. It thereby sheds light not only on the physical processes involved in shaping the clay, but also on the decisions involved on the part of the tablet-makers, and hence on the relationship between the ‘making’ and ‘writing’ stages of the process of creating the Linear B documents.

Anthropologists have demonstrated that having information about new settlements is crucial for drawing migrants. Pilgrimage to ritual landscapes and their shrines allows people, including Maya societies, to explore places where they can settle. They then establish or augment settlements around the landscape shrines, which explains the locations and growth of some centers. Migrants continue to make pilgrimages to shrines, such as sacred mountains, near their receiving settlements to enhance community cohesion through ritual contact with spiritual forces. In this article, I show that pilgrimage is an important element in the establishment of select migrant settlements and their community identity. I focus on Maya and Mesoamerican cultures, particularly at Mensabak in Chiapas, Mexico, and on supporting archaeological, historical, and ethnographic information. I conclude that Maya perceptions of movement, connectivity, and transformation in their world are linked to pilgrimage, migration, and community formation. Importantly, pilgrimage provides a religious variable, in addition to better-known economic, political, or demographic factors, to consider in migration.

The north-western Negev is an under-researched ecotonal region. We excavated two late Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites and recovered rich lithic industries that could be refitted, as well as remains of fauna, and charcoal. Palaeoenvironmental information and dates indicate interesting inter-site differences.

In 1936 the author, politician and garden designer Harold Nicolson bought four, round antique altars and a Corinthian capital from the sale of Shanganagh Castle, Co Wicklow. Nicolson and his wife, Vita Sackville-West, placed these marbles in a garden compartment at Sissinghurst that was intended to evoke the landscape and antiquities of the Cycladic island of Delos. These are among the most important antiquities in the collections of the National Trust, yet their provenance and significance has been obscured by their presumed status as ‘mere’ ornaments to the celebrated gardens at Sissinghurst Castle. This paper traces the provenance of this group of antiquities back to Delos and their discovery by a hero of the Greek War of Independence. Historic context for Vita and Harold’s use of the altars as adornments to their garden will be examined in the context of earlier use of similar Delian altars in earlier garden design – the seventeenth-century ‘garden museum’ at Arundel House, Strand, London, or the eighteenth-century gardens at Wrest Park. Finally, entry of the Sissinghurst altars into British collections will be examined through a political lens and through Nicolson’s philhellenism.

We present a photogrammetric model and new line drawing of Sacul Stela 3 at the ancient Maya site of Sacul 1, Guatemala. Although virtually illegible in person and from photographs, the inscription on the eroded stela can largely be read or reconstructed in the 3D model. Our reading confirms a previous argument that the kingdom based at Sacul 1 was attacked in A.D. 779 by forces from the site of Ucanal. Traveling by night, warriors from Sacul retaliated with a raid at dawn next day on an unidentified site and, months later, followed up with an attack on Ucanal itself. The same narrative appears substantially on a well-known monument, Ixkun Stela 2, but there are differences between the two texts which suggest that Sacul and Ixkun had their own sculptors and record-keepers and which offer insights into the implications of verbs (pul, “to burn” and ch'ak, “to chop”) commonly attested in Classic Maya accounts of war. We then present the results of GIS analysis which suggests that the site area of El Rosario (between Sacul 1 and Ucanal) is an appealing candidate for the unidentified site mentioned in the stela text.

The lack of radiocarbon measurements of funerary contexts is a major shortcoming of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of the Eastern Carpathian Basin, especially in the Banat region. The present batch of samples tries to address these drawbacks, by detailing sampling strategies, employed pre-treatment and by providing a robust and coherent dataset of radiocarbon measurements. Implications of the new radiocarbon dates is discussed from a supra-regional perspective, while keeping aspects of typo-chronology, circulation of goods, and social nuances of employment of Bronze Age bronzes in the forefront. Ten burials were selected from four Banatian burial grounds according to the occurrence of metal finds in the funerary inventories. Beyond establishing a broad frame of absolute chronology for these sites of interment, the radiocarbon data provide reliable arguments for the precise attribution of metal discoveries. In addition, the data allow us to challenge some previously stated chronological assignments.

A high-resolution multiproxy lake sediment dataset, comprising lithology, radiography, μXRF elemental, magnetic susceptibility (MS), δ13C, and δ18O measurements since ca. AD 400 is presented in this study. Changes in lithology, radiography, magnetic susceptibility (MS), δ13C, and δ18O reflect wet/dry climate periods, whereas variability in log(Ca/K) can reflect warm/cold climate periods. Analyses of the multiproxy results allow the distinction of several climate periods, which may be associated with climatic phenomena such as changes in North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and/or solar activity. The influence of NAO−/NAO+ (negative/positive) is suggested to be related with the southward/northward displacement of the storm tracks resulting from the NAO−/NAO+ phases. For solar activity, the influence is explained through a direct increase in solar heating leading to calcite precipitation. The Dark Ages Cold Period (DACP, AD 450–750) reflects cold-dry climate conditions at this site, indicative of a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO+) and low solar activity. The Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, AD 950–1250) exhibits wet-dry-wet and warm-cold-warm climate conditions. The wet/dry periods likely are associated with NAO−/NAO+, respectively, and the warm/cold period may reflect relatively high/low solar activity. The Little Ice Age (LIA, AD 1400–1850) is characterized by dry and cold climate conditions, suggesting the influence of NAO+ and low solar activity. Comparison of the results of this study with local and regional results suggests a generally similar climate pattern, which is indicative of similar climate mechanisms. The contradictions can be associated with age-related uncertainties, orographic differences, and/or other regional teleconnections.

This paper describes the analysis of the Late Prehispanic rock-art site of Villavil 2 (Catamarca, Argentina). Despite its modest and inconspicuous nature, this is one of the few examples of rock-art sites known in the area to date. The relationship of the site with the surrounding landscape and the distribution of rock art throughout the site are analysed using a combination of GIS and 3D modelling. This analysis makes it possible to gain an understanding of the factors behind the location and distribution of rock art on different spatial scales. The interpretation presented here suggests that this rock art reproduces, on a modest local scale, patterns of production of Inka landscapes of control and dominion that have been recognized elsewhere, in sites with a much more obvious monumental scale. The internal organization of the site mimics, on a small scale, forms of interaction with the wider landscape that have been regionally observed, usually focusing on more conspicuous elements such as architecture.

The symbiotic relationship between people and the genus Agave spans millennia and a vast geographical area encompassing Mexico, the southwestern United States, and the Texas borderlands. In the early 1950s, Richard MacNeish's investigations in Tamaulipas yielded evidence of past agave use in the mountains of northeastern Mexico. Excavations in the Ocampo Caves revealed 9,000 years of sporadic occupations by hunter-gatherers, mixed forager-farmers, and finally, periodic visits by residents of nearby agricultural villages. Although these discoveries are incompletely published—and existing publications largely underemphasize the range of utilized wild resources in favor of domesticated maize, beans, and squash—agave is among the wild plant taxa most often mentioned in use throughout the Holocene. Unpublished field notes, curated plant assemblages recovered during MacNeish's excavations, and data from recent archaeological survey complement the published literature to explore the role of this prominent plant in this important archaeological region.