The Minoan eruption of Santorini, Greece, is an important and often-debated chronological marker in contexts of the Eastern Mediterranean region. Among various age estimates of this event, one based on wiggle-matching of radiocarbon (14C) dates from an olive branch found in Santorini by Friedrich et al. (2006) has been widely discussed. Calibrated age estimates based on wiggle-matching of these 14C ages have been changing with improvements in the 14C calibration curve. As also shown earlier, calibration of average 14C age of multiple tree rings dated together should not be done using a single-year calibration curve. Since recent calibration curves include many single-year 14C datasets, a different approach should be considered to calibrate the average 14C age of block of multiple tree rings. Here we have demonstrated the use of multiple moving average (MA) calibration curves for calibrating the sequence of four 14C ages reported for the Santorini olive branch. The resultant calibrated ages for the Minoan Eruption are relatively younger than previous estimates and range from the late-17th century BCE to mid-16th century BCE date.

As one of the most extensive prehistoric entities of western Iran, Dalma culture belonging to the Zagros Chalcolithic, flourished in vast areas of the Central Zagros and Northwest Region of the country. This culture is defined essentially by its characteristic ceramic assemblages that show a marked uniformity in terms of technology, vessel forms, and painted designs throughout its territory. One of the main issues regarding this culture is its chronology, which was largely based on comparative studies, a few radiocarbon (14C) dates analyzed in the 1960s–1970s, or a few confusing thermoluminescence dates. In this paper, a series of 15 charcoal samples from a recent salvage excavation at Nad Ali Beig, a single-period site dated to Dalma period, is presented that provide the first reliable absolute dates for a part of the Middle Chalcolithic period of the Central Zagros region. Based on these new dates we may suggest that Dalma culture flourished between ca. 5200/5100–4600 BCE. Furthermore, based on these dates it is now possible to determine the order of appearance of different types of the Dalma culture ceramic assemblage, including the Ubaid-related painted buff ceramics.

In the absence of wood, bone, and other organics, one possible candidate for determining the age of a site is the radiocarbon (14C) dating of pottery. In central Europe during the Early Neolithic, pottery was ubiquitous and contained substantial quantities of organic temper. However, attempts at the direct dating of organic inclusions raises a lot of methodological issues, especially when several sources of carbon contribute to the resulting radiocarbon age. Hence an alternative approach to dating of the early pottery is necessary. Here, we present a novel method of bulk separation of organic content from the grass-tempered pottery from Santovka (Slovakia). The procedure is based on the consecutive application of three inorganic acids, dissolving clay, silica content, and low molecular or mobile fractions to separate organic inclusions added to the pottery matrix during the formation of vessels. Radiocarbon dates obtained with this method are coherent and produce the shortest time span compared to other pretreatment methods presented in this study. The paired dates of grass-tempered pots with the 14C age of lipids extracted from the same pots point to a difference of 400–600 14C yr, however they are in line with the site’s chronostratigraphic Bayesian model. Grass-tempered pottery from Santovka (Slovakia) is dated to the first half of the 6th millennium cal BC, making it the earliest pottery north of the Danube. It seems feasible that ceramic containers from Santovka were produced by hunter-gatherers, and pottery predated the arrival of farming in the Carpathian region by a couple of centuries.

Radiocarbon (14C) data for 2nd millennium BC urban sites in northern Mesopotamia have been lacking until recently. This article presents a preliminary dataset and Bayesian model addressing the Middle and early Late Bronze Age (Old Babylonian and pre/early Mittani) strata of Kurd Qaburstan—one of the largest archaeological sites on the Erbil plain of Iraqi Kurdistan. The results place the large, densely occupied and fortified Middle Bronze Age city in the first part of the 18th century BC, an outcome consistent with the site’s tentative identification as ancient Qabra. A long occupation gap (up to two centuries) probably ensued, before a smaller town confined to the high mound and part of the northeastern lower town resumed in the late 16th and early 15th centuries BC, possibly before this region became part of the Late Bronze Age kingdom of Mittani.

The Lamoka Lake and Scaccia sites in present-day New York have played important roles in the development of archaeology in New York, and in the case of Lamoka Lake, in eastern North America. Lamoka Lake is the type site for the “Archaic” period in eastern North American culture history and the “Late Archaic” “Lamoka phase” in New York culture history. The Scaccia site is the largest “Early Woodland” “Meadowood phase” site in New York and has the earliest evidence for pottery and agriculture crop use in the state. Lamoka Lake has been dated to 2500 BC based on a series of solid carbon and gas-proportional counting radiometric dates on bulk wood charcoal obtained in the 1950s and 1960s. Scaccia has been dated to 870 BC based on a single uncalibrated radiometric date obtained on bulk charcoal in the early 1970s. As a result, the ages of these important sites need to be refined. New AMS dates and Bayesian analyses presented here place Lamoka Lake at 2962–2902 BC (68.3% highest posterior density [hpd])) and Scaccia at 1049–838 BC (68.3% hpd).

Reccopolis was a new city built in Visigothic Spain in the late 6th c. CE. Even rarer than this example of an ex novo urban foundation in the post-Roman West is the fact that the city was equipped with a brand-new aqueduct. The aqueduct has, until now, only been partially studied, but in this paper we update and re-assess the original, preliminary results. We consider the city's whole water cycle, including usage and drainage, employing new engineering calculations and GIS analyses. The results show that the aqueduct was an integral part of the city. Finally, we set our conclusions within their wider context, looking not only at the roles of aqueducts in the ideal of a city at this time, but also at urban water culture in the Late Antique West.

The excavation of a palaeochannel at the Vistre de la Fontaine 2-2 archaeological site, 3 km downstream from the ancient city of Nîmes (southeastern France), provided an accumulation sequence covering the last 2,500 years. Trace metal analyses of these alluvial sediments disclosed lead (Pb) contamination during the Early Roman Empire, with concentrations close to 1,000 ppm, a factor of 100 above the local geochemical background. This excess of Pb shows a uniform isotopic signature that may reflect unchanged ore sources, perhaps from the Massif Central or from Great Britain. The Pb peak accompanied visible waste that was transported in the sediments of the Vistre de la Fontaine at the time of the development of the Nîmes urban water supply and drainage network during the Early Roman Empire. This research shows the bimillennial persistence of palaeo-contamination in a peri-urban alluvial plain and the relevance of fluvial sedimentary archives in documenting ancient waste.

La riqueza epigráfica de las ánforas olearias de la provincia Bética es bien conocida gracias a los numerosos sellos de alfarero, rótulos pintados (tituli picti) y grafitos grabados en la arcilla fresca (ante cocturam). Éstos últimos suelen contener signos y simples letras, pero a veces, también nombres de personas y fechas calendariales y consulares. En este trabajo presentamos un grafito de carácter excepcional por su contenido estrictamente literario. En él, proponemos identificar un fragmento de poema de Virgilio. Analizamos y discutimos el contexto en que se realizó, la autoría del mismo y su significación para el conocimiento del grado de alfabetización de la sociedad rural romana en el Valle del Guadalquivir. Constituye el primer caso constatado sobre ánfora romana y es de excepcional interés para arqueólogos, epigrafistas y filólogos del latín vulgar.

This paper investigates Roman writing habits through the evidence of metal styli. An assemblage of more than 400 styli from London constitutes the basis of the analysis, which explores their similarities with examples from other sites in Britain and continental Europe during the Imperial period. The geographical and social distribution of styli suggests that certain types were employed or made in specific locations by different social actors, and that the major political and military centres of the Empire shared a common material culture of writing. The analysis also suggests that styli types of the northern European regions possibly developed from ‘military styli’ brought by soldiers and bureaucrats during the conquest.

Deep Springs Valley (DSV) is a hydrologically isolated valley between the White and Inyo mountains that is commonly excluded from regional paleohydrology and paleoclimatology. Previous studies showed that uplift of Deep Springs ridge (informal name) by the Deep Springs fault defeated streams crossing DSV and hydrologically isolated the valley sometime after eruption of the Pleistocene Bishop Tuff (0.772 Ma). Here, we present tephrochronology and clast counts that reaffirms interruption of the Pliocene–Pleistocene hydrology and formation of DSV during the Pleistocene. Paleontology and infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dates indicate a freshwater lake inundated Deep Springs Valley from ca. 83–61 ka or during Late Pleistocene Marine Isotope Stages 5a (MIS 5a; ca. 82 ka peak) and 4 (MIS 4; ca. 71–57 ka). The age of pluvial Deep Springs Lake coincides with pluvial lakes in Owens Valley and Columbus Salt Marsh and documents greater effective precipitation in southwestern North America during MIS 5a and MIS 4. In addition, we hypothesize that Deep Springs Lake was a balanced-fill lake that overflowed into Eureka Valley via the Soldier Pass wind gap during MIS 5a and MIS 4. DSV hydrology has implications for dispersal and endemism of the Deep Springs black toad (Anaxyrus exsul).

A group of 24 bronze finger-rings threaded onto a wire bracelet was unearthed in 2018 at the Roman vicus at Wareswald (the “Forbidden Forest”) in Gallia Belgica. The find is analyzed here alongside evidence for the use, sale, and production of Roman rings. The find represents the work of a local craftsman, active in the first quarter of the 4th c. CE. While the rings were made in a small rural town, they closely imitate expensive global ring forms. The function and meaning of the very common class of trinket rings to which the Wareswald rings belong are considered, along with how these rings were used to make statements about identity, including local and regional affiliations, literacy, marital status, or other social connections. It is suggested that the popularity of many trinket rings lay in their ability to provide a sense of participation in upper-class fashion at a very low price.