La jerarquización de recursos constituye uno de los procedimientos más empleados para evaluar la subsistencia de los cazadores-recolectores en el pasado. Para el Centro Occidente Argentino (COA) esta jerarquización se fundaba en el tamaño corporal de las presas. Aquí incorporamos datos sobre los costos de manejo, generando el primer ordenamiento de recursos para la región que contempla los elementos requeridos por los modelos de optimización (Kcal/tiempo post-encuentro). Luego del guanaco (Lama guanicoe) —presa de mayor rendimiento— este ranking situó en segundo y tercer lugar a los huevos de Rheidae y los armadillos (Dasypodidae), respectivamente, resaltando la importancia de presas tradicionalmente consideradas de bajo rendimiento. Siguiendo la teoría de aprovisionamiento óptimo, elaboramos el modelo de amplitud de dieta (MAD) para los desiertos más representativos de Nordpatagonia: el de Monte y el patagónico. En este último, la mayor disponibilidad de guanacos tornó menos ventajosa la incorporación de nuevos ítems a la dieta. Para el Monte, la dieta óptima se amplió, incluyendo recursos menores como ciertos peces (i.e., Percichthys trucha). En definitiva, el MAD permitió reinterpretar tendencias temporales en la subsistencia humana, sosteniendo una ampliación en el espectro de recursos explotados hacia el Holoceno tardío en el COA. En general, las expectativas del MAD son confirmadas con el registro zooarqueológico regional.

This paper illustrates the results of research carried out at the archaeological site of Puig Castellar de Biosca (Catalonia, Spain), located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. This Republican military fortress, a castellum, is exceptional due both to its early chronology, which ranges between 180 and 120 BCE, and to the fact that it acted as a long-lasting military installation situated in a pacified area on the periphery of the Celtiberian conflict zone. Work at the site has uncovered a central building on the top of a hill, which due to its Italian features has been identified as the headquarters of the military fortress. If this interpretation is correct, this might be one of the first examples of a Republican military headquarters building documented to date. It could then be considered a predecessor of later praetoria and principia, which have been recorded in the Numantine camps and on the Roman western limes.

Ever since large amounts of Bell Beaker complex pottery were first discovered within megalithic graves in north-western France, the Bell Beaker has been tightly tied to the ‘megalithic phenomenon’. However, the fact of construction of these various kinds of megalithic monument during the Middle to Late Neolithic pre-dates the users of Bell Beakers. While this is a case of the re-use of older funerary monuments, it is assumed that Bell Beaker funerary practices witness a shift from Neolithic collective burial to individual inhumation. For a long time finds from the megalithic graves have constituted our main source of information on the Bell Beaker complex in north-western France. However, these ‘artificial caves’ have biased our understanding of the Bell Beaker complex and, in particular, of its funerary practices. The re-assessment of old finds and recent large-scale excavations have brought to light a large number of new sites, revealing a greater diversity in Bell Beaker funerary practices in the region than had been perceived previously. In the first part, we set the broader picture, stating what we know or can say about funerary practices during the Recent and Late Neolithic (3350–2550 bc), before the beginning of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. We then discuss the different Bell Beaker burial practices (2550–1950 bc), their chronological and regional variabilities, and, above all, the research biases that might have affected their understanding.

Estuaries and deltas are crucial zones to better understand the interactions between continents and oceans, and to characterize the mineralization and burial of different sources of organic matter (OM) and their effect on the carbon cycle. In the present study, we focus on the continental shelf of the northwest Mediterranean Sea near the Rhône river delta. Sediment cores were collected and pore waters were sampled at different depths at one station (Station E) located on this shelf. For each layer, measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon concentration (DIC) and its isotopic composition (δ13C and Δ14C) were conducted and a mixing model was applied to target the original signature of the mineralized OM. The calculated δ13C signature of the mineralized organic matter is in accordance with previous results with a δ13COM of marine origin that is not significantly impacted by the terrestrial particulate inputs from the river. The evolution with depth of Δ14C shows two different trends indicating two different Δ14C signatures for the mineralised OM. In the first 15 cm, the mineralized OM is modern with a Δ14COM = 100 ± 17‰ and corresponds to the OM produced during the nuclear period of the last 50 years. Deeper in the sediment, the result is very different with a depleted value Δ14COM = –172 ± 60‰ which corresponds to the pre-nuclear period. In these two cases, the marine substrate was under the influence of the local marine reservoir effect with more extreme Δ14C results. These differences can be largely explained by the influence of the river plume on the local marine DIC during these two periods.

In the 5th c. BCE, Rome is understood to have experienced a moment of transition. Scholars highlight evidence for warfare absent widespread triumph, social conflict within Rome, and regional disruption in established power dynamics, trade networks, and material cultures. Despite a revised understanding of the period, wherein narratives of decline were superseded by those of transformation, the long century after the purported fall of monarchy, especially in its middle and later portions, remains segregated in scholarship from the Archaic period and Middle Republic. This article seeks to reframe the moment as integral to events both before and after it. By way of an examination of material remains of architectural projects, I argue that disciplinary preferences for periodization, a Rome-centered historical telos, and hierarchical material taxonomies have manufactured an absence of remains and activity, and I suggest that the field categorically moves away from these practices.