This paper sets out the results of radiocarbon, histological, and contextual analysis of human remains from non-mortuary contexts in Middle and Late Bronze Age Britain. In the latter period in particular, human bone (much of it fragmentary and disarticulated) has frequently been recovered from settlement contexts and from other locations, such as waterholes, across the wider landscape. However, the source and post-mortem trajectories of such finds are poorly understood. The results of our analyses indicate that some of these finds come from primary burials while others were the result of post-mortem processes such as excarnation. Certain fragments appear to have been curated for lengthy periods of time but there is much less evidence for deliberate curation of bone than there is in Early Bronze Age graves, although other forms of manipulation, such as cutting and shaping of bone fragments, have been recorded. In contrast to the Early Bronze Age, where it has been argued that curated bones may have belonged to venerated ancestors, some of the individuals from the sites discussed in this paper had suffered violent deaths, suggesting that bones selected for manipulation, curation, and deposition may have belonged to a variety of different categories of person.

Sarsen stone boulders are familiar components of numerous British Neolithic megalithic monuments. Non-monumental uses of sarsen stone are, however, less well understood. This paper focuses on non-megalithic sarsen and its roles for communities, using case studies from three sites spanning the Neolithic in Wiltshire. Published data from Windmill Hill causewayed enclosure and analysis, using a new methodology, of recently excavated material from the West Kennet Avenue occupation site, and Marden henge enclosure are used to explore the varied ways in which sarsen was used. Rather than being an expedient ‘mundane’ stone this analysis demonstrates that non-megalithic sarsen could be just as meaning-laden as other more ‘attractive’ (larger, exotic) material. Daily encounters with sarsen stone for different purposes and in varied quotidian contexts afforded it with values which likely contributed to its use in monumental contexts. The importance of attending to sarsen in its multiple forms and contexts is thus made clear.

The article presents the results of research on the absolute chronology of the Nižná Myšľa cemetery. Due to its scale and location in a key region of the Carpathian Basin, it should be considered one of the most important Early Bronze Age sites in Central Europe. Many years of archaeological research have so far failed to provide adequate data on absolute chronology. This text presents the results of statistical and spatial analyses on a series of newly acquired 14C dates. They allowed us to present a model of the spatial and chronological development of the funerary space and to capture the stage of significant cultural change associated with the adoption of a new raw material—bronze.

El presente artículo se centra en las plumas tapirage de los textiles miniatura con arte plumario hallados en el templo Huaca de la Luna del sitio Huacas de Moche (Valle de Moche, Perú), asociados a la ocupación Chimú (1000-1440 dC). El tapirage es una técnica de manipulación biológica, practicada por ciertos grupos amazónicos, que altera el color de las plumas de algunos psitácidos de los géneros Ara y Amazona. Para confirmar la existencia de plumas tapirage en estos textiles, se realizó una identificación taxonómica macroscópica y microscópica de las plumas arqueológicas. Por último, se aplicaron análisis arqueométricos de microscopía de barrido electrónico (SEM) y microscopía digital para identificar los cambios en las microestructuras de las plumas, como también las especies de las plumas mismas. Los resultados muestran que las plumas de los textiles chimúes de Huaca de la Luna presentan plumas tapirage, lo que permite discutir sobre las relaciones de intercambio entre la costa norte peruana y la Amazonia, y avanzar en la interpretación de los significados de estas plumas en los rituales de la cultura Chimú, por su valor simbólico y capacidad de acceso a estas bienes por parte de estas comunidades costeras.

Through philological and historical analysis focused on Gudea's slave dossier, this article elucidates the causes and mechanisms that brought Iranian slaves to early southern Mesopotamia. The slave dossier documents a brief but intensive influx of Elamite slaves to Lagash on the lower Tigris during the reign of Gudea, ca. 2130–2110 B.C., who fought the powerful polity of Anshan in Fars. The author argues that consequent political instability and economic inequality in Elam fuelled three mechanisms of slave relocation. First, royal troops brought captives. Second, the palace bought foreigners from abroad and locally. Third, royals received Iranians as gifts or tribute (“kids led by one's side”) from locals and Iranian states in areas where Gudea campaigned. Finally, locals gave their Iranian slaves back to the palace as gifts. On a theoretical level, the study distils four elements shared by all forms of slave mobility: the giver and the receiver, the economic and political relations between them that cause slave transfer, the physical and social spaces between which the transfer occurs, and the slaves and their demographic characteristics.

Spermaceti is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus and P. catodon). This substance had a variety of commercial applications from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century, such as candles, soap, cosmetics and other compounds. Spermaceti was also occasionally used as wax for modeling sculptures. In order to date such artworks the marine reservoir effect (MRE) has to be considered. The chemical library of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris, France) contains samples of spermaceti studied by the French chemist M. E. Chevreul (1786–1889) at the beginning of the 19th century. Eight samples of substances preserved in their original containers were 14C dated. According to the whaling practices and the publications of Chevreul, we estimated that the spermaceti samples came from whales caught between 1805 and 1815. AMS 14C dating results are from 550 to 1180 ± 30 BP, R values between 393 and 1023 (± 34) 14C yr and ΔR between –168 and 504 (± 60) 14C yr. The values presented here are the first ever obtained for spermaceti. However, being based on museum specimens, further measurements on crude material would be necessary to refine these results.

The available paleosol and paleowood data from the head of the Akkol trough valley, South Chuya range, indicates a climatically driven glacier dynamic in the Russian Altai. Radiocarbon dating of paleosols and paleotree fragments help determine the beginning of the Neoglacial in this high mountain region in the middle of the Holocene. New data limit the advance of the Sofiysky glacier at that time by the front of the Historical moraine. Less so than during the Historical stage (2.3–1.7 cal kBP), glacial activity 5–4 cal kBP is also supported by rapid reforestation. The Akkem moraine in trough valleys of the Russian Altai accumulated prior to the Holocene. The limitations and difficulties of radiocarbon dating of paleosols should be considered when interpreting the dating results.

Polities require individuals who envision and materialize them; in turn, people's political identity as residents depends on them. The polity and the resident are self-evident only in hindsight, and we discuss their co-constitution. During subjectification, people create and submit to an authority. Our case study is the Early Classic (AD 350–600) emergence of Tamarindito in the south-central Maya Lowlands (modern Guatemala). The Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project and the Tamarindito Archaeological Project have extensively studied this capital of the Foliated Scroll polity. Although its divine rulers present themselves as fully formed since time immemorial, we discuss how they built their authority through self-serving narratives. Tamarindito originates in the Early Classic, and in the late fourth or fifth century, rulers selected a 70 m high hill as seat. Plaza A's monumentality conceals a small-scale labor effort and a slowly growing polity. Only two non-elite households attached themselves to the royal court during the fifth and sixth centuries, suggesting that non-elites recognized the royal authority only slowly. The formation of the Foliated Scroll polity was an immanent process. Self-aggrandizing divine kings struggled to claim authority, and non-elites subjectified themselves over several centuries.

A 2016 study season and 2017 excavation season at the 95-hectare walled site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain have generated a variety of new results. Geophysical survey on the lower town revealed details of the Middle Bronze occupation in the southeast part of the site, including the city wall, a large open area, streets, houses, and a monumental temple comparable to examples from Tell al Rimah, Aššur, and Larsa. Excavations confirmed the Middle Bronze date of the temple and explored further Middle Bronze contexts elsewhere on the lower town. On the High Mound North Slope, Middle Bronze occupation included a fortification wall and large-scale architecture inside it. On the High Mound East, Late Bronze architecture of apparent elite character was documented. Archaeobotanical analyses complementing the excavations reveal the existence of naan-style bread in both Middle and Late Bronze contexts. Given radiocarbon and ceramic results, the Middle Bronze occupation at Kurd Qaburstan is datable to c. 1800 B.C., while the Late Bronze phases on the High Mound East belong to an early LB horizon in the 16–15th centuries B.C., perhaps predating the imposition of Mittani political authority in the region.