Billy Smith and Charley Eaton were mudlarks in London. In 1857 they began to manufacture counterfeit antiquities. Their creations displayed many significant errors and anachronisms, and some archaeologists were immediately sceptical. Nevertheless, other leading experts were convinced that Billy and Charley’s supposed discoveries were authentic archaeological finds. The ensuing debate resulted in an inconclusive court case. Eventually a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London used subterfuge to expose the fraud. Even after this, Billy Smith and Charley Eaton continued producing forgeries for another decade. This paper explores how the forgeries were made, why they generated controversy, how the fraud was detected and how Billy Smith and Charley Eaton could produce their forgeries over such a long time-span.

This article considers the intersection of gender, traditional cultural expressions, collaborative innovation, and intellectual property in the Tonga Indigenous community of Zambia. Based on a study of the Tonga rural women basket makers who are organized around craft clubs, the study investigated the collaborative environment that fosters the preservation of the cultural tradition of basket weaving, the impact it has had on empowering the women, and the legal protection options available for the Tonga baskets. The study found that Zambia’s 2016 Protection of Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Expressions of Folklore Act no. 16 (Traditional Knowledge Act) gives automatic protection to traditional cultural expressions and the option for the protection of traditional cultural expressions under the existing intellectual property laws. Though intellectual property protection may not be practical for the Tonga baskets, the Traditional Knowledge Act is a significant step in recognizing the customary values and governance principles in protecting traditional cultural expressions. Registration, in terms of the Traditional Knowledge Act, could enhance the recognition of the baskets, preserve and promote the cultural heritage, and empower the Tonga women.

This research responds to the recent destruction of cultural heritage in Nigeria during the protest against police brutality meted out on the populace by a unit of the Nigerian police force known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. This article uncovers issues implicated in the destruction of the Iga Idunganran, a national monument. Through a survey questionnaire, the article determines the perceptions of people about African traditional religion and the knowledge of people about the value and significance of heritage loss occasioned by the recent destruction of the palace. Findings reveal that many Nigerians are unaware of the value and significance of the palace as heritage that is essential to societal development. Many Nigerians are suffering from an identity crisis because of colonization. The Nigerian government has not fulfilled its role in protecting cultural heritage. The Nigerian government needs to put structures in place to implement its commitment at the national level.

Recently, voices have been raised regarding the challenges of Big Data-driven global approaches, including the realization that exclusively tackling the global scale masks social and historical realities. While multi-scalar analyses have confronted this problem, the effects of global approaches are being felt. We highlight one of these effects: as classical scholarship struggles to decolonize itself, the ancient Mediterranean in global archaeology pivots around the Graeco-Roman world only, marginalizing the non-classical Mediterranean, thus foiling attempts at promoting post-colonial perspectives. In highlighting this, our aim is twofold: first, to invigorate the debate on multi-scalar approaches, proposing to incorporate microhistory into archaeological analysis; second, to use the non-classical Mediterranean to demonstrate that historical depth at a micro level is essential to augment that power in our interpretations.

Photography has been a particularly important though often under-theorized aspect of archaeological research. Although seemingly simple representations, photographs are simultaneously objective and subjective, truthful and creative. This article considers the contradictory nature of photography generally and the specific relationship between photography and archaeology. It then looks at the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and examines how individuals have photographed ancient Maya sites, architecture and artifacts from the mid nineteenth century to the present. Initially used to support diffusionist theories of Maya origins, photography was later understood as a neutral and scientific way to record the Maya past. More recently, it has been used to share power more equitably with local communities and to make archaeology a more inclusive and relevant endeavour. Indeed, several have demonstrated that photography is a useful tool for engaged archaeology. This article argues that the reverse is also true: insights from engaged archaeology are useful tools for archaeological photography generally. By making photographic choices explicit and by including people and other aspects of the contemporary world in their photographs, scholars can emphasize that archaeology is a decisively human and necessarily political endeavour, and that archaeological sites and artifacts are dynamic and efficacious parts of the contemporary world.

Radiocarbon (14C) is the one of the most important radionuclides released from the nuclear facilities to the environment. Currently, inorganic 14C is checked during regular environmental monitoring as part of the groundwater monitoring program of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. Several studies have shown that organic 14C can be also an important and sensitive tool for detection of possible leakage of nuclear technological systems. For this reason, a wet oxidation method was developed for the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C measurement technique to determine the 14C activity concentration of the total dissolved carbon content of water samples, coming from environmental monitoring wells. The overall efficiency of the oxidation was around 94 ± 5% for different types of tested organic compounds. The typical 14C background (1–2 pMC) is obtained by preparation of blank samples, which allows a detection level of around 5·10–5 Bq L–1. The activity of the organic fraction can be calculated using the formula presented in the study. The method was applied for water samples deriving from environmental monitoring wells of a pressurized-water reactor (PWR) type of NPP. The results of our investigations over the 14 different water samples around the Paks NPP show that DO14C contribution to the total 14C activity concentration was between 5–25%.

This article presents a Late Helladic IIIC Early deposit of pottery and small finds deriving from rescue excavations at the Kokotsika plot in Kastro/Palaia, within the modern city of Volos. It is the first systematically published deposit from that site, providing data on stratigraphy, small finds, pottery typology, decoration, fabrics and use-wear patterns, supplemented with detailed statistics. A particular feature of the recovered assemblage is the comparatively high frequency of Handmade Burnished Ware, as well as the presence of Grey Ware, both seen as products of people deriving from the Italian peninsula. The presented deposit provides valuable new data both for the site of Kastro/Palaia, as well as for the region of coastal Thessaly. The revealed remains and stratigraphy might be related to the structures exposed in nearby plots by earlier excavation campaigns of D. Theocharis. The deposit documents most likely a slightly later stage of Late Helladic IIIC Early compared to what is present at the abandonment deposits at Dimini and Pefkakia. As such it provides new clues for the reconstruction of regional history, confirming earlier views that Kastro/Palaia attracted people who left other habitation sites in the area.

This article examines how landscape modification was key to the development of an urbanizing society within a valley in Chiapas, Mexico. The Late Preclassic (400 bc–ad 250) site of Noh K'uh demonstrates how both the altered and unaltered environment signified the importance of cosmological concepts within this society. In an area rich with mountains and caves, the natural landscape offered residents opportunities to create symbolically meaningful living spaces. Evidence from local settlements reveals how the cosmological universe played a guiding role during the site's peak growth period, suggesting that other common contributors (such as economic and militaristic needs) of expansion may have been secondary.

Drawing upon the mapping of ceramic distribution patterns, this article analyses the dynamics of the settlement pattern of the Late Roman hinterland of the Skouriotissa copper mine, the largest in Cyprus, and its relationship to the nearest city, Soli. This article contextualises the hinterland in relation to the copper-producing landscapes of Cyprus to the east and south, and supra-regionally in relation to the cities on the south coast of Asia Minor as well as chronologically and geographically in relation to the Early Roman ceramic zones defined by previous research. Although the regional coherence of the Hellenistic to Early Roman period is to some extent intact in the Late Roman period, the analysis suggests that the Late Roman hinterland of Skouriotissa demonstrates some organisational peculiarities for which an explanation is sought in the extraordinary resources of the region.