We present a short database of the mole fraction of CO2 and 14CO2 in atmospheric air samples from an urban area in Gliwice, Silesia, Poland. The research covered a period from August 2023 to July 2024. A new laboratory air sampler stand was established to monitor carbon dioxide levels in Gliwice, giving the possibility to determine CO2 levels in the air using appropriate instruments to collect the air samples, extract CO2 from them, and thus measure carbon isotopes ratio 14C/12C. The analysis of the mole fraction of CO2 was determined using a low-cost system (CARBOCAP GMP343), while the carbon isotopes concentration was measured using MICADAS. The 14C in the air samples varied randomly from –55 to –24‰, while the monthly mole fraction of CO2 varied from 428 to 470 ppm. It has been also observed also that CO2 concentration is linked with the planetary boundary layer. The fraction of fossil of total CO2 has been estimated at the level of 2.5% during the investigated period of time. Another aim of this study was to investigate pine needles as 14C archives in a contemporary environment. The examination of the needles was based on the analysis of the similarities and differences in radiocarbon concentrations in pine needles of various ages collected in the middle of consecutive seasons, with 3 months resolution in Gliwice. The concentration of 14C in the needles was determined using a liquid scintillation counter. The mean F14C from all the samples was 99.80(70) pMC.

Despite improvement over the past few decades, particularly for white, cisgender women, intersectional gender-based inequality remains prominent within anthropological archaeology and beyond. Building on critiques of the leaky pipeline metaphor laid out in the introduction to this themed issue, and drawing on Black, Indigenous, and Posthumanist Feminisms, we advocate for a metaphorical shift focused on care, inclusivity, and diversity—that of a garden. The garden metaphor provides a way to express and explore the complex and intertwined ways disciplinary norms, institutions, and individuals structure and shape experiences in archaeology. After reviewing the garden metaphor and summarizing previous suggestions for improving equity in archaeology, we present recommendations for actionable steps at disciplinary, institutional, supervisory, and individual levels. Drawing on insights from the articles in the issue, as well as existing literature within and beyond archaeology, we argue that a greater emphasis on care, and its integration into the value structure of archaeology, would create a more inclusive discipline.

The date of the Thera eruption has been a subject of intense debate since the mid-20th century. In recent years, the disagreements have escalated with the introduction of IntCal20. The increased number of annual measurements around the time period of the eruption has highlighted potential fluctuations in the atmospheric radiocarbon record, shedding new light on the date of the disastrous event. The Centre for Isotope Research in Groningen has already contributed data from this time period to IntCal20, and here, we report a new set of annual data of approximately 90 radiocarbon measurements between 1660 and 1507 BCE. We investigate the potential anomalies in the calibration curve and compare our dataset with those from other leading laboratories. Although we do not find compelling evidence of any rapid increases in radiocarbon production during this period, the results do point to the presence of minor differences between datasets which could be species, region or laboratory pretreatment related. By quantifying such offsets, we assess their impact on chronological models related to the eruption of Thera.

In this paper we demonstrate how a concentrated mound of 8622 stone artefacts excavated at Walanjiwurru 1 rockshelter in Marra Country, northern Australia, reflects the emotional and spiritual dimensions of sweeping, and moral obligations to maintain Country. While archaeological studies have previously documented sweeping as part of site formation, and the social significance of stone in Australia is well established, few studies have examined how these practices intersect with Indigenous understandings of maintaining Country. Through analysis of stone artefacts combined with Marra knowledge, we demonstrate how sweeping activities 2500–300 cal. bp created a unique expression of ongoing relationships between people, materials and Country, maintained through the practice of sweeping. The mound’s composition shows distinctive patterns in both size distribution and stone type representation, most notably in the concentration of yellow quartzite—a stone type with particular cultural power due to its ancestral connections. These findings contribute to broader discussions about the integration of Indigenous and archaeological knowledge systems, while demonstrating how stone artefacts and sweeping practices remain active participants in maintaining relationships between Country, people and ancestors.

Native American worldviews suggest that humans create the world through story; storytelling is central in oral societies. Storytelling was embodied in artworks made at and disseminated from Cahokia, and it was also embodied in the landscape. Cosmological, goddess, and hero stories were told, but heroes depicted in Braden-style artworks found far from Cahokia suggest that the story of a Birdman wearing human-head earrings and braid was a charter myth at Cahokia. As the foundation of ideology and ritual, stories drew people to Cahokia, but the heroic epic was a new type of story critical to the spread of Cahokian ideologies.

The study of lead artifacts and anthropogenic lead exposure in human remains can provide valuable insights into health, migration, trade, and societal instability. This review examines the uses of lead and its impacts on ancient Roman populations by exploring and integrating evidence from the textual, archaeological, and bioarchaeological records. Considering written texts and material evidence together challenges some of the persistent modern notions that sapa and adulterated wine were key sources of lead exposure during this time. Using a matrix-based framework to examine domestic lead exposure helps us to assess the frequency of and risk associated with lead objects recovered in published domestic assemblages. We provide a comprehensive synthesis of the bioarchaeological evidence for enamel and bone lead concentrations in Roman populations and conclude with recommendations for future research in this area.

The display of ancestral human remains in museums is a contentious ethical issue, raising concerns around the dignity and respect for ancestral lived lives versus the role of remains for education and scientific enquiry. Against the backdrop of recent debates sparked by the deinstallation of ancestral remains at several museums (e.g., the removal of the Shuar tsantsas at the Pitt Rivers Museum) and revisions of national and international ethics codes, this essay explores the role of two methodologies – a trial and interactive workshop – in producing inclusive spaces to support ethical decision making and practice. Digital participation technologies were used to support an accessible mode of participation that was anonymous – allowing attendees to express opinions about emotive and challenging subjects, such as ancestral human remains. For both examples, attendees and participants identified key priority and action areas for the sector and within their places of work. The activities will contribute to a wider research project that is investigating value and ethical disagreements and polarization within museums.

Between 2012 and 2014, a crew from the Pacbitun Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP) excavated a small mound located on the western periphery of the Pacbitun site, a medium-sized ancient Maya center located in west-central Belize. That mound consisted of a thick deposit of granite sand and debitage, revealing a record of the production of several thousand granite tools dating to the Late Classic period. Since those excavations, a total of 22 similar mounds have been recorded, with 11 tested. All tested mounds reveal a similar material record representing periodically used working platforms where granite tools were shaped and finished during the Late Classic period. The recorded granite debris mounds are distributed over an area of 1 km2 some 500 m from Pacbitun’s core, an area that we suggest represents a community of attached, part-time specialists making granite tools on a seasonal basis. Given the scale of granite tool production, we suspect this community made tools not just for local consumption, but also for consumption outside of Pacbitun as part of a strategy to navigate the dynamic political Late Classic landscape of the Belize River Valley.

Regional survey of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Cayo, Belize by the Rio Frio Regional Archaeological Project has revealed an expansive, ancient Maya granitic-rock extraction and ground stone tool crafting industry distributed across an 11 km2 region. To date, 16 extraction-workshop sites of varying size and compositional complexity totaling 100 ha or 1 km2 have been identified through a combination of ground-based reconnaissance and aerial LiDAR survey. This article introduces the two largest recorded to date, Buffalo Hill Quarries and Moshy’s Hill. Discussing them, we present an overview of the common attributes of the Mountain Pine Ridge quarry workshops including types of extraction sites (quarry pits, strip mines, and cut faces), structural components (bedrock pits and erected blocks), cached tools (hammerstones and pics), and discarded products (half-loaf and full-loaf forms and metates) found at them. As the type of sites presented here are new to archaeology, the article concludes with a series of questions to guide future work.

While ethnographic observation has revealed nuances of ground stone production techniques and practical uses, there has been little theorizing about the archaeological exchange and movement of these goods or their deeper social meanings. In previous research, we obtained secure geochemical signatures for an ancient Maya ground stone tool assemblage by sourcing granite outcrops in Belize, enabling us to trace the provenience of certain archaeological assemblages. To understand the exchange mechanisms by which ground stone tools moved around the landscape, we explore three non-mutually exclusive models. We outline our expectations of material correlates for the archaeological record based on these exchange hypotheses and evaluate our assemblages against these expectations. This work helps broaden understandings of the organizational importance of ground stone tool production, exchange, and usage within ancient Maya society, critical first steps for investigating the socioeconomic dimensions of these tools.

This article outlines our research into granite use by the ancient Maya of the Alabama Townsite—a Late to Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 700–900) rapid-growth community in East-Central Belize, part of the Eastern Maya Lowlands. One of our initial hypotheses regarding the seemingly sudden appearance of the town toward the end of the Late Classic period focused on granite as a staple resource exploited by its residents. We highlight current results of local geological surveys and related spatial, geochemical, and petrographic studies; preliminary analyses of surface-collected and excavated archaeological assemblages and architectural elements; and attempts at community-engaged experimental archaeology. We conclude that while ancient Alabamans did not extract granite as a staple resource for export, which could have fueled the community’s growth, they nonetheless valued granite in many ways, which we highlight in our discussion.

Research on ground stone tools has expanded exponentially over the years. Here, I present the context of the initial work on granite sourcing that connected archaeological sites in Guatemala to sources in Belize. I also attempt to put into perspective the subsequent research that has been carried out, much of which is reported and elaborated in this Compact Section.