This article maps how cultural heritage has been securitized in international discourse by analyzing seven key United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and UN Security Council (UNSC) documents (2003–2017). Drawing on the Copenhagen School’s framework and its distinction between identification and mobilization, the study reveals a two-stage process. Initially, heritage destruction was framed as a human rights violation, later escalating into a global security threat linked to terrorism and conflict financing. Through a sectoral and scalar typology of referent objects, the analysis highlights divergent framings by UNESCO (societal, normative) and the UNSC (military, strategic). Despite strong discursive alignment—culminating in UNSC Resolution 2347—the mobilization of extraordinary measures remained limited. The article concludes that heritage securitization is discursively robust but operationally incomplete, shaped by institutional capacities, leadership shifts, and evolving geopolitical contexts. These findings contribute to the broader literature on security politics, norm diffusion, and the symbolic power of heritage in global governance.

The natural variability of atmospheric 14C has been significantly altered by anthropogenic activities linked to technological advancements and energy consumption over the past two and a half centuries. The Suess effect, a consequence of the combustion of old carbon (fossil fuels) since the mid-18th century and the bomb peak from the mid-20th century’s thermonuclear tests, has obscured the natural 14C signal in the atmosphere. This study presents a 14C analysis of leaves, flowers, and grass collected from various locations worldwide. Over the last 10 years, more than 150 samples have been collected and used as materials for experiments conducted by students in physics lab classes (Department of Physics, ETH Zurich) or as part of school projects. Short-lived vegetal fragments are ideal material for teaching radiocarbon dating and demonstrating our research. The collection of data presented here underscores the sensitivity of radiocarbon analysis for detecting fossil carbon components. Trees from urban sites worldwide demonstrate a dilution of the atmospheric 14C concentration of 2–3%. Trees growing close to busy roads and traffic show a dilution of up to 10%. Moreover, the data show a fading trend of the bomb peak observed from 2015 to the present, as well as the direct impact of fossil CO2 on the 14C concentration of the living biota around us.

The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth study, including both invasive and non-invasive chemical analyses, and lead isotope analysis, of one of the northernmost Early Neolithic copper flat axeheads in Europe, the Öja axehead from west Sweden. In addition, we present an updated catalogue of the early copper axeheads found in Sweden. Our analyses suggest that the copper used to manufacture the Öja axehead originates from eastern Serbian ore sources, confirming previous studies on other Early Neolithic metal finds from southern Scandinavia. Comparing our results with the current understanding of copper production and circulation across the continent during the 5th and 4th millennium BCE, important new questions emerge concerning early copper mining in south-east Europe and the production and consumption of early copper artefacts in Europe and Scandinavia.

This article examines endangered language protection through domestic legislation, questioning reliance on international linguistic human rights frameworks. While international courts frequently decline to enforce language rights independently, national legislation proves more effective in safeguarding linguistic diversity.

Through a comparative case study of Qatar, Lebanon, and Morocco, this research identifies effective domestic approaches to protecting linguistic diversity. Qatar’s Law No. 7 of 2019 balances Arabic promotion with minority protections. Lebanon’s multilingual educational framework and Morocco’s constitutional recognition of Tamazight demonstrate how domestic mechanisms provide substantive linguistic safeguards. These cases reveal that successful preservation requires enforceable domestic legislation rather than theoretical international frameworks lacking implementation mechanisms.

The article exposes critical gaps between idealistic international instruments and enforceable protections, advocating state-centered approaches that treat language as both cultural heritage and living practice. Effective preservation emerges from coordinated national legislation combined with community initiatives within existing human rights frameworks. This shift from international idealism to domestic pragmatism offers viable pathways for protecting global linguistic diversity – particularly urgent given that approximately 3,000 languages face extinction within the coming decades. The study presents implementable alternatives to failed international strategies, demonstrating how context-specific domestic policies achieve meaningful preservation outcomes.

Multiple terrorist attacks on cultural heritage since 2001 have drawn heritage into international security politics, reframing it from a Law of Armed Conflict issue to one of hybrid warfare. This exploratory study uses semi-structured interviews with 51 practitioners from two community groups to examine perspectives on terrorism and heritage, testing assumptions in the literature against protection practices. Findings reveal that credible, dynamic threat data is scarce, leading to reliance on historic event data to extrapolate future risks. The article proposes a new multi-layered cultural intelligence framework for more critical threat assessments and argues that concerns over religiously motivated terrorist attacks may be overstated, suggesting a shift toward considering political and ideological drivers within unconventional warfare.

The Chalbi Desert, located in eastern Africa, is a significant but overlooked archive of the Pleistocene and Holocene periods that could add insight into investigations on human evolution. We revisited southeastern Chalbi Desert landforms between the towns of Kargi and Maikona to improve the chronostratigraphy and provide paleoenvironmental context. Direct U-series and electron spin resonance dating of various fossil teeth recovered from a deflated dune (Qzs) landform at the Farre locality return a mean age of ∼545 ka, which is compatible with biostratigraphic inferences. While this numerical age result should probably be regarded as mostly indicative given the existing uncertainty on the environmental dose rate evaluation, the data set available nevertheless strongly suggests a Middle Pleistocene age for at least some of the fauna. Sedimentology, luminescence, and 14C dating further suggest that this Qzs landform and its contents were modified by alluvial fan development and weathering during denudation in a proximal fan setting through the late Pleistocene into the Holocene. The Qzs landform currently experiences aeolian additions, erosion, and salt-affected soil development in an arid climate. Pedogenic carbonate isotope geochemistry suggests that deflated sand dunes were covered by woody grasslands during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 and 3 pluvials, consistent with nearby fan progradation constrained at >35 ka. The desert experienced increased hydrologic activity during late Pleistocene and African humid period pluvials, as evidenced by additional optically stimulated luminescence and 14C dating from fan, dune, and playa contexts. The last significant pluvial episode ended after 4.4 ± 0.3 cal ka BP, which coincides with the final regression of nearby Lake Turkana. This study extends the chronology of Quaternary sediments in the Chalbi Desert to the Middle Pleistocene and offers paleoenvironmental insights into the conditions experienced by Middle Stone Age tool users in the region.

The Bohai coast loess deposits hold significant value for understanding climate and sea-level changes. This review analyzes stratigraphic and chronological data and arrives at three main conclusions. (1) Liaodong Peninsula loess is 10–25 m thick, primarily distributed in nearshore bay areas with NW slope aspect. In the Shandong Peninsula coastal zone, thickness measures 5–15 m, showing NW aspect in Penglai but southward in Yantai. Thickness variations correlate with sedimentation rates and underlying terrain gradient, while slope aspects indicate sediment sources and topographic controls. (2) Loess along the Bohai coast rapidly accumulated during 22–31 ka and 61–68 ka, lasting longer (18–70 ka) in the Shandong Peninsula coastal area and the Miaodao Archipelago due to Yellow River input. Around 150 ka, regional differences emerged (e.g., loess in the Shandong Peninsula coastal area and the Miaodao Archipelago experienced rapid deposition at 148–175 ka). Liaodong Peninsula ages before 125 ka are underestimated, likely due to inaccurate quartz dating. (3) The paleosols mainly developed during 4–15 ka, 75–85 ka, 90–100 ka, and 125–130 ka. The Shandong Peninsula coastal area and Miaodao Archipelago show more layers and greater thickness of paleosols compared with the Liaodong Peninsula, which is related to the differences in hydroclimate conditions and loess grain size.

Understanding the spatiotemporal variability of global summer monsoons and the factors controlling them is essential for testing and predicting their future changes under the anticipated global warming. Here, we reconstructed a series of East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) patterns over South Korea. Based on radiocarbon dates, grain size, carbon/sulfur (C/S) ratios, and high-resolution X-ray fluorescence core scanning (XRF-CS) data (e.g., Ti/Al and Zr/Al ratios) from a paleo-bay site in Hadong area, southern Korea, we investigated the multi-decadal- to centennial-scale variation in the terrestrial element inputs as a proxy for the EASM rainfall during the period from 8600 to 7800 cal yr BP and compared previous results from the Buan area, western coast of Korea, to test possible synchronous local-scale hydroclimate change. We also explored global teleconnections among EASM over Korea, the Indian summer monsoon (ISM), and the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). We found that the EASM variability was positively correlated with that of the ISM through latitudinal shifts of the ITCZ. High-latitude cooling climates, including the 8.2 ka cooling event, were also directly connected to the weakened EASM via the intensified winter monsoon and southward shift of the westerly jet position over the Tibetan Plateau. To predict future changes in summer rainfall, synchronized changes in the global summer precipitation should be considered in terms of ITCZ and high-latitude climate change, including westerly jet shifts over Asian regions.

Los contextos zooarqueológicos de Pampa y Norpatagonia argentina, permitieron proponer procesos de intensificación y economías de amplio espectro en sociedades cazadoras recolectoras durante el Holoceno tardío. Se presentan los resultados del estudio de los conjuntos de fauna menor del sitio Zoko Andi 1 (transición Pampeano-Patagónica oriental). El sitio presenta dos componentes arqueológicos datados en el Holoceno tardío inicial (ca. 1500-1300 años aP) y final (ca. 800-400 años aP), lo que permite evaluar si existieron cambios en las especies faunísticas explotadas a través del tiempo. Los modelos planteados para el área proponían procesos de intensificación durante los últimos 1000 años aP, pero los resultados obtenidos del análisis conjunto de las especies de tamaño mayor y menor de Zoko Andi 1 indican que las estrategias asociadas con este proceso fueron implementadas desde al menos 1500 años aP. Se discuten y analizan las causas de su desarrollo en función de la riqueza y disponibilidad de recursos y de factores relacionados con la movilidad recursiva, la redundancia ocupacional, la construcción del espacio y su valoración basada en esferas mortuorias y rituales que habrían alentado el desarrollo de estrategias diversas e intensivas en la explotación de recursos.

This paper presents an analysis of the decapitated head found in 2020 under the collapsed wall of the Cantabrian oppidum of La Loma. This settlement was besieged and destroyed by the Roman Army during the Cantabrian Wars (29–16 BCE), either towards the end of the military campaign directed by Octavius   Augustus (26 BC) himself, or during the subsequent campaign, commanded by Gaius Antistius Vetus (26–24 BCE). Radiocarbon dating, taphonomical and anthropological analysis, and DNA analysis assign the skull to one of the defenders of the hillfort. This man’s head would have been exposed on the walls as a symbol of victory before they were razed to prevent reoccupation of the settlement.

Cognitive archaeology focuses on the mental processes behind human material culture, exploring the human mind for patterns of behavioural strategies and their corresponding material expression in artefacts. Sharing some of the aims and perspectives of cultural anthropology, cognitive archaeology has also been called ‘Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology’ (ECA) when it refers to hominin evolution. However, despite the abundance of publications and research projects that focus on ECA, this is a relatively new discipline, in which the earliest analyses were principally oriented to the appearance and evolution of language and symbolism. As there is no standardized method for investigating cognitive evolution, ECA researchers use multidisciplinary and wider theoretical models and methodological approaches. In this sense, partially because it is not unique to the genus Homo, stone toolmaking has been, and still is, an essential criterion for inferring hominids’ cognitive capacities. Aiming to contribute to ongoing discussions, this paper addresses and reviews some of the more relevant evolutionary cognitive approaches related to stone-tool manufacture in general and Acheulean technology in particular, aimed at building a synthesized chronological review of the discipline.

Legal reforms in California are reshaping archaeological education and professional training in ways that may soon warrant national attention. These changes challenge traditional pedagogical models, particularly in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs that have long served as entry points into cultural resource management (CRM) careers. Drawing on one of the most extensive surveys of CRM organizations in California, this article examines how employers are responding to this evolving landscape. The data reveal a demand for field experience, local familiarity, knowledge of relevant laws, and interpersonal skills. We contextualize these findings within broader efforts to reform training and research models in California and discuss tensions in this shifting terrain. We advocate for a new public archaeology that redefines training and professional pathways through collaboration, accountability, and a deeper commitment to the communities that archaeology serves.

Amidst a high-profile ecoclimate crisis, archaeology is rightly revisiting its relationship with ecology and seeking to orient its work towards pressing environmental concerns. Compelling proposals have been made for the potential of archaeological science to directly inform ecological problems and practices. We consider the strengths of and challenges for these scientific approaches here, alongside raising the prospect that archaeology can also harness less tangible analytical strengths – its expertise in human–landscape relationships (people in nature) and in landscape change (time) in attending to wider, but equally important, correlates of an ecological emergency.

This article describes the publication and evaluation of a user-driven narrative module on the public-facing 3D platform Sketchfab, which comprises dozens of interlinked 3D models relating to the archaeology of the Faynan region of Southern Jordan. Models included in the project are archaeological sites, excavation units, and artifacts related to the Iron Age and Islamic period archaeology of the region. By interlinking these models according to their spatial, conceptual, and contextual relationships, this project facilitates the nonlinear exploration of archaeological data and replicates the process of archaeological knowledge generation, in which information is produced through examination of the relationship between object and its provenience. Through the inclusion of bilingual (Arabic and English) text in this project, we aim to increase the accessibility of archaeological data and interpretation to interested parties. We also invite participation in the development of multiple narratives based on user-driven, independent exploration of artifacts and context. Through free navigation within and between models, users can develop their own understanding of the archaeology of Faynan based on research-based content published in 3D. The effectiveness of the project is evaluated here through surveying Arabic-speaking Jordanians, a key group of interested parties.

This contribution provides a chronological overview which is the result of a research programme carried out over the last few years in Normandy and which is based, among other things, on recent discoveries made in this region during developer-funded excavations. The overview looks phase by phase at the different characteristics of the Middle Neolithic in Normandy, and sets them against the wider context of the Neolithic transition of north-west France. The geographical area covered by this study encompasses the margin of the Armorican Massif in the west and the sedimentary basins between the Armorican Massif and the Seine Valley in the east. The chronology used in this study largely refers to the sequence established in France and is discussed on the basis of absolute dates (in cal BC) for the sake of transparency. The main objective of this publication is to connect the recent advances made on either side of the Channel, in particular with regard to the chronology of the various Neolithic groups. By presenting our British colleagues with the current state of research in our area of study we want to spark discussion and develop new collaboration.

Where are the missing long barrows of eastern England? Do they exist as the original earthwork form of cropmark long enclosures? Or do these represent a distinct tradition? To explore this, geophysical surveys were carried out on the region’s rare surviving long barrows. Comparable signals suggest that most long enclosures are indeed likely to have been long barrows. Other morphological factors, however, differ from long barrows elsewhere and, coupled with evidence from excavation, suggest different origins and histories. Ditches may have been markedly secondary rather than primary features, for example, and other elements hint at Continental connections. However it originated, the form appears to have subsequently emerged as a symbol in its own right and been expanded to cursus dimensions.