In 2021, the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee Meeting voted to list the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex as a Natural World Heritage Site, seven years after it was first nominated for consideration by Thailand. A central point to the debate was concerns raised over human rights abuses relating to the Indigenous Karen people living inside the park boundaries. This paper undertakes an analysis of the World Heritage Committee discussion, unpacking key themes of Outstanding Universal Value, human rights, and the role of local communities to illustrate the impact that World Heritage – and the subsequent Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD) it creates – can have on Indigenous communities.

Presentamos la caracterización tecnológica y composicional de cerámica de estilo Molinos hallada en la localidad de Punta de la Peña en Antofagasta de la Sierra (puna meridional argentina) y en sitios de la cuenca del río Molinos, valle Calchaquí Medio (Salta). Desde una perspectiva arqueométrica y un acercamiento comparativo aportamos a la interacción entre sus habitantes para una cronología entre 800 y 1200 dC. Concluimos que los ejemplares recuperados en este sector puneño fueron elaborados con las mismas materias primas y elecciones técnicas que los del valle Calchaquí medio. Además, los antiplásticos presentes en la alfarería coinciden con los afloramientos del entorno de la cuenca de Molinos. A partir de ello, proponemos que los recipientes circularon desde el valle, posiblemente como parte de vínculos establecidos con familias que habitaron en Punta de la Peña.

This article is a preliminary discussion of the scientific value of archival lithics kept in museum collections and storage based on a small sample of Late Mesolithic flint artefacts from the site of Tomaszów II in south-eastern Poland, which was subjected to organic residue analysis. The aim of the trial study was to investigate and assess the preservation potential of organic residues on stone tools from sites located in areas not favourable to the survival of organic material and subsequently handled during post-excavation (especially those kept in museum collections). While the authors initially assumed that the chances of discovering residues indicating human use were slight and expected a general absence of organic material, the analysis of the lithics from Tomaszów II indicated that a small amount of ancient plant residues can survive on archival flint artefacts even in such unfavourable circumstances.

Exploring and using remote segments of complex karst systems represents the incorporation of one of the wildest and most demanding natural environments into the cultural fabric of Neolithic-Chalcolithic village-based communities in the Levant. The unique preservation of an early fifth-millennium bce activity phase in Har Sifsof Cave in northern Israel allows for a detailed investigation of an early case of human interaction with the deep underground in this region. The study of archaeological assemblages, environmental and speleological data and spatial distribution of cultural remains form the basis for interpreting the activity inside the cave in the context of fertility cults. The rituals conducted in Har Sifsof Cave revolve around the agricultural cycle of cereal grains and include the interment of multiple individuals, some of whom were buried in remote cul-de-sac passages. The emergence of complex caves as favourable off-settlement arenas dedicated to ritual activity during the later stages of Neolithization marks a conscious effort of ‘domestication’ of these unique wildscapes, while sowing the seeds for the enduring connection observed in later Levantine societies between mortuary rituals, fertility and the underground.

We present a synthesis of treatment of the dead from before 700 b.c. to the fifteenth century a.d. in the lower Ulúa River Valley of northern Honduras. Building on evidence of burial alignments to a prominent mountain first identified for the Classic period, we argue that mortuary rituals served to integrate politically independent communities within a shared cosmological landscape. We identify alignment of burials toward the same mountain beginning in the Middle Formative period. At this time, a cycle of mortuary treatment resulted in bodies of some of the dead being commingled in shared secondary burial sites in caves, significant locations in the cosmological landscape. During the Classic period, secondary mortuary treatment continued, now performed within settlements again united by orientation to a shared cosmological landscape. The addition of solar alignments may be evidence of adoption by some families of Lowland Maya cosmological beliefs. This impression is solidified in Postclassic burial practices that align closely with those of specific Lowland Maya societies. We argue that the afterlife cycles through which the living interacted with the dead, in a tension between individualization and communal belonging, included strategies through which social relations, community histories, and ties among communities were created.