This study examines the maritime networks of Patara during the fourth and third centuries BC, employing numismatic and amphora evidence as proxies indicative of the city’s significant role in ancient maritime routes. The two types of evidence offer perspectives on two different types of connectivity. The numismatic analysis focuses on the presence in Patara of low-value civic bronze coins minted by non-Lycian cities, thereby offering a window onto human mobility at the scale of the individual traveller, not necessarily the traders. In contrast, an examination of transport amphorae imported to Patara helps to reveal the extent of Patara’s commercial connections. These findings enhance our comprehension of Patara’s crucial role in ancient maritime networks, illuminating the interdependence of Mediterranean societies during this period. They demonstrate the complexity of these networks, suggesting that different kinds of networks operated simultaneously. This research contributes to the discourse on ancient maritime mobilities, considering the overlaps and interactions between different forms and scales of connectivity.

In the major port city of Patara on the southern coast of Roman Asia Minor, excavations unearthed a pharos (lighthouse) with an inscription that referred to an antipharos (a structure ‘opposite’ the lighthouse). It is unknown where the antipharos stood in Patara’s harbour, and scholars’ brief speculations about its location all assume that the antipharos was a second lighthouse. Yet a number of factors combine to suggest that there was only one pharos at Patara, including cautious Roman nocturnal sailing practices, the norm of single lighthouses in the ancient world, evidence of the pharos’ high visibility, and the only other instance of the word antipharos referring to something other than an operating lighthouse. Instead, the antipharos was probably either an unlit tower or a beacon instead of a lighthouse. I establish six possible locations for such an antipharos, and consider their likelihood based on how they might have ameliorated dangers to sailors entering the harbour. While there is not enough evidence to be completely confident, a rock islet that was in the middle of ancient Patara’s harbour emerges as the most probable location for the antipharos. The choice to build both a pharos and an antipharos, and where to place them, can illuminate the decision processes behind Roman harbour construction and the currently little-understood meaning of the word antipharos in antiquity.

Bioarchaeologists commonly record porous cranial lesions (PCLs). They have varied etiologies but are frequently associated with nutritional anemia without a differential diagnosis. This article provides a literature review, evaluates diet in the US Southwest over time, and identifies issues with associating PCLs with poor diet in this region. Generally, diet was adequate across time and space. Although maize was a dietary staple, other food items such as rabbits and amaranth provided complementary micronutrients. PCLs exhibit varied morphologies, which generally correspond with age: those characterized by fine, scattered porosity are associated with younger ages at death. Variation in PCL morphology indicates different and sometimes unrelated etiologies. Nutritional anemia is an insufficient explanation for PCL frequency in the Southwest, partly because the diet was adequate across time.

The First Hill of Byzantium, the Greek city’s Acropolis, was later the site of the Topkapı Sarayı. Within the 55ha enclosure of the Ottoman palace are the remains of the First and Second regions of the Byzantine city including the church of Hagia Eirene and the excavated traces of other churches and buildings, but commonest are the remains of at least 33 Byzantine cisterns. Based on previous documentation and more recent observations we aim to explore their topographical setting and establish how the hydraulic infrastructure evolved over more than a millennium. In particular we address the question of changing sources of water, from the external aqueducts to rainwater harvesting. Initially we present the setting and distribution of cisterns over three distinct areas: the east flanks of the First Hill down to the Sea Walls but excluding the Mangana, the level hill including the four courts of the Saray and the west slopes including Gülhane Park. The evidence then turns to a consideration of the Byzantine written sources and Ottoman accounts of the Acropolis and the Saray. Finally, there is an attempt to interpret the subsurface as a source for the urban topography of the Byzantine district, and to set the remains in the wider context of evolving water usage and technology transfer from the Byzantine to Ottoman city. Details of the individual cisterns and their location are to be found in the online Appendix together with illustrations.*

Iroquoian groups inhabiting the St. Lawrence Valley in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD practiced agriculture and supplemented their diet with fish and a variety of wild plants and terrestrial animals. Important gaps remain in our knowledge of Iroquoian foodways, including how pottery was integrated to culinary practices and the relative importance of maize in clay-pot cooking. Lipid analyses carried out on 32 potsherds from the Dawson site (Montreal, Canada) demonstrate that pottery from this village site was used to prepare a range of foodstuffs—primarily freshwater fish and maize, but possibly also other animals and plants. The importance of aquatic resources is demonstrated by the presence of a range of molecular compounds identified as biomarkers for aquatic products, whereas the presence of maize could only be detected through isotopic analysis. Bayesian modeling suggests that maize is present in all samples and is the dominant product in at least 40% of the potsherds analyzed. This combination of analytical techniques, applied for the first time to Iroquoian pottery, provides a glimpse into Iroquoian foodways and suggests that sagamité was part of the culinary traditions at the Dawson site.

The Anatolian hieroglyphs SARMA and its variants were employed during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages to invoke the god Sarruma and as theophoric elements pointing to the same god in personal names. In this paper, these SARMA signs are analysed in order to understand the chronological development of the signs, to challenge the use of ligatures, phonetic indicators and phonetic complements with the sign, to determine the precise semantic value of the sign and whether a phonetic value can be confidently identified or dismissed, and finally to investigate how scribes creatively engaged with the sign in various usages and how readers interacted with the sign and its component elements. It will be argued that an increasingly complex phonetic conceptualisation of the sign grew alongside its semantic value, and that Iron Age scribes creatively juxtaposed signs and other graphic elements to evoke memories of the Hittite past and divine legitimation.

Since the emergence of the Thule culture (AD 1200), dog sledding has been perceived as a central means of transportation in traditional Inuit life in the Arctic. However, there is an absence of research concerning Inuit dog-sled technology and the tradition of the craft. This study investigates the Inuit dog-sled technocomplex using enskilment methodologiesby employing experimental and ethno-archaeological observations to explore the relationship between knowledge and technical practice. It involves the reconstruction of a historical West Greenlandic dog sled, shedding light on carpentry techniques and construction processes. This method emphasizes the interaction between humans, technology, and time, providing essential practical data for future archaeological and historical research, particularly for comprehending fragmented archaeological remains. By focusing on process rather than end product, this research provides insight into understanding Inuit dog sled technology and the complexity of the practice. The connection between artifacts and materially situated practice is demonstrated through the reconstruction of a dog sled, which illustrates the value of physicality in enskilment. It highlights how experimental archaeology can improve our insights into the historical and prehistoric Arctic societies’ technologies, economies, and practices.

From the late ninth to the mid-seventh century BCE, the Urartian kings expanded their polity from the Euphrates to Lake Urmia. In this context, the question of Urartian legitimacy and how it was achieved is a key issue. Previous research has suggested that rulers primarily used visual representations to appeal to different segments of society, but this article explores how royal legitimacy was also pursued through religious rituals and festivals, starting from the so-called co-regency of Išpuini and Minua (ca 820–810 BCE). By focussing on these rituals, which possibly reached a broader audience than visual representations, this study seeks to understand the roles of performance and religion in the early formation of the Urartian state.

Several decades ago, the National Park Service's Chaco Project revealed evidence for widespread ornament manufacture at small sites (small houses) in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, as well as possible workshop-scale production at two of these locations. Given that consumption of finished jewelry items is clearly concentrated at large sites (great houses), it was suggested that lapidary production was part of a larger corporate political strategy, in which goods produced in surrounding small houses were used to sustain communal events related to construction activities and ritual performances at great houses. This article addresses a critical gap in this narrative—ornament production at great houses. Using Pueblo Bonito as a case study, I present the results of a systematic analysis of lapidary tools from the site and characterize the nature of on-site ornament manufacture. I find evidence that significant jewelry-making was occurring at Pueblo Bonito, at least on par with previously documented small-house jewelry workshops, and that a portion of this was embedded within elite households. These results require us to reconsider the role of ornament production in Chacoan political economy.

Several anthropological and historical studies based on comparative research show that there is no universal concept of ‘cleanliness’ or ‘hygiene’ common to all cultures in all historical periods. Ideas about what is considered clean, the means used to keep persons, objects and places clean, and the frequency or appropriate timing of cleaning actions differ between cultures, and even within a given culture. The latter implies that, sometimes, these differences depend on social position, mainly because this position allows or prevents certain cleansing practices. In addition, the concept of ‘cleanliness’ may sometimes be intertwined with the idea of ‘purity’, and thus be related to religious beliefs and practices. The present article examines the concept of ‘hygiene’ for the case of the Hittites, and aims to do so from an historical perspective by reflecting on modern vocabulary related to hygiene, investigating Hittite terminology related to cleanliness and analysing textual sources. Archaeological evidence will be examined alongside the textual sources to establish correlations regarding locations and objects used for hygienic practices. The objectives are to investigate who practiced cleanliness and when in Hittite culture, how and where these practices occurred, and what objects were used, as well as how the Hittites understood hygiene and whether perceptions and practices varied by social group.

This study is concerned with the evaluation of a recently discovered Aramaic inscription and other archaeological remains found at Rabat Fortress (in Tunceli, Türkiye). The Hellenistic period Aramaic funerary text was composed in memory of a local lord from Sophene’s local political elite, with connections to the Orontid dynasty. This is the first known local Aramaic inscription from Sophene. The Aramaic inscription introduced in this study provides significant new information about the Hellenistic-period context for rock-cut stepped tunnels and single-roomed rock-cut tombs known across eastern Anatolia. The Rabat Fortress site provides corroborating evidence for the dating of the stepped tunnels that exhibit the same rock-cutting techniques in the same region to the Hellenistic and later periods in the rocky landscape. The inscription is rendered in a unique Sophene adaptation of the Middle Aramaic script extant on a corner block inside the Fortress. Its funerary context in rocky landscape and the inscription’s script and content indicate that the local elite at Rabat Fortress used Aramaic, and the notion of Orontid lineage to connect with the kingdom of Sophene’s central authority, which positioned itself between Hellenistic and Iranian traditions.

The discovery of green-fractured mammoth bone in Owl Cave in the 1970s inspired the original investigators to focus primarily on the possible association between these remains and Folsom points recovered from the same stratum. With the Museum of Idaho's recent acquisition of the complete Owl Cave collection, we have gained a better understanding of the periglacial processes that appear to have displaced and mixed mammoth remains with a younger Folsom component. New efforts to date bison bone also recovered from the lowest levels of the cave have produced radiocarbon dates that fall within the accepted age range of Folsom technology. These results have prompted efforts to investigate the potential for an association between the lithic assemblage and bison, a scenario that is much more plausible given our current understanding of the Folsom archaeological record.

There is no consensus on who built the numerous stone structures that dot the archaeological landscape in the northeastern United States. Professional archaeologists traditionally have attributed them to colonial farmers, but increasing numbers of archaeologists have joined many nonprofessional groups and Native Americans in arguing for Indigenous origins. Better understanding of these structures can be obtained by determining how old they are. This article reviews nearly 60 luminescence ages, on both sediments and rocks, that have been obtained in recent years. Many of the derived ages fall in the sixteenth century, between initial European contact and substantial colonial settlement. A few ages are significantly older, suggesting that this technology has a deeper origin. The results warrant more research into these structures and rethinking their significance.