The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage is designed to secure the protection of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) worldwide.1 The Convention aims to safeguard and ensure respect for ICH of communities, groups, and persons and promote awareness of their significance and international protection in that regard.2 The Convention outlines intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in terms of oral traditions and expressions, including, but not limited to, epics, tales, and stories, and performing arts categories such as music, song, dance, puppetry, and theatre. Other forms of ICH under the Convention include social practices, rituals, and festive events. In its inherently nuanced nature, ICH also includes knowledge and practices relating to nature and the universe. In these categories are folk medicines, folk astronomy, and various natural phenomena. ICH’s wide and nuanced ambit encompasses traditional craftsmanship as well as the sites and spaces in which culturally significant activities and events occur.3 ICH forms part of the daily life and lived realities of people in virtually all parts of the world. It is the beliefs and perspectives, ephemeral performances, and events that are not tangible objects of culture, such as monuments or paintings. ICH is often described as the underlying “spirit” of a cultural group,4 which cannot be detailed in all subtleties.

A limitation in fine-tuned tree-ring radiocarbon (14C) data is normally associated with overall data uncertainty. Tree-ring 14C data variance as a result of sample heterogeneity can be reduced by adopting best practices at the time of sample collection and subsequent preparation and analysis. Variance-reduction of 14C data was achieved by meticulous sample handling during increment core or cross-sectional cuttings, in-laboratory wood reductions, and cellulose fiber homogenization of whole rings. To demonstrate the performance of those procedures to final 14C results, we took advantage of the replicated data from assigned calendar years of two Pantropical post-1950 AD tree-ring 14C reconstructions. Two Cedrela fissilis Vell. trees spaced 22.5 km apart, and two trees of this species together with one Peltogyne paniculata Benth tree spaced 0.2 to 5 km apart were sampled in a tropical dry and moist forest, respectively. Replicate 14C data were then obtained from grouped tree-ring samples from each site. A total of 88% of the replicated 14C results fell into a remarkably consistent precision/accuracy range of 0.3% or less, even though multiple tree species were used as pairs/sets. This finding illustrates how adopting a few simple strategies, in tandem with already established chemical extraction procedures and high-precision 14C analysis, can improve 14C data results of tropical trees.

The use of programming languages in archaeological research has witnessed a notable surge in the last decade, particularly with R, a versatile statistical computing language that fosters the development of specialized packages. This article introduces the tesselle project (https://www.tesselle.org/), a comprehensive collection of R packages tailored for archaeological research and education. The tesselle packages are centered on quantitative analysis methods specifically crafted for archaeology. They are designed to complement both general-purpose and other specialized statistical packages. These packages serve as a versatile toolbox, facilitating the exploration and analysis of common data types in archaeology—such as count data, compositional data, or chronological data—and enabling the construction of reproducible workflows. Complementary packages for visualization, data preparation, and educational resources augment the tesselle ecosystem. This article outlines the project's inception, its objectives, design principles, and key components, along with reflections on future directions.

AMS radiocarbon ages of organic matter from ice wedges and enclosing peat were determined for the polygonal peatland at the Lorino site on the eastern coast of the Chukchi Peninsula. The study’s goal was to fill a knowledge gap about the dynamics of polygonal peatlands with ice wedges and winter climate conditions during the Holocene in this easternmost region of the Russian Arctic. It has been found that peatland accumulated during the Younger Dryas and early Holocene, mostly between 14 and 9.9 cal ka BP, while ice wedges were dated from 7.7 to 6.6 cal ka BP. Since ice wedges have features of syngenetic growth, the discrepancy in the age of ice wedges and enclosing peatland may result from the significant presence of early and pre-Holocene peat. It is assumed that the older polygonal peatland deeply thawed during the Holocene optimum, and subsequently, when the permafrost aggraded, a new generation of ice wedges was formed. The AMS 14C age (18.1 cal ka BP) of the ice wedge exposed below the peat indicates the presence of a Late Pleistocene generation of ice wedges at the study site. Paleotemperature reconstructions based on the stable isotope composition of ice wedges show that the mean January air temperature during the Northgrippian stage of the Holocene varied from –27 to –23°C, and at the end of the Late Pleistocene, from –32 to –26°C.

Ecuador is a key area in South America when it comes to understanding the economic, social and archaeological aspects of pre-Hispanic cultures in the northwestern region of the Andes. Among the most complex societies to have inhabited this territory is the so-called Manteño culture (AD ∼800–1530), which spanned across most of Ecuador’s central Pacific coast. Ongoing research at the site of Ligüiqui (Manta, Manabí) has enabled us to obtain a more complete overview of the chronological sequence of the Manteño period as well as contributing further data on the advanced stage of social development reached during the period; characterized by the hierarchical arrangement of sites, the use of extensive settlement models, and semi-circular stone fish traps (corrales). In order to understand the role played by this coastal site in the complex Manteño culture, a detailed radiocarbon study was performed in the sequence of the Ligüiqui site. In addition, using a detailed review of available Manteño settlement radiocarbon data (13 sites and 64 dates), we established a chronostratigraphic framework for the culture. Our data indicate that Ligüiqui probably acted as a supply centre for marine-origin products from the twelfth century onwards with activity peaking during the Late Manteño period. A multisite comparison using Bayesian modeling indicates an early onset of the Manteño culture in Ligüiqui around AD 700, and a general demise in most of the sites AD ∼1500 or slightly before. This culture finally collapsed before AD ∼1600 during the early Spanish colonial period. Only one site, La Libertad, shows potential evidence of having remained a Manteño settlement after that date.

Hunting pits are common archaeological features in northern landscapes, mainly researched from a morphological perspective, as dateable material is scarce. This has resulted in a limited and generalized understanding of hunting pits. While human land use in non-agrarian settings is often subtle, it can still be understood in terms of distribution and management by using relational approaches that address spatial organization and the nature of land use. This study, based on extensive field surveys and GIS analyses and guided by the concept of landscape domestication, has identified the characteristics of approximately 1500 previously unrecorded hunting pits in the Arctic region of Sweden. It examines how hunting pit systems, their selective spatial distribution, and strategic arrangement can be seen as expressions of landscape domestication. The author concludes that, through profound knowledge and deliberate resource management, communities invested in the landscape, generating dense spatial and temporal manifestations in the form of hunting pits. These systems reflect an elaborate hunting technique involving the whole landscape.