In the summer of 2022, renewed excavations were conducted at the site of Gird-i Begum in the Shahrizor Plain, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The project aims to examine patterns of mobility, exchange, and resource acquisition practiced by the inhabitants of Gird-i Begum over time. To do so we re-examine the stratigraphic sequence, with a focus on continuities and breaks in site occupation. While the earliest occupation of the site dates to the Halaf period, with limited occupation traces attested during the Ubaid period, the settlement appears to have reached its largest extent during the Late Chalcolithic, which was one of the main foci of this year’s investigations. Our excavations confirmed the presence of Late Chalcolithic levels on the Upper Mound, with an analysis of the pottery as well as 14C dates indicating a chronological span from LC 3 to early LC 4. Work on the Lower Mound brought to light a substantial and previously undocumented Early Bronze Age occupation phase in the early third millennium B.C.E. The massive presence of snails characterizing layers of both periods additionally raised intriguing questions about subsistence strategies and potential crisis at the site.

A 1st-c. CE lamp from Cyprus, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, features a discus design of a satyr on a base before an enclosure. Formerly identified as a nude silenus, the design on this lamp and others with the same decoration in fact illustrates a motif after the Forum Marsyas statue from the Forum Romanum. The statue is typically understood as a symbol of civic libertas, and copies were erected in provincial fora and depicted on civic coinage in the 2nd and 3rd c. CE. This note argues that the lamps enhance our understanding of the Forum Marsyas in two respects. First, the lamps demonstrate that the motif was in provincial circulation ahead of the sculptural and numismatic trend. Second, it is now clear that the Forum Marsyas was used in private contexts, and potentially with a non-civic meaning, more extensively than previously understood. The lamps are therefore significant for understanding the provincial spread and legibility of this important but still enigmatic motif.

This re-evaluation of the Thetford hoard proposes a new date for its burial in the 5th c. CE (ca. 420s–40s), significantly later than the established date of the 380s–90s. The redating is based on comparative material from context-dated grave and hoard finds from across the western Roman Empire. At least 17 hoard artifacts are argued to have been made within the 5th c. The Thetford treasure is a key point of reference in dating artifacts, and therefore a new date, if accepted, will prompt further re-evaluation of material and significantly change our understanding of this key transition period.

The interpretation of the hoard is also revisited. The wide cultural connections that can be demonstrated in the jewelry reflect its assembly in a period of migration and displacement, and there is evidence that its economic value may have become paramount in the latest phase of the assemblage's use. Moreover, the revised date sets a new context for the hoard burial, after economic collapse and political breakdown in Britain. The article advocates for the potential role of wealthy religious sites like Thetford in filling the vacuum left by the collapse of Roman state authority in Britain.

This paper presents the pottery assemblage from Building 2 at Knossos–Gypsades, excavated in 2014–15 as part of the ‘Knossos–Gypsades Excavation Project’, a synergasia of the British School at Athens with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion. Building 2 was constructed in Middle Minoan (MM) IIB, but its main occupational phase occurred during the subsequent MM IIIA phase. At the end of MM IIIA the building was severely damaged, probably due to an earthquake. The damage was rather extensive, resulting in its final abandonment. Contextual, typological and statistical analyses are applied to analyse the ceramic material and to clarify site formation processes. The ultimate aim is to assess whether the archaeological strata under study result from primary, secondary or even tertiary depositional episodes, and to delineate chronological phasing within the cultural-historical period straddling the end of the Old Palace period and the beginning of the New. Building 2 was revealed as undisturbed by later building activity, allowing its original architectural plan and construction to be evaluated, and to document the sequence of events that signal the final stages of its use-life. Furthermore, this study may contribute to the critical debate on Knossian chronological and ceramic phasing, as well as provide a fuller picture of the city of Knossos in the Gypsades neighbourhood, in terms of settlement pattern and spatial configuration.

This article explores a possible correlation between centralised planning and economic homogenisation within residential neighbourhoods in ancient cities. Pre-planned and constructed urban living quarters may have contributed to the concentration of residents with similar levels of material wealth. Distinct groups of people may be identified among different districts, neighbourhoods or specific sections within a neighbourhood at the intra-site level. Several examples from different parts of the world are given to show this correlation. Also, a case study to test this correlation is drawn from the third millennium B.C. cities of Tell Asmar and Khafajah in central Mesopotamia. Excavations at these sites unearthed dozens of houses within residential neighbourhoods, with one of the occupation areas at Khafajah displaying a well-structured project dating to around 2400–2300 B.C. Utilizing the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve, I observe that the houses constructed as part of the centralised project exhibit a slightly higher degree of economic similarity compared to those houses found at other levels within these sites.

Interpretation of the function and role of the Mesopotamian – and peri-Mesopotamian – bevel-rim bowl (BRB) is enriched by recent residue analysis methods. A promising theme of secondary and even alternative primary uses of the BRB in the Uruk periphery during the fourth millennium B.C. is emerging. I make the case for such uses hinging not on its general utility as a small rough bowl (where it would compete with a range of conical cups) but on its pivotal characteristics: a sophisticated system of rapid, low skilled, production line manufacture of containers with specific features (notably thick walls for heat retention), and with an elegant technology-transfer concept of a single BRB as a portable manufacturing template and mould, notably suited to mobile groups. The BRB’s novel ‘system’ suggests it was initially devised for one specific purpose – as I argue, for large-scale baking of leavened bread, perhaps for commensal feasting events. But the renowned BRB discard stacks or stockpiles (perhaps from single-use commensality events or seasonal batch BRB manufacture) lent them readily to secondary use, notably in the Uruk periphery, where their original cultural resonance may have been diluted. The BRB’s virtues of speed and ease of manufacture might well then have encouraged production for more general purposes and new needs, including culinary – an evolution potentially detectable through morphology. The residue analysis to date additionally suggests a specific functional factor in the adoption of BRBs for secondary and eventually primary use: their heat retentive capabilities, making them specifically valuable as ‘thermal paint-pots’ for meltable materials such as bitumen, beeswax and animal fats. These materials could be heated in a larger vessel and decanted into thermally efficient BRBs for use, perhaps with a form of paintbrush, for coating, in a wide range of industrial and other uses.

To start: I thank the responding authors for their generosity and thoughtfulness in engaging in this debate about ‘Attending to unproof: an archaeology of possibilities’ (Frieman 2024) and also the journal's editors for facilitating this discussion.

This article provides an edition of a group of unpublished cuneiform tablets from the Old Babylonian period (c. 2003–1595 BCE) excavated at the archaeological site of Tall Ḥarmal, ancient Šaduppûm. The texts consist of economic accounts as well as one round school tablet. The former in particular highlight some aspects of agriculture and land use when the city was under the control of king Ibāl-pî-El II (1779–1765 BCE) of Ešnunna. Thanks to the systematic excavations, most of the Šaduppûm texts are stored in the Iraq Museum and can fortunately be associated with their archaeological context, which makes it easier to reconstruct their archival relationships.