Is the Middle Palaeolithic an appropriate concept in eastern Asia? The issuehas been debated for China in two recent papers in Antiquity (Yee 2012; Li 2014), whichin turn responded to an earlier argument set out by Gao and Norton (2002). But does the Korean recordoffer a different perspective? Here, the authors argue that Koreanarchaeology, as with the Chinese record, provides no support for a distinctMiddle Palaeolithic. Rather than seeking to validate an inappropriatechronological framework derived from European Palaeolithic research,emphasis should instead be placed on developing a regionally specific modelof prehistory for eastern Asia. They conclude, akin to Gao and Norton (2002), that the East AsianPalaeolithic should be divided into two major cultural periods: Early andLate.

Was the use of hunting dogs an adaptation to the post-glacial deciduousforest environment in the northern temperate zone? Dog burials in JōmonJapan appear closely associated with a specific environment and with arelated subsistence economy involving the hunting of forest ungulates suchas sika deer and wild boar. Dogs were valued as important huntingtechnology, able to track and retrieve wounded animals in difficult,forested environments, or holding them until the hunter made the final kill.Greater numbers of dog burials during the later Jōmon phases may reflect agrowing dependence on hunting dogs to extract ungulate prey from forests inan increasingly resource-strained seasonal environment.

Since the seminal research by Caton-Thompson and Gardner over 80 years ago,the archaeology of the Desert Fayum has attracted significant interest asthe earliest known centre of agriculture in Egypt. Traditionalinterpretations of subsistence behaviour and residential mobility have drawnheavily on the studies of lithic assemblages and faunal remains. Theseinterpretations must now be reconsidered in light of lithic material, bothfrom the original excavations and from more recent fieldwork. It emergesthat Kom W, the type site for the Neolithic Fayum, was probably a permanentsettlement occupied by a community cultivating cereals, in addition tohaving long-standing practices of hunting and fishing.

The internal layout of early settlements can provide insight into socialorganisation and the processes of Neolithic expansion into Europe. Analysisof variables describing 71 sites revealed a spectrum extending between twodistinct settlement types that can be regionally and chronologicallysituated. The very early ‘Anatolian village’ in the south-east exhibitsmulti-level organisation, reflected in concentrated residence and temporalstability; the younger (post 6000 BC) ‘Balkan village’ in the north-westrepresents a new model with less centralised control of space and a lesspermanent layout. Between these types is a transitional domain of moreheterogeneous, and ever-changing settlement layouts, which is characterisedas a ‘third space’ of hybridised traditions.

Many famous archaeological sites have been subjected to destructive fires,whether hostile or accidental, including Near Eastern cities constructedlargely of mud-brick. But how long did it take to burn down a city? Themud-bricks themselves provide a valuable record. By heating experimentalbricks of different sizes, shapes and compositions to high temperatures, theminimum duration of an ancient conflagration can be calculated. Theresulting equations were applied to bricks from the destruction of TelMegiddo at the end of the Iron Age I, and indicate that the burning lasted aminimum of two to three hours: a much shorter period than expected.

Why was pottery developed and adopted? Food residues on ceramic materialfrom three sites in the Upper Great Lakes region of North America suggestthat there is no single answer, and contradict previous indications thatpottery was created for the ritual processing of fish oil. Samples from twosites showed evidence of both plant and animal remains, but no fish oilswere detected, even for the site believed to be a fishing camp. Nut oilsdominated for the third site, being present on both fire-cracked rocks andpottery, and were suggestive of an acorn-rendering process. All of thevessels were ideally suited to slow simmering, but it seems that theirapplications were diverse.

Inscriptions on new archaeological finds in the Aegean, examined alongsidelinguistic evidence relating to Greek and Phrygian vowels, are here used toexplore the origins and spread of the Greek alphabet. The ‘invention’ ofvowels happened just once, with all of the various Greek, Phrygian andItalic alphabets ultimately deriving from this single moment. The ideaspread rapidly, from an absence of writing in the ninth century BC to casualusage, including jokes, by 725 BC. The port of Methone in the northernAegean emerges as a probable candidate for the site of origin. A place whereGreeks and Phoenicians did business together, with international networks;was this where Semitic, Greek and Phrygian letters first coalesced?

Plant macrofossils from the sites of Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong on theThai-Malay Peninsula show evidence of cross-cultural interactions,particularly between India to the west and Southeast Asia to the east.Archaeobotanical analysis of various cereals, beans and other crops fromthese assemblages sheds light on the spread and adoption of these speciesfor local agriculture. There is also early evidence for the trade of keycommodities such as cotton. The plant remains illustrate a variety ofinfluences and networks of contact across South and Southeast Asia duringthe late first millennium BC.

The rock art of the Lovo Massif region in the Lower Congo offers afascinating and understudied example of artistic traditions, some of whichpredate the period of European contact. The first extensive, systematicsurvey of the region has identified key aspects of these rock arttraditions, and has obtained radiocarbon dates that facilitate newinterpretations of the relationship between the rock art and the historicalkingdom of Kongo. Multiple perspectives are used to integrateanthropological, historical and archaeological data with stories from localmythology to show how the significance of this art has evolved over time. Asa result of this study, the unique cultural heritage of the Lovo Massif rockart has been put forward for protection under the UNESCO World Heritagelist.

The transition from the Formative to the Late period (c.1000 BP) on the volcanic plateau of Antofagasta de la Sierra in northernArgentina saw various changes in landscape use and settlement pattern. Newpower structures and social identities appear in the archaeological recordin the wake of an increasing emphasis on cultivation and herding, coincidentwith a regional shift to greater aridity. The novel analysis reported herereveals that these changes also had an impact on pottery technology, notablyvessel thickness, and considers the role of technological innovation as bothcause and consequence of the changing world experienced by the inhabitantsof Antofagasta de la Sierra.

For years it has been assumed that tower kivas were observation points,using their high vantage to relay communications across the landscape, oracting as defensive outposts among the local population. Few of theseenigmatic structures have been excavated, and archaeologists haveconsequently turned to landscape survey methods to understand their role andfunction. Here, the authors contrast visibility and intervisibility withinthe surrounding viewshed of two tower kivas, Kin Ya'a and Haystack,providing an alternative perspective to traditional interpretations bysuggesting that rather than acting as lookout points, they were insteadcentral places built to be looked upon by the surrounding community.

Skeletal remains from a burial in New South Wales exhibit evidence of fataltrauma, of a kind normally indicative of sharp metal weapons, yet the burialdates to the mid thirteenth century—600 years before European settlersreached the area. Could sharp-edged wooden weapons from traditionalAboriginal culture inflict injuries similar to those resulting from later,metal blades? Analysis indicates that the wooden weapons known as ‘Lil-lils’ and the fighting boomerangs (‘Wonna’) both have blades that could fit within thedimensions of the major trauma and are capable of having caused the fatalwounds.

This paper focuses on evidence from firewood remains from a Napoleonic camplocated at Étaples (in the north of France), inhabited between 1803 and1805. The combination of archaeological and relevant historical recordsindicates that wood resources, stockpiled for lighting and heating by thesoldiers, may have originated from two distinct areas: the army's officialforest and also the area around the camp, indicating possible difficultiesin wood supply at the end of its occupation. This study, therefore, usesarchaeological charcoal to reinforce military historical sources inunderstanding firewood economy and the harsh everyday life of the Napoleonicsoldier at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Future scientists seeking evidence of the Anthropocene on a planetary scalewill find a series of structurally similar deposits dating to within thesame few thousand years at multiple locations around the world. It will beevident that they were produced by a global human drive to exploit theEarth's mineral wealth. The impact and the evidence left by this phenomenonin the ‘Gold Rush’ region of Victoria, Australia are particularly clear.Using a multi-scalar approach, the authors examine the extent andsignificance of changes resulting from water management and miningprocesses, which, in some cases, resulted in the creation of new landscapesfar beyond the mining district.

Accurate, efficient and clear recording is a key aim of archaeological fieldstudies, but one not always achieved. Errors occur and information is notalways properly recorded. Left unresolved, these errors create confusion,delay analysis and result in the loss of data, thereby causingmisinterpretation of the past. To mitigate these outcomes, quick response(QR) codes were used to record the rock art of Telperion Shelter inMpumalanga Province, eastern South Africa. The QR codes were used to storeimportant contextual information. This increased the rate of fieldrecording, reduced the amount of field errors, provided a cost effectivealternative to conventional field records and enhanced data presentation.Such a tool is useful to archaeologists working in the field, and for thosepresenting heritage-based information to a specialist, student or amateuraudience in a variety of formats, including scientific publications. Wedemonstrate the tool's potential by presenting an overview and critique ofour use of QR codes at Telperion Shelter.