The Magdalenian of Belgium, following important new excavations at Bois Laiterie Cave has been subject to new discussion and greater chronological precision. Here Straus & Otte discuss the results.

The role and place of children is frequently overlooked in archaeology. Here Robert Park presents an intriguing analysis of the toys of childhood found in Inuit societies in Canada and Greenland, and assesses how such objects inform on the role of children in Arctic societies.

All too often in the past, state politics has exerted a strong influence over the direction of academic archaeology. This was particularly true of the German Archaeological Institute under the Third Reich in the 1930s. Here, Klaus Junker offers an intriguing insight into the events and outcomes of this uncomfortable episode, and how the Institute managed to retain its leading position during and after the Nazi régime.

The management of earthwork sites and their protection from erosion is a constant problem. Here Kevin Jones assesses methods and materials used on archaeological sites in Britain. It is essential to find compatible, economic land uses for most earthworks but this use should not lead to diminished expectations of good protection and historic interpretation.

ANTIQUITY has had a long tradition of publishing pieces on Stonehenge, represented in our cover design. Here we present an intriguing and thought-provoking paper, which draws an analogy with Madagascar to help explain the meaning of the enigmatic monument.

Recent excavation of Scottish Iron Age Brochs and wheelhouses enables new discussion of the development, dating and economic interpretation of these impressive structures. Here, Gilmour & Cook assess the work at Dun Vulan, South Uist, in the Western Isles.

Few chipped stone artefacts from prehistory were as technically complex as the flint daggers of Late Neolithic Denmark. Here Michael Stafford present a study that examines, through experimental archaeology, many aspects of dagger production.

A new study of Kamares ware, integrating stylistic and petrographic analysis, suggests that Protopalatial Knossos was a centre of ritual consumption rather than production, obtaining some of its specialized vessels for drinking and feasting ceremonies from production centres elsewhere in central Crete.

The estimation of past population levels continues to be an important aspect of archaeological research. Here Antonio Curet offers new formulae for estimating prehistoric populations in lowland South America and the Caribbean using data derived from houses and settlements.

Exploratory expeditions in 1834, sponsored by the newly independent state of Guatemala, researched on sites such as Copan, Iximche and Utatlan. The political, literary and social climate was such that a pre-Hispanic past was eagerly sought. This paper offers an intriguing insight into early Latin American archaeology.

The decoration of Neolithic passage-graves in Scotland and the British Isles/Ireland has come under renewed scrutiny–showing interesting patterns between tombs and houses. Here Richard Bradley examines two Orkney tombs and compares their decorated stones with motifs in Ireland and elsewhere.

Two new finds of Camelina seeds prove the presence of the plant in middle Neolithic and Chalcolithic western France nearly 3000 years before widespread cultivation in France.

Christopher Hawkes was one of the leading British archaeological theorists in the middle decades of this century. Much underrated, Hawkes is reassessed here in the broader development of processual archaeology in Britain.

Recent strontium isotope analysis of Beaker burials from Bavaria raises important new questions about prehistoric migrations in Europe.

Nicholas James reports on a conference in South Korea in September 1997, which offers a useful insight into heritage presentation in eastern Asia.

Urban archaeological survey in Africa is rarely undertaken, and relatively little is known about many important cities and their development. Here Tim Insoll describes the results of a preliminary season at Timbuktu.

Views of the Late Roman period in England have changed considerably in the past few years, with a tendency towards acceptance of a survival or resurgence of economic and political organization despite earlier decline. Traditional evidence provides some insights into the differential nature of these changes. Here it is argued that ‘environmental’ (in this case biological) evidence can provide unique insights into economic systems, and that bones and insects from late 4th-century AD Lincoln indicate continuity of complex systems into this period.